Once Upon a Fairy Boat

Once upon a time we had a 26-foot Bayliner which cruised the waters of Flaming Gorge, Utah, the Columbia and Snake rivers, and finally Puget Sound and British Columbia. The last 10 years we had it, it was based in La Conner, Washington, near the Rainbow Bridge. The boat had been the idea my of my wife, Fairy, so we named it the “Fairy Boat.” We also had an inflatable dinghy that we named “Tink.” We had it for 13 lucky years and explored hundreds of miles of the Gorge, the Columbia and Snake Rivers, Puget Sound, and British Columbia.

This photo had been taken after a night “on the hook,” anchored at one of our favorite spots, and the anchor rode and chain were looped around the forward hatch and cleat to allow it to dry before being stored in the anchor well. I had to precariously lean over a dock railing and hold the camera dangling in one hand to be able to get the boat and the Rainbow Bridge in the same photo. After a couple of tries the desired image was captured with neither camera or myself falling into the Swinomish Channel.

It holds a very special place in our memory bank, and I have written many stories about our boating adventures. Several are posted on my blog site under the “Once Upon a Fairy Boat” menu on the upper right side of this page.