Time to get the two hundred and fifty feet of chain wet. We didn’t need it all but we wanted to try out our new boat at anchorage so we headed out during a one-day weather window. We went through the Hiram Chittenden Lock to the eighteen-mile long Lake Washington. We toured over to Bellevue, around Mercer Island and buzzed by Bill Gates estate before we settled into Cozy Cove, on the east side of the lake for a quiet evening.

Anchoring out, for us, is one of boating’s great pleasures, especially when its peaceful, the waters are calm and there is little or no wind. After spending our first night “on the hook”, we took a leisurely morning enjoying the quiet cove.

On the way back across Lake Washington, we noticed a floatplane in front of the Gates estate picking up a few passengers. The plane took off, made a sharp banked turn to head north over the lake and in doing so proceeded to buzz us… probably really liked the boat.

After negotiating the locks we headed out into Puget Sound towards our marina only to find the sky’s starting to look rather menacing. The winds were starting to pick up and the southern sky was getting very dark. We made it back to the dock safely just before the heavy rain and strong winds started. Some times, you just get lucky.