After a very brief overnight stop at the 7 Cedars Casino along Hwy 101, I roll into Port Townsend on a brilliant sunny Monday.  I have reservations to stay at the Point Hudson Marina, yet another find that I lifted from the Wheelingit blog.   I arrive during the midday heat, the marina smells of low tide, and there are enough laughing gulls to make a Hitchcock fan think they have arrived in the midst of a remake.   I miss the sign that says “Dead End,” and end up in the parking lot of Doc’s Grill during the lunchtime rush.   No place to turn around, so I quickly jump out, unhitch and move the Tracker to an empty parking space.

Little Point Harbor Marina and RV Park (Winnie is behind white building on left.)

Since it is not possible to back up with a “four down” tow bar, the most critical lesson I have learned in towing a car behind the RV is there is a very precise moment in rounding a corner where you must make a split-second decision – Will I make the turn?  If not, then I must straighten the rig as quickly as possible in what remaining space I have left, because if I have to stop into a turn, there is too much torque on the tow bar to remove the hitch pins.  It takes a brute force beyond my level of strength to remove them without the aid of a hammer.   I see that I am not going to be able to make the turn, so quickly straighten the wheel which leaves me parked askew in the crowded lot..

White outline above the gull is snowy Mt Baker

Point Hudson Marina — Land Yachts on one side and sea yachts on the other..

When I come back to move the Winnie, there is an old lady standing there with her head stuck inside my driver’s side window.   As I come running up to the door, she looks at me and asks, “This YOURS??”   “Yes ma’am, I’m moving it as fast as I can.”  She steps back and looks again at my crooked parking job, and says  “Oh.  I thought it rolled.”  “Yeah.  Five tons of steel and fiberglass, and it rolled, miraculously stopping two feet short of the curb.”   I’m tired.  I’m irritated.  And I am late for work returning from my repositioning “lunch break.”

Ferries to Whidbey Island

But there aren’t many things that can have a calming effect on me faster than a sailboat, and as I pull into my “slip” at the Point Hudson Marina, I am surrounded by them.   There are Lazers behind me.  Sailing yachts to the side of me, and I have a view right out my window of sailboats gliding across the Sound between me and snowy Mt Baker.   I think I am gonna like it here…stay tuned, and I’ll tell you why.  😉

Sunrise view from Hudson Point RV Lot

“There’s nothing––absolutely nothing––half so much worth doing as messing about in boats.” ~ Kenneth Grahame, The Wind In The Willows