NEARING THE END of our long residence at Seattle’s Shilshole Bay Marina, we’ve been bidding farewell to longtime boat neighbors: the family with the 4-year-old, who just moved from a sailboat to a big power boat because sometimes you just need more room with an energetic little boy; the sailing woman who shared her plans to crew aboard a small cruise-explorer ship in Alaska this summer; the newlyweds with the French bulldog who gets walked and walked and walked. Monday, we have one-way reservations on the water taxi to Center Island.
This past week on our dear old Sogni d’Oro we tiled the galley counter; replaced Old Drippy, the faucet, with a spiffy new one; repaired the bilge pump (always a favorite place to hang my head on a nice spring day — NOT), painted some bulkheads, put new mahogany stain on others, and generally freshened things up for the new tenant. While we wish we’d done all this stuff for ourselves before leaving, it’s nice to know that our daughter gets the benefit, rather than some stranger, which happens when you sell a boat.
Here’s a photo of a marina neighbor who met us on the dock one morning this week. Barbara says she won’t miss him. (I think it has to do with the big yellow teeth that he bared when we went to climb aboard the boat.) 
Cantwell's Reef 
The beginning of a new era! Nice of the sea lion to drop in to say bon voyage.
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