Wow! It has taken me way too long to get back to the blog and get this written. Apologies to anyone who may have been eagerly waiting for the final outcome. Too much work and other projects not related to boating have gotten in the way. And to be honest, sometimes I just loose the urge to blog for a little while. But it’s back. And I have a few projects to talk so it is time to get this done.
We caught the early Coho ferry from Port Angeles to Victoria and a cab to Canoe Cove to pickup the boat. We met Don at the boathouse, fired up the boat and headed to Customs at Roche. Our plan was to get across the strait that night. The wait for Customs took a while. Quite a while. An hour. There was a just one sailboat ahead of us. While we waited, we had a nice chat with the gentleman from the sailboat. His name is Björn. Together with his wife (who was talking to Customs), they have been sailing their boat, Moon, around the world for the last fifteen years. After Customs, we headed south in the hopes of crossing the strait before dark. We soon realized we wouldn’t have time for that so we diverted to Aleck Bay at the south end of Lopez Island.
Almost done …
It’s been cold and wet in Sidney. The brightwork is progressing just a bit slower than planned. We should have had the boat back by now, but the cold and wet weather has delayed the return by a couple of weeks. Don at Avalon Brightwork was kind enough to send me some photos of the progress.
As these photos show, it was clearly time for some serious brightwork TLC.
I fired up the engines, untied the lines, and we were off at 5:35 this morning. Time to head home. Wind speeds had been 19 knots overnight, but the indicator showed 1.5 knots this morning and everything was calm in Roche Harbor.
The day started out great. More sun and fine weather. By afternoon, the wind had come up and clouds had covered the sky. Before that, though, I went for a nice walk. There were many canada geese over on the grass. Many babies around. It’s that time of year.
Friday started out (after coffee and doughnuts) with a talk by Bill Davis, the current PSGBOA president, about safety and dealing with emergencies afloat. A good subject and cause for thought. Kim and I think we are generally prepared, but we’ve not spent much time discussing and planning emergency procedures. That will soon change.
