3 miles down

832 to go

We splashed on time this morning, got under the Ballard bridge and
through the locks before we started hearing funky drive train
noises...so here we sit back at Shilshole.

We now have a 3pm haulout scheduled for tomorrow...hopefully we'll be
headed out of Seattle Wed am!

At this rate, we should be in San Fan by about May next year...

Party = FRIDAY

(not saturday!)

Going away party (3 of 3)

OK people - for real this time. We're leaving :)

Leaving this wknd and expect to hit Mexico early November! (though hopefully we don't actually hit it...)

We'll bring pics and a map of our trip this summer for those who'd like to check them out.

7pm Friday Aug 28
Lockspot Cafe
3005 NW 54th St
Ballard

Hopefully by then we'll have all of this boatwork behind us...ha!

:)
Christy & Jason

Back in Seattle

The Sloop Tavern (Market Ave in Ballard)
6pm Sat Aug 15
You read this blog so you're invited :)

Sorry we're behind on blog posts...more to be posted shortly...

roche harbor

After leaving Sidney Spit, we headed back to Sidney and the familiar confines of Tsehum Harbor to drop off McKenzie and Matt. We rode the metro bus down to Victoria with them and they treated us to an awesome meal at an Irish Pub featuring two for one hamburgers. Kenz and Matt - thanks for a great visit! When are you coming back??

Back to Sidney for a day of city errands and internet. After doing some (unsuccessful) work on s/v PamDemonium's SSB/email setup the following day, we cleaned up the boat, weighed anchor and headed east for U.S. waters for the first time in three months. We pulled into Roche Harbor on San Juan Island at about 1:00 in the afternoon and approached the customs dock. We clearly weren't the only ones with this plan in mind as about 12 boats were milling around the customs dock waiting for a spot to pull in and dock. Nobody wanted to move that far away from the dock for fear of losing their spot in line so everyone crowded up near the dock. When the wind picked up, all the other boats being twin-screwed motor boats with bow thrusters stayed clustered up by the dock while we went back and forth on the throttle and wheel trying to keep the bow from blowing off and into another (much more) expensive boat. This went on for about 45 minutes before Hello World was able to muscle her way to the front of the line and on to the dock.

For all the horror stories we've heard of US customs agents, we met the nicest, friendliest customs agent. Ever. She thought our plan to quit jobs and go sail around was brilliant. A direct quote from her: "I'm a government employee, of course I think about quitting my job. EVERY DAY." She smiled, she laughed, she put us at ease. Which was good because my nerves were a little roughed over from the game of yacht pinball we endured to get ourselves on to the dock.

Our plan was to hook up with my sister Penny, her friend Nicole, and their respective families on Lopez Island Saturday morning. Which means we had a day to kill. Rather than motor somewhere else and burn more fuel, we decided to hang out in Roche Harbor and work on the boat. We attempted to diagnose our not-working watermaker, attempted to diagnose our not-working chartplotter, and managed to remove our supposedly defective GPS antenna. Some days life on a boat is all about stuff not working.

48°36.794'N 123°10.094'W

sidney spit

After 2 days in Montague Harbour, we decided to go check out Portland Island. We had a great day of upwind sailing and some serious sailing lessons for the new crew. They took to it quickly so Jason decided to get in the dinghy and take some pictures of Hello World at sail. He zipped around for a bit before the outboard quit just as a big wake was hitting him. He stayed upright and radioed the mothership for help. We got to him without incident and made the rescue under sail. Once we reached our intended destination, we decided the anchorages were too crowded and too rolly and instead headed for plan B - Sidney Spit.

Sidney Spit is a small island (mostly park) just off of Sidney with a great beach and a difficult entrance. Fortunately, we were entering at high tide, so we weren't worried about not having our chartplotter. What we hadn't considered was how to get OUT of Sidney Spit the next morning at low tide. We decided the island should be renamed to Hotel California (You can check out, But you can never leave) since after about an hour of trying to get across the sandbar, we still couldn't leave. We saw other boats coming in and tried following their tracks, but would inevitably end up in 8 ft of water afraid to go further lest we hit bottom. Finally a nice man gave us a bearing out and we all made it - without hitting bottom!

We can't wait to get our chartplotter working again...


We're doing some serious navigating here, folks.


Kenz bow riding.


Hello World sailing upwind.


Matt's dinghy exits were always a thing to behold.


After the dinghy outboard crapped out, we resorted to kayak paddles to get into shore on Sidney Spit.

48°38.623'N 123°20.250'W

montague harbor

McKenzie and Matt arrived as per the plan on the 9:35 ferry into Sidney, which was good, because our backup plan was not so solid, seeing as we didn't have cell service in Canada. Their journey from Maryland was something of a Planes, Tranes and Automobiles saga - they caught a bus to the metro to 2 planes to the cab to the ferry to the dinghy to the boat. Not complicated at all. We got them settled in at the boat, filled up on fuel and ice (because my sister couldn't imagine how awful it would be to have warm gin and tonic> and headed off to Montague Harbour.

Montague was PACKED, but we knew it would be. We were brilliant enough to plan this trip on a BC holiday weekend, so we sucked it up and anchored out with tons of other boats. We had a fabulous time swimming, wandering and just generally catching up. We didn't quite know how Matt would take to boating life after hearing that he didn't know what he would DO on a sailboat for 3 days. Well, I knew this was for him when I asked if he wanted to go hiking or kayaking and he decided, instead, just to chill on the boat and enjoy himself. So it was no surprise when we all opted to stay another night in Montague rather than head somewhere else - that just seemed too hard. On day 2, we played some serious hillbilly bocce, invented the suicide swing and headed to the local pub on the Pub Bus, which was probably the highlight of the trip. Once an hour, a short bus straight out of the 70's comes tearing down to the park, unloads some inebriated folk and picks up the next load of innocent boaters and campers. Music blaring, the driver speeds his way along the backroads of Galiano Island for 10 minutes to get to the Hummingbird Pub. The sign at the front of the bus used to say "No standing" and now says "Not too many standing". What did the driver do in the 40 minutes between runs every hour? We're pretty sure his payment was free drinks at the pub.


Matt and Kenz show up in the schnazzy life jackets.


Kenz enjoying the hammock minutes before it came crashing down to the deck.


Great sunsets on the north end of Montague Harbor.


Matt hucking in the water.


Christy's fine cannonball form.


Kenz always chose the civilized way to enter the water.


So did Jason.


Pub bus!


Matt contemplating the winning shot.


Christy contemplating the shot that broke the bocce ball clean in half.

48°54.405'N 123°24.821'W