escape velocity

The velocity of a body remains constant unless the body is acted upon by an external force.

- Newton's first law of motion

From June 2010 to May of 2012, Hello World's velocity has truly remained a constant zero. We'd been at the dock for almost two years, working on the boat and making money. In that two years we rarely left the dock, settling into an uncomfortable inertia. As our scheduled departure date of April 2nd came and went, we frantically worked through projects and revised and revamped our departure. On May 1st, we finally broke free of Seattle's gravity and made for northern waters.

We ran up the backside of Whidbey Island to avoid the dreaded Straight of Juan de Fuca (see here for our first jaunt through the Straight).

We timed our arrival at Deception Pass for slack tide and had an easy motor after picking our way through all the sport fishing boats.

May 2nd - Sucia Island

We motored up to Sucia Island at the very northern end of the San Juan islands in no wind. We spent a few days here unwinding from all the boat projects. We did some hiking, some relaxing, but mostly just sat around grinning at each that we left.

May 4th - Vancouver, comma, City of

Because of our delayed departure, we scrapped plans we had of spending more time in the San Juan islands and any time at all in the Gulf Islands. We decided to try a new place and took off up the Straight of Georgia headed to Vancouver. We checked in with Customs (turns out you can bring as much booze as you want into Canada but leave your potatoes at home) and anchored out in False Creek.

False Creek is this cool inlet that sticks directly into downtown Vancouver. It's surrounded by parks, and trails. Granville Island resides up near the mouth of the inlet and we spent a lot of our time there. They have an incredible market (mouth watering meats and veggies), great coffee shops and parks everywhere. We really like Vancouver by boat.

Christy bought scallops right off the fishing boat that caught them.

This whole cruising thing is slowly coming back to us.

49° 16.135'N 123° 57.995'W

playing catchup

We've spent the last month deep in the weeds of British Columbia. The only internet access we've come across since checking in to Canada has been a sketchy satellite connection at a backwater marina in the backwoods of the Broughton Islands. Hence the radio silence here on the blog. Now that we've landed in Port McNeil, we're in the process of catching up. We'll be putting up some backdated posts over the next couple days to get y'all caught up.

a quick update from lagoon cove

Hey all, we haven't updated the blog (you may have noticed) at all during the last few weeks. We've been buttoned up in a few hidey holes waiting out gales in both the Straight of Georgia and Johnstone Straight. We're in Lagoon Cove today and have access to the interwebs. But, it's a satellite connection that has finite bandwidth so no photos, no big blog updates. Just a note to say we're doing well, we love it out here, and we probably won't be able to get a consistent internet connection for another week or so. Cheers!

second time around

When we left in 2009 for the Inside Passage and eventually Mexico, we were all-consumed with what cruising would be like. It's all we talked about, thought about. We read blogs incessantly. We debated the merits of different anchors with our boat friends (as if we knew anything about anchoring). We poured over charts predicting our route and imagining what far-off anchorages were like. We consumed cruising how-to books, learning all we could about storm tactics and how to check into French Polynesian islands. We were actually jittery and wild-eyed with excitement when we slipped the dock lines and left Shilshole for what would surely be our last time. We never once looked back as we took off towards the Inside Passage.

Fast forward to Tuesday of this week. We'd been back in Shilshole for almost two years after our last cruise. We spent that time working and getting the boat ready for cruise #2. We slipped the dock lines from J dock once again bound for Alaska this time and once again had no plans of coming back. But this time was different. As we left J-dock and motored our way out the north entrance of the breakwater, we found ourselves kinda torn.

We've spent the last year and a half in the company of incredible friends. Friends we'd known for years, friends we met cruising in Mexico and friends we've only recently gotten to know. We had several going away parties (as is our style) and each one left us more melancholy than the last about leaving these people. We rafted up in Eagle Harbor with several other boats from Shilshole. I even broke several of my cardinal anchoring rules (I don't raft to other boats and I never drink too much at anchor). We spent a gorgeous April weekend laughing, eating awesome food and drinking good rum. As we walked into The Sloop for our last farewell party, we were greeted with a chorus of "hey!" from several tables as everyone raised their glasses. Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name.

As Hello World motored up to the marina exit, our buddy CB stood on the fishing pier filming our departure. We yelled and waved and gave a failed attempt at blowing an air horn (put "new air horn" on the list) as we slipped past. We thought about all the marina volleyball games and Taco Tuesdays we're missing out on. We thought about the great times at The Sloop. We thought about the family and friends we're leaving behind this time and this time, we were just a little sad about it.

As we cleared the red day mark at the end of the breakwater, we nosed out into a southwesterly blowing 18 knots. We unfurled the genoa and Hello World took off to the north with a bone in her teeth. Christy and I flashed each other shit-eating grins as we passed hull speed.

Oh right. This is why we left.

Hello World has left the building*

Gear is stowed Paseos sandwiches have been eaten Boat projects are done (enough) Car has been sold (for $1) We are outta here! *maybe past tense is a little misleading. We are ABOUT to leave - 10 min away!