Here is what we can see from our RV door early in the morning; a typical Arizona sunrise.

This is the first time I adjusted the ISO to a higher number in order to shoot the Christmas lights in Havasu City.

That was easy! Here's one from Lake Havasu. This campsite was the best in the state park.

Trying a different photo. This time the full sized one. The "wild" burros of Oatman, AZ

Trying again

Here is Mac protecting his frisbees.

Whale BubbleNet feeding

My friend, Suzi, on the s/v Boru took this wonderful shot! Wish I could claim it, but I did get the same shot on video. Just part of our wonderful trip.

More about our cruise in Alaskan waters

As we traveled on towards Ell Cove, we were treated to our secod viewing of bubblenet feeding by humpback whales. I got video shots and Suzie got an excellent still shot - National Geographic quality. About a dozen whales treated us to quite a show.
In tiny Ell Cove we found ourselves with 6 other boats; DX and Boru rafted to us and Gale, Silent Sun, Perigee, and Sea Tex all free anchored.
The next day we made the short trip down to beautiful Takatz Bay where Mercy and Boru rafted alongside. At low tide a crab pot buoy appeared rather close behind our boats. Since it was a hazard to navigation, we pulled it, straightened out the tangled line and reset it, but not before we took the 30-some legal crab and divided them between the boats.
Baranof Warm Springs was our next stop. Finding the docks full we rafted onto Mercy and Boru to DX. That evenig we had a great get together, eats and drinks on Mercy. They are the only boat in our group big enough to hold 12 comfortably. We showed our whale video among ooohs and aaahs and promised to make a DVD for everyone if we ever get our computer back. Larry and Sandy, Mercy's Texas guests left on a float plane that had some difficulty getting in and out due to the fog.
We moved to the outside of the dock after some boats including Mercy moved on. The new bathhouse was much appreciated and much used. The water is pretty hot and had some sulphur smell, but we enjoyed the bath anyway.
7-23 Mercy left Red Bluff Bay as we came in. Dx was out pulling his prawn trap. When he told us that he got nada, zip, zero we decided not to put ours down. DX came back in the bay and rafted to us along with Boru. Other boats included: Jamal, Alaskan Song, Nereida, Silent Sun, Sea Call, Snow Goose and Alaskan Story.
The bay was filled with pinks that were jumping and turning like ballerina dancers. They made me laugh when I thought of them as popcorn fish. All the fishermen had a great time catching and releasing.
Boru had an overheating problem, so they had to run slower across a very well mannered Chatham Strait to Honeydew Cove where we found Passage already anchored.

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Back in the USA

After making a somewhat hurried trip down through Canada, we just wanted to let you know that we are still alive and still floating. We checked into customs at Roche Harbor, San Juan Island, WA on Saturday, August 3rd. We were glad to be back in "home waters" again and especially have enjoyed the nice weather. Bob has been getting some of the varnish work done that he was unable to do in the rain up north.
We will be going back into our slip in Anacortes in another week or two. Today we are anxiously waiting to welcome s/v Boru alongside again. They are heading back to Olympia and are crossing into US waters today.
I still plan to write more about our adventures up north, but thought I better at least get a quick update out.

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Freezer client

Friends Gail and Nick on s/v Destiny stored halibut in our freezer, but after that our paths diverged. Since we didn't know when or if we would meet up again, we transferred their fish to the m/v Passage. These tongue-in-cheek emails resulted... ;-)

Dear Sir, Madam and Mascots:

It has come to our attention that our fillet account which was entrusted to your institution has been transferred to another account without our authorization. Further more we believe the status of said fillets may be endangered due to illegal pilfering by untrustworthy freezer operators. It is commonly held that the M/V Passage has a past history of unsecure fillet handling. Specifically, we are worried about the possibility that our fillets could be exposed to fire. M/V Passage has been known to remove banked fillets and place then near or on a BBQ. In addition, we have received no statement of our account while banked at your institution. We were hoping that the account would have earned some interest while in your care (even bottom fish deserve interest). We are also concerned that our entire account may be frozen - thus limiting our ability to liquidate same.

Dear Valued Customer:
We would like to assure you that we would not have transferred said fillets unless we were certain that they would be safe with the current freezer operator. About the interest incurred: we must remind you that this was not a savings account that earns interest, rather we have fees associated with your account that have been left unpaid. We accept legal tender, meals, salmon fillets, dominoe games and various and sundry other items as payment for said fees. Again, we want to assure you that you are a valued customer and we would welcome your deposits after our fees have been met. We are only slightly concerned that we will not meet up with you again to settle this matter as you seem to be traveling in areas where our "chicken of the sea" crew does not intend to go. We are also concerned about your mental health as the fish stories you tell are quite the works of fiction.

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Traveling with friends again

We waited in Pavlof for friends, Suzie and Roger on s/v Boru, who we met last year in BC. We spent a total of 5 nights in Pavlof, a new-favorite anchorage. We saw another sow with twin cubs and several individual bears. One day as I kayaked up towards the falls, watching the schools of pinks, I looked up to see a bear on the bank very close by. He was headed toward the falls and was also interested in the pinks. Pinks are also known as Humpbacks and are unbelievably thick in SE Alaskan waters this time of year. They school up by the hudreds at the mouths of streams getting ready to spawn, and because they're there so are the bears.
We had wind one night that kept me up on anchor watch. With Boru rafted to us we had more weight on our anchor and also more responsibility. Of course, our big Bruce anchor held us fast as usual. It was the first night of anchor watch, but that's not surprising since we have been tied to docks so much.
We met Ron and Becky on Conquest at Swanson Harbor earlier and again in Pavlof. They introduced us to beach asparagus and brought us some that they had made into a salad or salsa. mmmmm
Boru needed fuel and needed to see the interesting little village of Tenakee Springs, so we returned. By the time we arrived, the fuel dock was closed, and we were surprised to find that they have very limited hours. Didn't stop Suzie. She called someone and talked him into opening the fuel dock for a sale of about 20 gallons of gas. I think she could talk a brown bear out of a salmon he'd just caught.
On our way into Tenakee, we saw the yacht Le Grande Bleau, one of the world's largest. She is over 300 feet long and has a sailboat with 4 spreaders and a power boat that must be 40 feet long carried topside. She is owned by a Russian billionaire and, according to one of our magazines, was previously owned by Paul Allen's brother.

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Chichakof and Baranof

We left Tenakee on calm water on July 13th and made the short trip up to Pavlof where we anchored. Much to our chagrin we have spent 44 nights tied to docks and 2 nights on a buoy since we entered Alaska 52 days ago. This is not our usual M/O, but gen set problems, weather, and Alaska's free state docks have limited our time on the anchor chain.
But finally we were swinging on our own hook in Pavlof. Sherry on Augenblick had told us via radio that it was a delightful place with bear sightings and halibut catching. Sure enough, Bob went out in the dinghy and caught his 2 halibut easily, both chickens. A pod of Orca's came very close to him while he was fishing, but they were intent on their own fishing as their tall black fins sliced through the water nearby. These are the first Killer Whales we've seen in Alaska on this trip.
While we were eating dinner, I heard a change in the sound of the generator. Upon checking the exhaust we found only steam exiting. When we checked the filter we found it filled with jellyfish parts and pieces. These are the lion mane jellyfish that can sting, so we extracted the slimy mess being careful not to touch it with bare hands.
After a couple of boats left we moved in closer to be more protected in case the wind blew.
We saw a doe and fawn on shore and later a single doe. Bob caught his limit of 2 halibut again. One was a 3 ft 21 lber. Just a poind over chicken-size.
We were seeing lots of wildlife on the shore. To our surprise we saw two men walking on the far shore with no vessel in sight. We surmised that they were from the sailing vessel (umiak maybe) that we had seen pass by late last night.
Later we saw a grizzly sow (brown bear) with twin, black cubs walking in the same place where we had seen the men earlier. These mamas with cubs are very dangerous and should always be avoided, but we had to get them recorded on video so we can bore you all with it later. We dinghied in for a closer look. The sow got very nervous when she saw us and soon hustled her babes off into the woods.
The other wildlife brought their vessel into the bay and anchored for the night on the far shore. They made us nervous, too.

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Gen Set problems

Our gen set started steaming while at the dock in Elfin Cove. After checking the through hull, Bob found some mussel shells blocking the opening. After getting that cleaned out, the generator continued to steam and got worse. The dock experts determined that we needed a new impeller, and we didn't have one.
We traveled to Pelican to visit with friends, see a place we hadn't seen before and get plugged into power in order to keep our batteries charged and our freezer frozen. We had to take a spot that no one else wanted and we soon found at why. Wilth the wind blowing and no breakwater, we were soon having an uncomfortabe, bouncy ride. When another boat left at 4:30 the next morning, we quickly moved into their more desireable spot.
6-30 Back to Elfin Cove where nasty weather kept us at the dock an extra day. The big swells also kept most of the air traffic away.
On our way back to Hoonah, we almost ran over a group of humpback whales in Icy Strait. Actualy got so close after the engine was in neutral that we had to back away. We have video with these gentle giants right under our bow. They were bellowing like elephants in heat; pretty scary!
Back to Hoonah where we paid $50 for a month's moorage. That was much cheaper than the $19 daily rate. We even got the best spot in the harbor, the outside slip with great views and no bouncing in the will-protected harbor.
After having a lot of rainy weather, we were glad the sun came out for the 4th of July parade and all the Native village activities.
Rain or shine, Bob spent lots of time out in the dinghy fishing and catchng salmon. Finally got our impeller on the 9th. Jerry or Jericho came down and gave Bob a hand installing it and reassembling the gen set. These units are so compact that they have to be disassembled in order to fix even simple things like replacing an impeller.
We had a pot luck with Ernie and Aileen and his new friends on Telos. We were glad that bad weather had brought them back to Hoonah instead of down the outside to Sitkah as they had planned.
7-11 We left the dock ahead of DX and Telos, but they soon caught us and arrived in Tenakee at least an hour ahead of us. Found the docks clogged with seine boats. Lots of activity, lots of noise. We got to see the crew of Christian S, a seine boat out of Everett, again. Captain Ross even sent over a bottle of wine to us. In 2003 Bob had fixed his Nobeltec Software for him. Thats the electronic navigation software that recreational boaters as well as most fishermen use.

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Icy Strait to Cross Sound

We traveled from Hoonah to Flynn Cove in hopes of catching a halibut. Did get a banty rooster and a chicken. When anchoring, we didn't go deep into the bay due to a lack of detail on the chart. After 6 boats came in and anchored inside of us, we felt pretty foolish stuck out in the middle.
6-23 On the way to Elfin Cove, we kept cutting back rpm's in order to arrive at South Inian Pass when our computer told us it would be slack water. Turns out the computer seems to be about an hour off; now we remember that a friend had mentioned that a couple of years ago. Our speed got down to 3.3 knots as we chugged against the current that was supposed to be slack. Elfin Cove is a delightful, little, busy village. There are 8 charter fishing businesses there, a post office, bar/cafe, museum, fuel dock, gift shops, salmon smokery etc. Approximately 200 people are in residence in the summer, but the billage is much quieter in the winter with only 8-12 folks. There is an inner as well as an outer harbor with free Alaska state docks. We chose the outer harbor where we could see all the activity; float planes coming and going, charters bringing in the daily catch of salmon and big halibut (200+ lbs). We also got a beautiful view, in clear weather, of the Fairweather Mts and th!
e glacier beneath them.
We enjoyed being at the dock with Silver Star and Whatever again. One day we all went fishing in the dinghies. After not catching any salmon, Jerry (Silver Star) rigged up for halibut with a spreader and salmon belly. Down to the bottom it went and immediately caught a big fish - a 35 lb white king salmon!

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Icy Strait

After leaving Auke Bay early to avoid the morning dock count (if you get counted, you have to pay for that day even though you are paid up for the nights you have stayed-and they bill you) we headed around Pt Retreat and on to Funter Bay. We were the only boat except for a couple of local boats. Most people think that the only public dock is on the south side, but we found out in 03 that both are state docks. We were visited by a group of land otters searching for tasty morsels under the dock. Mac had a great time trying to spot them through the cracks in the dock as they chomped, growled and splashed.
Bob trolled for salmon, caught a King that we promptly canned. Then he caught a halibut on his trolling gear.
6/17-18 Swanson Harbor at the entrance to Icy Strait has two detached docks. We took the outside of one across the dock from a young couple from Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. They left for Hoonah, but soon the docks were filled with Juneau-ites. The weather was hot and the horseflies were thick enough to keep us inside the boat behind screens most of the time. The second day the west wind came up and blew 30. Now we know why the people from Juneau choose the inside of the dock!
6-19 On the way to Hoonah we stopped at a halibut hill just off Sisters Islands. Caught two more halibut to add to the freezer in just a few minutes. We found Silver Star and Whatever at the dock. Had a good time visiting with them. We all took the shuttle out to Cannery Pt to see the cannery that has been renovated for a tourist attraction. It is only open two days a week for two cruise ships. We enjoyed the museum and the gift shops at the very well-done facility. We enjoyed talking to a couple from England who were on the cruise ship. Trying to understand the queen's language was a bit difficult though.
6-22 When leaving Hoonah, we were excited to see our first view of bubble feeding by a large group of humpback whales. This is an interesting feeding method they use. They all dive at nearly the same time and then make a column of bubbles that rises to the surface. This column confuses and traps small fish which the whales then catch in their open mouths as they all come to the surface at the same time. As you can imagine, it is quite a sight and a real treat to see. Some of the people being transported from the cruise ship to the cannery dock got a close-up look as the whales surfaced right by them.

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Cruising

We stopped at the Argo halibut hill at Five Fingers, but no luck this time. We did find room at the dock in Hobart Bay, Entrance Island.
6-12 We had quite a Dahl Porpoise show just south of Tracy Arm entrance. They just kept racing toward us as some got tired, others took up the game. Always a thrill to see them move effortlessly across our bow. Of course we are only traveling about 7 miles an hour, but it's still amazing to see.
Only one other boat at the dock at Taku Harbor and they moor at Anchor Cove, our marina in Anacortes! We had not met them before though. The dock was pretty well filled up overnight. It is scheduled for complete renovation in a few days and will not be available for some time.
6-13 Auke Bay, north of Juneau, actually had room at their all-transient docks. In fact we docked at one spot, but had to move to another in order to get power. When we called the harbor office, she immediately told us that we had two big boxes waiting for us. This was our old computer that Teri had sent to replace our crashed one that we had sent to her. After we set up the computer, we found that it wouldn't even recognize our navigation CD, so we still didn't have a backup. Nobeltec has discontinued that version, so they were unable to send us another disk...unless we sent them $350 for an upgrade.

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More cruising notes

6-6-05 We traveled with Destiny in good weather to Roosevelt Harbor on Zarembo Island where we found a small, sturdy dock. We took the front face of the dock and Destiny rafted to us. The shallow water and a morning low tide had them concerned, so they moved off the dock to anchor out. The Nordic Lady came in later and rafted to us. The captain raises hazelnuts in Oregon and we were pleased to get a sample of his crop. Gail and I took a walk on shore while Nick and Bob went fishing in the dinghy.
The next day, we had to plan for current in Wrangell Narrows, a narrow passage that leads to Petersburg. We anchored in halibut fishing ground just to the west of the entrance while we waited for a favorable current. Bob caught only a crab, but Nick caught a nice chicken halibut, small but the best eating.
As we entered the Narrows a huge tug and container laden barge was just behind us. We decided that it would be better to let him go first rather than have him pass us in a narrow spot. We traversed the 21 mile passage without meeting or being passed by any other large vessels. Almost all north- and south-bound traffic uses this route; ferries, tugs, large yachts, but not cruise ships. There are over 60 navigational aids and are quite a sight at night, or so I've been told. We don't cruise at night! The green and red lights give it the nickname "Christmas Tree Lane."
We stayed in Petersburg in nice weather for 2 nights then moved on to Portage Bay where we tied to the forest service buoy and stayed 2 nights in rain.

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Still catching up

The marine weather forecast, our counselor for travel decisions, told of wind warnings for several days, so we pulled away from the dock with some trepidation. We headed south and east to get into more protected waters. We had good conditions for awhile, but then we started to see very wide white cappy water ahead. Soon Clarence Strait was us to its old tricks. We were in 6-8 foot breaking seas; rougher seas than we ever want to see again. Of course our boat handled it all better than we did. After turning into Ernest Sound, we had a following sea that gave us a much smoother ride. At least the sealife seemed to be enjoying the rough conditions. We saw a humpback whale breach clear out of the roughest water. We also had bow chasing porpoise with us for a time. A huge Stellar sea lion also poked his nose up to take a look at us. We had a nice, quiet, well-deserved anchorage in Santa Ana. The next day we traveled up Zimovia Stait in a brisk wind but fairly smooth seas. In the !
beautiful Anita Bay we enjoyed the same view of the mountains that we had seen in Burnett.
The "Long Ranger" was already in the anchorage and we were delighted to see Destiny enter a short time later. We dinghied over to catch up on each other's adventures. We also dinghied over to Long Ranger just to say hello. They insisted we come aboard their beautiful boat and share some freshly caught crab. We learned that their new-looking boat had about 30,000 miles on it.
The next morning we spotted a doe with twin fawns along the shoreline, but still no bear.

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May 31 to June 3

As we motored up the east side of Clarence Strait, DX and Mercy were coming up the west side to all meet in Burnett Inlet. We anchored up, rafted onto Mercy, in the little bay behind Cannery Pt. As in the rest of Alaska and BC the canneries just show up as ruins; testiment to the early days of bountiful fish. We needed to wait for high tide to enter the head of the Inlet. The narrows is just that and has thin water, too (reported to be just 1 and a half feet at low tide. We found 10 feet as we crossed the lowest point. Interestingly we also found 10 feet when we took the dinghy through at low tide. How did that happen?
We again rafted onto Mercy and spent two days in the very pleasant bay. The nice weather prompted us to get to shore for some needed exercise. We all took a long walk on a gravel road that connects to Anita Bay; except we went left instead of right. We found many bones along the way and scat that had deer hair in it. We found out later that this was a sign of wolves.
Ernie, Bob and I took his whaler down to the fish hatchery for a very interesting visit. We were impressed by the very complicated operation and surprised to hear that it is a fisherman's co-op. They tax themselves 3% of their catch to support the hatchery which raises and releases coho and sockeye salmon. The fish must be fed every half hour all day and all conditions carefully monitored. Before they are released, 10% of the coho become pinheads. They are put through a machine, by hand, that inserts an identification pin in their head. The sockeye are marked by changing the water temperature in their tanks alternately between warm and cold. This puts marks on their otolith (ear bones) that identify where they were hatched and when. FASCINATING!
We all moved to the dock at the hatchery on 6-2, and even had electricity provided. Their hydro plant produced plenty. We had the two young men, who were working at the hatchery, onboard Mercy for a dinner that we all contributed to. I think they were really happy to get the good food as well as the company and conversation.
6-3 Ever restless Ernie was up early and away from the dock, headed to Point Baker. We had been listening to wind warnings for several days, but this day seemed to be the best for travel in Clarence Strait. Before long Ernie was calling back to tell us he had wind (one 42 kt gust) and rough water, and that we should stay tied to the dock. After clearing the dock for an incoming supply plane, we suggested that Mercy move off the net pen and onto the dock proper. We then rafted onto them and then spent several hour bouncing up and down as the south wind picked up and brought swells and whitecaps into the Inlet.
More later......I need to catch up.

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Meyers Chuck

After leaving Ketchikan with a good share of our money,for the stay at the dock and the generator parts and repair, we headed up Clarence Strait to Meyers Chuck. We left in light rain; Ketchikan is going to have to do better than that to get their totals up to average this year(12 feet). Clarence was behaving very nicely, but it was a slow trip due to running against the current. We have been spoiled with good, pushing currents for sometime.
Arriving at Meyers Chuck we found the floats full with the only option to anchor out or raft onto another boat. We rafted onto the fish buying tender "Savage". A 90 footer that we learned was owned and operated by a very petite little woman who has had the boat for 16 years. She looks like a kid, but it seems that she does very well with that big, old boat.
This morning there was a general boat shuffling and we took the dock space that Mary Grace left. The Provider moved to the inside of the dock and the boat that was anchored out, Huntress, rafted onto Savage. We had a rain shower in the early morning, but then the sun came out and it has been a beautiful day. We thought DX was coming in today, but he is across the channel from us and we'll probably meet up tomorrow. It's been fun visiting with the folks on the dock here; local residents as well as visiting boaters. And the best thing is that these state docks are FREE in Alaska.
My tomato plants (from the seeds I found in a Geocache in Idaho) is blooming up a storm and has set on at least 3 tomatoes so far. Life is good. Except Bob has not caught a fish yet...it's still early.
More later...

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On to Alaska (cont)

Our plan was to anchor in Coghlan anchorage the next day, but that is not a very secure spot and gale winds were predicted overnight. We ended up running 75.6 miles to Lowe Inlet, a more secure spot but very deep. We dropped the anchor in 100 feet and then kept an eye on the depth sounder as we alternately went from 60 feet to 19 feet over the shoal. We kept the anchor alarms set to alert us to movement of over 150 feet.
After the long run, we decided to make a few easy ones. Klewnugget was our next stop. We put our prawn traps down on the way in and pulled up 130 prawns as we left the next morning.
With lots of storm warnings, even hurricane force winds predicted, we decided to stay put till conditions eased. We stayed in Kumealon for 4 nights with Destiny. The storm didn't materialize in our area, but we were faced with Dixon Entrance next, and we would rather have good conditions out there.
On May 22 we awoke to fog in the bay, so we delayed our departure for a bit. Even with a late start, we left the constables on the police boat that had shared an overnight anchorage with us still snoozing. They missed their chance to check our entrance number into Canadian waters. We thought we'd go as far as Dundas Island, Brundige Inlet, but we found conditions so smooth that we decided to go on to Foggy Bay, Alaska. We crossed into Alaskan waters at 3:04 on May 22 and arrived in Foggy Bay at 5:45. By that time Mac was showing yellow eyeballs, so the first order of business was to get the dinghy down and get him to shore. Well, we did take time to get an anchor down and set. We fell into bed not too long after that after a 83.2 mile, 11 hour day. We shared the quiet, peaceful anchorage with Destiny and Inspiration.
Even though it was a 5 hour run into Ketchikan, it seemed like a short day. We had the roughest water we've seen yet; 3 foot following seas, but we still haven't put any salt on the boat.
We have been in Ketchikan since the 23rd waiting for generator parts. They finally arrived today, Saturday the 28th, and we are ready to depart tomorrow.
The weather has been beautiful during our stay, and it has been fun watching all the hustle and bustle of this busy little town. Some days there are 6 cruise ships visiting adding about 10,000 people to the streets and shops. Bob was shocked one day to see someone he knew among the many cruise ship tourists, Keith and Bonnie Morris. Bob and Keith coached football in Warden and Bob had coached Keith in track in Grandvieew in 1964. They were equally surprised to see him.
More later...depending on phone service.

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Crossing

After getting our expensive cat back Saturday afternoon, we watched him carefully and determined that his plumbing was working quite well. At 0:dark30 on Sunday morning we were the second boat away from the dock, and headed out around Malcolm Island and on across Queen Charlotte Strait. This was a new stretch of water for us, but we were pleasantly surprised by the strong current that pushed us at an average of 8 knots all the way to Miles Inlet. In our 6.5 knot boat burning expensive diesel, that kind of an assist is always welcome. The water was smooth all the way with only slight ocean swells rocking us gently as we approached Miles Inlet. It is only 10 miles south of Cape Caution, so we thought we'd spend the night there and go around the Cape in the early morning. After getting anchored up, getting down the dinghy and transporting the dog to shore, we listened to the weather. We spend a lot of time listening to the forecasts and current sea conditions. When we heard tha!
t the wind was calm and the seas smooth at Egg Island, just above the Cape, we looked at each other and decided to pick up and go for it. It meant another 4.5 hours added to an already long day, but getting around the Cape would be worth it. By 4:30 in the afternoon we were rafted alongside DX in one of the prettiest anchorages in BC, Fury Cove. When he left the next morning we dropped our anchor and spent another day of rest there. We spent part of the day exploring the nearby islands by kayak.
On up Fitz Hugh Sound and into Codville Lagoon where we trapped 115 prawns overnight. We also had to put up with a growly anchor as the chain drug across the rocky bottom.
Today it was on to Shearwater where we were pleasantly surprised by all the improvements including a new store, post office and laundromat. We were unpleasantly surprised by the amount charged for the stay. We stayed in Port McNeill for almost 3 nights for the price of 1 night here.
The weather has changed, we couldn't expect to have that great weather forever. It's cloudy and cooler and winds are predicted. Our little heater is keeping us nice and warm. We're glad to have it.
Weather permitting, we plan to get on up the way in the morning.

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Departure

We get the cat back this afternoon, and if all goes well with him (interpretation: his plumbing is working) and the weather cooperates we will be leaving Port McNeill in the morning. SE winds are predicted, so we may not get too far, but we will be up the coast a little farther.
More later....

Port McNeill

We had to cross to the Vancouver Island side of Queen Charlotte Strait because our cat, Dock, developed a health problem. We brought him to the vet here on Tuesday and he has been in the hospital in Port Hardy since then. We will be able to pick him up on Saturday. This has been an unscheduled and expensive stop.
The weather has been nice...sunny today, but windy. Hopefully things will be calm when we cross to the mainland side to head upcoast around Cape Caution.

Shawl Bay

Came to Shawl Bay for a visit with Loren, Shawn, Rob and Auntie Jo and to do laundry. Just us and some shrimp boats at the dock. Mac always enjoys visiting their dog, Shilo, too. We are watching weather reports to see if we can sneak around Cape Caution before long. Actually, our sneak is more like a crawl. Will take us a couple of harbor hops and 6 hours or so to make the last jump. This is one of our two open ocean crossings, and it's always stressful for me at least. Won't be able to post again until we make the crossing and get up the way.
Bob has set our prawn traps here and after a couple of pulls has harvested 75 mostly BIG prawns. Ummmm tasty!

Lagoon Cove

After Squirrel Cove there are three rapids that we must transit near slack water. With these rapids often traveling faster than our boat speed and developing whirlpools and overfalls, it is prudent to figure out the best time to be there. Another concern is the "highway" traffic; tugs and tows going about their business. It took about 3 hours for us to arrive at the Yuculta Rapids (pronounced you-claw-tahs) only having to adjust our speed slightly on the way. Had it timed perfectly to get through Gillard and Dent at just the right stage of the current.
Our next stop was at Oleo's in Frederick Arm. This is a "quaint", rustic little floating restaurant where you can have a wonderful, tasty meal for two and stay at the dock overnight for $44 Canadian. We have stopped several times and have always enjoyed our visit with Ruth and Katrina. This time Leo was away, but we still had a great meal and visit.
Two more rapids of the lesser kind, Greene Point and Whirlpool were no problem. We stayed in Forward Harbor, Douglas Bay last night all by ourselves.
Today we tackled the notorious Johnstone Strait with a very unusual prediciton of light winds. We had our first rain, but enjoyed calm seas. Bob spotted our first bear of the trip as we went through Chatham Channel, a very intimidating looking narrow channel. After going through many times, it isn't at all intimidating - at least if you don't meet a tug with a load of logs.
Arrived at Lagoon Cove with Bill's friendly greeting on the radio. He remembers everyone's names, so you always feel especially welcomed. This is a fun stop where we meet and greet friends old and new. There is always a happy hour or potluck scheduled, and this time Jeanne invited us up to the house out of the cold.

Squirrel Cove

We crossed the Strait of Georgia Tuesday in beautiful, calm weather. One of our best crossings. The only problem was that Whiskey Golf was open, so we had to transit around the torpedo practice area. Added a little to our trip, but with such calm conditions it wasn't bad.
We anchored in Ballet Bay with one other boat. A beautiful peaceful spot. The weather has been very warm, but the forecast has been for a cold front to move from Alberta into BC with strong to gail force winds. We waited to leave yesterday till 11:00, a very late start for us. After talking to some friends out on Malaspina Strait, we decided to give it a try. No Problem Nice calm water all the way.
Stopped here in Squirrel Cove for the night and plan to go through the rapids today at 2:00. Still very warm and nice...
More later

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First Leg

Our first leg of our cruise is done. Well, it's more like a little toe... We are in Nanaimo, BC and planning to cross the Strait of Georgia, our first of the big crossing events. We hope it is a non-event.
Friday night we anchored in Prevost Harbor on Stuart Island, WA. From there we went to Bedwell Harbor, BC to check in to Canadian customs. NOT... They don't open till May 1st. The customs agent on the phone told us to report in to Van Isle, so we dutifully backtracked and checked in there. It was just a phone call, so it seems that they could have done that from Bedwell. I guess we should feel lucky that crossing the border by boat is pretty easy. The US is making it much more difficult within the next year or so.
After that little trip, we headed for Montague Harbor where we tied to a buoy and then went walking in the park to find our first Canadian Geocache. We left Yuma lettuce seeds; probably an illegally imported item.
To get to Nanaimo it is necessary to pass through Dodd Narrows where the current can really rip. In our slow boat we need to figure to go through near slack water. We figured it would take us about 5 hours, but we figured wrong and got there too early. We kept slowing down as we got closer and finaly just drifted; waiting for the current to slow down a little. Made it through fine then.
On to anchorage at Newcastle Island. A nice 2 mile walk on the island brought us to another Geocache.
Visited Ernie on DX in the late afternon, and he offered to take us up to his son's house in the morning so we could get on the Internet to log our caches and check email.
After doing that we dinghied back to the boat and then to town. We took Jr. Smiley Face, the Travel Bug that we found in Anacortes, with us and dropped him off in the Newcastle View Cache. One of his objectives was to travel to other countries, so now he has traveled to one.
More later...

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Cutting Loose

Looks like today is the day to start our cruise, someone told us that leaving on a Friday is bad luck, but we are going anyway. We finally have all our provisioning done (except those things that we will realize that we forgot when we get away from the dock), our diesel heater is in, our forwarded mail has arrived, our autopilot has returned from repair in CA, the engine is all set to go, the bottom has been cleaned and zincs replaced, the pets have all had their shots, the motorhome and car are stored... I think we're ready.
I will update when I have access to a pay phone or the Internet, which won't be too often. Check back to see how we are doing and what adventures we have had along the way.
Yesterday, we did some Geocaching in Washington Park in the Anacortes area. It was a beautiful day and the views out over Rosario Strait were spectacular. To top the day off, we found our first Travel Bug, Jr Smiley Face. He will start out with us on the cruise. We plan to drop him off in a cache near Nanaimo, BC, but he may end up traveling all the way to Alaska with us.

Heat today, Maybe

Maybe today is the day to get our diesel heater installed; just in time for the weather to warm up, scheduled for next week. Anyway, it will be nice to have as we head north. That should happen next week, too.

 

Bob found that an elbow on the exhaust system showed signs leaking. Our mechanic has taken it off to his shop to check it out and replace it if necessary. More $$$$. The diver is expected today to change zincs and clean the bottom of the boat. $$$ A new voltage regulator is due to be installed on the cruising generator. $$$. The automatic pilot has had a new compass installed and should arrive soon. $$$ My 6 months prescription of Lipitor is due here next week. $$$

 

Are we having fun yet?

Worked

Now another try from Hotmail via Outlook.

Using Blogger Support Suggestion

Let's see if this works.

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I’m so tired of getting the following failure message:
“This is the Postfix program at host blogger.com.
I'm sorry to have to inform you that your message could not bebe delivered to one or more recipients.”

This is what I sent:
Waiting for the next storm to move through. Looks like there is good weatherafter this one passes. Heater installers will be here tomorrow and finish onSaturday... We'll see.

I listed Geocaching as an interest on my profile and found 40 other fellowGeocachers with Blogs. Also found a list of the Blogs on the Geocaching Forum.Lots of interest in this sport, adventure, game...whatever it is.

Testing from Hotmail via Outlook

Just a test... 1,  2,  3

Failed email post

Might as well post this from the Blogger site, as it failed through email. Only got 1 of 4 through yesterday...
Still chilly here, but the sun is shining so that makes a big difference in themood of the day. We seem to be getting closer to a warm, cozy boat. That's goodbecause we are getting closer to cutting the lines and heading out. Ourinstaller is busy looking for the best buy he can find on stainless steel touse as a heater surround. He is also fabricating a thimble to go through deckas protection for the heat generated in the flue. Still lots to do, but theprocess is underway.Yesterday we took the folks from sv Willow along on a Geocaching hunt. Wefinally found the Anacortes Artistic History cache after several attempts overseveral days. Some confusion over one clue and the math necessary to solve thelat long of the final cache. We also found Ferry Godmother - Annie's Corsets.Our friends were glad we introduced them to the sport and plan to do someGeocaching in Seattle while they are there for the next couple of weeks.

Heater installers

We currently have diesel heater installers onboard. They think they can get it done this week. That's good news!

Another try

From Hotmail through Outlook.

Winter Weather

The winter weather that Washington wished for in the middle of winter has finally arrived. (How's that for alliteration?) Cold, windy, snow in the mountains, rough water; glad we are still tied to the dock. Today we are waiting for an expert to check our VacuFlush for air leaks and take a look at our diesel heater installation. With this weather, it will be nice to have a warm, cozy boat.

BTW: The leg is much better, thank-you.

Another BTW: Just when I get confident that emailing posts is going to work with some regularity; it doesn't. This is posted online.

It's Painful

While out Geocaching yesterday (If you don't know what that is, check it out at geocaching.com )I slipped on a muddy trail, my foot went one way and my leg another and I heard an ominous POP. After getting it checked out at the Emergency Room, I found that I had no break. Just extreme pain later in the day. After taking my 4 Ibuprofin that the doctor recommended and sleeping with the warm electric blanket, I feel much better this morning; can actually put weight on it. Rain is on the way; so due to rain and pain there will be no geocaching today.

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Good Morning!

It looks like a beautiful day in paradise. Won't rain again until tomorrow. Looks like a good day to do some Geocaching in the area and go to the local quilt show. Oh that's right, Bob says that we need to finish unpacking the motorhome while it's not raining.

The Big Test

Posted from Pocketmail Composer via cell phone.

Nothing posted today

Guess the gurus are having problems figuring out this email posting. Well, maybe they have it now. I've been frustrated for post after post, then all of a sudden one gets through; just enough to make me think it will really work everytime now.

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Better posting

So far today postings have been more consistant. Maybe they are getting the problems fixed.

At Last

Got an email posting from my Pocketmail device. Hooray! Now trying Pocketmail
online.

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Emailing posts

Still trying to get email through. Here is an answer from Blogger Support...hasn't worked yet.

Hi there,

We had to turn off the Mail-to-Blogger feature recently, due to database
issues. This should now be working again, though there will sometimes be
considerable delays in posts reaching your blog. We apologize for the
inconvenience and we are working on making this service more reliable.
Thanks for your patience.

Sincerely,
Blogger Support

Another from Outlook

We found our cat; actually, he found his way back to the boat. The boat next to us had started up, and he must have thought we were leaving the dock without him. He came sheepishly slinking home, and has been alternately purring and sleeping ever since. He seems to be as happy to be home as we are to have him back.

Still having problems with emailing posts

One of our cats, Dock, decided to jump ship. His boat brother, Dinghy, would never even contemplate getting off the boat, but Dock is the braver of the two. I'm sure he is out exploring somewhere. We just hope that he is not on a boat that is pulling out of the marina with him onboard. We are also hopeful that someone hasn't opened the door to his pitiful meow. Between looking for the cat, I'm still trying to get posts online.

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No weather worries; Yet

We are glad to be on this side of the mountains, as the passes are getting snow again. Good for the drought; bad for travel.

Our motorhome looking Christmasy 

Back on the boat

We're finally back on the boat after spending the winter in Emmett, ID in our motorhome. We are busily moving back aboard and preparing for our cruise to SE Alaska. Our plan is to leave the dock here in Anacortes next month and return October 1. Depending on sea conditions and weather, it should take about 3 weeks to get to Ketchikan. We will send updates along the way, once we get going.