Day 2

Woke up to cold west wind at La Conner this morning and grey sky's. Got a slow start, topped off the fuel tanks so we can make it half way to ketchican before filling up again. Paid $4.24 a gallon and took 100 gallons. My milage calculations are right on, after 10 hours cruising since the last fill up we are burning about 5 gallons an hour per engine. Better than I hoped for. .

Bob Bjerk called and said that he and Sheryl were at their boat and planned on meeting us somewhere in the islands and suggested James Island. We headed north on an outgoing tide and found the north end of the Swinomish slew just about as shallow as the other end. Ran most of the way with about 5 feet of water under the keel. I think the last red bouy, the northern most one is missing. According the the gas dock attendant the funds for dredging the canal all went to New Orleans so there is nothing left to repair this waterway.

Bob called a little later and changed the meeting place to Spencer Spit. The tide was a minus 3 and was running strong out Rosario straight and he was not making much headway against it so he let the tide take him south to Lopez Pass and went through where he could make an easier run north to Spencer Spit.

We found them hooked up to one of the bouys and we impressed them with how easy we made it look as we tied on to the adjacent one. Chris was piloting and I was hooking up and we got it done in one pass with the "Happy Hooker" device that came with the other boat.

We spent the next four hours on their boat catching up on family and friends. The clouds cleared up, the sun came out, the wind never materialized and the afternoon turned out perfect.

Were sitting here at Roche Harbor in the Yacht Club out station. From the looks of things were the only people here. Most of the boats are dark, no one is walking the docks and it is pretty quiet here. Never been here this early and have never seen it this quiet.

Tomorrow were crossing into Canada and weather permitting and customs permitting and if we time the tides right we will head for Silva Bay. Friday is supposed to be the best day of the week so if were at Silva bay and the winds and forcast are calm we will shoot across Georgia Strait and hang out in desolation sound to wait for Glen and Liz.

The tracker system is working well and a couple fo people have called to tell us they are keeping track of us and watching our progress.