July 2009

Quick update on ur boating activity of late.

July 2nd found me in Chicago trying to find an airplane home since the airlines sold my ticket to a standby passenger when the computer did not show that I had checked in on time even though I was there four hours early. Ever try to find a flight late at night just before the start of a four day holiday. NOt good. I got my seat back, they threw off the standby passengers but by the time they figured out what to do we were 90 minutes late and my conncection was surly gone from Minniapolis. Whe we got there surprise surprise, the flight to Seattle had not left yet. I got on the plane only to be told that eveyone had to get off due to mechanical trouble and they would find another palen. They did but it took another 2 hours to get that one loaded and preped for the flight to Seattle. It was also smaller so 30 people did not make it onto the plane. I did.

Got home late and crashed for a few hours before driving to poulsbo. Glen had comed down and picked up the boat for me so all I had to do was drive up. We set up a wagon wheel of 32 boats in the bay to watch the fireworks.

perfect weather for the entire four days. Lots of water games and fun in the sun. One of the best wagon wheels ever. Glen and Liz and Chris and I hosted the event serving two breakfasts and a dinner to over 80 people.

On Wednesday we headed north after work. Stopped at the outstation at Kingston for the evening. Squeezed in behinc Ralph and Lois in their powercat.
Next day ran all the way to Spencer spit via the inside route due to winds forecast for the straits. We would have had a good push but instead we bucked the current all the way north. We were down to four feet of water in the slew at the south end. a sailboat was aground in the middle of the channel waiting for higher water to refloat them.
Nothing we can do to help them so we pass them by and keep going. Should have picked up fuel at LaConner but I figured I had enough.
We had reservations at Genoa bay for the Mainship Rendevouz for thursday but since we took the longer route north we called and let them know we would not be in till Friday. We pulled in to spencer spit and grabbed the last remaining bouy for the night. Beautiful calm evening.

Picked up first thing Friday and ran through the islands to Sydney where we checked in through customs. NO problems there and were off to Genoa Bay. We were the biggest boat there, all the others the smaller sedan trawler models. Not much there for us to see and we did'nt have much for them to see since the models are so very different. We had a good time, met a few folks and surprise surprise, we found bob and Sheryl. We were running around in the Dinghy to cool off and I saw a boat anchored in the harbor that looked familier. Sure enough Bob and Sheryl were there at the end of their month long trip up north. We visited with them for quite a while to catch up on all the happenings.

Sunday July 12th we left about 0930 with building winds and headed 50 miles to Bellingham. We had to cross Haro strait and San Juan Channel and then Rosario strait which were all open to the 25 knot south winds with opposing currents. We bounced around a bit but all in all it was a fairly easy run. We left the boat at the Surfside marine docks where we had the hard top added. They offered us free moorage and we definitely took them up on that offer. We goofed when we stopped in to there to clear customs however as Bellingham is not a port of entry. IT worked out but I guess I out to check those rules out a bit more carefully before making any assumptions. We got a warning not to do that again.

we will be back up at the end of the week to start a two week vacation.