Starting off - At last!

After what seems like months of preparation we are finally off on our grand adventure to Alaska.  This year we are making our way north on our own.  We will miss having Larry aboard - his extensive experience and penchant for teaching mated with his good company made him the perfect person to have along for last year's journey.  Did I forget to mention his breakfasts?  While we know that we have sufficient experience to make this journey, both Barrie and I have a case of the nerves.  Maybe that will all settle out once we are underway.
Getting out of our home berth requires a fair amount of planning.  We need at least a 6 foot tide and it helps to have slack water.  The entrance to Lagoon Point is very narrow with rock jetties on both sides.  With that in mind, our departure was planned for 3 p.m.  Susan Walker made a special trip from Oak Harbor to see us off - bringing wine and granola.  Then Roy Dunbar and Suzanne Dobrin came by,  They took photos, untied lines and drove our car back to our house. As we left the dock a text message or two came in.  Clearly there is no turning back.  Our new neighbors (across the street from our dock) provide a care package including fresh eggs (which I had to hard boil since raw poultry is currently banned from crossing into Canada) and chocolate bars with pictures of Alaskan bears.
We headed north along Admiralty Inlet in beautiful sunshine.  Shortly, my cell phone rang and it was my dad Ray calling to say he was watching us from his living room window.  We talked for a bit and then a few more minutes with Georgia.  All in all, a mighty fine send off.
The Strait of Juan de Fuca was smooth as glass and we made good time to Hunter Bay on the east side of Lopez Island.  We dropped anchor just as the sun was going down and then spent an hour trying to sort out why things that should be working weren't working!  Turns out we had the gps cord and the nav cord reversed.  When we straightened that out, the autopilot worked!  Also, re-read the directions on the new bluetooth headsets and finally figured out how to turn them on and off and how to do intercom pairing.  Of course we had the anchor down before we figured out the communication devices.  Yikes!  There are way too many electronic pieces.  Maybe the old days of paper charts and rulers and dividers weren't all bad.