We Are Off - But Just A Little

Woke this morning to overcast skies and almost no wind.  Finally, we are ready to begin our adventure.   Lagoon Point is a very quiet residential area with dredged canals.  At this time of year, there are only a few boats on the docks and imagine our surprise when our departure coincided with the departure of a 30' fishing boat that moors across the canal from us.  Of course, he was in a hurry to get to his fishing grounds and opted to pass us in the narrow canal.  There was room for both of us - but just barely.

Our 6 am departure provided us with just over 6 feet of water at the entrance to Admiralty Inlet.  Large jagged rocks on both sides of the entrance leave a thin navigable channel.  It really feels like you could reach out and touch the side.  So, slowly and carefully we slide through the channel into Puget Sound.   Yesterday's white caps are gone, but this morning there are 1 foot rollers coming in from China.  The rocking motion of the boat sends McDuff to the forward stateroom and under the covers where he will remain until noon.

I have just put on a pot of coffee and settled in for the journey when I hear Barrie throttle back.  This could be for a number of reasons but few of them are good.  The autopilot has lost it's mind.  We check connections and restart software to no avail.  Finally we call Simrad customer support and the tech suggests we have magnetic interference, which sends Barrie on a wild goose chase.  Barrie notices that somehow the unit has entered the demo mode and he tries several things to convince the unit drop the demo.  Since we are close to Anacortes, we put in a call to North Harbor Diesel and talk to Colin.  If we can't clear the problem, they stand ready to help.  Barrie finally wins the battle with the Simrad and we spend the next several miles testing that the unit is operating properly.  Another call to Colin at North Harbor and we agree that whatever was wrong is fixed - so north we go.

By now we have traveled into Rosario Strait and have veered from our original course that would have taken us through Cattle Pass.  The good news is that all is calm in Rosario Strait so we continue on to Thatcher Pass.  Since the tide change today is fairly small, the currents in Thatcher are modest.  Our AIS tells us that Rekindle (a sister boat to Chug that moors on Whidbey Island) is not far ahead.  We are now tucked into the San Juan Islands.  The boat traffic has picked up but since it is only the 1st of May, things are still pretty quiet here.  The tide is low this afternoon (-1.1) and we are going through some close spaces.  From Thatcher we go through Harney Channel and then through Pole pass before heading toward Speiden Island.

Passing Speiden Island always brings back bitter sweet memories.  Hard to imagine that Mom passed away 15 years ago and this is where her ashes rest.  Just as we clear the west end of Speiden the sun comes out and it seems as if Mom is smiling down on us.  My mom was a remarkable woman.  She had a combination of character traits that I have spent a lifetime trying to emulate.  She was kind and generous and fair and made the most of her short life.  She had high expectations for her children and even higher expectations of herself.  She was fiercely protective and proud of her family recognizing the individual talents of each but also treating all equal.  She expected us to own our failings and to use those experiences to learn.  Somehow she gave us the freedom to be independent and still held us close.   It is impossible not to miss her.

So, off the port bow there is a seal with BIG salmon.  The fish must be 3 feet long and the seal has it held tightly in its mouth as the seagulls divebomb.

With the sun out, Barrie and I both comment that we are grateful - for the opportunity to take this journey.  Grateful that the autopilot is healed, that the AIS is working (lots of boat traffic in the San Juans) and for hot chocolate with BIG marshmallows.  But we are also grateful for our lives.  For the amazing experience of renovating a rental property that turned after 10 years.  While cleaning up the mess hasn't been a barrel of fun - meeting our new tenants (who found us) and finding great people to help with the work has been a joy.  We are grateful for lifelong friends who do an amazing job helping us manage our affairs -- creating necessary legal paperwork at the drop of a hat and walking us through the steps and it is easy to continue to list so many things for which we are thankful.  Certainly, we are thankful for this beautiful moorage in Prevost Harbor at Stuart Island.