01/09/2011, bellingham, WA

Here is what the sky looked like as we departed Bellingham.

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01/09/2011, Reid Harbor, Stuart Island

This is a Madrone tree that Debbie saw on her hike.

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01/09/2011, Reid Harbor, Stuart Island

Debbie thought this stump looked like a face. I wonder if she was eating mushrooms on her hike? ;-)

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don/cold
01/09/2011, Reid Harbor, Stuart Island

Boy was this chicken BBQ tasty!

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01/09/2011, Reid Harbor, Stuart Island

Sorry for the delay. We were at Reid Harbor without Internet access yesterday. The photo above shows us at the dock at Reid Harbor.

We departed Bellingham in the morning, headed to Sucia Island Marine Park. Our plan was to arrive by 11 am, in time to watch the UConn women's bb team play Notre Dame on national TV followed by the men, on national TV, playing Texas.

Debbie took us out of the slip and Squalicum Harbor while Don handled the lines. It was choppy in Bellingham Bay and there were tons of crap pots that had to be avoided. Things smoothed out in Hale Passage though. We tried out the autopilot in an active, plotted, course but we still have a few things to figure out. Back to the manual.

We arrived at Pipestone Bay but the main dock had been pulled for the winter and the secondary dock was going to be too shallow for us at the low tide expected in the early morning. Not wanting to be resting on the bottom at 3 am, we decided to head to Reid Harbor. Don watched the first half of the women's game as Debbie took us to Reid. Now that we have our TV working properly, there may be more of this division of labor on the boat! We tied up smartly at the dock and watched the exciting end of the game. The UConn women won by a point or two. It was close. Then, Don watched the men play Texas, and win in overtime, while Debbie went for a hike on the island.

Having worked so hard all day for our teams, Don headed downstairs for a nap to recover.

Rising at 5 pm, Don started prep work for some barbequed chicken. He grilled the chicken on the aft deck and made a marvelous meal. We had a great dinner, listened to some music and then went to bed. Tomorrow, we head to Roche Harbor for Internet access and another outstanding meal at their restaurant

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Don/clearing
01/08/2011, Bellingham, WA

Jinxed

I knew I should have not said anything about how well everything was going. Today it came back to bite us. We decided to stay in Bellingham for the day and do some errands, since the weather was nasty outside. I checked with our good friend and colleague Chuck Kinzer and arranged to borrow his car from their home in Birch Bay. I also arranged to borrow our good friend Scott Blake's car to drive up to pick up Chuck's car. Off we went. Debbie drove Chuck and Rita's car back to Bellingham and I drove Scott's. I stopped to fill up Scott's gas tank and, as I was pulling the nozzle out saw the "diesel fuel only" sign. Goodness, another time this professor of reading did not read what he should have. At least I knew enough not to try to drive. I called Scott to tell him the bad news. I also called AAA for a tow to his service station to have it drained. Scott, one of the nicest people I know, was incredibly gracious. We had a cup of coffee while we waited, went to the service station with the tow truck and dropped it off and came back to the boat. Sheesh, did I feel stupid as I came into the Northwest Explorations office to tell Alison. Later that afternoon, the dealer called and said it was ready to be picked up. The only good news on this day is that Scott and Alison's car was ready before the weekend hit.

Throughout all of this disaster of a day, I was reminded of how nice everyone is here in the Bellingham area. AAA, the tow driver, the dealership, Scott, Alison, everyone I encountered on this adventure was so very, very kind to me. It is something special out here.

This morning we hope to head out to Sucia Marine Park. If we get there by 11 am, we will be able to watch the women play on TV, followed by the men right afterwards.

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don/rainy and stormy
01/07/2011, Bellingham, WA

One of the nicest things in life are the friendships you forge on the journey. From left to right: Bill, Don, Scott, Alison, Debbie, Cindy. An evening to remember!

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don/rainy and stormy
01/07/2011, Bellingham, WA

Scott, Bill, and Don all went carnivore at dinner, with a small rack of local lamb. Incredible!

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Don/rainy and stormy
01/07/2011, Bellingham, WA

We awoke to rain in the dark, early morning. Today, we were headed to Bellingham to get some work done on our backup chart plotter. We were also hoping to solve a sat TV problem that we had. We were thinking that, if we got lucky, they could both be solved together, since they were demonstrating identical symptoms; they will not power up from our DC system with the inverter. They will, however, power up with the generator or when we are plugged into shore power. Very strange.

The rain made for the arrival of light a bit late at Prevost. We waited until about 8 am, when it was finally light enough to navigate. Before starting, on our walk around the boat, we noticed that the starboard navigation light (green) was not working. We decided that we would wait and get it repaired in Bellingham, since it is only legally required to have this on at night. (We turn on nav lights when visibility is poor, during the day, for safety purposes.)

We headed out for Jones Island, Pole Pass, and the route through Peavine Pass. It was a pretty uneventful trip on a route we have taken many times. At Peavine Pass we were stopped, again, by another Coast Guard boat. I showed them the paperwork from our safety inspection last week and we continued. I think they are all in training mode and there are few boats out here, during this time of year, so they stop just about anyone they see. It is good to have our paperwork handy.

We made an uneventful landing at Squalicum Harbor in Bellingham, at our slip and did some housekeeping chores: filling the tanks with water, taking up the garbage, etc. We also stopped into the NWE office and said hello to all our good friends. They are all the best and have helped us in so many ways: Brian, Alison, Scott, David, Emolina, and Amy. Scott Blake came down to the boat to show me how to take off the nav. light and we discovered that both wires had worked their way out. It looked like a simple fix so I went to work.

I should not say this (I will jinx myself) but each little repair project on this trip has gone off like clockwork. I had all the tools and equipment for each job and none required me to schlep up to a hardware store for a new part or a new tool. That is what usually happens to each of my "little projects." So far, each has gone off like a charm. Most unusual. This project also was pretty easy. I took everything apart, stripped some of the wire, trimmed the ends, and fastened both wires back in place. Debbie flipped the switch to test things and Voila! We had green light. I fastened it back in place with a little hooking mechanism and we were good to go. Thanks to Scott, we were back in action. A good friend.

During this time, Trevor from Radar Marine, came down to look into our chart plotter issue. He is a very smart guy. He figured out the problem in just a few minutes. The aftermarket AC outlet that both the new chart plotter and the sat TV plug into did not have its neutral wire (ground) connected to the main neutral plug of the inverter. It was grounded at a different location. Thus, both items did not work on DC to AC power through the inverter. It was a brilliant diagnosis. A good friend. Now both items work like a charm.

Afterwards, Don may have made a tremendous mistake. He was sitting and admiring all of the many systems in the boat that are now all working perfectly. He turned to Deb and said, "I do not think we need anything else on the boat now. It is just perfect."

Later, Bill and Cindy from Mystic Eagle, arrived. Scott, Alison, Debbie, Don, Cindy, and Bill, decided to go up to our favorite restaurant, Prospect Street Café, for dinner. We had an incredible dinner and conversation. This restaurant has an amazing chef who turns out tastes from fresh, local food that are absolutely astounding. The wine was great, the foods were awesome, and the friendships were even better. Good friends.

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01/06/2011, Prevost Harbor

Here is another beautiful water bird, a Bufflehead Duck. They are the smallest diving or sea duck in North America.

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