12/31/2011, Tacoma

A highlight was spending a few days at a wonderful marina at dock street in Tacoma. Tacoma??? Yep. Don't tell anyone else. The Glass Museum was right at the dock and so was the exceptional Washington State Museum of history. Plus, there were outstanding restaurants nearby. We spent two days to take it all in. Katie is getting us tied up, Bristol fashion, at the marina. Nice work, Kate!

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12/30/2011

On our New Year's Trip, Debbie and cruised down to Seattle, where Katie, Sarah, and John flew in to join us on our winter cruise. OUr first stop was Blake island, across the sound from Seattle.

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10/15/2011, Prevost Harbor San Juans

After dinner Brian built a campfire and we all shared its warmth.

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10/15/2011, Prevost Harbor San Juans

Each year we have all of owners at NW Explorations have an Owner's Meeting and Cruise. This year we went to Prevost Harbor in the San Juans. Such a wonderful group of friends! We had pot luck dinner on the dock at Prevost Harbor Marine Park.

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Don / Warm
08/18/2011, Grace Harbour Desolation Sound

We stopped in Grace Harbour in Desolation Sound and I used my shrimp pot puller and shrimp pot to catch these ten delicious spotted shrimp. (Count 'em!) I fixed a shrimp cocktail for the young Brit on Mystic Eagle who helped me catch them. He got up with me at 6:30 am to go out and pull up the pot with me. That makes 11 shrimp so far. Works out to be about $90 a piece. Yikes!

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08/16/2011, Johnstone Strait

Coming down Johnstone Strait , we saw a male and female ORCA cross our bow.

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08/15/2011, Port McNeil, BC

We slept in a bit and the Debbie and Barb headed over to the ferry to visit U'mista, the cultural center at Alert Bay. See: http://www.umista.org/ U'mista is a term of the Kwakwaka'wakw people that means returning home after being taken in a raid. In the early part of the 20th century, the Kwakwaka'wakw people had all of their cultural ikons taken by the BC gov't when they held an illegal potlatch. Potlatches had been banned by the government. The government raided the potlatch, took all of the goods meant for distribution, and sold them to collectors and museums. The cultural center at U'Mista has sought the return of all of these masks and other cultural objects that were taken. Debbie and Barb had an awesome time visiting the center.

Meanwhile, the manly men took it upon themselves to ensure the careful cleaning of all of the clothing from the boat, 10 days worth of dirty clothes, at the local laundry. Manly Men can do it all!! First, they acquired $25 dollars worth of Loonies to use in the machines. Then, they lugged all of the heavy load up to the Laundromat. There was a huge line that challenged their patience and good cheer. But, being Manly Men, they worked hard, sweat dropping from their brows, and persevered. Of course, the young lady who ran the Laundromat pointed out that this was something women have been doing since the dawn of time, without breaking a sweat.

The Manly Men returned to boat exhausted from their labor but victorious. They immediately had a beer and took a nap.

Debbie and Barb returned and found them fast asleep, but noticing the clean clothing, neatly put away, were encouraged about their futures with these awesome guys.

To celebrate they all went out to dinner at Gus's, another local restaurant. Afterwards, they walked over to the grocery store and had ice cream at the ice cream fountain. After all, it was national ice cream day.

On returning to the boat, they viewed "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World." Throughout the movie, Barb and Debbie commented several times about how Russell Crowe reminded them of their Manly Men. Right! Well, I am writing this blog so I can dream, can't I?

The next morning was shopping day for me and Debbie. We will be continuing on to Bellingham. We filled the boat with more good food. Then Debbie and Barb went souvenir shopping while the Manly Men sought out the important provisions - beer, wine, and fishing tackle. The succeeded on all counts and returned to the boat to set up the sun screens so the ladies would not be too warm on their return. That taken care of, the Manly Men lay down for a nap.

The Manly Men next fixed a salmon dinner on more planks from Katie. It was an awesome meal. The evening concluded by watching part of the Horatio Hornblower series on DVD.

Tomorrow, Barb and Dave depart and Debbie and Don continue the trip to Bellingham.

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Don/rainy and stormy
08/13/2011

Departure was at 5:30, in the dark. We needed to get around Cape Caution and across Queen Charlotte Sound, another potentially rough stretch. The winds were up to about 13 knots with waves about 2 feet, nothing really difficult, but enough to keep us listening to the weather reports on the VHF weather channel 7.

Cape Caution is where Vancouver ran his boat, Discovery, aground and had to spend time with repair. We saw 5-10 humpbacks in this area today. They were all over the place!

Once we got around Cape Caution, things smoothed out a bit and we traveled to the Walker Island Group, the place where Katie and I spent two days last year fishing. It is a beautiful place. Very wild. Debbie took us through the narrow entrance and out the even narrower exit perfectly. Then we traveled to Port McNeil, a northern marina where we planned a lay day and a place with an airport. Barb and Dave would be leaving us here, needing to get home.

We took on fuel, found a place to tie up, and went ashore for some restaurant food. We had an early dinner at Sportsman's Bar and Grill. It sure tasted good!!!! We walked around a bit, exploring the small town. We came back to the boat and made plans for the next day.

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08/12/2011

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08/12/2011

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