Don/ Sunny
05/24/2012, Victoria, BC

This morning we were up early to depart. For at least part of the trip, we journey with 5 other Grand Banks: Deception, Dream Catcher, Alaskan Drem, Grand Adventure, and Patos. To the sound of a loud cannon that Brian Pemberton had to signal our beginning, we departed Bellingham. Debbie took us out of our slip like a pro and took the first two-hour shift. Dave and I handled the lines and then pulled up the fenders and organized them on the stern rail. At 4 bells, Debbie turned the watch over to me as we approached Orcas Island. We had to work our way around a Washington State Ferry and then traveled through Pole Pass, a narrow slip of a pass, without any difficulty. It turned out to be a glorious day with temps in the low 60s and sunny skies.

I should say here, that my brother Dave and his wife Mary are sailing around the world. There is a link to their blog, Leu Cat Adventures, to the left of this post. Dave had been struggling with temps in the low 80s on the Great Barrier Reef and water temps about the same and an occasional rain shower. Here, we are lucky to get days that reach the 60's, it rains nearly every day, and the water temp is about 48 degrees. Brrrrrr. So, Dave --- no complaints! ;-) Dave celebrates his birthday soon. Happy birthday, bro!!! I envy you your cruising adventures.

At 8 bells (noon) I turned the helm over to Dave Gracy, my brother in law, who took us down Haro Strait. I took a bit of a nap and then took us through several narrow passes and then over to Victoria. The traffic in Victoria is controlled, since it is such a small harbour. We followed the markers on the right side to enter and waited our turn at customs. Debbie is always our customs maven and she pulled off another easy entry into Canada. This, even though we were a little over the limit on beer and wine. It is always a bit strange since at most of the docks for Canadian Customs you call a person in Ontario, who checks you in. They have a record of all our trips and know us pretty well -- at least our data shows up on their screen and guides their questions. In 10 minutes, we were pulling off the Customs dock and heading over to the dock where we rafted next to Patos, a 46 foot Grand Banks.

Tonight it is barbecue spare ribs on the back deck and a glass of wine to celebrate our beginning. Tomorrow, Deb and Dave will explore and shop while I finish my article that is so very late. My apologies, Marla!!

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don/ Clearing
05/23/2012, Squalicum Harbor- Bellingham, WA

These are the Grand Banks in our fleet at NW Explorations.

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Don/ Clearing
05/23/2012, Squalicum Harbor- Bellingham, WA

The Web Locker is right near our dock and a favorite breakfast place.

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Don/ Clearing
05/23/2012, Squalicum Harbor- Bellingham, WA

Our boat is provisioned, systems have been checked, we are ready to go! We depart at 8 bells (8 am) tomorrow for Victoria. We have worked very hard the past few days to get Change of Latitude ready. New lines are on our dinghy, two new fenders are in place, a complete set of paper charts to Alaska are aboard, fishing gear is sorted out and ready to go, two new shrimp pots are aboard with weights, groceries for a month are stored, crab pots are packed, the engines and generator are checked, new chips with charts are in place on our chart plotters....we are ready for the West Coast of Vancouver Island and the Inland Passage. Dave, Deb, and I are excited about leaving. The weather will be a bit windy tomorrow but nothing that Δ Latitude has not seen before. Tomorrow, we are off!!!

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Don / Full of Anticipation
05/20/2012, Seattle

Historical planes, like this Jenny, hang in the SeaTac Airport.

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Don/Rainy and wet
05/20/2012, Seattle

We met Deb's brother-in-law, Dave Gracy, at the airport in Seattle and grabbed a rental car for the drive north to Bellingham.

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Don/Rainy and wet
05/20/2012, Aboard Δ Latitude - Bellingham, WA

After departing Hartford, CT at 7 am, we have arrived in beautiful Bellingham, home of Change of Latitude. How we have missed her! Δ Latitude is immaculate as always thanks to El and her team's amazing work. How El gets her looking like new each time we arrive is amazing and we appreciate it so very much. Thanks, El!

Brother-in-law Dave Gracy has taken time to join us on this trip. We met yesterday in Seattle and drove north together to Bellingham. Dave just retired as a middle school principal in Petosky, Michigan. He and his wife Barb, Deb's sister, joined us last summer on the trip from Ketchikan to Port McNeil. We are looking forward to more good time and wish Barb was with us, again, on this trip. Dave and I are dying to get lines in the water for salmon, halibut, and ling cod and pots in the water for crab and shrimp! Oh boy! The manly men are reporting for duty! More adventures ahead.

The next few days will be a time of tying up loose ends and preparing for our journey. I have to complete a chapter for a dear friend. (I am so sorry I am so late!) The manly men have to get more fish, crab, and shrimp gear and, of course, beer and wine. (What else is new, eh?) Debbie, Dave, and I also have to provision the boat with food and drink and, of course, new items for our candy drawer. We also need to check out a number of new systems and double check old ones before we head North to Alaska.

The other thing I need to do is to tie up some loose ends on work at the New Literacies Research Lab. Our ORCA (Online Research and Comprehension Assessment) with IES is humming! See: http://www.orca.uconn.edu/ and http://voicethread.com/?#u743044.b2510770.i13300844 There is much to do to get ready for our validity studies this coming year with representative state samples of approximately 1,000 7th grade students in two Northeastern states. In one state all students have one-to-one laptops and in the other they do not. I dearly appreciate all my good friends and colleagues who, through their work, allow Debbie and I this time to recharge out batteries. Thank you Donna, Elena, Cheryl, Julie, the entire scoring team, Jonna, Nell, Jamison, the content team, and many others. Thank you!!!

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Don / Full of Anticipation
05/13/2012, Waterford, CT

On a number of our trips, I failed to keep the blog up. My bad! I will do better, I hope, on this summer's trip to Ketchikan. Here is a brief summary. I will attach a few photos, too.

Last summer, we completed our cruise home to Bellingham. It was a great trip. We saw Orcas on our last leg and caught shrimp in Desolation Sound.

The highpoint of our winter trip was a stay in Tacoma, right next to the glass museum, the Washington State History Museum, and some exceptional restaurants.

Hmm. Now that I think about it, I also failed to blog our spring trip to Vancouver, where my annual research conference was held. We stayed in Coal Harbour Marina, right next to the convention centre in Vancouver. Oh my! I promise I will do better this summer. We plan a cruise up the West Coast (the ocean side) of Vancouver Island, around Cape Scott (home of flying cows in wind storms) and then up the Inside Passage to Ketchikan. We can hardly wait!

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don/Nice
04/15/2012, Vancouver BC

Dinner after a harbour cruise with Lee Gunderson, a long time best friend from Berkeley days, and several of my former students. From left to right: Debbie, Paula Dagnon (Western Washington Univ.), Julie Coiro (Univ, of Rhode Island), Jill Castek (Univ. of California, Berkeley), Lee Gunderson (Univ. of British Columbia), me.

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Don/Nice
04/14/2012, Vancouver BC

Our good friend, Chuck Kinzer, stayed aboard during AERA. Chuck and I go back to our Berkeley days together. He chairs a dept. at Columbia University, Teacher's College.

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