Well, hello everyone. We are not going to using this website for our current postings of our travels. We will keep in contact with friends and family through personal emails.
We hope everyone is doing well. We are enjoying our travels and are safe. Take care and enjoy life!!
Katy

The next morning we were roused from our slumber by cries of "Ohoy Petra". It was the 'Secptre' with Dave and Rhonda and 14yr old Taylor. they had anchored in the same cove and wake up to see us there. They tied up along beside us and we made breakfast for everyone. the tide was coming in and Sceptre only has a small eletric motor that was not strong enough to go against the incoming tide so we tied a line to them and motored out of the bay and once we cleared the head lands our sails filled and we cast off their tow line and shut off our motor and sailed up the the island to the rondevous for the latts and ats party. The LATTITUDES AND ATITUDES magizine host a sail in party once a year in the Pacific north west once a year and this was our third one it was also our sort of going away party as many of our friends were sailors and were at the party. Lots of people dressed as pirates. There was food and drink, live music, although the police came and said the live band on the dock had to go becuase of the noise so the music moved up to the bar and turned up the sound and went back to playing. the kids and all those movie buffs settled on and around the s/v Ghost and watched a movie. way too soon the weekend was over and it was time to leave. We sailed out to friday harbor and the next day we hooked up with Tim and Pam on the S/v Savarna (I hope I spelled that right) and for the next couple of weeks we buddyboated with them some times they were in an anchorage before us and sometimes we would be anchored and what do you know hwere they would come. My brother David came and went sailing for a day so we sailed all the way around the San Jaun island from Friday Harbor with a stop at British Camp to check out the place where the Pig War took place, and then on around the island to Friday harbor. The next day David went back and Savarna sailed into the harbor we went out for pizza that night with Tim and Pam. I got to tell you the pizza in the bowling ally on friday is beyound great!! The next day motoring out to the Petra my brand new Slightly used 25 hp mercury outboard crapped out on me. After carefull examination Tim and I figured out that it was a 2stroke engine running on 4 stroke fuel. The marina manger Ova from our old marina had sold it to us just before we left. And told me it was a 4 stroke. !@#$% him anyway. !@#$ me for not checking for myself, anyway the pistons were scored so we were back to rowing till I can afford to repair the damage. We sailed up the islands and meet the s/v Ghost with Scott and Angelia, and CrazyMike and his girls on there little boat but I cannot remember the name of his boat. Some of you will remember Sarah's pink Barbie row boat, well we gave it to CrazyMike as he really needed a better dink then the kayak he was using. We had a bonfire that evening with everyone there plus a couple of other lats and ats boats that showed up. after a few days we sailed down to Stuart Is. want through the pass between

The beginning of any trip is supposed to be momentous. It is the dawn of a new day, and so it was the morning of August the first 2006. I got up and stepped into the cockpit of Petra anxious to leave Crows Nest Marina, our home port for the last three and a half years of living aboard Petra. Crows nest, the place is a third world dump in the heart the Puget Sound. Surrounded by beautiful marinas with sturdy concrete and plastic piers and docks, Crows nest is a collection of rickity old wooden docks held together tenuously by nails that are always creeping out to snag would be boaters by the heal when their arms are loaded with all their booty for a day on the water. Vern, the owner is to cheap to spring for screws and insist that Ova, the marina manger, walk the docks regularly with a hammer and drive the offending spikes back into their wooden holes. Ova who seldom was out of bed before noon and more often then not enebrated before dark, seldom accomplished this task or any other. Maybe that's why Ova met his replacement about a week earlier than this fine summer morning. Crows nest was, no doubt about it a dump, but its saving grace was the other live aboards there. It was a big extended family. Full of friendship, shared love of sailing, parties on the dock and more advice on any subject you can possibly emagine.
And so it was that early morning, after three and a half years of preparing and a lifetime of dreaming and planning, every thing was ready to go all that was required was to start the diesel and throw off the dock lines for the last time and its back out of the of the rickety tippity slip and head for the San Juans. Where we were to meet our friends at the Lats and Atts party prior to heading south. Easing the throttle forward and turning the key NOTHING happened. No starter. Two week earlier the starter had gone out and I had had it rebuilt. Now what? Instead of sailing off that morning to a bright new future, I was down in the bilge pulling the starter off the motor. As it turned out my glorious beginning was delayed by some flakes of rust that had jammed in the bendics. I have heard it said that 'crusing is repairing your boat in exotic ports'. Wasn't this supposed to be happining in Tahiti or Mexico at least? By the time I had finished with the starter we had decided to leave the next morning.
August 2nd 2006. Drum roll please. The diesel roars to life. "Stand by all hands to cast off the lines" ??? "Hay! Katy and Sarah thats you guys your the hands now!!" Were not weekend sailors anymore were cruisers, your the hands, I'm the captain. Make that 'The Captain' with a captial C.
"Sure babe, anything you say" that would be Katy as she rolls her eyes at Sarah, and I could have sworn I heard her say something about too many nights watching Horashio Hornblower. I let that slide this time. After all a good Captain has to be selective in his hearing, in order to run a well balanced ship. So its out of the marina for the last time hoist the sails, shut off the engine, and the wind promply dies and we sit there with not even enough breeze to flap the sails occasionally. The Puget Sound looks like a mirror it's so still. Oh wait, there's some ripples on the water just up a head, lets start the motor and we'll just motor up to the wind and then sail from there. I think we motored after that little puff the whole way to the San Juans. That night we tucked into a little protected cove at the southern tip of Lusha Is. Not much sailing that day but all in all a glorious beginning.