I always wear white to work on the engine...actually.. this was an "electrical work day." I'm sitting on the step leading into the engine compartment...the shiny thing behind me is the open engine room/compartment door.

Onward...For fun, I suspect the gods all laugh when cruisers make plans. I figure they must be having a really good laugh on us right now because we were handed the fuel injection pump from hell.

Our family has abandoned us (something about having to go back to work and stuff like that)...I don't know...anyway before they left our granddaughter caught probably the biggest fish in the ocean!...like two feet off the dock! Fisherman who have been out for days and haven't caught anything drooled over her catch...and to top it all off...she just plops a little hand line down and nails like...a twenty pounder!...okay so maybe it was a little closer to a one pounder...but still ...she fought it like...for two hours or something...we fed the whole village....pictures pending.

The truth is, our friends and relates didn't abandon us...we we're supposed to have left last Tuesday... so naturally they went about their business...Our daughter, Willow says "Would you guys just leave!..." You've been leaving now for at least the last two years and I've processed your departure...so go already!" Funny how we never think about things like that...when we talk about going...I suspect our not-leaving or extended leaving is maybe harder than actually leaving (duh!)...I can certainly understand the frustration...I had an aunt that just wouldn't die once...no matter how I argued that it would be in everyone's best interest....but that's another story.....I don't know...nothing we'd like to do more than accomadate and get out of dodge...but..."the best laid plans and all that."

Right now, we're stalled out in Port Angeles, put behind our self-imposed schedule a few days, wrestling with our repaired and replaced fuel injection pump (two days thank you). Right now, it seems okay because our weather window had collapsed and we probably wouldn't have left as scheduled anyway. Meantime, it's allowing us more time to tackle our developing TO DO list.

Port Angeles is kind of a finalizing place in the PNW for boats before heading out into the real ocean. It's a full self-service marina so it's pretty busy...and we noticed it has changed over the years as there are several "Mega Yachts" here (Westport Yacht building now sits next to the marina and they only make like 150 footers and giant new fiberglass boats for the US Navy)... where before, there we're nothing here but broken down fishing boats and a few live aboards....huge change with new docks, bathrooms, and new infrastructure. At any time there's probably 3 to 5 cruiser-boats like us, pulling in, doing repairs, and finalizing things before heading out. If you stay here any time at all you can see the basic problems are usually quite in-common;...alternators, starters, engine stuff,, radios, and other electronics usually head the list, followed by steering, rudder, and finally rigging. Many people choose to haul and paint or just pull and inspect...so it's a busy working marina. We're kind of in an "all the above" category so we've have chosen to extend out time a little. The good side is...it's not too expensive; the bad side is, that it's about a mile to the grocery! I heard tha two people starved to death just walking out for a pizza!

Our next scheduled stop is Neah Bay...a holding point for weather...right now it's back down into the boat to finish some fun tasks...Ahhh! The cruising life style or as it has been said..."finding more exotic places to repair your boat"...or something like that.

Ray out for now...