We're here. Three months, more than 6000 miles and we're at the dock in Lake Union Seattle. We were met at the dock by friends, Marcia (DD Sedan nearing completion at Seahorse) and Martin (DD 462-01) who I spent three months in Hong Kong and PI with aboard his Mandarin back in 2005. Over the next days / weeks, I'll start posting stuff from the trip. We have a long list of tasks -- clean-up, deferred maintenance, some changes and modifications that will take some months to complete... Looking forward to catching up with family and friends.

Photo is inside Ballard Locks, fending off the wall from the side of DE; we started 20' lower than this position, before the lock filled.

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Hello friends and family; we are once again in the USA! Yesterday we cleared customs at Point Roberts (a unique appendix of USA 4.9 square miles) surrounded by the Straits of Georgia on 3 sides and Canada on the north, stayed the night there in Pt Roberts Marina with 1000 pleasure boats - missing the fish boats and their crews which made all our previous stops in AK and BC so interesting.

This morning we're southbound again; one more overnight and we'll be in Seattle. Can hardly believe we (with much help from friends and sometimes strangers) have done it... it's a long way from Port Bonbonon and tiny Apo I (9º05'N) at the southern tip of Negros I, Philippines to Juneau AK (58º+N), not to mention from one side of the Pacific to the other. Many of our boating friends have done much more - e.g. circumnavigations etc - but this was challenging enough for us (for now).

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29th Aug.. overnight at Alert Bay, Cormorant Island, Johnston Strait, east coast Vancouver Island, BC, Canada in a tight but well- tended little harbor. Watched "Finding Forrester". Dorothy, Craig & Anne off to the museum (potlatch, masks, tallest totem 53m) this morning while I worked out our route and timing (timing is the key issue in traversing the various passages, going with the flow, rather than against it. We're a slow boat under the best of circumstances; just a couple knots current against us brings us down to a speed slower than a brisk walk and even when going with the flow, more than a couple of knots carrying the boat along can be dangerous in carrying one into bends where eddies, rips and whirlpools develop).

Underway shortly after noon, catching the end of the flood, through the slack then slogging against the opposing ebb past Telegraph Cove and Robson Bight (famous for resident pods of orcas). So much going on in this section: dozens of orcas, kayakers, watched a seiner setting his net against the edge of the channel, a tug towing a raft of logs and a Canadian buoy tender all within view just by looking in different directions.

30 Aug spent last night at Port Neville, which is what used to be a supply stop along the east Vancouver Island coast, before the roads were put in. Now everyone can drive to the place they over-winter their boat, and no longer need to stop for fuel and groceries. It is kind of sad, really, the roughly shaped log, 2-story, store was closed in 1964. The daughter of the original family there, is still there running the Post Office, although mail only goes out once a week. (Bryanna, Miss Dorothy sent you a post card from there). Scenically, the place is idyllic.

Strong westerly winds made our docking (and departure from the dock) at Port Neville challenging, but not nearly so "exciting" as our docking at Brown Bay (below). We made a 0430 departure from Port Neville, to catch the 0612 slackwater at Race Passage. As with yesterday's run down Johnstone Strait, there was something interesting to see no matter which way one looked: tugs with barges; cruise ships; seiners working the edge of the channel and lots of sport fishing boats and float planes following the channel at low altitude. By noon we'd transited from Johnstone Strait to Discovery Passage, stopping at Brown Bay, just above Seymour Narrows (which we will transit tomorrow am, again at slackwater before flood). With 20 knots of westerly wind and a strong current, docking at Brown Bay was about exciting as I ever want to get in this boat. I had visions of a phone call to Tommy Ho at AON Insurance in Hong Kong to explain about the 3 boats we crushed trying to land DE. Fast footwork by Dorothy, Craig and Anne, and especially "Frank" from Brown Bay on the dock, along with an anonymous Samaritan off a commercial fish boat, made it look easy to onlookers, but the reality was we docked entirely 180º from our intended orientation - I didn't know it was actually possible to turn around in that small a space.

Two beers and good lunch made it all better. Again many people interested in DE, and in Rusty. Time for a nap to fortify ourselves as we risk the rapids tomorrow morning.

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