(By Debbie)
The Ducky weathered the night's rain and wind in fine fettle, and we brought her up with no problems. Then we headed to Ganges, about two hours away. Katie hadn't been there since 2010 with us on a Mother Goose leg. And Don and I hadn't been there since our winter cruise in January 2013. We wanted to check out Moby's, one of our favorite restaurants there so off we went. Moby's had strategically placed signs along our way to guide up and to whet our appetites. Deb took a photo when we were nearly there. As it turns out, Moby's had been under new management since June of 2013, but drinks and food were as good as we remembered and there were several new menu items. Don ordered hummus with an assortment of vegies, crackers and breads. Deb had grilled cheese with tomato miso soup, and Katie had a burger. At our waitress's suggestion, we also decided to share one of their specialties - buffalo duck wings. They were large and scrumptious!!! Fortunately, Moby's is about a mile from the marina we were staying at, so we were able to walk off some of our calories.

Katie and Deb went to town to check out the shops while Don stayed onboard in order to work on the blog. We found several stores still there that we remembered from our last visit, including the great bookstore and the ice cream shop. We had planned to get some ice cream, but were still too full from lunch.

Returning to CoL, we weren't all that hungry, so just snacked and had popcorn while watching a great movie, Longitude.

We have been enjoying the view out our forward window of a really well cared for sailboat here at Prevost Harbor. I will post a photo. It’s name is Sassafras and we talked with the live-aboard owners this morning a bit. They live in Deer Harbor on Orcas Island. We told them how we admired the care that they had invested in this boat. Everywhere you look, it has been carefully maintained.

After breakfast, we departed for Port Sidney Marina. We had not been to Port Sidney in a number of years and looked forward to their restaurants, book store, and shops. We also wanted to get some groceries and beer that we could not bring across the border with us. It was a short cruise so I plotted a course through the small islands along the way, rather than going through main channels. We went by beautiful Turn Point Light house on Stewart Island and headed across Haro Straight, keeping an eye out on AIS for ocean-going ships headed to and from Vancouver. It was a pretty simple crossing and we enjoyed the islands as we passed by.

Deb called Canadian Customs at the customs dock and we entered successfully. Then we called and received a slip assignment from the harbor master and went down to B dock and tied up. Deb and Katie went up to the office to check in and get a power cord adapter so we could connect to their 50 amp power for our 30 amp boat. When they came back, I stayed on the boat to catch up a bit on our blog and connect the power for our boat while they went up to the shops to explore a bit.

Afterwards, we went up to a nearby restaurant for dinner. It was OK, nothing special. Then we came back to the boat to finish watching the second part of Longitude, a great movie about the invention of the first accurate chronograph, enabling navigators to plot longitude efficiently. It was awesome. All of us had read the book before but the movie was really good.

Oh, my! Such an early start to this trip today, a 5 am departure out of Hartford! We planned a 3+ week cruise in the San Juan near Puget Sound and in the Gulf Islands of Canada. Our oldest daughter, Katie, is going to join us for a week in the middle. We are really looking forward to spending great time aboard with her.

We were up at 1:45 in Connecticut to catch flight to Chicago and another flight from Chicago before arrival in Seattle at 9:45 am. Deb and I made it up to Hartford fine and went through check-in without a hitch. We got this. We were upgraded to first class. Then breakfast in the AA lounge and catch our connecting flight to SeaTac and another upgrade (hooray!) with a second breakfast on the flight to Seattle. Living large on this trip. I read the news and then a bit of a book on Hamilton on my iPad before taking a snooze. Just before falling off, I slipped my iPad into the pouch on the seatback near my knees. Landing I woke up and grabbed my jacked and computer case but, alas, not my iPad.

We grabbed our luggage and the shuttle to the Rental Car location. I had booked a free one-way to Bellingham. Usually it is very expensive but I had enough previous rentals that this was a freebee. Hooray, again! Traffic was really heavy on the route to Bellingham; there are two bridge reconstructions taking place. Ugh!

We finally arrived in Bellingham saw our good friends at Northwest Explorations and unloaded our gear aboard good ‘ol Change of Latitude. It was good to be back aboard. What a beaut of a boat!

We zipped over to Sudden Valley and took my sister, Dotie, out to dinner at the Mexican restaurant (El Agave) at the clubhouse. Then it was back to the boat and.....I discovered that my iPad was missing. Oh, X@#$%^! I used my Find my iPhone to locate it. It was at the gate where we arrived at Seatac. I locked it and put a “Call me” message on the screen. I followed an AA online form to register it lost and then, at the end of the process, it informed me that they were not yet connected to SeaTac. Double X@#$%^! Well to bed and thinking about the solution. It was late and we were tired.

Dave and Mary Margaret have sailed around the world in their catamaran Leu Cat. A link to their blog is on the side. You should visit. They are awesome sailors. But, Dave is an amazing blogger, blogging nearly every day of their 8 year journey. He writes incredibly well. He is my inspiration for this blog.

We are several days into our spring trip and things have been hectic. I am just now getting to my blog. (It is really May 14 today). I thought I would share the notes from Dave that came in today to show you how talented a writer he is. Here they are:

"OK, Where's the blog? (email message)
Curious minds what to know....Where is the blog? Sounds like you have been on the boat now a few days and you still don't have your priorities straight. Where is the blog? OK, you are probably swamped with getting things ready to start your cruising but...Where is the blog? Ok, OK, so you are probably lining up people to talk to regarding finding a house for yourselves but...Where is the blog?

By the way, if my message above is a bit confusing. let me simplify...Where's the blog?"

There was also this on Facebook:

"Hey, Don and Debbie, just in case you did not get my email...Where's the blog?"

You gotta love my brother, Dave!

(BTW my blog attempts are coming, even though they are late.)

It's a beauty! Thanks Northwest Explorations!

We had a day of flight delays and cancellations as we went through Chicago but we finally connected on a flight to Seattle. We were lucky.

Red Right Returning

It’s sad to see the welcoming messenger.
The end of a long summer passage.
Red right returning.
First sign of the channel.

In four short weeks
A world away
A different life is lived.
The journey restores.
New lessons are learned.
Sustaining us through the winter.

As fog descends,
Radar begins
Its silent sweep of hazards.
Transition is here.
We enter the mist
Thinking of next year’s journey.

Red right returning.
First sign of the channel.
It’s sad to see the welcoming messenger.
The end of a long summer passage.

Tuesday was spend hauling fishing gear off the boat and into our storage locker. I had to break down all 6 fishing rods, wash the reels, and stow the lures. I also had to get the downrigger and shrimp pot puller off the boat and all 4 of the cannon balls, lead balls for the downrigger. Then, I went out to pick up our rental car. We took our first, of several loads, of fishing gear to our storage locker. Later that day, the technicians came down to explore the autopilot and determine how it was connected. We had dinner with Scott and Alison at Rock & Rye, a place in Bellingham to end the day.

On Wednesday we made more trips, hauling more fishing gear out to the storage locker. David and Brian got going, too, with the autopilot installation and also checking the bilge pump in the gray water holding tank.

On Thursday, Brian rewired our auto bilge pump in Rubber Ducky and they completed the initial install of the new autopilot. We took it out in the bay for sea trials. Then we checked into our hotel and had a nice dinner with Dotie, my sister who lives in Bellingham.

Friday morning we washed the sleeping bags that we use on our boat and stowed them in our storage locker. We had a nice lunch at Olive Garden and then we headed for our hotel in Seattle, near the airport. We had a 5 am departure the next morning to get home. Traffic was the worst we had ever seen. It took us 4 hours to drive down. I returned the rental car and we headed to bed early.

Saturday we flew home via Dallas. We both were upgraded to first class on the leg from Dallas to Hartford. We stopped for ice cream on the drive home from the airport and picked up a subway sandwich for dinner. It was good to be home.