Reflections by Kirk
25 June 2013 | 49 29.84'N:124 21.46W
It has now been a little over a week since we "cut the dock lines" at Shilshole Bay Marina in Seattle and watched 60 or so of our friends waving, crying and laughing as they slowly receded from our view. The start to the big adventure has been a mixed bag of feelings and emotions. We had the euphoria of finally, after a long time of planning and preparation, leaving for real. The first night at anchor, only a few miles from Seattle, we discovered that our anchor light, a vital piece of safety equipment, was not working properly. As we had already spent a considerable amount of time working on this light, the euphoria was replaced with disappointment.
The following day, we traveled to Point Hudson in Port Townsend, still only 40 miles or so from Seattle. There we fixed the anchor light and made arrangements with ATT to have our phones switched to a US and Canada service, when we thought we discovered a failed sim card in one of our devices. This whole process involved about four hours on the phone with ATT. Add frustration to the previously discussed euphoria and disappointment. Two days wait for the replacement sim cards to be shipped to the UPS store in Port Townsend and a walk of a few miles to retrieve them. A realization that we are now committed to a life of walking, taxi or buses instead of getting in the car for what we need. Not necessarily a bad thing and something we knew about beforehand, but still a dose of our new reality when I automatically reached for the car keys.
Crossing the Strait of Juan de Fuca, passing by Washington's beautiful San Juan Islands, crossing into British Columbia and having a very pleasant Canadian Customs experience near the south end of BC's Gulf Islands was awesome. OK, after the euphoria, disappointment, frustration and reality check, we have satisfaction that we are in Canada and now really on our way.
Next comes indecision on multiple fronts. We had a notion of going through one of the "passes" from the Gulf Islands out into the Strait of Georgia and onto Lasqueti Island out in the middle of the Strait. This would put us in a good position to get to Campbell River to wait for the right time to transit the infamous Seymour Narrows. Up here in the Northwest, we have relatively large differences between high and low tides. Very large volumes of water need to move through relatively narrow passes. For this to happen the water must move at great speed. As we approached the easiest "pass" to get out into the Strait of Georgia, we double check the charts and tide/current guide. The timing is not good. Speed of the current was nine knots, or a little over ten mph, through the pass. It looked wide open and easy, but the chart indicated that it might be a circuitous route, with rocks and other bad things that we would need to maneuver around. This is a daunting task, like trying to drive a car on a curvy road while the entire road is moving forward faster than you are driving. Should we go through or not? This seems like an easy decision, but we have been desirous of getting well into Alaska this summer and not going through the pass will end up "costing" us another day. Prudence wins and we decide to go to one of the recommended BC Provincial Marine parks and spend the night until a better time to transit one of the passes. We enter the beautiful protected cove and find it full of boats and decide to leave. Now what? It's late afternoon and we are now 0 for 2 on the day and a little frazzled.
Right around the corner we find a nice spot to drop the hook and have a beer. Out come the charts and guidebooks and we see that if we hang around for a little while the timing will be okay to transit the also infamous Dodd Narrows and go to Nanaimo. This works well and we end up at the also infamous Dingy Dock Pub for burgers and another beer while watching game 5 of the Stanley Cup finals. Wow, TV! Good fun surrounded by Canadians watching two American teams playing for the Cup.
Back to the boat to listen to the marine weather reports and once again consult charts and guidebooks. Not good news. Reports of strong winds and an opposing current for the next day. Should we go or not? We know that the Canadian weather reports are notoriously conservative, but decide to spend another day in Nanaimo, as it provides the best opportunity to fuel up and provision until we get much further north. We decide to get up at oh dark thirty the next day and shoot for the 75-mile trip up the Strait of Georgia to Campbell River to wait for the right time to transit Seymour Narrows. Up on time to a downpour and brisk wind. Back to bed. Up again a few hours later, eat some breakfast and decide to go anyway. It's not so bad out in the Strait and we consult the charts, guidebooks and GPS to see if it is still feasible to try and reach Campbell River. Our best guess is that if things go well we will arrive at about 2200 hours (10PM for you landlubbers). Should we go or not? We have already lost about three days in our quest to get to Alaska. We are not yet terribly comfortable entering a potentially crowded harbor that we are not familiar with after dark. Nasty clouds are beginning to form ahead and behind us so we hang a right into False Bay at the north end of Lasqueti Island. We got the anchor down in a protected picturesque place. We could see through the entrance of the harbor and pulled out the binocs to see what was happening from where we just came. Wow, many whitecaps and what appeared to be 4-6 foot closely spaced waves and low clouds zooming overhead.
Here I sit at the computer the next morning, watching even more difficult wind and sea state conditions. Loosing another day, but it is what it is. Had a fine breakfast, the heater is on and we are listening to some of the 1737 new songs that were given to us by a number of friends at our departure (very nice collection Don).
So here we are, a little over a week into this adventure and have already been through a range of feelings and emotions. We have made a number of decisions that have had compelling reasons on both sides. Did we make the right decisions? I don't know, but we did what we did and it is what it is. Past history.
There is at least one feeling/emotion that has yet to sort itself out. That is the concept of home, our home. We have committed ourselves to a life of being wanderers. During the planning and prep phases of this adventure, the concept of being wanderers or vagabonds has had an alluring appeal. Now that we really are "out there" it feels a little weird. Not bad, just so different from the last 60 years of my life that I can see it will take a little more adjustment than I anticipated. I suspect that it seems strange to many, but the concept of being a vagabond still has great appeal for me.
Remember, family and friends are always welcome (as long as the timing, location and our state of mind are in proper order).
Keep your stick on the ice.