After leaving Victoria we made over to the San Juan Islands (USA) and then down to Tacoma, south of Seattle to visit some other cruising friends (Ricky and Hannah). During the winter there are very few boats out and about, so we had the place, more or less, to ourselves. We are not sure that we would cope with the number of people and vessels that would be around during the summer (I will elaborate later). There are disadvantages of being here at this time of the year (besides the weather) as this is the time when everybody does maintenance; most of the pontoons have been removed for storage in case of storms; and, many of the businesses are closed for the "off season". We checked in at Roche Harbor which they claim is the busiest Customs port of entry in the United States, the reason being that it is so close to Canada - it is only about 5 nm (10 kms) from Canada. Sidney in Canada is only 10 nm (20 Kms) from Roche and there are hundreds and hundreds of boat there just waiting for summer. ..

We motored up to Lake Washington in Seattle through the aptly named Lake Washington Ship Canal. It's about 6 miles long and has one lock and seven bridges. Five of the bridges had to be raised to allow Monkey Fist to transit. We took a time lapse sequence from up the mast - it was on the return voyage as an extended wait at the lock on the way up flatten our battery. The two stop we made were to refuel and to have a walk around the Ballard district. We can honestly say we have never seen so many boats. The marina just outside the entrance holds around 1,400 boats. If you asked me to guestimate how many were just in the Seattle area I would say possibly 20,000 - many are huge, luxurious motor boats. No doubt the same as anywhere in the western world - many are used infrequently, rarely or never. Regardless, in the summer there would still be huge numbers around the islands and we hear it us often very congested.