Bummer! Our friends Bob & Sharon no sooner arrived than they had to leave due to a family emergency. We did get to take them up to the landing at Naha overnight via Clover Passage (NE of Ketchikan).

On the plus side, we hooked up with Jay off MV Westerly, a retired Puget Sound pilot and gentleman who was great company. Running together, DavidEllis & Westerly had a leisurely run up from Ketchikan to Wrangell in gorgeous weather, with stops in Meyers Chuck, Vixen Harbor and Thom's place. Crabs and fish were caught and consumed; dogs ran wild ashore; great conversations were enjoyed and we did what retired people are supposed to do, hung out and enjoyed ourselves.

Compare that 4 day, 3 night cruise to a couple of weeks ago when we made the same 90 nm run between Wrangell & Ketchikan, overnight in one 12 hour go -- worlds apart!

We're now back in Wrangell, in our slip at Heritage Harbor, catching up on some of the boat work we thought we'd be doing once we came off the hard (which never happened cause we went from the hard to underway, cruising with Kate's family etc). The fish boats around us are about to start their season, getting last things done before getting underway. Activity back at the boatyard has reached a frenzy and to add to the insanity, a film crew is running around doing a spin-off of Deadliest Catch featuring the crew at Superior Marine! There's another addition to the boatyard since we left, City of Wrangell's new 300 ton travel lift which is a behemoth.

We've got the canvas cover (bimini) off the frame over the back deck, Dot's trying to do some serious cleaning on it (which doesn't seem to be having any effect). I spent the afternoon with buffing pads and rouge compound working on the very stained (surface rust) stainless steel frame -- having more luck there, but it's tedious and that high speed grinder is a dangerous weapon. I managed to catch a 6-part control cable, which was promptly torn apart and then my shirt caught in it; Yikes!