Yesterday was filled with excitement. It started with Active Pass, which was more exciting in the anticipation than the deed. When we went through two years ago, I didn't know that it was supposed to be tricky. Since then I've read more about it. So we planned carefully to go at slack, but I was worried about ferries. Slack happened to coincide with morning ferry rush hour. All was good, though. We followed one ferry and when we met another one coming at us, it was at a wide spot where we could get well clear.

The Fraser River was a trial. It was still ebb when we got there, but we tried going up anyway. With the motor and a jib assist, we spent more than an hour going nowhere. Our faster speed once we got in the channel was two knots. Mostly it hovered between 1.1 and 1.3. Finally, we gave up and went back out to the Strait. It was a beautiful day by then, so we turned off the engine and sailed slowly on the jib, took showers, and then turned around and slowly sailed back to the river. When our speed hit 0.0, it was 1710. Low tide was scheduled for 1732, so we started the engine and headed up the river.

It took more than three hours of dodging logs and commercial traffic, but we made it to Shelter Island Marina and tied up by the Travelift just after sunset. (We love the long days up north. They give us lots of cushion.)

We hauled out this morning and see that we have our work cut out for us. Lots of prep before we can paint. There's no WiFi here, but Jeff (Sceptre Marine) is letting me hook up to his Internet. Now that I've called Mom, arranged to have our mail sent to us, updated the Web site, rented a car for a week starting tomorrow, and completed blog updates, I'd better get to work!