63 consecutive days livin' and travelin' on Wish List! Port of Everett up the inside Passage thru British Columbia on to Sitka, Alaska and back.
........the boat thrived and survived....and nobody died nor was killed in close quarters. Things broke, got fixed or jury rigged till the permanent repair could happen. Maybe some feathers got ruffled, which only hurts as much as it should, then all is good.
We had a marvel of a chef onboard (duties are easily assigned in groups of three!) who made sure we were well fed with a great meal each evening. Every day was celebrated at 5:00 o'clock somewhere....with the appropriate beverages, of course.
The expenses were more than expected in every area......so! One has to ask.....what's a good sized bucket list, 2 month long, adventure worth? Naturally in the times we are in, fuel was the major expense. To maintain a good frame of mind we decided early on that instead of diesel we were putting "FUN" into that big ole thirsty 500 gallon tank, one gallon at a time!
Funny how life happens...this adventure began with a little catastrophe...I hit an uncharted rock at low tide going into Fisherman Bay on Lopez Island for the 4th of July celebration. This is a popular bay I have been in by boat annually almost 50 years. No Worries, only damage was one blade of the three on one prop. We got the damaged prop off, repaired, then re-installed in one day after the holidays......now we can begin our real adventure!
Sooooo on return.... Wish List's flybridge enclosed canvas must be removed to fit under her covered moorage slip. When we got to port, we went first to a temporary outdoors open slip to lower and remove the windows and canvas. It is also a usually a good idea to lower anything else that won't fit under the roof........like her four (4) tall radio and chart plotter antennae's. Well John just hadn't told anybody that he was thinking about replacing those crusty old attennaes. An easy way to remove them would be to just leave them up and go a head and drive into the slip! Unfortunalely he didn't mention what he was going to do to Terrie or me so when all the crunching, breaking and all things dropping around the boat started we were pretty shocked and amazed! After all the comotion stopped John just casually stated he was planning on replacing them attennae anyways. Too bad he only got 3 out of four.....lol
So it is.... the Great Alasaka Adventure comes to an end with just a wee little catastrophe.....

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We woke up to a beautiful fiery sunrise on Tuesday morning after that amazing feast fit for the gods. Bound for Nanimo our final stop over in BC, Canada, eh...
Picked up some supplies in Nanimo after an 11 hour, relatively mild, crossing of the reputedly and occasionally, monstrous "Staits of Georgia" ...all according to Bob Woodward, cruising specialist.
Tied up to the dock at the Port Authority for the City of Nanimo overnight so we could top off the charge on Wish List's house batteries and get a good nights sleep for an early get up. The reason for the early rise was to face yet another of John's watery demons.....the notorious "Dodd Narrows". Our timing was absolutely perfect for a slack water entry into the throat of the potentially vicious Narrows, then to be spit swiftly and safely out the other side. This anti climactic event proved to position Wish List for a marvelous glide through the stately southern Canadian San Juan Island chain on to Friday Harbor, Washington, USA, Yay!
Spent the night with the upcoming Labor Day revelers after feasting on Black Bart's Caribbean Spaghetti extraordinaire. An unusual concoction of too many herbs and spices to accompany the sausage only tomato-mushroom medley. This complete with Angel Hair pasta.
Thursday morning not so much in a hurry this day as it is only a couple hours to the often scarry Deception Pass...pass...known Gateway to the San Juan Island Group....US side and of course return to Everett.
Found the water condition to be rather slack during the passage but the fishermen to be quite bothersome and in the way? While slipping under the Deception Pass bridge we encountered a gaggle of approximately 15 fishing boats at the narrowest point of entry through the pass vying for position to fish while we were merely trying to pass. We won our way past everyone and hopefully they won too. Perhaps a prize fish for their combat style of pursuing the much sought after salmon.
We had great news on fuel. After paying as much as $7.03 for diesel we learned that Oak Harbor just received a shipment of lower priced fuel and it was priced at $4.79 per gallon. Plus a 5% discount was offered for purchases over 100 gallons. Yeah and Hallelujah! Did I ever mention that Wish List's fuel tank holds 500 gallons? Well it does....and now she can go to her slip with a full belly to get her thru winter.
Next stop Port of Everett Marina and HOME!

The seals in the attached picture are balancing on a log perimeter around the Oak Harbor facility. I like the reflection of the piling....
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Happy Smiles!

Port Neville was homesteaded in 1891 by the Hanson family. Family members kept the post office open until 2010. There a a few cabins in the area bjut no full time residents now. However there is a fabulous dock that is free to use any we took advantage for a night while moving south. Terrie and I walked the sandy beach for some after dinner exercise that night.
The next morning we were off to visit John Perkins on Cortez Island. We missed meeting Jody, the lady of the house, on our stop heading north earlier as she was in the states. Passed by Campbell River a very popular fishing village on the way, The area was very boat busy with fisherman pursuing those elusive salmon.
We already had plenty of salmon for a nice feast at John and Jody's fabulous Cortez Island retreat. The hugely ample supply of fresh fish was handed over to Jody. Who went on to produce the most exotically scrumptious spread imaginable. Salmon prepared three completely different styles! There was BC low heat, slow baked salmon (my fav!) ye ole poached salmon (also my fav!) and cast iron pan fried salmon (also my other fav!) The main crime while preparing seafood is to overcook the complete heck out of it. Preparation here was grade double AA perfect! The meal was complemented further with wild rice, delicious coleslaw by Terrie and Jody's garden fresh picked green beans....lightly cooked to perfection. Dessert was provided by yours truly...Ice Cream of course... two kinds of chocolate, no less.
But the true dessert was the view from the deck we dined upon.....see attached photo.
Up early for the long haul direct to Nanimo, BC. This was to be our last planned stop in British Columbia.
Then up early on Wednesday morning and on to Friday Harbor, Washington our check back into the good ole U.S. of A.....we are almost home ported.

On our way South.....some more!
Checked into Canadian customs for the trip thru BC home. Unbelievable! There Arrive Canada is such a scam and waste of time! We spent about 2 hours individually filling out forms on their APT and downloading photos of our Covid vaccination cards and this at a cost of $65.00 US a piece. Fine if that's their rules so be it. THEN 6 weeks later, no change in our status whatsoever. To go back thru Canada we each had to fill out the same old forms, take vaccination photos, download those same old pictures AND pay another $65.00 US EACH for them to record the same info they already had from the initial entry. GRRRR!
OK now, done bitchin', feel much better now, on to more important thangs.
The weather has turned for a change! Actually, all of us got a chance to break out the shorts and sandals!
It was even warmer in Ketchikan for a couple days than it was in Washington.
Looks like with the progress Wish List is making plodding towards Everett we should arrive at our home port end of August or first of September!
Fishing has been good and we have caught our share. I hook em', Terrie thens fights em', and lands em', I net em' and then clean em'. We are a machine! LOL
Many Humpback Whale sittings! One siting while enroute to Buttedale, BC we saw a very young Humpback who was thrashing his tail repeatedly and then would do a tail dive then breaching and back to tale slapping. He carried on with this for almost a half hour with Momma whale swimming around him. We figured he was either very joyful.......or throwing one heck of a tantrum!
We have a system to alert everybody: Horn blows twice look to port (left). Horn blows three times look to starboard (right)

Lots of breaches and many whale tales, YEAH!

New photos on the Gallery, BC South gallery, have a look.

Cheers!

All is well in Ketchikan!
It's amazing that because of all the cruise ship traffic they are easily able to keep 3 Amphibious Duck Tour boats very, very busy.
They are on the roads, on the boat ramps, plus on the high seas. Ferrying tourist's from everywhere, ummm, everywhere!
We have been treated with some very nice weather the last couple of days. All the way to Sitka and back it's been in the 50's and mostly drizzle. Was amazed to learn the high averages for Petersburg during the month of August. They are 58 degrees plus 13.9 inches of rain. That's way too much no matter how you look at it. After the amount of times I've spent traveling in Alaska for work and pleasure did not realize that's there's more often rain and foul weather than not.
The longest stretch of time actually of many visits over multiple years had been two weeks. After two months of time here one gets a clearer perspective of what the weather is really like.
My Texan Queen and I are longing for those sunnier days that we both love so much! John on the other hand is just very happy with the dense, clear plastic glass he had installed in the canopy with which to keep an eye on our soggy travels. I admit this does give excellent visibility and a nice job of keeping out the gusts! All as we watch the beautiful scenery glide by.
Next stop Foggy Bay to overnight and prepare for our reentry into what's left of the Good Ole US of A.
That's all I'm gonna say about the Left. For now.....lol

Cheers!

We left Petersburg with the Anan Bear Observatory as our next destination with an overnight in a back bay 1/2 the distance there. I had order tickets for Anan the night before and felt lucky to get the confirmation. The Rangers only allow a maximum of 12 people arriving by boat to access the facility per day.
As we fueled up Wish List a group of 12 Jet skiers tied up around the fuel station. They were the Seattle to Juneau Expedition Team. This is an organized that event that departs a couple times a year riding jet skis on a multi week adventure to Juneau, AK. They stop for lodging each, ride so many miles each day and stop and enjoy notable things to experience along the way. They told Terrie they were also on the way to see the bears at Anan, and to do so on Thursday the same day we were scheduled.
As we stopped for the night, I threw a bunch of casts with a lure around the boat because the salmon were jumping like crazy! Hooked one and gave Terrie the pole to fight it a while then reel it in to be released. All we had been seeing and hearing about being caught we dog salmon and humpy's...... Terrie did an excellent job of tiring this guy out before bringing him up to the boat. Then all of a sudden he saw the boat and got all animated, flashing and splashing! That's when I saw those beautiful silver sides flashing in the evening sun and knew this one was not going to be released but would find his way to the dinner table promptly. He made it to the table in under an hour flat! Ummm Good eaten!
The plan was to get to ANAN a day early.....aka known as a John plan. Then figure on going in the following day to visit the bears. When we arrived there were only three other boats in the anchorage so we called and asked if we could come in a day early, and they obliged.
The falls at Anan Observatory are waterways for a hand of different salmon species and a great place for the bears to catch the salmon as they try to leap from pool to pool up the falls. All the black bears seen looked extremely healthy and well fed.
Unfortunately for us the river had dropped about a week ago making easier for the fish to negotiate the falls. This allows then the move much further up the river where they spawn. As it turns out the Brown or Grizzly bears do not like the intrusion of man at their feeding grounds. This happens to concern the black bears a lot less. The Browns would rather fish unhampered by the gawking Natural Geographic pioneer types, nature photographers and other assorted forms humankind. Pretty easy to understand, eh?
This also works well for the black bears as this is one of the few places in Alaska or the world, both species can be found in the same habitat. More peaceful fishing for the black bears as the Grizzlies easily dominates them in their common domain. Translation: when fish spawns are finished, grubs and berries are gone for the year then black bears are next on the menu. This can happen any other time that's convenient too!
Next stop Ketchikan.
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