10 years ago

I took the first photo on July 4th 2008 at about 0300 as we approached Nome for the first time. It’s Sledge Island and I now have a folder of photos from much the same spot but all of them taken standing on the sea ice. Odd feeling being out there where the boat was but isn’t… Later that day I watched my first July 4th parade and was given the best ever roast brisket in the Breakers bar.10 years later, my second parade in Friday Harbour. I wonder whether there’ll be another in 2028….We were reunited with our outboard in Sidney after it had been on a tourist drive to a car park in Prince Rupert and met MarvinThe manically depressed robot with a “brain the size of a planet” from HHGTTGThe Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams; essential reading for those trying to understand these logs. You may be none the wiser once you’ve read it, but at least you’ll have tried. More here, still parking cars. We were infinitely improbably privileged to hang out in a real Heart of Gold in Friday Harbour. My absolute favorite boat which also circumnavigated at rather less than warp speed back in the 90s. It’s been cheesecake since – we motored across from Sidney to Friday Harbour and stayed for the parade there and the next day motored down to the anchorage in Griffin Bay just inside Cattle Pass and anchored for the night. 0500 start to get through the Pass and into the Strait of Juan de Fuca on the end of the ebb tide – did I mention anywhere that the currents here have attitude? There was 5 knots and some interesting eddie’s flowing out of the pass and big tide rips for the first couple of miles into the Strait. Glassy calm otherwise and the little Honda took us the 20 miles or so to Point Wilson at the entrance to Port Townsend in 5 hours on about a gallon of gas. More rips getting into the Harbour but we’re perhaps foolishly rather gung ho these days and we keep our towels handy. Still a bit gulp inducing though – Bobbles really is tiny and she does get her knickers a bit twisted sometimes. Now she’s parked on a kind friend’s mooring at Port Hadluck and we’re working out the logistics of the next move. We do need to fix the rather hasty repairs we did to the centreboard case in Nanaimo. The fibreglass is letting in water – in no way a showstopper but aggravating. We think we must have relaunched Bobbles before it had dried properly. Notes to self!