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July's Log

July 1, 2003
Today was old home week and both of our close friends; Joe Hanko and Floyd Holcom were great to see. Liz and I began the day by calling to several folks and letting them know where we were.

July 2, 2003
Ron and Dana on Anthea came in early this morning and it is great catching up with them. We are very excited for their adventure south and they seem much more prepared and rested than we did when we left Astoria two years ago. We had a delightful meal at Columbia Café and enjoyed seeing Uriah and all the crew.

July 3, 2003
We did the running around including, vegetable shopping, having our knives sharpened by one of Uriah's cooks, shopping at Englund's for fishing gear to get Anthea and Ahaluna up to speed with what catches what. We got Dana to buy her stuff and she was shocked at $120 price tag. But she is a new cruiser and has a full bank account. Later we attacked Dana and Ron with some of the books that we found helpful and talked about computer software. Then we headed to J&H Boat works and paid for and collected our new staysail bracket. It is beautiful except it is a bit small. We will need to bang it and get it install tomorrow. About 7 pm we headed to Floyd and Cheryl's for a barbeque. We are really glad he is home safe and sound from the war in Iraq.

July 4, 2003
I installed the staysail stay bracket and it fit perfectly after Peter tweaked it. Now I need to find the brace that extends the adjustable/removable staysail stay. Liz and I waited for Sandy, Patricia and Riley. They arrived about 11:30 and we eventually made it to the Columbia Café where Uriah was cooking burgers outdoors. We had a great lunch and John the waiter returned with our Hinckel knives finely sharpened. I have done bad things to our knives over the past 2 years. We watched the local Coast Guard rescue a person in the water with a helicopter and we then said goodbye to Sandy and got ready for dinner. Liz and I called several of our Portland/Oregon friends and then joined Ron and Dana for a quiet dinner.

July 5, 2003
We had our last dinner at the Columbia Café and said goodbye to Uriah. Liz and I split a plate and still with salad and soup we were very full.

July 6, 2003
We are planning to leave tomorrow and it looks like the weather will be favorable, perhaps even west or southwest winds. Liz and Dana did the Sunday street fair and they said the fair had really grown since 2001. We did our last shopping and I took the truck back to Joe Hanko's friend. We had a nice dock party with 10 of us that have cruised. We hit the bed early and hope to leave about 11:30 and catch the ebb current to the Columbia River bar.

July 7, 2003
Liz and I puttered along for a couple of hours doing small chores; checking transmission oil, buying more transmission oil, buying several lotto tickets, calling several folks and thanking them for their hospitality in Astoria and then casting off to tie up at the fuel dock. We fueled and hugged Dana and Ronn and headed out. We caught the bar perfectly and headed north, well really we headed southwest and then west and then finally northwest. We didn't head north until we were 30 miles south of Cape Flattery, about 30 hours north of the Columbia River.

July 8, 2003
A comfortable ride and quite productive, ie fishing. We motored until about 10am and then started fishing. There were many sport fishing boats in the area with a couple of trawlers. Everyone seemed to be catching medium silver and a couple of Chinooks. All was explained and talked about on the VHF radio, mostly in code. We turned the corner at Duntze Rock and headed to Neah Bay. We are really in Washington. I docked and ran up the dock to call Sandra as she is heading to Italy on Thursday. We are tied along side of Ahaluna and will be having fish.

July 9, 2003
We popped up and the sun was shinning brilliantly. We headed to Port Angeles and caught the current perfectly and traveled with it all the way. At times we were traveling over the ground 7.9 knots. The whole straits of Juan de Fuca were flat calm and no swell and very very sunny. We are blessed and this is perfect weather. We have Zydeco music playing and Liz dancing in the cockpit and she hasn't even had any wine. We arrived in Port Angeles and decided to dock at the city dock for $10 and there was a jazz band playing. After a great dinner on Analuna we retired.

July 10, 2003
We got about 8am and walked around the town. Very nice and peaceful. We bought several magazines and a paper to catch up on the news and current events. We prepared to leave the dock and I decided to replace our zinc on the maxiprop. The water was cold but it could have been colder as I hung off of the dock and only was submerged to my belly. After a pot of warm water we headed out of Port Angeles and said goodbye to Ahaluna. Again the day is perfect are we have decided to head to Seattle. The trip was uneventful and caught the tidal current perfectly and set a new speed record over the ground the tide assistance of 11.5 knots. We arrive at Shilshole Marina at 5:30 and tied up at the quest dock as our rented slip still had the owner in it. Both Tom Perham and Peter Huddelson met us and we had salmon and "good" red wine.

July 11, 2003
I called Mom and Pete shuttled us to Sandra's house where we have her house, car and the all-important cell phone. Sandra is in Italy for 2 weeks. We worked on our schedules (knot really sure what that is) and planned the next 2 weeks of contacts, boat maintenance and visits. Our renters called and indicated they may move out sooner.

July 12, 2003
We slipped up to Pete's and did some interneting and visited the Nordic Heritage Museum. This is a small museum about half mile from our house and a block from Pete's. They were having a fundraiser and serving Swedish Pancakes. In the afternoon we visited our "old" neighbors who had just gotten married. They were switching from being "significant other" to being husband and wife. We looked across the street at our home and wondered about the change in lifestyle. We headed north to Tom and Laurie's house where great red wine and Omaha steaks waited.

July 13, 2003
We have woken up at Tom and Laurie's where we are back in our own bed. Tom and Laurie have a bunch of our home possessions that they have been storing for us. We are looking north out toward Padilla Bay, Deception Pass and Mount Baker and every so often an eagle flies by.

Two years of a challenging goal of not only sailing, but really the challenges of changing our lifestyles many times. We have had several major challenges but have diluted those when considering the past months filled with new friends, adventures, being self-sufficient, and learning confidence. We are changed in the aspect of knowing more about ourselves. We are considering a larger boat as soon as Slainte sells and hope we can share some of our ideas and experiences.

This adventure would not of been as easy with out the substantial help from our friends (Homies from the start). We want to thank them for the care, love, possessions, and continuity; Tom and Laurie, Sandy and Patricia, Ronn and Dana, Sandra, Pete, Walt and Cathie, Leigh and Jean, Carolyn, Marnee, Jeff, Keith and many others. Thank you very much to all who have touched our lives and supported our dream.

Two weekends from now we are getting together with several other cruisers that are either stopped cruising or are still cruising but have come home. We will be meeting on Vashon Island which is about 15 miles south of Seattle as the crow flies and much longer if we drive and take the ferry.

Thank you for sharing our adventure and we wish you the best in completing your adventures. Hugs and Love Allan and Liz