Secret Cove BC

Another long day on the water as we are making good time to Desolation Sound. And when the weather is as great as we"be been having we may as well be on the water!  We spent yesterday, after a glassy crossing of the Straits at Bedwell Harbor on S Pender Island. Not only is it our first weekend of summer weather, it's also Canada's National Holiday - Canada Day. So everything is packed. We had a fun dinghy circumnavigation of the island and a great time anchored in the harbor. 

We set off early again today and seemed to be the only boat on the water all day except for ferries- see the pic as we enter Active Pass with 4 ferries in it!  We could have water skied the Straits of Georgia it was so glassy. Not great for sailing but when you are trying to make time to get to a destination. It makes it easy 

Secret Cove has to be the friendliest place we've ever been. We grabbed a dock since the anchorages were filled and they were so nice. And ice cream keeps the Captain happy!

Mom, we will be cruising thru the Malaspina Straits that you are reading about on tomorrow's leg.

All is great going great and we feel like the luckiest couple in the world .

Crossing the Straits of Juan De Fuca

After an easy day to Port Townsend where we spent the afternoon walking around town, we started early (5am) for S. Pender Island.  We bumped in to outpr rigging friend Brion Toss and will be catching up with him for dinner on our retrun trip home. Why so early? The currents were favorable only with this early start. And it is pretty cool to feel like you are the only boat out here.  Except of course for the Coast Guard Ice Breaker Healy and a few tankers, the Straits are ours. 

It doesnt seem bad waking up early if your not going to work! The snowcapped Olympics are on our port and Mt baker on our Starboard, a pink and gold sunrise and mirror calm water.  Add in a feast of fresh blueberry pancakes and it doesnt get much better!

More from Pender later.

On vacation!

TAfter a frantic day of last minute to do's, we are headed north. The rain has stopped and its fairly warm as I stand on the now typing this.  Going up Colbos Passage, it's mirror calm with a low gig layer. We'll anchor tonight at Blake Island and head to Port Townsend tomorrow.   This picture shows the name we (mostly Jeff) sewed on our new sail over! Have a nice evening!

Next Thursday at 5:31pm, we'll be heading off on our next adventure - 3 1/2 weeks in Desolation Sound!  This world cruising destination is about a 4 day trip north for us. We'll leave Thursday evening after Jeff gets off work and head to Blake Island for the night. Then if weather is good, we push for a few days and arrive on Monday July 1st in Lund, BC.  Then a couple weeks of cruising the beautiful and WARM waters of the Sound.  We should have internet and we'll post whenever we can. Love to everyone!

Waiting at Seatac to leave on our British Virgin Islands sailing vacation.

After finishing up our last minute tasks by noon we waited all day for our friend Carolyn to take us to the airport. Saturday afternoon TV is terrible!

In this pic, Jeff is reading about the Oracle Americas Cup boat that pitch poled and was totaled. I hope he's reading how NOT to do that to our charter catamaran.

We fly all night and get to St Thomas around 1:30 pm, then a ferry to Tortola.
More later and love to all!

Home...

We are sitting here on the couch at home watching TV for the first time in over 3 weeks. We ended up going to Edmonds after Sequim and had a great dinner with Pete and Linda. It was so good to really have some time to catch up.

We decided to end our trip in downtown Seattle and were lucky to get a slip on a summer Friday at Bell Harbor Marina. We went to the market and got lunch, salmon and veggies for dinner. Just at sunset we rode the New Great Wheel! Very fun!!!!

Today we came back to our dock in Foss Harbor. It's difficult to sum up our trip. It was such a goal for so long - never sure if it would happen. And it definitely lived up to our expectations. We were privileged to visit such beautiful, pristine places, hook up with great friends and make new ones, see wildlife up close in their environment and best of all - spend lots of wonderful time together.

A few more pics below from our last couple of days. Thanks for sharing our adventure with us!
Until our next one...
Love, hope and peace to all,
Fran, Jeff and colonel

Back in the US...

On Tuesday, we left Dodger Channel at 6:30am for a 72 mile, long day to Sooke. For 2/3rds of the trip, it was thick fog and 6' swells on the stern. The last 1/3 we sailed in windy and wavy conditions. I was pretty nervous surfing down the waves at 9.5 knots but it was a great sail. We pulled into Sooke after 11 hours... tired and hungry. Just up from the public wharf is an excellent, artisan restaurant called
Markus'. We felt we deserved the pricey, delicious meal!

The next morning we set off for Sequim and easily phoning into Customs with our Nexus cards for clearance back to the US. We went to Sequim because Chuck and Wendy from our dock in Tacoma have moved their boat to Sequim.

John Wayne Marina is quite nice and we had a great dinner with them. After blueberry pancakes this morning, we said goodbye and are currently headed to Edmonds. Yes, to see more friends for dinner! We are making up for no restaurants for 3 weeks.

Today, we got to see some of the canoes in the Canoe Journey 2012 heading our way. The First Nation and Tribes in the US, paddle their big, gorgeous canoes to Olympia. Very cool! We absolutely enjoy the NW Native culture and seeing them enriches our experience up here.

Tomorrow, we head to Shilshole Marina. Just north of Seattle, I have never stayed there. Its a HUGE marina and we'll enjoy walking the docks and looking at the cool sailboats!

Pics below are Sequim Marina, one of the canoes by Protection Island and a cat who is happy to be headed home.