Friday Harbor USA!!

So an update, Ron and I left Port McNeill on August 16, 2015 to head down Johnston Strait and as we passed Alert Bay we were only doing 5 kts (really slow) and figured it was going to be a long day.  Down the strait I saw what looked like some porpoise’s swimming towards us but soon we were greeted by a warden in a tender telling us that we were close to a Biological Marine Park and did we see the whales? Also to stay 100 meters away from them, so we motored over to our port side and went around them.  We were not even close. We are in Canada remember? In Alaska we were motoring along and Whales came up all around us. We turned off the motor and just sat there; no wardens came up and told us to move on. Just sayin’   Soon we started picking up some speed and thought we would stay in Kelsey Bay.  By the time we got there we looked at the currents and found out we could make Seymour Narrows by slack water time that evening.  Weather was nice so we decided to go for it.  We got there about an 1 ½ hours before slack which means that we were still going to hit current but it was favoring us.  We were going 12  through the channel… who hoo.  As we motored through the narrows it said to watch for the Ripple Rock in the middle.  Of course Ron decided to go right over it on the chart.  I was telling him to move off of it but he said we had plenty of room and water under us and we needed to get through this.  Well that was just a start to how the evening was going to finish.  Now we are in Campbell River trying to find a place to stay.  Public docks were full so we decided to anchor in Gowlland Bay.  First we had to go through a very narrow, not deep channel.  I am trying to cook something for dinner and kept running up to the bridge to make sure Ron was motoring right.  If any of you know us you can only imagine me panicking and Ron under control lol……  We made it through only after Ron went into 6 feet of water our draft 5 and on the chart he was over the area that goes dry at low tide. He said “well we had 6 feet of water under us, that’s plenty.”  Thank God it was high tide still.

We anchored successfully and got a goodnight sleep to head out early the next morning to go through the Strait of Georgia.  It was a beautiful day some beam seas but we both had it on cruise control and sat out on the bow and soaked up the sun that we have soooo missed.  As we were heading down the strait we still had another narrows to go through at slack and wouldn’t you know it we were timing it just right.  Another 12 hour day but we were almost home and made it through Gabriola Passage and anchored on the other side, by Pirate’s Cove. So all in all  lot better than the trip across Queen Charlotte Sound a couple days ago where I told Ron when we got home I was selling the boat and buying a Winnebago….funny, he won’t let me forget that comment. It was just in the heat of the moment, didn’t mean a word of it, but he continues to remind me saying it……:)

We arrived in Friday Harbor August 18, 2015 and cleared customs.  They did not like the 2 lemons we had from Alaska so they took them. We told them we bought them in Alaska. He said “I don’t know that”. Ron said well I’m telling you we did. No difference he took them. Canada customs didn’t care we had them. Oh well we seem to not do well with customs agents.  We will be making our final journey back to our marina tomorrow.

Cabernet “at home on any sea”