Friday Harbor, WA

(Christine and Sonny playing 'Fate'. Fate is a computer adventure game where the hero has a pet that accompanies him or her through the levels of a dungeon. The pet can start out as either a cat or, a dog - a Jack Russell Terrier! Sonny seems very interested in that other dog.)

Well, we've been here a week and a half. It hasn't rained once. Was the rain just a Bellingham thing?

We left Bellingham on Monday morning early into dense, drizzly fog. By the time we were in the middle of Bellingham Bay, you couldn't see the shore in any direction. Very cold and wet. It's times like these that you really appreciate all those electronic gizmos: radar, gps, etc. We rounded Eliza Island on the south shore past Eliza Rock. Could just make out the outline of houses on the bluffs. Made course between Vendovi Island and Viti Rocks with the point of Sinclair Island as our next waypoint. The fog had begun to lift a little and by the time we eased between Towhead Island and Cypress Island it had lifted enough that you could see all the way across Rosario Straits to the Peavine Pass.

Christine went below and let the sibs out of their crate. One of them (probably Deja) had thrown up but, both were ready for a little exercise. Christine threw the tennis balls and they chased each other around the cabin (not Christine, just the sibs), completely ignoring the engine noise. There was no further seasickness either.

Altogether, we had a nice, calm 6-hour passage and arrived here in Friday Harbor to find the visitor's dock mostly empty.

Our plan was to settle in here at the dock for the rest of the winter. We'd enroll the sibs in obedience school, take long walks and just relax. That was our plan. Doesn't look like that's going to happen. RANT ON: Friday Harbor has initiated a rule that liveaboard boats (and only liveaboard boats) must have completed a Coast Guard Auxiliary inspection. This is the Aux's voluntary inspection. You know, the one you get the decal for. The decal that does nothing. Won't keep the CG from stopping and inspecting you. Won't get you a break on your insurance. Nothing. All those white plastic weekend toys sitting at the dock rotting away don't require a 'voluntary' inspection. Those of us that spend every day and night aboard ensuring our boats are secure and in good working order do. I see this as a bullying tactic. The harbor board's way of letting me know who's boss. Well, I got news for them. On my boat, I'm boss (as long as Christine lets me). I get to decide who comes aboard.

Customs and Border Protection have a lawful requirement to inspect my boat. The Coast Guard also. Either of them want to come aboard, I'll even offer them a cup of tea. The harbor board doesn't. So, as soon as our outboard gets here, we'll move out to the channel and dinghy back and forth to the town. Probably better that way anyway. We'll save money and the sibs can have free rein to run around the decks.

RANT OFF: So, we're here (uninspected) at the visitors dock and paying the visitors rate rather than the lower 'monthly' rate waiting for our outboard to be shipped down from Juneau.

Semi-Rant On: I called FedEx on Saturday to arrange for pickup in Juneau and delivery to us here in Friday Harbor. This is after going on line to the FedEx.com website and creating a profile and a shippers account. Monday being a holiday (MLK Day) they promised that someone would be there Tuesday morning. No one came all day Tuesday. I called to confirm and request pickup Wednesday. Again, our son-in-law rescheduled his day and waited for FedEx to show up. Again, no one showed. Apparently, FedEx is taking its business model from the Cable Guy: keep the customer waiting for days, when they call to complain, blame the customer for missing the call, etc... I called FedEx Wednesday evening and canceled the shipment then, I called UPS. UPS agreed to have someone go by today (Thursday) to pickup our box with the outboard. We'll see...  Semi-Rant Off

We made an appointment for Deja with the local veterinarian. She's going to be 'fixed' on the 28th. Isn't that a funny saying: 'fixed'? It's not like there's something broken. Her parts are working as designed - are they ever! We got the sibs on Friday the 2nd of January. By Sunday the 4th, Deja was exhibiting strong dominance behaviors over Sonny. By Tuesday the 6th, she was flowing steadily. We knew she hadn't been spayed, the previous owners estimated 2-months before she'd come into season again. I'm thinking that the stress of moving to a new family, home that moves, exercise schedule caused her time to arrive early. We'll all be very, very, very glad when she's no longer 'natural'. On the other hand, they are coming right along with their training. We've almost got walking alongside us without trying to drag our arms out of their sockets down (only the very occasional lunge at a bird). We're stopping at every corner and waiting and have begun with 'sit' and 'stay'. The biggest problem right now is socialization. Both sibs are very protective of us. They tend to growl when someone comes too close uninvited or too quickly. A little of that is okay with me. I want them to protect us and let us know if someone is onboard the boat in the middle of the night. Growling or lunging at strangers while we walk down the sidewalk is Not ok. We're going to have to work on that distinction. I think Deja's delicate condition contributes to some of her crabbiness.

Yesterday we were able to get online with a good strong wifi signal. While cruising the web, we checked out the Geocaching site for possible caches here in Friday Harbor. We found two within easy walking distance of the boat so, we went out in the afternoon and found both of them. Not a bad excuse for a pleasant walk around the area. The dogs even give us a good excuse for diving off into the bushes to get the caches. We bought some travelbugs to leave in a cache but I put them in the box with the outboard and, of course, they haven't gotten here yet. If you want to know more about Geocaching, go to the Geocaching website at: http://www.geocaching.com/

David, Christine and the Sibs (Sonny and Deja)
SV Raven, Juneau AK

Currently lying: At the dock, Friday Harbor Wa

Still in Bellingham

7 January 2009
So, here we are, Jan 8, 2009; 5 days after we got our new crew; 5 days after our reason for being here ended, here we are - still in Bellingham. Not that there's anything wrong with Bellingham. There really isn't. The harbor staff is pleasant and understanding. There's a grassy area for walkies. There's even a great fish and chips restaurant just steps from the top of the dock. The only problem is; we don't want to be here. We want to be somewhere else: Friday Harbor.

Friday Harbor is just better set up for cruisers without a car. The supermarket is just 1 1/2 blocks up from the marina. The movie theater and drug store are 2 blocks up. The West Marine and state liquour store and bowling alley are 3 blocks up. Everything we could need including a coffee shop with wifi (1 block up) within easy walking distance. Compare that with Bellingham where the nearest bus stop is more than a mile away; the nearest supermarket is at least 2 miles and the West Marine is also at least 2 miles from the marina (saving grace is that there are 2 good chandleries - LFS and Redden Marine - here at the harbor).

Tomorrow, Thursday 1/8 is supposed to be a little more settled than the past week: 15 to 25 kt winds and rain as opposed to the 25 - 35 kt winds and gulleywashers we've been having. There's flood warnings/watches and flooding all around here this evening. Each evening, we've walked up to the harbor office and paid another day's transient moorage. We're hoping to leave tomorrow.

We'd had a problem with our electrics on the way here: both the depth sounder and the new autopilot would suddenly drop off. Intermittent electrical problems are horrible to figure out. Christine was reaching into the cupboard to get treats for the Sibs (from now on, the crew plural are the 'Sibs') and noticed a loose wire. Looks like the ground wire for the new autopilot. As usual the fix only took 30-seconds or so. Getting out the tools and parts took the better part of half an hour. Ah, boat life!

9 January 2009 - Same dock, just 20' farther along
The National Weather jokers said we'd have 15 to 25 kt winds and 2-4 ft seas today (didn't show up as forecast yesterday) so we got up early and left for Friday Harbor. The National Weather jokers were joking. Bellingham Bay was the color of chocolate milk and full of floating logs washed down the rivers from the flooding going on right now. It has been raining pretty much constantly since we got back from Juneau: sometimes drizzle, oftentimes a real gullywasher. All the local rivers are over their banks (the Snohomish crests at 15' and is currently at 23'. Similar with the Stillaquamish and Skagit rivers). The weather reports are full of flood warnings. Still, we'd hoped to use today to slip out of here and get to FH. Not gonna happen.

The wind and waves picked up as we headed across B'ham Bay and by the time we were opposite Chuchanut, the now, 4-6ft waves were hitting us broadside. The Sibs were not enjoying their first boating experience. Deja got seasick and was vomiting and shivering. Sonny started out a little shy then, got in the mood and began exploring the cockpit and even, the side deck. All looked good for him until, we noticed that he'd begun fixating on the water going by the boat and soon, started making throat and mouth motions indicating that he was getting ill too. I suspect that Sonny's more laid back personality gives him an advantage here. He just 'takes it as it comes' where Deja gets stressed out by new things. Neither dog liked the engine noise: Deja in fact discovered a new 'short cut' over the back of the settee, along behind the stove and under the paper towel roll to avoid the engine. We're going to try starting the engine for an hour or so each day and hope they get used to it. We'd bought some anti-stress paste that you squeeze onto your finger prior to traveling. It's supposed to calm them down and help with the stress of the trip. We couldn't get them to try it. Might be easier just to give them some kind of tranquillizer and let them sleep through the voyage altogether.

So, for now we're back to the same dock we'd left. The weather jokers are holding out 5-10 kt winds for Sunday. We're still here and still hoping to get somewhere else.

Happy New Year!

Well, we've had quite a time the last few months - since we posted last.

We didn't jump off to the southland as planned from Neah Bay (our last post), just too many breakdowns. We dropped back to Port Angeles, rebooted the radar with a boot chip provided by Raymarine tech support (George Martin - topnotch tech help) and replaced our autopilot with a newer model. Since the new AP came from Canada (just 50 miles from where we were at) it took almost 6-weeks to get the parts and more parts through customs, then, another 2-weeks to get someone to help install it. By then, we were coming up on October when we wanted to fly back to Juneau for our grandson, Dylan's first birthday (October 8), our granddaughter Kitty's 4th birthday (November 22), Thanksgiving and then Christmas.

As before, we left the boat in Roche Harbor when we flew home. We returned on Sunday 12/28 to find everything as we'd left it only, covered with mold. It was raining the day we left and everything we brought in from outside for security inside was wet. Kayaks, sails, generator... all wet and all molded. We spent the next 3-days cleaning and putting everything back where it belonged.-

While we still in Juneau, we'd continued our search for a new pet. In every place we'd spent any time this past summer we'd looked for a dog to be a companion on our journey. Friday Harbor had 2 dogs and 80+ cats, the dogs were too big and we didn't want a cat this time. In Port Angeles, there were no dogs that were the right size for our boat. Juneau had no dogs at all (though plenty of cats and even, rabbits!). We kept looking. Finally, we tried Craigs List for Bellingham and viola! There were two of the perfect size dogs a cruiser could hope for. Brother and sister Jack Russell Terriers. These are the long curly-haired variety - think Eddie from the Fraizer television show only with long curly hair. They're 2-years old and the previous owners even brought them down to the boat to meet us yesterday. We fell into instant love. So, we've now doubled in size with more crew and a great excuse to walk all over.

Just so's there's something sailing related in this sailing blog, we left Roche Harbor around 8 o'clock Thursday morning headed for Bellingham to meet our new crew. Although we'd left in light rain/drizzle, the wind picked up to 20-25kts and the temp was in the high 20's. We only made it as far as Echo Bay on Succia Island before deciding to call it a day. One peek out at the blowing foam and breaking waves in Georgia Straits convinced us that we should stop. For the first time ever, we were able to use our cell phone from Succia and called the dog's owners to let them know that we were still coming, just, tomorrow instead of today. Temps dropped over night and I lay awake obsessing about whether we had enough kerosene to run the heater.

The next day started out windy but by noon, the wind had dropped to 10-15 and we headed out across the Straits. There was still some leftover waves crossing abeam of us so we spent every 5th wave rolling on our beam ends but it only took an hour or so to cross into Hale Passage where the wind and waves left us and we had a flat calm motor into Bellingham's Squalicum Harbor.

And, that's where we are right now. The wind's back, this time bringing snow and very icy docks (both Christine and I have fallen). The new crewmembers are getting used to boat life and the cabin is covered with new chew toys, balls, dog beds and a collapsible crate for them to travel in.

Our plan (you know how we are with plans) is to head back to Friday Harbor and spend the next couple of months tied to the dock. We'll take obedience training and walk our legs off and be whipped into shape in time for next summer's cruising.

David and Christine, Sonny and Deja
SV Raven
Juneau, AK

Currently lying Squalicum Harbor, Bellingham, WA