Waiting

I'm really having a hard time 'waiting'.  It seems  everything is  on hold, or something,  I'm kind of feeling that everything  is,  waiting. I'm not sure what, exactly, it is we are waiting for,   It seems its gunna be a long, hard, haul,, and the longer we wait, the harder it's getting,, to wait, and wait,        bunkmate  

Practicing with Chef Shine

We have somehow got back into the work, home, work, home, save money, work, football, work, save, work, thing that always seems to happen to us when we are not spending time with Simplicity. We are still looking for a less expensive place to hang our hats, and trying to save every penny, in order to move on with our lives. Captain Carey has turned into Chef Shine, practicing his cooking with fresh spinach and other vegetables and fruit. He is doing a fabulous job. It's amazing how different fresh and healthy is compared to canned and fast food, especially when chef Shine is involved. He knows all the tricks to get me to eat my veggies. He's the best chef ever.

Questions

The hardest part is not understanding why people don't 'get it'. I/We know our objective is to sail/cruise the rest of our lives away. I talk to people everyday, that say they wish they had the guts to do something, anything like this. To just walk away from the life that is "secure". The not knowing of what is coming up in the next week, or month. I've tried to explain that that is part of the adventure, the unknown, the exploration, the un-constant, the "different 'stuff' different day". I think one of the funniest questions is, "What are you going to eat?" I mean really? We aren't going to be away from land that long. I guess they really don't plan their questions, it's just off the top of their head. Their questions the next time I see them, is usually better, like, "Where do you plan to go?" & "How long will it take to get there?". I guess they aren't that silly of questions, because I'm not sure these same questions hadn't crossed my mind, in the beginning. Now I seem to have a whole different bunch of questions. When is the right time? Which boat is the right one for our needs? Am I going to miss long, hot showers as much as I think I will? How will I stay in touch without my phone? When will I ever get any grand kids?   bunkmate

Love The Ones Your With

Every since we've been home, we have been getting everything together to have a garage sale, to get rid of all the stuff that we have accumulated over the years. We have the spare bedroom full of all kinds of memories, most of them fun times, some are sentimental, but I think most of it is, why do I still have this? So much of it we haven't even seen or needed. I hope all this stuff sells, because I don't want to throw alot of it away, I would like someone to enjoy them as much as we have. We have been looking around to find a less expensive step-down place to live, that we can have the kids, and not have to worry about them when we are working and such. We looked at a place out in Gold Hill, but we decided we could find better, for less. We have recently found out that our step-mom has pancreatic cancer. So it brings to heart the short time that we all have to play on this little blue ball we call earth. So love the ones your with, and don't forget to tell them how thankful you are to have them in your life, while you can.   bunkmate

Time spent

We slept that night on Simplicity, in Washington Park. As soon as it started to almost start to get dark, the deer started to come out, does, fawns, and even a forkie came out. This guy was driving by and caught a glimpse of the forkie, and he almost ended up in the bushes. I heard the wife yell, and the brake lights turned on. The Captain prepped for unstepping the mast. We decided to unstep in the morning. We didn't have to have the truck back until 11:45am. We have plenty of time. Roxi and I woke up to the Captain banging around up top, as usual. It was almost time to unstep. We got her unstepped without much trouble, The hardest thing really was moving the mast forward, the truck was hindering us from balancing the mast on the front rail. But we did it. 

Got it wrapped up, and Captain Carey got her all tucked in her corner, back to the car, gassed up, and back to the U-haul, only about 5 minutes late, and that didn't really count because the kids and I were there at 11:40. I loaded the truck stuff in the car, while the Captain took care of the paperwork. Then we went back to Simplicity to get her all wrapped up for the winter. Captain Carey got her tarped up, in the rain, and we headed home. We got home at about 5:30pm. And we are now working on getting things together for a yard sale. It seems like every time we go up and spend any time with Simplicity, We are reminded of our goal. Cruising.!!!   bunkmate

Plan "B"

There was no way we could pull her out of this ramp. It was way too shallow. It's a good thing he had researched renting a truck, and checked into some storage lots. He called U-haul  to check out their prices on renting a truck, it was $25.00 for the 10 foot truck, and budget was pretty close to the same, but, U-haul was closer so we hopped in the car, and drove over. So we chatted with the guy and come to find out, the 'lot' is actually some property that he has out by the airport, for only $40.00 a month. So off we go. We took the truck and trailer out to Washington Park. It was around 3:30 when we sailed away from Cap Sante Boat Harbor. And of course we were headed out, as the tide was headed in, so we ended up motoring all the way through Guemes Channel. On the way out we found a sea lion on the green buoy #5, by the ferry terminal, sleeping away, and did not want to be bothered by us humans. The Washington Park boat dock is a pretty busy little dock. So we couldn't dawdle. We didn't hurry or anything, and we got her in her cradle the first try. We both were happy about that. We make a pretty good team.  bunkmate

My Tow Car

Our weekend tucking Simplicity away for the winter went just like any other time when you make all theses plans, prepare like crazy, and one little thing happens, and everything is thrown in different directions, and you have to start completely over. o.k it wasn't that bad, but, here we go.  Our plan for the weekend was to sail Simplicity down to Oak Harbor, put her on the hard, under tarps, and left stepped, for the winter. Simple? Ha! Never.:  Last week the tow package for my car showed up, so husband spent the next couple of evenings installing it. He's kinda handy like that. We got everything together & done, so after work on Thursday we headed out, around 6:30ish. towing Simplicity's trailer. My Avenger towed the trailer without any trouble, even up the mountains. We arrived in Anacortes at 3:30am. We threw everything on board and had a couple of brews to unwind, and slept for a couple for a couple of hours. The Captain woke up @ 7:30ish to take the trailer to Oak Harbor, ride the transit back to Cap Sante, so we could sail Simplicity down to Oak Harbor, pull her out, on her trailer, and be able to leave her stepped, in case we are able to come up and maybe go sailing. And then it happened, BOOM. All the planning, gone. It wasn't so bad though. It was time to whip out the 'ol 'plan B'. The Captain has a pocket full of 'em.    bunkmate

WOW

Today I checked my e-mail, and,,,,, found an article that I had submitted to the Orca Network Whale Watch, on their web sight. I'm pretty proud of it. It's been a long time since anything of mine has been published, let alone on such a popular web sight.  bunkmate

Oak Harbor

So apparently I've known all along, haha, and it was my idea, to put Simplicity on the hard at  the Oak Harbor Marina. Because if we bring her home, the Captain will undoubtedly spend more of the 'boat fund' on her. Plus we can keep her stepped, so we can possibly go up for a long weekend, and go far a sail or two. I guess I didn't realize that, that was the plan we were sticking with. So off we go to Oak Harbor, drop off the car and trailer, then go by ferry, and/or the great transit system to Anacortes, and sail back down to Oak Harbor. My car will pull the trailer, but she won't be able to pull Simplicity out of the water, so we will cross that bridge when we get there.  bunkmate

Our plan??

Well the weekend to decide what to do with Simplicity is here. We got the tow package for my car, to pull her trailer back up to Anacortes. My car can't pull her back soo,, If we have a plan, I'm not aware of it. I'm still in the dark. I'm excited to see her again, and I'm afraid the Captain is ready to put her up for sale soon, and get on to the next step, 'cruising'. I'm ready to, too, but, I'm having issues not needing all the 'stuff'. I'm pretty sure that after all is done, I will only miss them sometimes.   bunkmate

Decisions, decisions

We are still debating on what to do with Simplicity.. Should we bring her back to Medford, Oregon,, or leave her in Anacortes, Washington, on the hard. Either way we are going to put her up for sale soon. We ordered a 'tow package' for my car, and will be going up, and pulling her out of the water. We are throwing a bunch of scenarios around, because we are going to downsize again soon, and we probably wont have anywhere to keep her. Hopefully we will be closer to knowing by the time we leave.

So cose yet so far away

Everyday, it seems like the big picture is 'so close yet so far away'. It seems kinda like summer vacation is 14 months away. You have to figure out what you want to do on vacation, yet you have to do all the work, for vacation, for 14 months. Then you get to have little tastes, every once in a while, a long weekend here, a whole week there, tons of practice, learning, researching, working, downsizing, reading other peoples adventures, learning, selling stuff, researching, working, checking out different kinds of boats, pricing, getting rid of stuff, working, checking out boats for sale, researching, learning, wow, it seems like it will never come. We have all kinds of ideas of the things we want to do, places we want to go, things we want to experience, adventures we want to have, the alone time with my husband, the ideas, the adventures, the unknown,,,

Destiny

It seems like a lifetime ago that we were drawn to the water, when we first got together we 'knew' the water was calling us. We moved down to California, Lodi California, to be by the water. First I got a job at Tower Park Marina. Then we fell into a houseboat, 30' pontoon boat. And we spent 3 years running around the Delta on our houseboat. Meeting a bunch of people, having alot of fun, and fishing practically everyday. We caught a bunch of stripper. Took alot of friends fishing. And knew then that we were destined to live on the water. Things happened and we moved to Medford, Oregon. And it seems that we spent the rest of those years trying to figure out where or what would make us happy. We tried the 'buy a house' thing. Then we started a mosaic tile business 'Shining Impressions' ,,, then one day we decided to go back to the water...

We put the archery stuff away, we put the snow board stuff away, we got rid of the house, we sold 'Shining Impressions' we put the golfing stuff away, we put all of the remote control car stuff away, or should I say,, we sold almost everything, because we are so ready to get back to the water, and sailing is going to be our life, not just a hobby. We are celebrating our 14th anniversary, September 14th, and it seems like he just asked me to marry him last week. It has taken us awhile to remember where we started, and where we wanted to go at that time, but we finally got back to the beginning, right back to where we started. And the circle of life starts over again, only this time we aren't looking for direction, we have a journey to look forward to, together....forever....  bunkmate

August 21st., 2010 Saturday, Our last full day of sailing

We (Roxi & I) woke up to red-dog whining, when the Captain rowed away for a bit of 'Carey time'. It was a great morning. It was foggy. We decided to leave early so we would be getting back to port when the fog burned off. It turned out to be a grand ride in the fog. We both stayed in the cockpit listening and watching for other boats. We heard a couple of boats, and never seen them. We seen only 2 of the 5-7 that we heard, but most of the time it was our own bubble. You could hear the ferry's horns when we got closer to Guemes Channel. Sometimes you could hear a boat and not see it, and sometimes you could see it and not hear it. It was challenging, yet comforting to know that we make a great team. And that is one of my favorite things about our relationship. The fog had almost completely burned off by the time we hit Guemes Channel (after a 2 hour chug up Rosario Straight). The sun finally came out when we got back to port. We started the pack and clean thing duties. We couldn't resist going out one more time before leaving.
So we went out for dinner and drinks. We made it home with out any adventure. Now comes the part when we decide whether to bring Simplicity home or leave her in Cap Sante Boat Harbor. We also have decided to down-size again. The Captain has decided to down-size our phones also, to no Internet, ouch, I'm thinkin' I might throw a fit at that time, and I really don't know how that's going to turn out,,,,,,This could possibly be the best vacation ever, towards our sailing lifestyle, and our future, our cruising, sailing, future... stay tuned if we haven't caught your attention,, enough,,, hehehe,,,,, bunkmate

August, 20th, 2010 Friday, small craft warning

Well.. again the wind came up. At one time during the night the Captain turned the VHF on... It was a crazy sight when I got up. During the night we had gale force winds come up. It was crazy, And i slept through the whole thing. Just before 11 the Captain woke up to flashlights flashing in the windows, and people yelling. He jumped into his pants and went topside. Every boat in the bay (except us, and the boat next to us) drug their anchor. The two boats that were rafted together, about halfway to the beach from us, was now behind us. To start with we were the farthest out from the beach. The guy that was closest to us had a boat come down on his anchor. The worst part is there wasn't anyone on board, so he had to get untangled, and get the boat off of him by himself. He tied the other boat off his stern and threw it's anchor off of the starboard side and put his dinghy in between them. The boat that was in front of us were almost on our anchor, but the had their motor running and were working on staying off our rode. That's what the yelling was about.The Captain turned on the VHF on to hear if anyone needed any help and caught warning from the Coast Guard, saying a small craft warning on the Straight of Juan De Fuca, gale force winds, which is on the other side of the island. It's a good thing the wind was blowing the way it was or all the boats would have been on the beach, or the rocks, or pinned up against the cliffs. Everyone made it through the 'bumper boat' action, with minor scrapes and no-one was hurt. The rest of the day was calm, the wind, the tides, the atmosphere,, calm. The small boat that was rafted with the other boat, left. The boat that didn't have anyone on board, came, and thanked the guy that saved his boat, and didn't just cut it loose, loaded some provisions and he left also.

We had a beautiful schooner that 'sailed' in, and anchored up closer to the beach. It was a family of 7? The ages of the kids ranged, at my guesstamation. from 16 to 5, and boy was it a great show. Everyone worked in total harmony. They all knew what their job was, and did it with very little guidance. the last night on the hook was too short. Watmough Bay, my new favorite place....   bunkmate 

August 19th, 2010, Thursday, cattle pss one more time

I woke up this morning a a panic. No Roxi! after further investigation, the Captain and HalfHitch were gone too. I looked overboard and zipper disappeared also. I looked on the table to find the 2-way radio laying there, and it was on. I picked it up and said "do you have my wienie?".... no answer... "hellooo, do you have my Roxi?" This time a laughing voice said "yes, I have her" He told me later that he didn't even hear me, because of the motor, Roxi was in his lap and he had the radio in his hoodie pocket, and she was doing the 'confused head cocking' thing. They had gone to shore early for potty. and didn't want to wake me. How sweet was that?? We were trying to decide what to do for our last couple days of vacation. We both decided that Sucia Island would be great but...

We thought that Stuart Island was fun but... So we decided that we should head through Cattle Pass one more time and spend the last couple of days in Watmough Bay. We wanted to catch the last of the outgoing tide through Cattle Pass. and the incoming tide to ride around the bottom of Lopez Island and into Rosario Straight.  O.K. We had to leave right now to hit Friday Harbor for the doodahs, and ice. It's a long haul to the other end of the islands. We decided to motor up Harney Channel, through the Wasp Passage, to cut through the Wasp Islands,an into the San Juan Channel to Friday Harbor. The place was a zoo. There wasn't enough room for us "28' end to end" to tie up at any of the waiting docks, or guest docks. We circled around and decided to drop anchor and row in. I took the kids up to go potty, while the Captain dumped the potty, we got back to the boat, and after we pulled anchor, and headed out, we realized that neither one of us grabbed ice, aaarrg.   Oh well, we can still have a block and 1/2, we'll be fine. As we sailed down the San Juan Channel it was kinda weird, because every boat was coming towards us,, none was going with us. By the time we got past Shark Rock we were the only boat in the whole channel.. Weird... We seen 2 sprays/spouts shoot like 9 feet out of the water,, so we kinda got to see a humpback or grey whale-s. We didn't see the sea lion until we went through Cattle Pass. Him and a bunch of girls were sunning on Whale Rock. 

There were at least a dozen of them. We put the sails back up and shot around the bottom of Lopez Island towards Rosario Straight. Watmough Bay is the first bay you come to on the port (left) side. It's so beautiful.. It doesn't have a dock, but the pebble beach is fun to walk on, and the water is warm-ish. We weren't very hungry because I made lunch on the way down @ 20* degree's. It's fun, but.. the knife slides when you let go,, YIKES!! It's fun to watch the seals (Lucy) do the roll and slap that they do it all the time, mostly right before the sun goes down. It took a couple of day's to figure out what what they were doing. On our way here there were 4 gulls sitting in the water, yelling like crazy, messing with a seal that was trying to eat a salmon that she had caught, nice big salmon, but the closer we got, we think the seal was messing with the gulls. The wildlife here is fabulous!! We've seen quite a few Bald Eagles, seals are everywhere. When your sailing, they'll pop their head up and watch you pass, then the dunk back down. Silly little creatures they are. We only seen a couple of porpoises today. Still no Orcas, or bodies, only sprays.   bunkmate

August 18, 2010, Wednesday, catywompus

The Captain woke up @1am to us rockin' and rollin', he poked his head out of the hatch and the rode was off to the starboard side where zipper was. The wind was howlin', the tide was rippin' through the bay. Just the opposite of when we went to bed at like 10:30ish. He got dressed real fast and put his shoes, and his life vest on. I guess the rode got twisted up with zippers line. I woke up to his banging around up top, and I could tell by the rockin' and rollin' of Simplicity that the wind was rippin' and whatever he is doing up top wasn't easy. So I jumped in my pants and threw my sweatshirt on as I came up the companionway. As I was yelling at him "What do you want me to do?" I noticed he was wearing his vest, and I immediately felt calmer. I was buckling my vest when he said, "I think I got us unwrapped, lets just watch for a minute." The motor was already started, so I sat next to the controls, awaiting instructions. The word 'catywompus' works well here, because it was, everything!!.. the wind, the rolling, the bouncing, the tossing back and forth, and we are calm.. As we were watching, and bouncing, and spinning, I asked the Captain if he just wanted to pull anchor and he said, in a laughing voice "that's the only thing holding here". So we sat for a minute Listening to the bangs, and the waves crashing on the cliffs just off the port side. We chatted out a couple of scenarios, and we decide on pulling anchor, avoiding the rock behind us, and anchor out in the middle for the rest of the night. The wind was howling, and as soon as the anchor was free from the bottom, the bow started coming around. I told the Captain to hang on, and I got us turned around and headed down wind. Thank goodness for Shirley (GPS), we missed the rock and headed to the center of the bay.

The bottom was pretty consistent at 28-30 foot deep, so we dropped anchor, and hung out for a bit to make sure we were holding. We decided it was good, so I went back to bed, with the Captain making one more line check, before coming down. He set Shirley's drag anchor alarm to tell us if we come un-anchored. Too bad she can't tell you when you get twisted up.!.  We decided not to stay another night in Reeds Bay. There is a front coming in from the south so we decided to head up to Blind Bay, which is on the north side of Shaw Island, to get some protection from the Southerlies. We headed North out of Lopez Sound. There was quite a bit of traffic as we went across Upright Channel into Harney Channel and into Blind Bay. There is a reef that crosses the entrance to 
Blind Bay with an island in the center of the entrance.

There is a ferry terminal on the eastern tip of the mouth. So if you stay (oh, and  a rock between the terminal and the island)in the center of the rock and island on the east side your alright. The reef is between the rock and the terminal. It's pretty shallow in there too, it runs 3-4 fathoms (18-24 feet) throughout. There is a cute little store where the terminal is on Shaw Island. The Captain took advantage of the calmer (not gone) wind to BBQ up some chicken and the rest of the polish dogs. We had a huge chicken salad for dinner, and we spent the rest of the evening drinking beer and listening to Jimmy Buffet and Sammy & the Wabos. Another wonderfully fabulous day in the San Juans. :-)   bunkmate

August 17th, 2010, Tuesday (lucky #) reeds bay

We decided to hit Friday Harbor and do the potty,ice, and shower thing, only I have been craving fish so husband took me to lunch for fish and chips too. Then we set sail through Upright Channel and down into Lopez Sound, through Spencer Spit. There is a cove right behind this tiny island at the bottom of Reeds Bay. We were way late getting there, the sun was just setting. Boy it's shallow there. There wasn't any wind to speak of really, but did i mention it was SHALLOW?? We set anchor by these cliffs, because there were already 2 boats there, one on each side of the tiny island. We had our anchor watch beers and went to bed.. What a nice evening.

August 16th, 2010, Monday, honkin'nachos day

We sailed off anchor in the morning, after a nice walk on the beach. We decided to leave early to catch the last of the outgoing tide, and ride the incoming tide through Cattle Pass to Fisherman Bay.  That huge sea lion was outside of Cattle Pass this time. We did see a Minke Whale just as we entered the Strait of Juan de Fuca. He was headed up into Rasario Strait. Cattle Pass was pretty calm this time through. We ended up motoring the whole up way to Fisherman Bay. There were quite a few boats, and the wind was pretty calm, coming from the south. We took the kids up to potty, then we went up to the Galley and played a game of pool,had a couple of beers with our honkin nachos, it was fun kicking husbands butt at pool,,, and relaxing, and another fabulous sunset............

August 15th, 2010 Sunday, pirate parade

We got up pretty early to get stuff done by noon,"Tide time." (I like that clock). I took the laundry, the laptop, the camera, the ipod, and the VHF. I plugged everything in to charge, down-loaded the pix, checked e-mails, (mostly junk), jumped on face book for a few, and posted a blog. Oh, and plugged the dead phones in, in the car. It was just after 11 when the last dryer stopped, only to find the whites still were as wet as they were an hour ago!!! I put in another $2.00 and packed everything up and headed back to the boat.   The Captain had almost everything wrapped up, Zipper tow ready, water, port-a-potty dumped, beer stocked and on ice, gas, and everything stowed. I dumped the laundry in "the hole", grabbed the kids for a last potty, and grabbed the rest of the laundry on my way back, and the Captain ran to Safeway to see if his coffee mug was still on the ice box. The clothes were dry and his cup was still there, and we were headed out of the marina at 12:07, ALONG WITH EVERYONE ELSE!!!  It was like a pirate parade. I swear there were at least a dozen of us headed out at the same time. There were only 2 or 3 power boats. It's funny how everyone wanted to hit the same tide as us. Sailors are crazy about their tides..   So we headed out Guemes Channel towards Rosario Strait. Everyone  started scattering in different directions, it was pretty cool. We decided to go south in Rosario Strait down to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, around Lopez Island, and... we hadn't made our minds up if we wanted to go through Cattle Pass again or keep going around San Juan Island up to Stuart Island. 

  There were a couple of bays that we hadn't checked out yet, so we decided to check them out on our way by. We stopped by Watmough Bay, and I think we found another favorite spot. It has a fabulous beach, protection most of the way around, and it is a long shallow beach, so the water is warm-er. We had so much fun wandering around. The kids had fun running around too. Red Dog swam for a stick a couple of times and Roxi almost followed him. We definitely will be back to this one!!!  Chef Shine made yummy tri-tip and garlic potatoes. mmm What a sunset..

August 14th, 2010 Saturday, pirate party

We went o Costco and bought some beer for the next weeks vacation. We also bought some raviolis for the pot luck this evening before the party at the Elks club. We took showers and went and played at the puppy park with the kids.  It was husbands first time at the park, and he had fun playing with all the toys. We made plans for our departure in the morning, and decided laundry early and leave by noon, with the tide. Today is dress like a pirate day, so I got to wear my 'stuff'. The raviolis were a hit, by the time we got up to the table there were 3 left. We each took one, and left one for someone else. The party at the Elks Club started at 7ish. Dang it was soo hot in there. They opened the front and back doors to cool it off, and that wasn't working, it was still probably 25* hotter inside. Good thing they had the beer garden next door. That's where most of us pirates hung out. It was fun, we met a couple that lives in Canada for 6 months, and 6 months in Florida on their catamaran. We decided to call it a night around 9:30ish and head back to the boat. We had fun.   bunkmate

August 13th, 2010 Friday, Typical friday the 13th

I woke up this morning to the Captain banging around up top with the anchor. We were rolling pretty good, and I could tell the wind was  rippin' pretty hard. I was trying to see if I could fall back to asleep once we got underway, when the Captain hollard down below "Hey!! I could use some help up here, RIGHT NOW!!" So I come flying out of bed, Roxi goes flying, big eyeballs and everything. I'm grabbing a t-shirt as I come out of the v-berth, being bounced around pretty hard, and the first thing I noticed is the Captain does not have his life jacket on!!! ( I still let him know exactly how I feel about that ). As I'm grabbing our life vests, he says "take the helm". I get to the cockpit just in time to start heeling over. And he's headed below to put the keel all the way down. He says in passing "Maybe I shouldn't have put the Genoa all the way out." Here we are headed back to port in Anacortes. Headed through Thatcher Pass with an apposing wind, and a huge tide. A northerly wind with an incoming tide. This is a true test. I'm just saying's all.. It's wasn't so bad cutting across Rosario Strait, but once we got into Guemes Channel, the wind was coming out of the Bellingham Channel was heeling us over 20 degrees plus, again!
At one time on the trip over we were heeled over, tipping the genoa in the water, and getting water coming over the toe-rail. The kids were freaking out, Roxi was halfway in my lap, and HalfHitch was in the other side, and we were standing on the settee, everything was flying everywhere down below. What a ride!! We got into Cap Sante Boat Haven at 9ish. We took showers, got ice, and walked the kids all over, and goofed off or a while. The Latts and Atts party on the dock started early,they popped the kegs around 2ish, and the "crawl" started just after 4. We decided not to crawl , with the 5 or 7 people going. We decided to stay and drink free beer on the docks, with some rum and pepsi mixed in.    bunkmate

August 12th, 2010. Thursday, Spencer Spit

We headed out of Friday Harbor up the San Juan Channel through the Wasp Islands and had a fabulous sail in the West Sound. When we were headed out past Alegra Island, there was a seal jumping clear out of the water. She was having a ball, and we were too, watching her. After that we headed through Harney Channel, down into the Lopez Sound to Spencer Spit. We anchored on the north side of the tip by Frost Island. We took zipper to the beach and it was almost high tide. The water was just starting to run into the spit. It was cool to watch the water spill in. The beach was sandy, most of the beaches are pebbles. Wow, some places are more beautiful, but just in a different way. It was pretty packed on both sides, and we have an early departure in the morning, I don't think the Captain will get much sleep.   bunkmate

August 11th, 2010, Wednesday. Captain Careys birthday

It's Carey/Captain/Husband/Best friend 's birthday, he just wants wants to have a chillax day. We started the foggy morning slow. We decided to take the kids potty, get some ice and have an early lunch. It was pretty cool, so the b'day boy made some warm bagel sandwiches, and we sat around and drank some beer and waited for happy hour at Dos Diablos, to have some hot wings, and throw our peanuts on the floor. Best wings we've found in a looong time. mmmm Pretty uneventful, but that's what the Captain ordered!!

August 10, 2010 Tuesday, Menke whales

Today is my sister Robin's b'day. Today's plan is to head out through Mosquito Pass, into Haro Strait, and around into the Strait of Juan De Fuca. To see if we can find me some whales to look at, from our own boat. They like to hang around out off shore at Lime Kiln Park, There sure were a bunch of people hanging out on shore there. The water was pretty flat, which means little or no wind, and the tide was going with us, so we tacked out to sea to get some headway. Before we knew it we were almost to Canada, so we tacked back towards the San Juan Channel. We seen a couple of porpoises and seals, no whales, I'm beginning to think its just a ploy to get people to come up here... We were almost to Cattle Point, when we noticed 3 Whale Watcher boats come out of the San Juan Channel. They stopped, so we decided to go check out what we could see. They were all in a row and turned back towards us. We were almost there when I saw my first whale. It was a Minke whale. There was a couple of them. It appeared they were feeding. One came fairly close to us. We had the best seat in the sea. Ha ha. They would come up for air like 3 times, then dive for a few minutes. One of the boats came over by us, and the Minkes came up right where they were. I finally got to see some whales. Minkes are almost as big as Orcas, but they have a small dorsal in over half the way down their back. We were the last to leave and head to shore. The current was ripping through Cattle Pass.

Our hull speed is 7 knots, and we were going 10 knots at one point. It was like riding the rapids. After we made it through we saw a huge sea lion. That sucka was huge!!! He was almost as big as Simplicity, and shes 28ft, tip to tip. We decided to head to Friday Harbor, and see what was going on there. We anchored out, and took zipper in. The kids really like to go for a ride in zipper to go potty, and they get so many comments on their cute life vests. We got to do a bunch of anchor tests this time. This big green eye-sore has a magnetic pull. Every time you drop the anchor, it pulls you right towards it. We reset the anchor 4 times. aaarrg.   bunkmate

August 9th, 2010.. Monday part 2, garlic, sausage,artichoke, fettuccine

We checked everything out and decided to take showers, etc. tomorrow. Two slips down the music started. It was pretty cool listening to them sing all the old songs,,, like me. While we walked around and ate our ice cream we watched some people getting wedding pix taken all over town. Back at Simplicity the Captain stayed busy making some polish sausages with fettuccine garlic, artichoke, and bagel bread for diner mmmmm. We ate up in the cockpit listening to the music. What a fabulous day.   bunkmate

August 9th, 2010,, Monday, ginormous ice creams

What a wonderful night.. Today we are going to head for Roche Harbor.  It was a nice motor over, we saw some porpoises, and have decided to call the seals, Lucy/Lucille, as in loose seal, haha,,. We swung by Jones Island for a potty break. The Captain took the kids to shore in zipper, and I circled around the harbor a couple of times, dodging the boats coming and going. The Captain rowed  back out, I picked-em-up, and we headed across the San Juan Channel to Speiden Channel. I was looking through the binox at Speiden Island and saw a pair of bald eagles. One was eating something on the ground, and the other was waiting on a rock not far away. As we turned to go into Roche Harbor it started to rain. We called ahead on the VHF and they assigned us slip 34. Two young dock boys were there to assist us in our slip. The docks were way up out of the water. It was only a step over, not a step down, to the docks. They are really nice docks. The Captain bought us an ice cream cones, and they had so much ice cream on then it took like a 1/2 an hour to eat them!! They had a nice patch of lawn for the kids to potty, right by some cool yard art.    bunkmate

August 8th, 2010.. Sunday, no hurries, no worries

Snoring Bay

When I woke up this morning, I couldn't believe how many boats had already left Echo Bay, by 10am'ish. It was a full house when we got here yesterday. We decided to go for a walk on Sucia Island, over to Fossil Bay to see if there were any open mooring buoys open. When we came in to shore the tide was coming in, so we didn't want to leave zipper for too long. We were over half the way across Sucia Island when Captain Carey decided it was time t go back and check zipper. So he headed back, so the kids and I kept going. Wow, what a beautiful place this is. I saw 3 mooring balls open when we came around the meadow just before the bay. So we were just shy of power walking to get back and tell the Captain our findings, when I noticed that HalfHitch (red dog / old man) was limping, his poor feet, so we slowed to just a fast walk, and he quit limping. If we got one, we got one, no big deal, no hurries, no worries. As it turned out we were on our way over to Fossil Bay when we saw an opening in Snoring Bay, so we snagged it. So we hopped in zipper and headed over to Fossil Bay to pay our $10.00 for 1 night. What a wonderfully fabulous place this is. The sun came out, I have my umbrella for the sun, and the Captain is in the galley cooking up something to go with the ribs he's grilling, mmm yummy, delicious ribs,,,   bunkmate

Saturday, August 7th, 2010, sailing in the rain

We woke up to the drizzling rain, and just got wet air. We contemplated about just staying in port, but I decided 'that's not what we came on vacation for', an if we are going to do this forever, we better get used to being wet... So we stowed, and set out for Sucia Island, via the Strait of Georgia. I stayed below and made some bagels sandwiches with honkin pieces of jalapenos. While I was down below the Captain was up top getting soaked in his winter gear. I went and got him one of the plastic ponchos out of the head, and that seemed to be the ticket. He didn't get any wetter, hmm, now we know. I came up top to relieve the Captain so he could 'check the head'  Then it quit raining,,, So I skippered the rest of the way. It was still kinda foggy the rest of the way. We cruised past fossil bay, but it appeared all the buoys were taken, all 16 of them, as were the 2 in Snoring Bay. So we decided Echo Bay was going to be our spot for the night. The beach was fabulous, rocky, but great for 'on and off' potty breaks. We anchored out,, lots of boats. We kept hearing huge splashes, and we finally saw what was making the splashes, a seal, the cute little bugga's they are. So cute.  bunkmate

August 8th, 2010,, friday. new breakaway pin

O.K. So we got to Anacortes just in time to figure out everything that we forgot,,, my hat, my deck shoes (I thought we left them on the boat), puppy food, and that's just what we found today. This morning-or-weekend, there is an artist fair that blocks all the streets, it's kinda cool, they block all the streets just for us, to check out every one's artwork, every week time we come up.. We started the morning going over to Cap Sante Marine, to hoist Simplicity out to properly fix the breakaway pin. Plus the Captain put a swing line on just in case!!! I got to go for a ride in zipper (the new dinghy) for the first time, it was fun. We are planning on heading out first thing in the morning to the Sucia Islands, woohoooo..... For tonight's entertainment we got to listen to the band, from Simplicity's cockpit. And watch a drunk naked man run around his boat while his girlfriend tried tried to get him back inside,,, haha been there, done that. Lets see what tomorrow brings..   bunkmate

Vacation Logs

I kept a journal of our vacation. It's going to take some time to get all of the vacation down, with the work factor. With all the challenges we had,, some days were longer than others, and some were more fun than others, but every one of them were an adventure, and every one of them were spent together, and every one of them were fun.    bunkmate

We Made It

Well we made it through the first week, survived the Latts & Atts party, and are getting ready to head out for another week of sailing. We haven't seen any Orcas yet, but not for a lack of trying though. We did see some Menke Whales, They are the size of Orcas, but they have a little dorsal fin, farther down the back. When you hear them breathe, you have to take a deep breath with them, it's pretty cool. We have seen a bunch of seals, (we call them Lucy, short for Lu-seal.. haha). We saw a seal goofing off, jumping clean out of the water, she was having a ball. We also saw a huge sea lion,, I swear it was almost as big as Simplicity!!! We celebrated the Captain's birthday in Friday Harbor, having some delicious wings at Dos Diablos. More later, It's time to go sailing.....





 

Playing Tetrus

We are down to the wire. All our planning and provisioning is fast approaching. The Captain took the new dinghy out to Emigrant Lake yesterday, with the kids, and tested out the rowing ability and tested the motor. Both features passed the test. Or should I say three, because the kids enjoyed the ride with their new life vests. The hard floor works great with their little toenails,except we are probably going to need a towel to lay down so they have some gription. They don't like to slide too much. We are going to be packing the car all week, cause we got allot of stuff to take with us, with limited space. But we didn't play tetrus all those years for nothing. I have faith in the Captain, he's pretty good about getting allot of things to fit in little places. We also need to find some kind of bag to pack the oars and floor for the dinghy. The Grey whale that has been hanging around the islands, washed up on shore in Rosario Straight last week. The whale watcher blog said, that most of the time when they spend allot of time up there, they are coming up there to die. It probably didn't help that the transient Orcas attacked it every time it went into deep water. So it will be interesting to see the carcass, and just get a feel of how huge they are, and the greatness of their being. All the things that we have been planning, are going to be going on in the next weeks to come,       bunkmate 

We Made It! ... San Jaun Islands or Bust

 Our ultimate goal is to get to a point where we can live the free (not carefree as we will probably work harder but it will be for us) lifestyle of being full time live aboard cruisers on a sailing vessel with all of the trials and adventures that it brings, good and bad ... but we have worked so very hard to get to this stepping stone that it feels like quite an accomplishment in itself just to get here for now. We have had to dig ourselves out of a tremendous hole of debt and stress just to be able to by an old boat. Then spend two years fixing it up, learning to sail, buying safety equipment all while continuing to work ourselves out of the hole of what we thought was the "American Dream". Now we own the boat, our truck, and all other possessions other than a small car payment and are working on "OUR DREAM" ... to be debt free and living free! So anyway that brings me to the San Juans which has been our intended first step to dippin' a toe in the cruiser lifestyle since the beginning. We have our boat, our dinghy, everything to be self reliant and are heading to the Islands for 17 days ... no time schedule nowhere we have to be, just drop the hook when it feels right and leave when were ready ... woohoo!

  The San Juan Islands are a sunken mountain range full of incredible beauty, history, adventure and a little danger if your not careful. The currents and reefs require some careful navigation as we learned on our first trip up a few weeks ago which we have had time to evaluate and learn from. We are now ready to take this wonderful step on our voyage to "Freedom in Simplicity".


Capt. Carey

Wow! is that awesome or what ... although I think I'd rather be in the sailboat!

Dinghys ... besides Heather!

 Our last trip to the San Juans was fantastic, but one drawback was having to be lashed to docks that are sometimes hard to get anywhere close to as they are very busy. We had to be able to get the pooches to shore for potty breaks so we ended up staying in marinas or public docks which does take a lot of the serenity and adventure out of the picture. It was still a blast mind you, shopping and wandering around the little island towns but we felt a little restricted to where we could go on any given day and had to follow a schedule of some sort.
 So began the research into what you would think is a fairly simple decision but we wanted something that would fit our needs now but would not be wasted money and be an investment that would also be what we need when we go cruising. When you will be living on a 35 foot boat in the middle of nowhere and think of all the supplies that have to be carried onboard for safety as well as convenience there are so many factors to consider ... weight, storage, ease of set up and on and on as this is basically your car that will be used for transportation to shore but also to transport provisions, fuel and water from shore in what can be some extremely remote areas.

  We love the hard sailing dinghys and may end up carrying both an inflatable and a hard sailing dinghy as well as an inflatable kayak from Advanced Elements at some point but opted for a solid wood floor panel inflatable because it is stable, durable and simple although a little heavier and harder to assemble than some of the options. We also chose to go with a quality make from Achilles in the Hypalon material which stands up much better to the brutal tropical sun than a cheaper PVC inflatable.

  OK, well I am going dingy thinking about dinghys so I think I will have some coffee with Heather ... my favorite dingy.

Captain Out

4th of July

We spent the morning going to the farmers market that just happens to be right outside the Boat Haven. Then we went to the parade that just happened to be, again, right outside the Boat Haven. the rest of the day was spent wandering around the marina, and the area outside. We found a store just up the street, called 'The Market'. I want to work there if I get the opportunity, so I can get a discount. They have the coolest stuff in that store. The captain spent most of the afternoon re-organizing Simplicity. I did some laundry, and stuff. We went for a putt out in Fidalgo Bay, just outside Cap Sante. The fireworks were being set off over Fidalgo Bay. We had the best seat in the house, our own cockpit.Tomorrow sailing. The Captain out-did himself with the dinner he made. mmmmmm. bunkmate