If I’m sitting in a living room the trip must be over. The marina that I moved out of in May has saved a spot for me on the docks they use for brokering Pacific Seacraft sales.  PS was my dream boat at one time in my younger days. I used to imagine getting into such a beast and sailing around the world. They’re sturdy, heavy boats. The boat I ended up with is just as sturdy, but less heavy.

I have a long list of maintenance that needs doing in the coming months. Nothing is dire, hopefully. The work started today with disassembly of the cockpit sole. It was starting to come apart on its own, so I need to bring some clamps and epoxy out to the boat to reassemble it properly. 

The wind generator needs work, the watermaker needs work, the sail drive needs work, and the list goes on. 

But that’s what what comes from using a boat. Or from not using it. To be any kind of boat owner, it helps to enjoy working on boats. 

That’s what’s left of this trip: the cleanup and repair work. This blog, however, is done. 

Before I close I’d like to send warm thanks to the Quijote crew for this trip. In order of appearance, they are Matt, Chuck, and Sapna. Thank you guys. I couldn’t have done it without you.

Thank you also to our loyal Following of readers. You guys are obviously an essential part of any blogging effort. I so appreciate that you find this drivel interesting enough that it’s worth coming back to day after day. It helps, I’m sure, to keep these posts short. So it is in that spirit that I bid you farewell, until the next trip, wherever that may be (I have no clue yet). 

COW

 Todays breakfast is as much about texture as flavor. We have the smoothness of cream of wheat, the milkiness of yogurt, the slimy peaches, crunchy nuts, and leathery raisins. All competing in a cacophony of sensations. It’s no wonder I love cream of wheat.

I’m eating to the sound of a motor yacht warming its engine, grinding its bow thruster. Ahh, life in the marina.

Lawn mowers or bow thrusters, take your pick. 

Our last night out is behind us here in Kingston. We’ll stop in Shilshole to top up the fuel tanks, then head through the locks toward Lake Union. The marching band is tuning their instruments. 

Welcome, give us your eggs

 Back in the USA! It took us more that an hour to figure out how to get though customs in Friday Harbor. The customs dock is no longer manned. That’s the way of things these days. There is a phone box though. When you pick up it dials someone somewhere. Bangalore? Maybe not. They spoke fluent Canadian whomever it was. They told me to pay for a clearance decal on line, then apply for entry with their app. So, pay online, download the app, create an account, apply for entry, then wait half an hour while an agent thinks about granting entry. Then wait some more. Finally they call, ask about our food stores.  We’re okay except for two eggs. Oh you have eggs! Well, wait there. An agent will arrive to collect them. So after all that, we have to wait to see someone in person anyway!? What’s the point of all those hoops if you end up having to look someone in the eyes?

In the end it was fairly pain free. The customs dock is convenient and well marked. The agent came by, gave us a brochure, took the eggs, and we were on our way. 

From Friday Harbor we crossed San Juan Channel to Park’s Bay, a convenient, quiet cove with no shore access

Tonight we’ll have tacos, tomorrow we’ll eat up our leftovers. And that will be it. Tomorrow is our last night on the boat before this adventure comes to an end. Where did ten weeks go?

in Payne

They keep predicting 10-20 kt winds in the afternoon, but we're not seeing it. Most of the day was less than 5.

We're in Payne tonight. It's a small cove around the corner from Montague Hbr.

After anchoring we started to wonder about the big dock on shore. It has the look of a public dock, complete with a Canadian flag and small boats tied up to it. But there is no signage that I could see either encouraging or discouraging entry from the water. So I jumped in the dinghy and paddled over for a look. At first I saw nothing, but when I paddled around to the other side of the dock, a small sign said it was a private dock for owners only. It sounds like a time share / vacation property with boats the owners can use.

After paddling back to the boat I set up the shower on the aft deck. It felt really good to rinse off. The last couple of days have been hot hot hot. The mosquitoes have been loving it.

Chuck is making shrimp jambalaya for dinner tonight. And of course w we can't let this box of wine go to waste. The last of the apple pie too.

Sent from my rgPhone

Georgia Glass

We're in Mark Bay tonight, the anchorage for Nanaimo Harbour. We got an early start this morning expecting the wind to kick up in the afternoon. The wind is good for powering the sails but, speaking from experience, makes the crossing of Georgia Strait much rougher. That strait has a lot of fetch.

We appear to have timed the crossing well. It was glassy calm the whole way - eight hours across. Then as soon as we got to the anchorage the wind started up. It's not blowing now as hard as it was, but boats are still being pushed around.

Mark Bay is one of the busier bays in the Canadian Gulf Islands. Water taxis, float planes, boats coming and going, and dinghies constantly under foot. Chuck estimates 75 boats are tied to mooring balls or anchored in this bay. We chose to anchor to spare us the dinghy ride to shore to pay for a mooring ball.

Tonight we're having Rigatoni Bolognese - a pressure cooker concoction. It's rattling as we speak.

The following photos were shared by Matt, Chuck, Sapna. And a few are mine. Apologies for losing track of ownership for specific photos. 

Rod and Sapna

Matt's

Shearwater

Kay visits Quijote and goes to work

Kevin getting sorted

Quijote in Captain's Cove

Relax!

Chuck looking unconvinced

Crossing the Strait of Georgia

We did see blue skies now and then

Quijote

Departing Dol Bay

Another pleasant evening

Wait… Chuck got all this meat...

From this catch...

With this fish?!

Kicking back in the Haida Gwaii hot springs

Isn't this supposed to be summer?

Must be Good

Today was a slog: forty miles, eight hours, no wind, hazy warm day. Generally scenic, but not much to look at compared to previous days.

We're in Dol Bay tonight, so named because the chart has a dolphin identified and it's abbreviated Dol. The dolphin no longer exists. I wonder what it's original use was: as a mooring post or part of an old dock perhaps.

We dropped the anchor a couple hundred feet from a smooth surfaced madrona tree (Chuck calls them Arbutus trees; he's a forestry engineer so he gets to use the genus names where the rest of us have to use common names) that was close to shore. We set the anchor as we always do, then backed Quijote toward the tree. We quit spooling out chain when the stern was about fifty feet from shore and the depth was 25'. I left the shifter in reverse to keep the boat steady while Chuck rowed in the dinghy toward the tree. As he rowed, I spooled out the stern line and tag line from the boat. When he got to shore he hit the beach with three lines: stern line, tag line and dinghy painter. Doing his best not to get lines tangled in oars, he clambered up the beach, anchored the dinghy, and continued on up to the madrona tree, dodging bullets and shrapnel while lobbing his grenades. He passed the stern line around the tree and then tied the tag line to it. With that done, I was free to start hauling on the tag line from the boat, which pulled the end of the stern line back to the boat, where it was tied to the aft quarter. Then I hauled all the slack out of the stern line and cleated it to the other aft quarter. Chuck rowed back to the boat and snubbed the anchor while I re-spooled the tag line and stored it away. Easy peasy. In the morning we we can pull the stern line free without getting off the boat.

Dinner tonight was bbq'd sausages with potatoes and broccoli. I like bbq grilled sausages smothered in deli mustard and mashed potatoes smothered in butter, pepper and sour cream. Some meals are just meant to be smothered.

This anchorage has turned into a four alarm zoo. There's a disturbing mix of stern tied and non-stern tied boats.

Thankfully, as one of the boats that's tied close to shore, we're out of the fray, watching all the goings on. Chuck and I did our anchoring rather smartly (if we do say so ourselves), providing little entertainment for those that were already here. The boats that came in afterward were not so selfish. Anchor out, anchor in, bow thruster?! Stern line out, stern line in anchor out anchor in. Meanwhile, the "mariner" next to us set his anchor under his boat with 1:1 scope. I guess if you're confident in getting through the night with zero wind, why not? He hasn't moved so far; it must be good.

Shrooms

We're under way to Cortes Bay. We enjoyed shore time in Campbell River over the last couple of days. Restaurants and showers. After provisioning, we spent some time yesterday cleaning the boat. The floors and galley where especially dirty. No more. Quijote is feeling squeaky clean and her larders are restocked for our final week.

We started early this morning to allow us to exit Discovery Channel before the ebb tide made the exit difficult.

There was a little bit of wind that we might have made use of if I'd been more optimistic. I didn't expect to keep it once we started to thread our way through the islands. We might get another chance over the next couple of days as the wind is expected to be blowing 10-20 from the northwest while we make our way south.

We have mushroom risotto on the menu for dinner tonight. The truth is we have butternut squash risotto on the menu, but we settled on mushrooms when we couldn't find squash. So mushroom risotto it is.