Sailing Pearl

La Cruz de Huanacaxtle (December 2011)

2012-01-04T13:48:00.000-08:00

We arrived in Banderas Bay in early December and proceeded directly to La Cruz de Huanacaztle where we anchored among about 35 other boats. We felt right at home here since there were 3 other boats from our marina in Olympia and many other friends whom we had met along the way. Our plan was to stay in the bay through Christmas then continue south as far as Manzanillo before we have to turn around and start working our way north toward the Sea of Cortez again.

Brother Gene and Bob making up lost time

The girls were overjoyed (as were we) to spend time with our friends from Andiamo III, who have been here for over a year! The town is a wonderful beachside community with cobblestone streets, friendly people, great local restaurants, open air markets, and a large modern marina full of cruisers like us. The local population and the cruisers live together in harmony and to each other's benefit.
My sister, Diane and her friend Laurie were escaping the NW cold in mid December by visiting Nuevo Vallarta. Lucky for us, we were nearby and able to spend some time with them. They even took our girls back to their hotel for a "girls night" of fun, food, and t.v.. We had a nice dinner out at Paradise village that night. The next day we had a wonderful day of sailing around Banderas Bay.

Diane and Lori join us for a day sail around Banderas Bay

The remainder of our time here was spent playing on the beach, shopping, enjoying nightly happy hours, and dinghy sailing. We had a great time on Christmas Eve and Day hanging out with the crew of Andiamo III, Endeavor, Harmony, WadesAweigh, and Serendipity.

The anchorage at La Cruz

The girls joined the Christmas carolers on the docks

It was a wonderful Christmas morning (note all decorations are home made).

Our plans were to leave La Cruz on December 29, but we have come to know that God laughs when we make "plans". On our way out of town, our engine raw water pump started leaking and burned up a bearing. We limped back into the anchorage and immediately started searching for parts. Thanks to our wonderful friends on Endeavor and WadesAweigh (and their wonderful friends and family) we were able to locate and have our parts delivered within just a few days.
Next stop...Chamela

2011-12-13T09:26:00.000-08:00

Nov 23-Dec2 2011

Thanksgiving

La Paz has grown on us as we continue to discover more treasures around town. The public mercados (indoor farmers markets) have excellent meat, fish, and produce for a fraction of what it would cost back in the States and we are hooked on the fresh tortillas. We were able to provision for a grand Thanksgiving feast on board Pearl. We opted for a quiet family meal rather than the grand cruisers Thanksgiving gathering (which turned out to be good since it was a little hectic, hot, and they ran out of food.
We made a whole chicken filled with stuffing on the bbq, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes with marshmellows, all the trimmings, and fresh pumpkin pie from the oven. We actually had time to give thanks and consider all the blessings that we are graced with. We settled in for family movie time and although we missed being with extended family, it turned out to be one of our best Thanksgivings.

This is how Salty deals with the boat healing 20 degrees

Our plan to leave La Paz a day later were delayed when a classic “norther” blew down the Sea of Cortez with winds of up to 35 knots. We stayed at the marina 2 extra nights and left on the 27th for a planned 6 hour sail to investigate and anchor at Isla Espiritu Santo and it’s many beautiful bays. Unfortunately the norther had not completely died out and we found ourselves bashing into 30 kt headwinds and giving the boat a saltwater bath. We attempted to anchor in three different bays but even the most protected bays did not provide shelter from the wind and the holding for the anchor was poor. At one point we tried using two 60 lb. anchors and a 9 to 1 scope but we still drug anchor on a rocky bottom covered by a thin layer of sand. We ended up giving up on Espiritu Santo and sailed over to Bahia Falsa and at 9 p.m., anchored in much better shelter and holding.

Passage South

The next day we continued to journey south to make our way to La Cruz and Nuevo Vallarta to meet with friends and family. Our first stop was Ensenada de los Muertos, a beautiful bay that we had stopped at two weeks before on our way to La Paz. Here we met up with the crew of Endeavor and Harmony (both were neighbors from Washington) and spent the evening catching up with their adventures.

Annie catches an inflated porcupine fish at los Muertes

We departed early the next morning for a two day/night sail across the mouth of the Sea of Cortez to Chacala on the mainland side of Mexico. The passage was totally calm and we motored the whole way. We had spectacular sunrises and sunsets and thousands of dolphins to keep us company, but we had no luck fishing.

Dolphins at our bow during our passage to Chacala

Thousands of dolphins swimming, jumping, and playing in the middle of the ocean.

Beautiful sunrise on our passage.

Dec 2 - Dec 12

Chacala

We pulled into the bay at Chacala right at sunrise after our second night at sea. As we were anchoring we see a long poly rope dragging from our boat. We immediately cut the engine to avoid it getting any further tangled with our prop. We were all exhausted and it was calm so we skipped backing down on the anchor and got some shut eye and would have to dive later to see how much of a mess we would have wrapped up on the propeller.
Later that day I dove to find that the rope was a long fishing line and attached to a half sunken float. When we ran over this submerged obstacle it skipped past our prop and wrapped on the rudder and skeg and was easy to remove. What a relief!

We have left the arid, dry deserts of Baja and arrived in the rich, coconut tree strewn beaches of the Mexican jungle. Chacala is a small beach town with one cobblestone road, shops with handmade items, and palapa restaurants lining the beautiful sandy beach. This was our kind of town. Not much English spoken here, and our dog was welcome in every restaurant and coffee shop (many with sand floors). The locals are happy and welcoming and very patient with our broken attempts at Spanish. We spent 3 nights here and did Christmas shopping, awesome boogie boarding, beach combing, hit the local coffee shop, and really enjoyed the 280 peso/liter beer (that’s 2 dollars) at the beach front restaurants. We will definitely be back here again.

The walk from the dinghy landing to the beach and town

Shari and Salty along "Main street" in Chacala.

The crew of Pearl enjoying an afternoon cerveza at one of our favorite beachside palapa restaurants with Pearl in the background.

Best latte in Mexico

Puerto Balandra to La Paz - November 18-23

2011-11-23T13:02:00.000-08:00

We had a nice motorsail from Ensenada de los Muertos to Puerto Balandra. The pictures in our cruising guide had enticed us to visit this anchorage. We figured the pictures had been touched up, because no place could be that beautiful. Well, the photos were spot on. This place was truly amazing! The light aqua water that led into light green, clear water. The snorkeling was fantastic! The coral was very much alive with greens, yellows, and pinks. We saw bunches of trumpetfish and needlefish, porcupine fish (Annie even found a dead washed up one on the beach with her foot- ouch!), king angelfish, panamic sergent major,various wrasse, and bunches of sea urchin. We even saw a tiger snake eel washed up at low tide. (can you tell we recently purchased a fish guide?!) It was almost perfect at this anchorage. The only issue with it here was the open exposure to weather. We had some wind and more importantly, waves from the SW entering this anchorage which made for some pretty rolly days and evenings. Our anchor held us just great though, so we weren't too bothered.

Paradise!

Many times we have the beach to ourselves.

After 3 nights of rolling around at anchorage, it was time to move on. Besides, we were out of milk, tortillas, and beer. We headed over to the lovely town of La Paz and anchored in the bay for the first night. We were able to get a spot at one of the local marinas for the rest of our time here(Marina de la Paz). We plan to leave the day after Thanksgiving and visit some more of the beautiful anchorages around this area. While in La Paz we've been able to reprovision. We walked a ways to the local "Mega" store. There we were able to find most everything we needed. (and one thing we didn't- a headache from the pulsating techno music blasting from the electronics section of the store!). We've enjoyed seeing the town and visiting a couple of public mercados, coffee shops, local book store, and beautiful Cathedral. Unfortunately, we haven't been to good about taking photos while in la Paz. We'll try to get some today.

Enjoying coffee, cookies, and internet at a local coffee shop.

Ensenada to Ensenada de los Muertos

2011-11-17T10:33:00.000-08:00

Ensenada November 2-5

We were able to check into Mexico without a hitch. We had planned to stay here only 2 nights but strong winds were forcasted for the next day, so we stayed one extra night. The cold front provided a good blow and a lot of rain, but we made the best of it by getting the kids homeschool done and swimming in the indoor pool. We were itching to get south, so off we went on the 5^th.

Grey whale swimming formation with us outside of Ensenada

Ensenada to Bahia Tortugas November 5-7

We had great wind and were able to sail much of the time on this passage. It turned out to be a very eventful trip. Not long after leaving Ensenada, we heard what sounded like a loud release of pressure. Upon investigation, we found a 40ft grey whale swimming right beside us! It practically touched our hull! That really made our day. The next day while cleaning the decks, Bob found a small squid on deck. The girls promptly asked if they could discect it. Yummy! They had a ball looking at all the different parts of this creature. About an hour outside of Bahia Tortugas (Turtle Bay), we started trailing a fishing line in hopes of catching dinner. It couldn’t have been more than 20 minutes after we splashed the line when we got a bite! We had caught a beautiful 25 lb. Yellow tail tuna! We had a most delicious bar-b-qued fish dinner . With the remainder of the tuna, we made ourselves a huge supply of poke (raw fish with soy sauce, green onion, ginger, sesame oil, onion, and ginger). It was sooo good and lasted us a few days (I think that’s all Bob ate for 3 days straight-he was in heaven!). Our stay in Bahia Tortugas was quite brief as we were focused on sailing South. We were entertained by dolphins in the anchorage the one night we stayed there.

Bahia Tortugas to Bahia De Magdalena November 8-11

We were again able to sail much of the time. At one point in our passage we had fairly steep beam seas and a strong quarter beam wind. Not the most comfortable ride, but what can you do, right? Luckily that only lasted for about 6 hours. On this passage we caught another yellow tail. It was much smaller, about 12 pounds, and we stupidly let it go, due to the copious amounts of fish we still had. Well, wouldn’t you know, within the next few days we ended up losing 3 of our lures, and therefore putting a hold on our fishing. We are waiting to get to La Paz where we can resupply ourselves with fishing accessories. The day before arriving at Mag Bay, we were graced with the appearance and show of 4 beautiful Orcas. They were putting on quite a show, jumping out of the water and flopping on their backs. It looked as though one was a young calf. They swam right under our boat and then off into the sunset. What a treat! The morning we began entering Magdalena Bay, Shari was on watch at sunrise when she and Salty heard very strange noises. It sounded like numerous kids doing belly flops in the water near our boat. When they looked closer they saw bunches of rays jumping out of the water and “splat!” landing flat on the water. They continued their show from 5:30-6:30am. Absolutely amazing! Luckily Bob saw it, but the girls were fast asleep and missed it.

We were anchored in Magdalena Bay by 7:30am and on the beach shortly after. The air was so warm as well as the water. The beach was covered in shells and various bones from sharks, whales, and dolphins. We all enjoyed it here, especially Salty! He hadn’t been on shore since Ensenada and had loads of energy to burn off. We stayed here about 36 hours. Our next passage took us around and past Cabo San Lucas to a lovely bay called Los Frailes.

Evening watch handoff at sea

Magdalena Bay to Los Frailes November 11-14

The passage was quite uneventful. We began seeing more traffic (other pleasure boats and large ships) as we came closer to Cabo San Lucas. We were more than happy to pass right on by Cabo and all of its bright city lights. Los Frailes was a wonderful sight when we arrived. The water was warmer than we could believe and the most beautiful clear aqua color. People were jumping in off their boats all over the bay. Of course, Bob had to join in on the fun. The sand was warm and welcoming. We played for hours there. We all got some snorkel time in too. There were numerous types of tropical fish swimming with us as well as pelicans diving in for a snack. There was even a dog fish swimming around us. He had black and gray spots all over as well as 4 legs! Salty always has to be near us, even when we’re out swimming. At night we pointed a flashlight into the water and were blown away by how many fish were swimming around us. They had glowing orange eyes that made the water look like it was on fire when the light shined on them. It’s been getting dark quite early here which has been great for star gazing. Bob and I took Salty for a walk on the beach our last night here and for fun we brought some wine. Salty had a great time as always playing with his Frisbee as Bob and I enjoyed an excellent night of stargazing. There were soooo many stars out, it was almost impossible to find the constellations!

Los Frailes to Ensenada De Los Muertos November 15…

We left Los Frailes early in the morning to arrive at Los Muertos in the daylight. We had a nice passage motor sailing the whole way. We aren’t sure how long we’ll stay here, but it will probably be for a couple of nights. There’s a resturaunt here with internet, so we’re definitely taking advantage of that. After this we will slowly make our way north to La Paz, stopping on the way at some beautiful anchorages. We will update the blog again once in La Paz. We hope everyone is doing well back home. Our love to you all.

Bob's prize catch outside of Turtle Bay

Our attempts at making sushi while underway to Bahia Magdalena.

Annie doing a cannonball of the boat at Los Frailes.

Marina Del Rey to San Diego 2011

2011-11-05T10:41:00.000-07:00

While in Marina Del Rey, Bob went to work, and Shari, Marcy, and the kids checked out the town. Venice Beach was a favorite. The girls had a great time playing on the beach. Sadly, Salty wasn't able to join us as they don't allow dogs on the beaches (lame!). Anyway, there was plenty there to amuse us without the dog. After catching some rays we headed over to the skate park. The skateboarders were unbelievable! We were all in awe of their talent. Next to that was the "roller disco" area. It's a good thing I didn't have my roller blades with me or I would have jumped in for some groovy fun and totally embarrased the girls! It was a great throwback watching these skaters shake their booties!

The girls had a blast playing near the rocks at Venice Beach.

In the background is one of the awesome skateboarders.

"Shake your groove thing, shake your groove thing, yeah baby..."

Marcy, Sydney, and Annie watching the skaters do their thing.

On one of the evenings Marcy generously took us girls out for a scrumptious dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. It was sooooooo good! I highly recommend the key lime cheesecake and vanilla bean cheesecake.

We were able to get a bit of work done on Pearl while here as well as a provisioning trip to Costco. We were so anxious for Bob to get home so we could get out on the big blue once again.

From Marina Del Rey we motored sailed to Santa Catalina Island. For the first 2 nights we anchored on the south side of the island in Catalina Harbor. We enjoyed the quiet, beautiful waters of the anchorage and also checked out the little "town" of Two Harbors. We happened to be there on the Lats and Atts Cruiser's Weekend. There was live music, informitive cruising seminars, and fantastic people. For the weekend we motored over to Isthmus Cove where the party was taking place. We met two especially wonderful families there; the Mather family (Jim, Emma, Phoebe, and Drake) who just returned from a 5.5 year cruise around the world on s/v Blue Sky and Dan, Donna, Avery, and Luke who own a beautiful Vagabond ketch that they plan to start cruising full time on next year. Sydney and Annie had such a great time playing with their kids and Bob and I loved meeting cruising families. Before we knew it, the party was over and it was time to move on. We moved to another anchorage on the north side of the island where Bob cleaned the hull, I mended our mizzen sail, Annie went kayaking, and we all relaxed with the quiet of the cove.

While at anchor in Catalina Harbor, a beautiful 3 masted ship pulled in and anchored near to us.

Annie did a fabulous job at the helm as we raised anchor and drove out of catalina Harbor.

The water at Isthmus harbor was so pristine. The color was absolutely brilliant and oh so clear.

Sydney and Annie had such a good time with their new friends, Phoebe and Avery.

It would have been wonderful to stay at Catalina Island longer, but we promised the girls some roller coaster fun, so to Newport we headed. We tied up to a bouy off of Balboa Island for 3 nights. Our first full day there we rented a car and made our way to Knotts Berry Farm. It was roller coaster heaven for the girls! We've never gone in so many circles or been hung upside down and twisted around so many times in one day! The rest of the time there was spent checking out and enjoying Newport and Balboa Island.

See that big loop behind Bob and the girls? Well, that was the funnest ride at the park! The pictures can't do it justice.

This ride was called the Boomerang. It loops around a bunch of times and then reverses. Crazy ride!

This was one of our favorite rides. The "cars" spin around as you cruise along the tracks of the roller coaster.

Everyone loves Snoopy!

From Newport we headed straight down to San Diego. We had a lot to do before entering into Mexico. Luckily we were there to see the Baja-Ha-Ha "ers" off. We are looking forward to catching up with some of them down the road. While in San Diego, we visited the Midway aircraft carrier museum. Having Bob there to show us around was great. Papa (Shari's dad) drove over from Phoenix to see us. He brought us all sorts of goodies to help us catch fish while in Mexico (we already have a great recipe for ahi poke-can't wait!). It was wonderful spending time with him. He was so very helpful in our reprovisioning. While anchored in both La Playa and Glorietta Bay, Bob was able to get some dinghy sailing in. We made great new friends and hooked up with old friends heading south. We spent Halloween here and the girls were able to re-supply themselves with an ample supply of candy.

The girls enjoyed playing "air boss" on the Midway.

The girls made friends with a couple of birds in San Diego.

Sydney dressed up as Aphrodite and Annie was a pirate for Halloween. Both the girls designed their costumes themselves.

Bob and Salty enjoying a beautiful San Diego evening.

Leaving today, November 5 for Turtle Bay, Mexico. We're not sure when we'll have internet again, but will try to update our blog when possible.

Mmmmmm. Fish tacos in Ensenada.

Santa Barbara and Channel Islands Harbor and Marina Del Rey(September 29-October 8)

2011-10-09T11:18:00.000-07:00

We unfortunately had to leave Santa Cruz Island, but luckily our next stop was Santa Barbara. Bob didn't get much time here as he needed to go to work. He had a three day trip so we girls hung out in Santa Barbara in the meantime. While there we did a lot of the necessary jobs like laundry and grocery shopping. Sydney and Annie really enjoyed the plentiful shopping along State St.. It was all fun, but we were more than ready to get to a slower paced location. We had hoped to head back to Santa Cruz Island (North side) and spend a few nights, but due to an incoming storm our plans changed. We ended up ducking into Channel Islands Harbor. Our 14th wedding anniversary fell on our first night at Channel Is. Harbor. We ended up treating ourselves to the most wonderful dinner at the local Brazilian restaurant, Moqueca. We highly recommend it! After that first night, the storm rolled in and with it rain and a strong gale. We were so happy to be sitting snug and safe in a slip at the harbor. Luckily the storm abated and we were able to head south once again. This time to Marina Del Rey. Bob once again had to leave on a trip. Thankfully this is his last one before his 6.5 month leave! Yahoooo!

Santa Cruz Island (September 25-29)

2011-10-09T11:01:00.000-07:00

Santa Cruz Island was a favorite stop for us. What an amazing anchorage. We were on the south side in a small anchorage. We had the beach all to ourselves! The water was the most beautiful aqua color and clear as can be. We were able to see our anchor set in 35ft of water. The water was fairly warm too. Bob got a lot of experience beaching the dinghy in surf. We all got wet a time or two (or 3 or 4).

Passage south past Pt. Conception (September 23-25)

2011-10-09T10:44:00.001-07:00

We departed Monterey Harbor in the afternoon of the 23rd. We started out in fog and little wind, but fortunately a little before midnight we were able to raise the sails. We originally had planned to pull into Morro Bay before going around Pt. Conception, but the conditions were perfect and we were anxious to get south. We were so fortunate to still have our faithful extra crewmember, Marcy, with us, which made this passage so much easier. The girls also helped out with watches. Sydney was on the 9pm till midnight watch with Bob and Annie did the "dawn watch" with Shari and then Bob. We continued on and had an uneventful passage. We were excited to visit the Channel Islands, and it worked perfectly for us to continue on to Santa Cruz Island.
Bob and Sydney on watch. Just joking! They're just resting before their watch.

Monterey (September 19-23)

2011-10-09T10:00:00.000-07:00

We had a fantastic sail to Monterey. The winds were perfect! We ended up getting a slip there to enable us to provision a little easier. This was another favorite stop for us. The beach next to the marina was perfect. The girls and Salty had a great time playing in the ocean (it was a little too cold for Bob and I!). The sand was so soft. It felt like sifted flour.

Another favorite at this stop was the proximity of Trader Joe's. It was a short walk away so we were able to stock up on our favorite TJ supplies. We adults also took turns renting bikes and checking out the area. The biking trails around here are fantastic.

Of coarse, no stop to Monterey is complete without a trip to the aquarium. We all had a great time there. Definitely one of the best aquariums we've ever been to.

The sea horse exhibition was wonderful. The girls took over the camera and had a blast taking oodles of pictures.
Our unanimous favorite at the aquarium was the bat rays. We all had the chance to feed and or pet the rays. What an amazing experience.

We were docked right next to the Wharf for our stay in Monterey.

Santa Cruz (September 15-19)

2011-10-05T12:51:00.000-07:00

Our passage from Half Moon Bay to Santa Cruz started a little rough with some of us feeling seasick but turned out great with a nice spinnaker run south.

We pulled into Santa Cruz in the early evening and anchored near the pier. The anchorage was very comfortable, but quite loud. The hundreds of sea lions under the pier barked continuously! While at anchor we had many curious sea lions and otters swim by us to "check us out". Salty was so interested in making friends with all of them. To get to shore it was a long dinghy ride. On the way to one of Salty's walks, Bob and Salty were escorted by dolphins. We came to find out just how much sea life there was in this bay. We saw dolphins, sea lions, seals, otters, and pelicans up close numerous times per day. We decided to move to the marina for a couple of nights to make accessing the shore easier. Our first outing after docking was the amusement park at the pier. The girls had a blast on a bunch of the rides. They even got Bob and I on a couple of roller coasters-yeehawww! We all had an absolute blast at the park!

While in Santa Cruz the weather was spectacular. Everyone seemed to be on the water while we were there. I've never seen so many people enjoying water activities (sailing, paddle boarding, surfing, boogie boarding, swimming, kayaking, fishing). This has been our favorite stop thus far.

Before moving onto Monterey, we briefly sailed over to Capitola which is just around the corner from Santa Cruz. We anchored out and dinghied ashore to enjoy the beach. Once on shore we saw the big signs saying "NO DOGS ON BEACH". Of course, this never sits well with us, but we made it work. We checked out the town (very quaint and cute) and then relaxed at the beach (Bob took Salty back to the boat). The wind picked up and the seas became a little sloppy so we chose to get back to the boat and hang out there for the rest of the time. Bob had to take Salty for his last walk of the day, so he dinghied to shore where Salty proceeded to heckle a sea lion (not the smartest dog). Eventually Bob got the dog to come back to him and they departed the beach.

Next stop...Monterey!

Half Moon Bay (September 12-15)

2011-10-05T12:34:00.000-07:00

We were blessed with a full moon at Half Moon Bay. It was a bit foggy/overcast during our stay, but that didn't stop us from enjoying the beach and town.

We didn't spend too much time here as we were very anxious to get south and to warmer, less overcast skies. Next stop...Santa Cruz.

2011-09-21T11:38:00.000-07:00

On September 7, Bob returned from Portland with our girls. They were so excited to be back on the boat and explore the town. We enjoyed checking out the city of Sausalito (shopping, eating ice cream, drinking coffee, hanging at the beach, paddleboarding, and playing with Salty).
We also made it into the city over the weekend. We took a ferry from Sausalito. We really enjoyed all the sights and sounds of the city. Our favorites, by far were all of the street performers. The girls even got the chance to make friends with an especially talented macaw (I think that's the bird we saw-no bird expert here!).

We sailed out of San Fransisco and back under the Golden Gate Bridge on Sept. 12. The wind was perfect and we had a brisk sail for the first few hours. Eventually the wind died and we started up the engine so we could get to Half Moon Bay before nightfall.

Port Angeles to San Fransisco

2011-09-09T08:02:00.000-07:00

Our offshore journey begins. On Aug 29 at 03:45a.m. we left the Port Angeles Boat Haven with our extra crewmembers, Marcy and Mark (we dropped off the girls at grandparents house in Portland and will fly them down to S.F. after we arrive). There was a forecast gale in central Straits of Juan de Fuca and strong westerly winds expected near Neah Bay for the afternoon so we started early to avoid a rough ride.

The Crew

Mark, also known as "Sir Charge Alot" did a great job juggling and charging his electronic gadgets while on board. He is a wonderful sailing asset and great friend.
Marcy (Shep) is another great friend and sailor and was the primary mediator on board (our shepard).
Shari (The Provider) and Bob (Sir Fixalot)
Salty (Sir Poopsalot) was in charge of entertainment and distractions. Seen here in his superhero costume (it started going to his head)
We motorsailed into light headwinds all the way past Tatoosh Island and turned south on the open ocean in the early afternoon as the low overcast gave way to sunshine and orcas surfaced to wish us a good voyage.
4 hr watches were established with 1 hr overlap so no one was alone more than 2 hrs. At midnight the north wind filled in and we shut down the engine and were able to sail at 6 kts under headsail alone all night.
It took 2 days for Salty to cut loose, but when he did, there were 7 poop piles all around deck and he earned a new nickname.
Our best daily routine involved happy hour at 4 pm every day. The 31st happy hour was especially memorable for warm T shirt and shorts weather and dolphins joining us for the first time!
As soon as the Pacific Whitesided Dolphins joined us, we all rushed to the bow to watch them swim and frolic in our bow wake.
Our marine friends.
We should have suspected that we were experiencing the calm before the storm. Forecasts predicted rough conditions and winds up to 45kts from 10 miles offshore to more than 250nm. We considered pulling into Crescent City, CA to wait it out but the forecast called for much better conditions within 10nm of shore and conditions would ease before we reached Cape Mendocino. After crew discussion, we decide to continue and stay within 15nm of shore. The wind freshened from the North and we had 25-30kt winds all afternoon on Sep 1st while north of Cape Mendocino. The seas built to 10-15 ft and we reached up to 15.3kts surfing down one of the waves. The seas were pretty lumpy but no one became ill and Pearl handled the conditions wonderfully. It was great watching Shari slide back and forth in her bunk while asleep off watch.
That afternoon we heard the Humbolt Coast Guard reply to a distress call from Gypsy Soul (another boat from Olympia enroute to Hawaii) 120nm offshore and requesting rescue. The Coast Guard rescued them the next morning.
The gale subsided and we rounded Cape Mendocino with light north winds and by sunrise, had to lower sail and motor. The wind gave way to fog and the radar watch was established. During the night in heavy fog we often heard the sound of a bird flying on either side of the boat. At one point I shined the light on it and was surprised to see a large white, flat face and small hooked beak staring at me. We were 25nm offshore and we had a large owl flying with us in the pea soup. I can only figure that it was blown offshore and became lost in the fog and was following us back toward land. Is it a good or bad omen? The fog persisted until we reached Pt Reyes on the morning of Sep 3rd.
We pulled around the westernmost point and anchored in Drakes Bay for our first stop since Port Angeles! We launched the dinghy and explored the trails and beaches for the afternoon and that night we slept like the dead.

We departed Drakes Bay in the morning to time a flood tide into the Golden Gate.
We had the bridge in sight before noon and popped the champagne as we passed under the golden (orange) arches on Sep 4th. It was Labor Day weekend and there were no slips available so we anchored out of Sausalito as the sun burned through the low overcast and revealed our amazing view of downtown S.F., Angel Island, Alcatraz, and Sausalito. Rum and wine were introduced and we later went out for Tai food in town.
The next night we celebrated Shari's birthday early and went out for a nice dinner and to a dive bar for shuffleboard and foosball. What a blast!

The dinghy ride back from Shari's birthday celebration. (Pearl's water taxi)

Port Angeles to San Francisco Summary:

736NM total, total crew 4, total time enroute 6 days 10 hrs (including 17:20 anchored in Drakes Bay), Ave spd 5.4kts, Ave dist/day 130NM, total engine time 56.7hrs (40% of time), total fuel burn 63gal (1.1gal/hr), propane used 3 gal, total water used 150 gal, total items broken- toilet seat hinge, water pump mount, autopilot inop (fixed), prop shaft brake problems, total times dolphins swam our bow-4.

August 2011 San Juans

2011-08-25T11:46:00.000-07:00

After leaving Seattle, we made our way to Port Ludlow where we hooked up with our friends on Ghost. The next morning after a scrumptious breakfast on Ghost, it was time to pack it up and say our goodbyes. We gave one last hug to our awesome friends and headed across the Straights of Juan De Fuca. Annie threw out a message in a bottle while underway (a yearly tradition). When we reached Hein Bank we were graced with the incredible presence of numerous Orcas. They surprised us by swimming right past our boat. What a treat!

Our goal was to arrive in Roche Harbor by 8pm on Saturday to catch the last performance of the summer by Island Stage Left. This year's "Shakespeare Under the Stars" play was "The Winter Tale". The acting was phenomenal, as usual. We came with our blanket, drinks, snacks, and of course, Salty. We love the casual feeling of it all. At one point one of the actor's surprised Salty and he jumped back, spilling wine all over us. It was pretty funny.

We enjoyed the rest of our stay in Roche Harbor relaxing, playing bocce ball, and exploring the sculpture garden.

I thought everyone might enjoy an updated picture of the girls. They are growing so fast!

We left Roche Harbor under cloudy, rainy skies and made our way to Prevost Harbor, Stuart Island.
Luckily the weather improved and we had a wonderful stay at one of our favorite islands.
Bob and I have been enjoying early evening dinghy rides. We are loving our "new to us" outboard. Dinghy exploring has been the best!

No trip to Stuart Island is complete without a hike to the school house (usually we hike all the way to the light house-but we were feeling lazy this time). While at the school, Salty practiced playing basketball. His jump shot sucks.

After Stuart Island, we progressed to Sucia Island.
The sunset was fantastic! Bob was able to enjoy it after diving on the boat to clean the prop and hull.

On this trip, the girls have become expert dinghy operators. If we could just slow them down! Just joking. They are very responsible, compared to some people I know (Bob).

And So It Begins

2011-08-17T11:50:00.000-07:00

We "cut the lines" and departed Olympia on Saturday, August 13. We are on our way!

Our first major stop has been Shilshole Marina (Seattle). Bob is off flying his last trip before his vacation and the Pearl Girls and Salty are having a great time with our awesome friends from Ghost. The kids have been playing non-stop!

We will be departing Seattle on Friday, August 19 and working our way up to the San Juan Islands.

2010 October- June 2011

2011-08-01T18:18:00.000-07:00

Okay, we’ve been a little lax on updating our blog. Sorry about that. Before I clue you all in to our present “happenings”, let’s back up and have a quick review of the past year…

Christmas 2010-

Here we are at the Space Needle in Seattle. The kids had been begging us for years to go and so we finally gave in.

Nothing like a dinghy ride in the middle of winter!

Ahhhhhh. Mexico-
5 funfilled days with our wonderful friends (Tami, Gene-in spirit, Christian, Abby, and Toby) in beautiful Puerta Vallarta!

Sydney turned 12 on February 9! Woohooo! One more year until the teens. Yikes!

Annie turned 9 on March 8. Good grief they grow fast!

In January we discovered our fuel tanks were leaking (barely, but we knew it was something that had to be dealt with or it could become catastrophic in the future). Our tanks run the width of our boat right under the companion way and galley. Imagine a coffin-that's how big they are-2- 150 gallon black iron tanks (read...very very very very very heavy). Well, Bob being the stud that he is, was able to tear out our galley and rig a pulley system with our boom and halyards and lift those big girls right out of there. Okay, it wasn't quite that simple. After much cursing, torn up teak, and bruises, the tanks were out.

This is our galley. The girls had to crawl through it to get to their rooms.

Taking the 2nd tank out of the boat.

Our pretty new diesel fuel tank. Isn't it beautiful!

After the interruption of the fuel tank issue, it was back to cruising!
Sydney brought her friend, Emily, with us on our cruise to McMicken Island (the girls came up with a pet name of Chick Chicken Island on this cruise- I'm afraid this may stick)

In May we switched out sailing dinghies. We became the new owners of an awesome nesting/sailing dinghy. So much fun!

We went on our yearly cruise to Penrose Pt. for Memorial Day weekend and had a blast with friends. We even had our friends/cousins on Pondo May(our previous vessel) rafted next to us.

The sun finally came out for a few hours in June so Annie decided to do her schoolwork outside.

Shari's mom turned 80! And she's still working like a dog (and loving it). We all flew to Oahu for her 80th bday party. We started to think we were cursed...It poured rain, thundered, and lightning cracked for 2.5 of the days we were there. What in the world?! Luckily it let up and we ended our visit on a beautiful, sunny note.
The Brooks/Murison clan

No visit is complete without a trip to Matsumoto's in Haleiwa. MMMMMMM!

So Sydney had her first dance in June. It was a costume party and she dressed up as Aphrodite. Isn't she beautiful!

August - September 2010

2010-12-29T15:04:00.001-08:00

We had the unique and wonderful privilege to host our close friends' wedding aboard Pearl on August 14. It was the hottest day of the year (of course!) so the bride and groom opted for shorts and t-shirts instead of the planned white flowing dress and tux (our kind of wedding!).
Sydney and Annie "hosted" the buffet line.

The bride, Cathy, and groom, Steve pictured here with Steve's mom, MaryAnn.

Our summer trip... sorry about the delay posting it!

On our 3rd, yes 3rd (we are so blessed) trip north we had a wonderful and up close encounter with a couple of orcas at Hein Bank in the Straits of Juan De Fuca. Usually they travel in larger pods, but I guess this one was a rebel.
Salty usually gets the royal treatment while we are on longer passages.

We arrived in Roche Harbor, San Juan Island, and explored the grounds.

Bob, the kids, and Salty loved running down the hill at Roche Harbor.

After Roche Harbor we slowly worked our way over to Anacortes so Bob could get to work. Shari and the girls stayed in Anacortes for a few days and had some fun checking out the local park and town area. We were blown away by how many deer were roaming around the neighborhoods near the marina.

Okay all you hosers...We're in Canada now, eh?
Once Bob got home from his trip, we readied ourselves to go to Canada. Our first stop was Bedwell Harbor. Bob and the girls had a blast playing in the local resort pool while Shari kayaked down the harbor to a cool local grocery store.

The next day we moved onto Winter Cove on Saturna Island. We did some hiking and dinghy trips while there.

The picture above and below are of us dinghying from Winter Cove to Lyall Harbor, where we walked a ways to the local grocery store.

After Winter Cove we motor-sailed to Montague Harbor on Galiano Island. At one point, Shari noticed a funny sound behind us. Looking back, she saw that the kayak was swamped and about to go under (we had been towing it behind us)! Yikes. We stopped the boat as quickly as we could and sent Bob to bail out the kayak. Once it was light enough, we hauled it aboard. Never a dull moment!

Once we got into Montague Harbor, which is very large and spacious to anchor in, we were taken aback by how extraordinarily full it was. It was almost impossible to find space to anchor. It was Labor Day weekend, but we didn't think it was that big of a deal in Canada-I guess we were wrong! Luckily we found a spot to anchor near the entrance and got a pretty good bite with the anchor. Now wouldn't you just know it, just after sunset the wind really piped up and was blowing a good 30 knots. Now, normally this wouldn't be anything to worry about, but we were packed in there like sardines! We were alongside and behind huge (50-70ft) power boats that were swinging like Marmaduke's tail when he's anticipating a big juicy bone. Luckily, everybody held just fine through the night.

The next morning we made our yearly visit to the bakery boat at Montague. It's an old tug boat that used to be a ferry and is now the owner's home and business.

We also made a visit to the Hummingbird pub via the "pub bus". We had the added pleasure of visiting with our next moored neighbors, Rick and Ada. We all had a good time and headed back to our boats for a good night's sleep.

A trip to Canada would not be complete without a stay at Wallace Island. The hiking here is fantastic as well as the history.

We stayed in Connover Cove on Wallace Island for the first time. It's very shallow but the tides were acceptable for us to stay there this time.

After Wallace, we made our way to a new anchorage at DeCourcy Island. It's named Pirate's Cove and some awesome cruiser made a treasure chest that all cruisers can give to or receive from when they visit the island.
In the cove there are numerous sandstone caves carved out along the shore. We decided to spend happy hour in one where we enjoyed a bottle of wine (the kids got their own sodas), and enjoyed watching the tide creep up along with the many hermit crabs, and other creatures. We decided it would be fun to have our own hermit crab races, so we each picked one out of the water, placed it at the starting line and watched them race down to the water. Simple fun for simple people I guess!

We left Pirate's Cove the next day and headed through Dodds Narrows to Nanaimo. We anchored in Mark Bay at Newcastle Island. We love this island! It has wonderful hiking, sandy beaches, and many grassy areas to run and play. While playing at the beach, the rain began to fall...and didn't stop for 3 days! We thought this would be a good time to try out our reciprocal moorage privledges at Nanaimo Yacht Club. They were wonderful there. We were able to do a bunch of laundry and some additional grocery shopping.

The rain let up and it was time for us to head out. We anchored in another new bay, Clam Bay, which is between Thetis and Kuper Island. There is wonderful long beach there that we found all sorts of unique treasures (shells and beach glass). The next morning we were very excited to get back to the beach. As we dinghied to shore, Sydney noticed a bee. Once on shore we all soon had bees buzzing about. Well, I think we must have removed something sacred from the island, because the curse of the bees was upon us! The bees were becoming uncomfortably aggressive and we decided it was time to leave! Of all times for the outboard to not cooperate, this was not it, but, wouldn't you know, that's not how things work. So, here's Bob trying to start the motor and the girls screaming. I'm sure if anyone was watching us they would have gotten a good laugh! We were pretty panicked to get in the dinghy and be gone! It wasn't too hard to convince ourselves it was time to move on. So, south we traveled to Todd Inlet.

On our way to Todd Inlet (right behind Butchart Gardens), we had a gorgeous passage through Stuart channel.
We all went for a walk, including the dog, once we were properly anchored. It was a beautiful day and decided to check out the Butchart Gardens. They even let dogs in-gotta love that! It was stunning there! Our favorites were the sunken garden(pictured below) as well as the Japanese garden and Rose Garden.

Bob and the girls under the rose bush arch in the rose garden.

The next day we caught the bus (double decker!) into Victoria.
Most of our day in Victoria was consumed by our visit to the Natural History Museum. Definitely the best museum any of us have ever visited.
Pictured below is Bob and Salty coming back from their walk on shore in Todd Inlet. I'm not sure if you can see all the white dots in the water, but the whole inlet was filled with jellyfish! It was pretty cool! We hope to visit this anchorage again. It was absolutely beautiful here.

It wasn't long before we had to start working our way home. It's always wonderful to enter back into the U.S.. Everything is sooooo expensive in Canada! We checked back into the U.S. at Friday Harbor and stayed there for a couple of days while some undesirable weather followed us. Before long we were very ready to get out of the "city" and back to nature. We motored over to Cypress Island, one of our favorites in the San Juans. We had the beach to ourselves! We finally made a campfire (that we had promised to do with the girls all summer!). The girls filled their bellies with hot dogs and roasted marshmallows.
One of our very favorite hikes is to Eagle Cliff on Cypress Island. It is such an amazing view of the islands.

After 2 nights at Cypress we headed down the Swinomish Channel to La Conner. Fortunately, we had no "log" incidents this year (see La Conner 2009 if you don't know what we're talking about here)

From La Conner, we cruised down to Langley Harbor on Whidbey Isalnd. We enjoyed 2 fun nights there and then headed to Shilshole Marina in Seattle to see our friends there. We had a wonderful time visiting and before long it was time to head home. We are so thankful for a memorable and safe summer. We already can't wait until next summer arrives.

July 2010

2010-11-13T07:36:00.000-08:00

July was a wonderful, busy month for us. Shari and the girls were able to kick off the month with a visit to the Lady Washington and the Hawaiian Cheiftan while they were docked in Olympia.

Just a day or two later we were off to see the local fireworks at Boston Harbor on the 3rd. They were absolutely spectacular, as usual. We had Steve, Kathy, Mike, and Lynn aboard the Pondo May (our first boat) rafted to us for the festivities as well as our other friends, the Monsons joining us from land. The next day we sailed over to McMicken Island and were able to hook up with more friends.
We were so fortunate to again spend time in the San Juan Islands. Bob’s schedule worked out perfectly for us to head north for a couple of weeks this month. On our way north, we rafted up to our great friends on Ghost for one night. It was so good to see them, and were able to meet Fathom, their adorable new puppy. Time with them is never long enough and naturally we had to leave the next day. They were so generous to loan us their slip and car while Bob went to work for a few days.

When he got home, we were off to the San Juans. We met up with our friends on Andiamo III at Spencer Spit. It was so good to see them! We all had so much fun catching up (and gorging ourselves with fresh crab!).

From there we motor sailed to Prevost Harbor on Stuart Island where we were able to hook up with the other half of the “BBC” also known as the “Brotherhood”. Cygnet and Pyxis arrived shortly after us and the festivities began. It was so fun to be with all of our friends again. Bob and Mark (s/v Cygnet) had a blast dinghy sailing.

June 2010

2010-07-26T16:43:00.000-07:00

We were able to make it up north to the San Juan islands early this year due to Bob's vacation time. We left on the 4th and made it to the islands in 2 days. Around here school was still in session, so hardly anyone was out cruising yet and we felt we "owned" the San Juans! Ah, the benefits of homeschooling! It was fantastic! Luckily our trip this year was not quite as eventful as last summer. Most everything worked great, especially our new solar panels (what did we ever do before we had them?). We really enjoyed about 5 days of cruising around with our friends on Andiamo III before they sail off to Mexico. (if I had one of those sad faces, I'd insert it here!). We sure are going to miss them.

Salty and Shari on our passage to the San Juans.

We had the girls do some practice navigating on our way north.

One of the favorite things for the girls to do when passing large ships or any boat that leaves a decent size wake is to run up to the bow and feel the plunging and raising of the bow as it passes the waves (the girls call it their "cheap" roller coaster ride!).

Our first stop was at Bowman Bay on Fidalgo Island. We had never stayed here before, but really loved it. There were nice sandy beaches, great hiking, and even a play structure for the kids.

We hiked over to Deception Pass and enjoyed watching the churning eddies. There were some kayakers riding the currents and rapids.

After spending 2 nights at Bowman Bay, we sailed over to James Island. This is another spot we had not visited before. It was incredible! For most the time there it was just us and our friends on s/v Pizazz. We ended up staying at the park dock. The water was so clear. We enjoyed kayaking, dinghy sailing, hiking, softball, beach combing, and fetch (at least Salty played that). We did encounter some marauding raccoons that night. Bob had to shoo them off the boat 3 times and they still kept coming back. The 4th time he ended up chasing them off the boat, down the dock, and up the ramp. Knowing how persistent these buggers were, he decided to ward them off with the best pest control we know...hot red pepper flakes. He sprinkled them all over our boat and the dock. Bob heard them return and shortly thereafter frantically scurry away.

The next afternoon we motored over to Spencer Spit on Lopez Island. There is a great sandy beach there and open anchorage. We had a nice relaxing night there.

Our next stop was Friday Harbor. The girls always love hanging out on the sculpture of Popeye the seal. This year they were able to see Popeye up close. We've always thought Popeye was a boy, but this year we learned she is a she and she's pregnant. Cool, huh!

We left Friday Harbor the next day and sailed toward Jones Island. On our relaxing sail we were so fortunate to be in the presence of orcas! we were able to watch them for over a half hour as they leaped, flopped, and gently glided along. What a treat! Once we anchored in the North cove of Jones island, we went for a hike. We then found a prime spot for a camp fire and proceeded to enjoy some tastey roasted marshmallows.

The next day we departed for Sucia Island to the North. Salty was just exhausted and decided to take a nap on top of our log book, just as Bob was trying to update it.

This year we decided to try a different cove at Sucia. We anchored in Fox Cove and enjoyed the tide pools at low tide.
We were able to relax for a couple of days in Fox Cove before we took off to meet up with our friends on s/v Andiamo III.l

We had planned to meet them at Stuart Island, but due to very unfortunate events our friends weren't going to make it there. They ran into some serious issues with a fouled prop so we met up with them instead at Friday Harbor so they could assess the damage. It turned out they weren't able to do much for a few days so decided to join us at Reid Harbor , Stuart Island the next day.

While on Stuart Island, we went on our usual hike to the Turn Point Light House. We always pass a big farm on the way where we usually see horses. This year there were cows. These cows were absolutely fascinated by Salty and our friends' dog, Toby. Salty even got a kiss in with the cow pictured.

This is a picture of all of us at Lover's Leap on the way to the lighthouse.

The next morning Bob, Sydney, Annie, and our friend Abby planned a treasure hunt for Abby's brother, Christian. It was Christian's 9th birthday. We had the hunt end up at the "butt tree" (see picture below-no explanation needed, huh!)

Alas, it was time to seperate from Andiamo. Sigh.

We made our way North again to Patos Island. This is one of our very favorite islands! The two pictures below are from our anchored spot at Patos. You can see the lighthouse in the distance.

Annie had a blast making a miniature teepee for one of her stuffed animals.

We ended up only spending one night at Patos due to some rolling seas moving in. We decided to sail over to Echo Bay on Sucia for the next two days. There is tons of room for kayaking and dinghy sailing. We also got a wonderful surprise while there. The crew of Andiamo met us there for a night. We had a great dinner aboard Pearl. The next day Tami and Shari had their final exercise time together. We are going to really miss them!

The time came way too soon for us to start heading south again. We made our first stop at Cypress Island (pictured above). The next day we made the jump across the straits to Port Ludlow.

On our way from Port Ludlow to Gig Harbor, we were boarded by the Coast Guard. Salty was working on buttering them up! We passed our inspection with flying colors and we then continued our passage south.
While overnighting in Gig Harbor, we visited a dock where the Lady Washington and Hawaiian Chiefton were moored. They were going to be in Olympia in a few days, so the girls and Shari made a plan to tour both the boats there.

End of May

2010-07-26T15:55:00.000-07:00

The end of May was full of fun for us. Sydney had her final performance with her church drama club. She absolutely loved all the practices and performances. Hopefully she can do it again next year.

For Memorial Day weekend, we went on our annual South Sound cruise to Penrose Point state park. We got our boat up there on Thursday evening and then Shari caught a ride back to Olympia to sail up Andiamo III to Penrose. Our great friend Tami (from Andiamo) was soloing it for this cruise due to Gene being in Afghanistan and she wanted some company for the trip. We had a great time, despite the weather.

We ended up with a large raft of boats! It worked out pretty good with all the kids. I think we counted 9 kids combined from all the boats rafted. They enjoyed the freedom to hop from one boat to the other.

We were so happy to be joined by our good friends from s/v Ghost. We hadn't seen them in what felt like a couple of years. It was wonderful to spend some time with them.

The kids enjoyed checking things out at low tide. They were especially loving all the hermit crabs.

April - May 2010

2010-06-25T09:54:00.001-07:00

Annie celebrated her first communion in April. We are so proud of her! Doesn't she look beautiful?

While on a mini South South cruise in April to McMicken Island, we were able to finally spread Tabor's ashes. He always loved hiking on this island and playing on the beach. We were happy to have along with us our friends from s/v Andiamo III to remember this special time.

At the end of April, it was Girl's weekend in Portland. Shari got away with 2 great friends for a weekend filled with pedicures, shopping, coffee, wine, good food, and lots of laughs.

At the beginning of May, Shari, Sydney, and Annie headed down to Portland for their friend's 11th birthday party. What a blast! The kids had a great time on the trampoline! It's always so fun seeing our friends, Becky, Dave, Maggie, and Molly.

Annie, Molly, Sydney, and Maggie

It was a beautiful Mother's Day weekend in Olympia so the Buelts and Reynolds headed out for a day on the town.

March 2010

2010-04-06T13:50:00.000-07:00

Well, March pretty much zoomed by for us. Annie turned 8 on the 8th. She requested that we go to a movie and then have lunch at the Rainforest Cafe. What a fun day that was!

Sydney and Annie had an Irish Dance performance at their "homeschool- school". They had been practicing for a while and were so excited to perform. They did very well and enjoyed it so much. Sydney said, "I wish I could do that 50 more times!".

We were also able to go on another one of our South Sound Sailing Club cruises. This time we went to Jarrell Cove on Harstene Island. It's about a 3.5 hour sail from Olympia. We luckily had good wind and were able to sail most of the way there. Our friends on Andiamo III and Cygnet were there along with some new friends. Bob got to try out his horseshoe set (everyone enjoyed that). We also had a great camp fire to roast marshmallows-yum and sit around to keep warm. Our friends that live near the cove came by to visit us the next morning. We were so happy to see them! It had been way too long. The kids all had a wonderful time running around on the dock and up on the hiking trails.

All in all, March was another wonderful month. (we even had some warmth and sunshine!)

Annie with her HUGE volcano cake at the Rainforest Cafe. The 4 of us didn't even come close to finishing it.

The girls performing for St. Patrick's Day.

On the dock at Jarrell Cove.

February 2010

2010-03-18T19:37:00.000-07:00

Sydney and Annie learned about Mom's creative hairstyling tricks this month

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We had an amazing stretch of sunshine this month. Here we're rafted up with our good friends on Andiamo III and Cygnet at Hope Island. This island is only an hour sail from our marina and is so pristine. It is a state park and usually has a caretaker that lives here. There is an old orchard, windmill, old farming equipment, trails, and lots of wildlife. We just love it here. The kids found bunches of sea stars, sun stars, crabs, hermit crabs, and even a dead beaver (r.i.p.)! We can't wait to get back there!

When we returned from Hawaii, we had our own family celebration for Syd's birthday. She finally got to open her much wanted gift (see: funny looking stuffed monster). We also made it to the matinee for The Lightning Thief (Sydney's been enjoying reading the whole Lightning Thief series and couldn't wait to see the movie.

Sydney chose a VERY chocolatey ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins to share with everyone at the party.

The girls with their cousins; Dylan and Shaylene.

The whole family got together at Shari's mom's house for Sydney's birthday. She's pictured here giving her tutu a hug.

Whenever we visit Oahu, the Kaneohe Yacht Club is a regular destination. The kids absolutely love the pool there and Bob and I love the view and relaxed atmosphere.

We finally got to go sailing with Steve and Linnea (Shari's brother and his wife) in Kaneohe Bay! We had the most incredible weather! Nothing like warm water, warm breezes, and cold beer!

Bob couldn't resist showing the girls how to do a somersault/flip down the sand hill at Kailua Beach.

We had such a fun day at Kailua Beach. The girls loved racing down the sand hill and jumping over waves.

We made a stop at Shark's Cove to check out the tide pools. We were not disappointed! Annie found so many hermit crabs as well as some cool abandoned shells. Watching the water rush in and around the rocks was truly fascinating.

We had to make a trip out to the North Shore for some delicious Matsumoto's Shave Ice!

Sydney chose the slower and much more painful approach to getting in the not-so-warm-enough pool.

Annie had no fear about jumping right in!

We finally made it to Oahu to visit Shari's family and enjoy some Hawaiian sun. The weather was forcasted to be cloudy but we really lucked out. The sun was out everyday with light winds-who could ask for more? One of the first things the girls and Bob did when we got to Tutu's (Shari's mom) house, is change into swim suits and dive in!

New Years Eve and beyond

2010-02-05T13:11:00.000-08:00

Getting back into the swing of things after all the holiday fun. Salty always enjoys snuggle time during home school.

Shari was able to do a little painting over the break. This is a painting of "Stella". It was a gift for Bob's Niece and her fiancee for their wedding.

New Years Eve--Woooohoooo!
Around midnight the fireworks started going off. Salty decided the cockpit was the safest place to be. He's accompanied by his personal guard, Toby.

Much of the nights festivities took place on s/v Gypsy Soul. What a crazy night!

December 2009

2010-02-05T12:52:00.000-08:00

Christmas 2009 entered by Sydney
We couldn't wait to open presents so Mom and Dad let us open some on Christmas Eve!

Salty was as snug as a bug on a rug when he got his blanket from Santa.

We were toasty warm on Christmas night in our new robes. We got a bunch of gifts from our aunts and uncles for Christmas. I was very thankful for them!

The Buelt Family had a great Christmas at Uncle David and Aunt Karen's house this year. Aunt Karen went crazy on the karaoke machine!

October 2009 Halloween Cruise

2009-11-07T19:55:00.000-08:00

Isn't there a saying about starting to look like your pet after time?

After we got to Longbranch Marina, the kids took no time to grab their nets and the big bucket and start exploring all the docks and water had to offer! They caught tons of starfish (they really liked the little ones), nudibranch, shrimp, and fish.

Of course, we had to humiliate Salty somehow!

The girls decided to dress up as witches this year. I love it when they choose simple costumes!

What a crazy family! Who's that scruffy dude with the dark hair anyway?

Pearl turned into the "ladies" boat for a couple of hours on Saturday. We had a few pitchers of mast-climbers and loads of laughs!

Our friends Donna and Suzy were in charge of decorations and planning for the Halloween cruise. They made 3 boats into haunted vessels that were absolutely amazing!! The whole weekend was so incredible thanks to their hard work!

After trick-or-treating on the docks, a bunch of kids came to our boat to watch "Monster House".

All the kids carved pumpkins in the afternoon. I was so impressed with how good they all looked!

The morning after Halloween everyone gathered for a big waffle breakfast and then it was clean up time. The kids had a blast running around on the docks with their fake swords.

Bob and Mark hanging before we took off.

It was such a beautiful day on Sunday! There was quite a caravan of boats heading back to Olympia from Longbranch. These are our friends on Andiamo III (Hans Christian 43).

Sydney and Annie had a blast on the way back home. Another fantastic Halloween cruise come and gone. We can't wait till next year!

October 2009 Haulout

2009-11-07T19:25:00.000-08:00

We had bunches of blisters to repair. Bob worked his buns off!

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We stayed on board most the time while we were on the hard. At first we had Salty sleeping in the car at night, but when it started getting a bit too chilly we decided to haul him aboard (We used the main halyard tied to his life vest to get him up).

On Oct. 5 we pulled Pearl out for bottom maintenance and to start working on her motor mounts.

Langley, Poulsbo Gig Harbor, and Home to Olympia

2009-09-10T15:16:00.000-07:00

Sep 7... We motor sail into southerly winds all the way home. Lots of friends to meet us and it is great to see all of our wonderful Swantown community again. What a great group of people! It's been a wonderful and a bit of an exciting trip, and we are truely richer for it. I'm bushed.

Sep 6... After birthday dinner at Shari's favorite Mexican restaurant in Gig Harbor, we celebrate with some pinot gris and cake.
Sep 6... Happy Birthday Shari! Breakfast and hugs in bed.

Sep 5... We are delayed leaving the docks at Poulsbo due to 25 knot winds and the narrow exit from the marina. We finally get off with a lot of precautionary help from new friends on the dock. We had planned to fill our fuel tanks in Poulsbo, but, with the wind so strong, and the fuel dock in a tight spot, we decide to purchase fuel another day.
We end up motor-sailing to help make progress into these strong southerly winds. As we approach the west end of Blake Island, our motor suddenly quits. Wonderful. Shari continues to sail the boat while I go through the familiar routine of troubleshooting the engine. Of course, the problem turned out to be a fuel inake venting air into the line. We were healing over so much that the 50 remaining gallons in the tank we were operating off of, shifted over in the fuel tank far enough to allow air to be sucked into the fuel line... Diesels don't like that. I bled the system of air in about 5 minutes (I'm getting really good at this) and switched to the fuller tank and we had no more problems.
We anchor in Gig Harbor and relax.

Sep 3-5... We moor at Poulsbo Yacht Club reciprical dock. Great facilities and just a few blocks from cute nordic town.

Sep 1-3... We motor out of Swinomish Channel and go to Langley on Whidbey Island. Another beautiful, friendly, artsy town.

A Near Disaster At La Conner!

2009-09-10T13:29:00.000-07:00

Pearl at rest at the city dock in La Conner. (Looking south)

Aug 30... We departed Pelican Beach in fog making judicious use of pilotage, radar, gps, and marine radio to pick our way through islands and into Swinomish Channel, a river-like channel that separates Fidalgo Island from the mainland. The fog broke just as we entered the north end of the channel and arrived in the artsy town of La Conner an hour later, and after a little waiting, managed a spot at a city dock right downtown (anchoring is not an option in this narrow channel and the currents can be swift as the tides ebb and flood). We enjoyed the art, bookstores, eateries, and did a whole lot of laundry.

Aug 31... After enjoying our last day here, we settled in to make dinner in the galley. I noticed the current was flowing fairly strong out of the south but we were secure on the linear dock with the boat facing south into the current. As we were preparing dinner below, Salty suddenly goes totally berserk on deck, running back and forth and barking at something in the water. As we came up to see what all the commotion was about, I jokingly quipped to Salty, "What is it Lassie?". Then I say what had captured his dedicated interest. A humongous root ball was floating down our starboard side northbound. Then I saw what was attached to that mass of tangled roots. This floating monstrosity of a log was over 100 feet long and flowing right along our hull. I quickly grabbed a pole and try to shove it away from our home, as if that was really going to move it. The current had complete control of this obstacle and all I could do was watch as it cleared our boat and managed a slight bend in the channel without hitting any of the many pleasure boats moored along the channel. Once we could see it was no longer a danger to any one, we could smell dinner burning on the stove top and ran below to manage a busy galley and hungry children.
After reading the "Chronicles of Narnia" to the children and tucking them into their berths, I did my nightly checking over the boat's systems, lines, halyards, hatches, and any other items that can become an nuisance during a good night's sleep on a boat. Tucked into our aft stateroom berth, we both settled in with a good book for the night.
That's when I heard the strange lapping of water against the hull near the transom. I crawled out onto deck in my underwear with a flashlight to see that the current has now reversed, and was now flowing at over 2 knots from the north and causing a notable ripple against the back of our boat. I double checked the lines for strain and made sure the rudder was centered before heading below to warm up from the exposure. I crawled back into bed and we read for another 20 minutes. We were both ready to turn out the light when our world experienced a force that shook us to our very keel, and made a deep resonating crashing sound that we will never forget. I don't remember this, but Shari says I yelled out "It's baaaaack" as I ran outside to see what I already knew had just happened.
The log could not have hit in a worse place. The pointed end had threaded past the motor boat behind us, rammed our nearly vertical transom, scraped along to our port side and promptly wedged itself ten feet in between Pearl and the dock. I looked out into the moonlit channel and could see the giant root ball, 100 feet away, attached to this log, and to my disbelief, it was still moving, being pushed down stream by the strong current. I immediately realized that a gigantic lever arm had just been wedged between us and the dock, and, very soon, something was going to have to give. I screamed to Shari to turn on the deck lights, turn on the engine master, and start the engine. We had to leave the dock now or one of three things were going to happen. 1. The force of the log prying us out into the channel would pull out the dock cleat (it looked more like the dock was going to come apart) and we would be forced down channel out of control with a giant log steering us at it's will and many obstacles in our path, or 2. Our dock lines break with the same result, or 3. The log rides under the rear hull, breaks off the rudder and creates a large hole where the rudder post had passed through the hull (if your not a boater, holes are bad, think Titanic).
Shari has the engine running in a heartbeat as I struggled to untie the bow line. Suddenly I looked up to see that option 3 was quickly becoming the most likely scenario. The bow was sitting unnaturally low in the water as I could see the rear end of our 25 ton boat being lifted like a toy as the log begins to ride under the transom. The strain on the lines was incredible and was making a sickening creaking noise that can only come prior to a sudden, huge release of energy. My time was running out as I released the spring lines, and my hero Shari released the final aft line from the boat cleat with a loud pop. The boat immediately swung out 30 degrees from the dock, I jumped on board to swing the rudder clear as the log broke loose from the dock and pirouetted around the transom of our boat. The root ball came near the far shore of the channel as it swung out into the lead heading south and the rest of the log cleared us down our starboard side. Some how we never drifted far from the dock and we were able to throw lines to the crew of the motor vessel that had been moored immediately behind us and had come out when they heard me screaming like a little girl. Amazingly, Shari was able to retrieve the tail of the aft line that she had popped loose to free us, and this really helped to pull us back into the dock since the strong current was working against us.
After getting the boat secure at the dock again, we started to assess the boat and check for leaks, holes, rudder damage, frayed lines, etc. All I can say is that I love thick solid fiberglass boats. We showed one small scratch on the transom (from the initial impact), and a small scuff on the paint of the rudder. Not even any stress cracks in the gel coat. It would have been totally different story if we hadn't been able to get loose from the dock so quickly. The log had been on the verge of hitting our rudder and the weight of our home didn't seem be stopping it.
We spent most of our night in thankful prayer rather than restful sleep. The next morning we asked Sydney and Annie if all the commotion the night before had scared them. Neither one of them had even woke up during the whole ordeal. I guess we've been working them too hard.

Sucia Island, Cypress Island

2009-09-10T12:50:00.000-07:00

Aug 29... We did manage to wear out Salty for once.
Aug 29... We sail to Pelican Beach on Cypress Island and hike to the top of Eagle Cliff. What a great view of the San Juan Islands. Our girls legs have gotten soooo much stronger since we started this trip- they are real troopers.
Aug 26-29 We split with our friends on Cygnet for the final time as they begin their trip south and homeward bound. We spend 2 quiet nights at Echo Bay on Sucia Island and hiked and beached at Ewing Cove.

Patos Island

2009-09-10T12:27:00.000-07:00

Aug 25... Bliss
Aug 25... We enjoy another perfect sunset as Sam goes for an evening row.

Aug 25... Orcas swam right past our anchorage this afternoon. Our friends on Cygnet joined us along with "two bouy" Bamboo.
Aug 24... Hot dog and marshmallow night was a big hit. Shortly after this picture was taken, we saw a group of kayakers and a large rowing skiff arrive from Orcas Island. It was an entire family that came out to camp. Most impressively, it was their mother that rowed the dinghy the whole way with most of the supplies on board while everyone else glided along in their sleek kayaks. She was a total stud and a total hoot to visit with. Great people.
Aug 24... Patos is one of our favorite of the San Juan Islands with good beaches, tide pools, hiking, and history. A wonderful semi-non-fiction book called "A Light On The Island" was written by the lighthouse keeper's daughter about their life and adventures on Patos in the early 20th century.
Aug 24... We anchor and stern tie in small Active Cove on Patos.

Back into U.S., Roche Harbor, Stuart Island

2009-09-10T11:42:00.000-07:00

Aug 24... Before we leave Prevost Harbor, we have a hearty pancake breakfast and catch shrimp and nudibranch off the docks with the kids' nets. Today we split up with Cygnet for a day so they can drop off Leslie in Friday Harbor. We sail on to Patos Island.
Aug 23... Future lighthouse keepers.
Aug 23... She still puts up with me.
Aug 23... Salty found a way down the cliff to go for a refreshing swim while the girls did a treasure hunt.
Aug 23... A great panaramic view looking N-NW across the border into the Canadian Gulf Islands.
Aug 23... The girls rest after reaching Turn Point Lighthouse.
Aug 23... Pearl and Cygnet crews near "Lover's Leap". Mark and his cousin Leslie on the right.
Aug 21-22... We clear customs in Roche Harbor and anchor there for 2 nights. The crew of Cygnet joined us to go see "Shakespeare Under the Stars"... "As You Wish", performed by Island Stage Left outdoors on a stage in a forested setting. These guys are the real deal- an incredible performance that we all loved, including the kids and our dog!
Aug 23... We soon tired of the mega-yachts and cadillac dinghies buzzing all around us so Cygnet and Pearl left for Prevost Harbor on Stuart Island. To our surprise, the park dock was open so we both promptly tied up and left on a 6 mile round trip hike to Turn Point Lighthouse. We made our usual stop at the old school house and went through the library and small museum, looked through the self serve treasure chest of t-shirts and hats, and watched Salty do his imitation of a tasmanian devil in the field.

Montague and Ganges

2009-09-10T08:55:00.000-07:00

Aug 20-21... We decide to pay for a spot at the marina for the night to get a good charge on the batteries, enjoy the pool and hot tub, get rid of some garbage, and let Salty make friends. This swan was very protective of it's two cygnets nearby, and Salty met his match.
Aug 20... Pearl with sails spread wing on wing on wing for the down wind run.
Aug 20... Cygnet, (with Mark, Sam and Leslie) showing us what a 9 foot extentable keel can do for you on a close reach.

Aug 20... We all end up dinghying to the bakery boat for goodies and coffee. While we are there the wind switched direction and pipes up over 15 knots. When we dinghy back to our boats, we notice Mark has thrown out his anchor to keep us from drifting into some other boats. Apparently our anchor lost hold when we spun around and pulled the opposite direction and didn't set properly. Since we were planning to leave that morning anyway, we decide to pull up anchors and sail over to Ganges. In a heartbeat, our anchors were up, we untied from each other, and sails were set.
Aug 19... The crew of Cygnet left us a message in our cockpit (no pen or paper handy). We raft up our boats and mix up some "Mast Climbers".
Aug 18-19... We motor-sailed to Montague and took the old school bus up to the Hummingbird Pub for dinner. The next day we hang out on the white midden shell beaches and upon our return to Pearl, we find that he have visitors.

Wallace Island

2009-09-10T08:21:00.000-07:00

Aug 17... Annie and Sydney are becoming very useful crew members.
Aug 17... Of course, since we had a loss of one family member(Tabor), and the addition of another (Salty), we had to edit our previous edition.
Aug 17... We have to stop by the old resort lounge to check on the memento that we left last year.
Aug 17... Shari adds to her painting journal with a little help.
Aug 17... Salty decided to swim to close-by islets to do some exploring.

Aug 17... Hiked to Chiver's Pass. Had picnic on the rocks, visited with kayakers.

Aug 16... Princess Cove always has spectacular sunsets.

Aug 16... The beaches here are great for exploring, with lots of tide pools and sea life.

Aug 16... We crossed the Straits of Georgia with 20-25 knots of wind and had a great sail, however the beam seas had some of the crew feeling nauseous for a short time, but they shook it off and enjoyed the ride. We sailed through Gabriola Pass and on to our favorite Gulf Island, Wallace Island, where we stern tied in Princess Cove.

South to Thornaby Islands

2009-09-10T08:03:00.000-07:00

Aug 15... Salty found some new playmates. He slept very well that night.
Aug 15... The kids were in heaven.
Aug 15... Buccaneer Bay had the best beaches we experienced on the whole trip. Lots of sand, a shallow beach, warm water, and dogs off leash everywhere. Just our kinda place.
Aug 15... Promptly upon arriving in Buccaneer Bay, the dinghy broke free from its' stern line and started to blow away while we were trying to anchor. Time for a swim.
Aug 15... We have a great spinnaker run south out of Desolation Sound, down Malispina Strait, all the way to the Thornaby Islands, and into Buccaneer Bay. Note the home made dog-pirate flag... Our tribute to Tabor who died in December.

Desolation Sound

2009-09-10T07:45:00.000-07:00

Aug 11... We spent the evening dinghy sailing and kayaking. Nice figurehead on the bow.
Aug 11... Another fun day exploring.
There are no sandy beaches here, but the water is relatively warm.
Salty guides us to Laura Cove... a perfect place for swimming, rope swing, and exploring.
Aug 14... Exploring Prideaux Haven. The narrow entrance is directly behind us.
Aug 13... Pearl anchored and stern tied in Melanie Cove at Prideaux Haven

Princess Louisa Inlet

2009-08-31T14:34:00.001-07:00

The dock near Chatterbox Falls.
Aug 11... Salty and I hike up to the "Trapper's Cabin" in the morning. It took almost an hour and a half to get up the rough, wet, vertical trail. No switch-backs on this trail, just straight up the rocky face of the mountain where tree roots extend themselves out across the smooth surfaces as if intentionally to give a good foothold. The old cabin has deteriorated badly but the waterfall flowing next to it was awe inspiring. Had an incredible view of Princess Louisa Inlet 2500 feet below.
AUG 10... It rained starting at 01:00 am, and all of the falls were totally transformed into raging torrents of pounding water. It was as if God dumped a gigantic bucket of water on the top of the mountains and it found every possible way to make a downward flowing geyser. Totally inspiring.
AUG 9... Chatterbox Falls
Rounding the corner to the head of the bay... Pictures can't do justice to these mile high cliffs and numerous, wonderous waterfalls.
AUG 9
AUG 9... Looking back on Malibu Rapids, entering Princess Louisa Inlet.

Into The Fjords

2009-08-31T14:20:00.000-07:00

AUG 9... Approaching Malibu Rapids. We have to time our passage for slack tide as currents can run as fast as 9 knots in the rapids. No problem!
AUG 9
AUG 9... the clouds eventually broke up as we headed further inland.
AUG 9... Annie helps us pass the time by reading to us.
AUG 9... We have to motor 40 miles up the beautiful inlets and fjords on the way to Chatterbox Falls.

Crossing The Straits of Georgia and Beyond

2009-08-31T14:07:00.000-07:00

AUG 8... Pender Harbor- The last of civilization we will see until the 16th!
AUG 8... Crossing the Straits of Georgia- 25 knots of wind in open water with beam seas. A great sail, although there were some nauseous girls in the morning, soon they were enjoying the sweeping seas as much as Disneyland.

Aug 5-15 Into Canada And The Transit North

2009-08-31T12:44:00.000-07:00

AUG 7... Fun at the farmer's market in Nanaimo. (Our anchorage and Newcastle Island in the background)
AUG 6... The Dinghy Dock Pub... We have a great parking spot! (Pearl in background)
AUG 6
AUG 6
AUG 6... Newcastle Island near Nanaimo

A Rough Start

2009-08-04T23:14:00.000-07:00

Working on Lehman (better known as Lehla, the other woman) with a little help.
Fun at the dock in Friday Harbor.
The evening dog walk.
Shari's happy to make it through the pea soup fog bank.

Aug 3... Our troubles return. We planned to sail to Roche Harbor but were delayed by a bank of fog covering the south end of Shaw Island. Since we knew the fog cleared within a few miles of our anchorage, we decided to use gps, radar, and dead reckoning to manage our way around the southern edge of Shaw Island. Having run the engine for the 2 days prior gave us renewed confidence and we departed and navigated clear of the fog with no problems. The wind finally settled into a light southerly and we decided it was time to fly our asymmetric spinnaker to take advantage of our tailwind. After getting it rigged, we were just about to let it fly, when the stomach sinking sound of our engine slowly dying convinced us to forget about the labor intensive spinnaker. We quickly unfurled the jib, and I ran below to diagnose our problem. Just like 2 days prior, the primary fuel filter was full of air. WTF??? Everything looked normal with no leaks showing. I bled the system in minutes and soon had the engine running "normal" again. We motor-sailed on, still planning to stop a Roche Harbor. As we approached Spieden Channel forty minutes later, the engine died again. We now accept that we will be better off in Friday Harbor (more maintenance facilities and supplies available), so we turn around, raise the mainsail, and beat toward Friday Harbor, while I go below and bleed the fuel system again. Since we are sailing nicely, we decide not to keep the engine running, and to save it for any tight spots we might find ourselves in. Knowing that the engine was simply unreliable and that trying to dock a 50 foot boat under sail alone was unrealistic in current infested Friday Harbor, we called Vessel Assist to meet us and tow us into the dock.
While at the dock, I find that the drain nipple assembly on my primary Racor filter has a very small crack that didn't let fuel out, but did let air in. A quick way to stop a diesel engine. I actually had a spare from an old generator Racor, I replace the drain assembly and the problem was fixed. That's not the end of the story.
I decide, to be safe, we will run the engine in gear for a few hours while tied to the dock, then check over the whole system. The engine was purring nicely, and the propeller wash did not seem to be disturbing the 54 foot sailboat parked behind us, so Shari and the girls went into town while I stayed to watch over everything. 20 minutes later, while sitting in the cockpit, something unusual draws my attention from behind the boat. I turn to see the bow of the 54 foot Irwin behind us being pushed away from the dock and it's bowline is coming untied from the dock. I realize that my prop wash is what is pushing it, and quickly shift our transmission to neutral and jump down to the dock, running to grab the bowline of the Irwin just as it came lose from the dock. I re secure the line and looked to see if anyone was watching my dock olympics. All clear. The owners of the Irwin are gone, so I double check their other lines and go back to Pearl to continue the engine run up. All goes well... for now. But this day is not over yet.
When the girls return, we decide to go out to dinner and celebrate successfully fixing our engine at no mechanical cost.
When we return later that evening, I notice that the Irwin behind us has turned completely around, parked with it's transom facing ours. The owner comes out to greet us as we are boarding our boat. The sheepish look on his face tells me that this is not just a social call. It turns out that, while we were gone, they had returned to their boat, and, not liking the noise the wavelets were making on the hull under their aft stateroom, decided to turn the boat around. I believe I mentioned something about currents in Friday Harbor. While trying to repark, the current carried this 54 foot sailboat right into our starboard quarter (right rear), smashing a stanchion, and scratching the fiberglass gelcoat down the side. Crap! He was vary polite, offered to pay for all repairs, and we ended up visiting and sharing stories the rest of the evening.
We spent two nights in Friday Harbor decompressing and getting confidence back to head north into Canada. I am happy to say that this was the end of our troubles for a very long time (see La Conner) and Pearl performed wonderfully for the remainder of the trip.

Aug 2... After spending the night in Port Ludlow, we made an uneventful and fairly calm passage across the Straits of Juan De Fuca and anchored in Indian Cove on Shaw Island and enjoyed "beach" time.

Aug 1... We had a bit of a rough start to our extended cruise while leaving Seattle's Shilshole Marina. We said goodbye to our friends there and were backing out of the slip into a gusty breeze. Just as we were about to turn into the wind, our engine slowly lost power and died. My panicked attempts at starting it again would only result in sputtering and quitting. Now we were faced with a wind that was going to quickly blow us into the boats parked near our previous parking spot. Our friends on the dock reacted quickly by climbing into dinghies and rendering us aid by grabbing lines and guiding our crippled boat to the fueling dock directly across the alley. They did an outstanding job getting us moored and I owe them all a great deal of thanks. They, like nearly all sailors, humbly insisted that there was nothing to it, no thanks were needed, and to pay it forward. You can bet on it.
It turned out that air had somehow filled one of my Racor fuel filters and quickly killed the engine. The only explanation I could think of was that I had not properly bled the system of air after changing fuel filters a few days before. (I was wrong, this problem turned out to be much more insidious and would come back to haunt us in the next few days.) I bled the system of air, test ran the engine in gear for some time, and off we went on our adventure.
Visiting friends at Shilshole in Seattle. Redneck hottub.
WAAAASSSSSUUUUUUUUUP?
Salty thinks he's a lap dog... the girls don't seem to mind.
Leaving Olympia on July 20th... Won't be back until September!

Wallace Island Aug. 24-27 2008

2008-10-16T21:28:00.000-07:00

On Aug. 24th we arrive at Princess Cove on Wallace Island. This turns out to be our favorite of all the Gulf Islands because of its' spectacular beauty, interesting history, plentiful tide pools, and the kid friendly hiking. We especially enjoy exploring the the remains and cabins of the old Wallace Island resort that operated in the 1950's and 60's that a young couple had started with virtually no outside help and chronicled their joys and hardships in the book "Once Upon An Island".

The old resort lounge has been turned into a testament to all the cruisers that have visited here in recent years. Each boat leaves their identity and artful decorations on a piece of driftwood that is hung from the ceiling of the building among the forest of creative messages already hung there.

August 17-24 2008

2008-08-29T16:33:00.000-07:00

On the 16th of August, we headed over to Friday Harbor to provision for Canada. Our original plans had us heading north to Desolation Sound, but do to all the things that were happening, we decided to stay in the Gulf Islands of Canada, and not venture too far from the U. S.. We arrived in Bedwell Harbor, South Pender Island on the 17th. Our first night there we had a great thunder and lighting show! We stayed in Bedwell Harbor for 3 nights and enjoyed hiking, the resort swimming pool, and kids camp for a couple of hours at night. While the kids were at their camp we actually got to have a date! Wooohooo! Being the lushes that we are, we checked out the local pub. While there I found a great poem:

Sweet Dreams

When I lay in bed at night
and hear the ocean roar,
it makes me dream of treasures
washed upon the shore.
Will it be a shapely wave
and an early morning ride,
or will it be a big glass ball,
laid there by the tide.
Is it in the golden sky
where clouds reflect the ray,
or in the ocean big and blue
that sparkles thru the day.
Maybe it's the seals
swimming in a rocky hole,
or a whale shooting off it's spout
while passing along the shoal.
You know it is that and more
with words I can not say,
It brings me peace and happiness
that helps me on my way.
-Andy Harney

We left Bedwell Harbor on Aug. 20th and headed for James Bay on Prevost Island. We had a great time here! There were two different beach areas. One was rocky and very shallow. When stepping out of the dinghy and kayak, we found it to be crawling with millions of small crabs! The kids had a great time collecting all sorts of crabs. The other shore was sand, midden, and rock mixed. It was very pretty and the beach combing was wonderful. There is an old orchard there will bunches of apple trees.

The next day we headed over to Ganges to reprovision (had to comsume or throw out all fresh fruits and veggies before entering Canada, and we were dying for some fresh produce!). We really enjoyed the town. Very nice area with neat shops, galleries, and restaurants. I think our most memorable moment there would have to be the floating party gazebo! It was hillarious. It just cruised all over the harbor with a bunch of women partying it up! What a hoot!

On the 22nd we departed Ganges and sailed a short distance to Montague Harbor. There is a beautiful sand and midden beach just a short hike away. We spent a fair amount of time there. We had Tabor acting like a puppy and jumping in the air to catch sticks and other fun stuff! Sydney, Annie, and Bob did a little swimming (it was too cold for Shari-whimp!). We also enjoyed the floating bakery. It's an old refurbished ferry that a couple has their bakery on. Tastey treats! One of the main highlights at this anchorage was the trip to the Hummingbird Pub. The pub has an old school bus that they use to pick up people from the harbor and take to the pub. The driver was great. We listened to old rock-n-roll songs and he told a bunch of jokes. At the pub, we enjoyed some cold beers and really excellent food. I highly recommend going here to anyone that goes to the harbor.

August 11-16 2008

2008-08-29T16:11:00.000-07:00

Left Port Townsend on the 11th and had a calm, motoring passage back to the San Juans. We want to thank all of our friends for their help over the weekend. What a fantastic bunch you all are! We were feeling a bit lonely after leaving all our friends, but were ready for some quiet, family time.

Once in the San Juans, we tried to anchor at James Island, but it was too sloping and not enough swing room for our comfort level, so we headed over to Spencer Spit. We all enjoyed playing and relaxing on the sunny beach.

The next day we headed to one of our favorite places, Patos Island. We had a beautiful day there and a goreous sunset in the evening. The next day the winds switched and started blowing uncomfortably into the cove, so we pulled up anchor and headed out. We ended up in our other favorite anchorage, Echo Bay on Sucia Island. We had great weather while there. We enjoyed hiking, beachcombing, a campfire on night, and more dinghy sailing. We stayed there for 3 nights and truly relaxed and got into the cruising state of mind.

August 8-11 2008

2008-08-29T15:37:00.001-07:00

August 8th we departed Reid Harbor and headed for Port Townsend, across the Straights of Juan De Fuca. The wind was blowing 20-25kts and we had an exciting tacking duel between Pallaran, Khawdash, and Pearl. Arrived in Pt. Townsend for the Lats and Atts NW cruisers party. Unfortunately, Shari left to visit a sick friend in Portland, and missed all the excitement (but truly loved seeing her buddy)! Also received very sad news that Carol Brooks (Shari's dad's wife) passed away today. We will truly miss her. I guess everything happens in 3's, because Bob's eye ripped (recurrent corneal erosion), and that kept him down for a lot of the weekend. Bob keeps saying "I've got an eye problem, I can't see going back to work!" Don't we wish!

August 3-8 2008

2008-08-29T15:14:00.001-07:00

On Aug. 3 we cruised over to Roche Harbor and rafted up with our friends on Ghost. Had a great couple of days there filled with dinghy sailing, pot luck dinners, kayaking, and good friends. On the 5th of August we (Pearl, Ghost, and Khawdash(sp?)) attempted to sail in light winds and strong current and eventually gave up and motored to Reid Harbor on Stuart Island. Ghost and Pearl rafted together at the floating dock. We enjoyed hikes to the old, one room, historic school house, buying t-shirts at the treasure chest, and hiking to Turn Pt. light house. The kids also had a great time fishing off the dock and even swimming in the COLD water.

July 31-August 3 2008

2008-08-29T15:01:00.000-07:00

We left Olympia on July 31 at 6pm and motored to Gig Harbor. We arrived around midnight. Next day we had a great sail (until we hit Pt. no Pt.- or better said, Pt. no progress!) that took us all the way to Port Ludlow. Next morning we were up and going at 6am. We had a great day of sailing to the San Juans. The sun broke out and we had the current pushing us nicely along. We anchored in Indian Cove, Shaw Island. The kids always love coming here because they can build and play in drift wood forts. Shari likes it because of the soft warm sand. Bob's just happy to be in the San Juans!

Spring and early summer in South Sound

2008-07-22T19:05:00.000-07:00

Hopefully this is the first post of many to come! We've included some of our spring cruising photos. We've been able to get out quite a bit around the South Puget Sound.

Sydney posing as we pass under the Tacoma Narrows bridge.

The girls have discovered the joy of hangin' in the bosuns chair! It seems heights don't bother them much.

Sydney, age 9, and Annie, age 6. They are so fun!

Tabor at McMicken Island waiting to play. He's now 11, and still acts like a puppy! He loves taking dinghy rides and playing on the beach.