Return Home to Port Ludlow, Washington 09.24.2013

After a pleasant morning in Friday Harbor it was time to travel home to Port Ludlow, Washington.

 

We left the dock and headed south in San Juan Channel, thru Cattle Pass, crossing the Strait of Juan de Fuca entering Admiralty Inlet off of Port Townsend.  Rounding Point Wilson we headed south down the west side of Marrowstone Island and into Port Ludlow returning home to our slip in the Port Ludlow Marina after being gone 128 days.

                

Our friend Michael was there at the dock waiting for us when we arrived!  How nice to see him.  Michael & Jane (you may remember that Jane saw us off the dock when we left Port Ludlow back in May!) brought our car down to the marina so that we would have transportation home. 

               

 

Because the car was left in the garage unused for so long our battery was dead.  It was time to get a new battery before we left but we thought we could take care of it when we returned.  As luck would have it the Interstate Battery salesman was just pulling into the marina parking lot with his truck to drop off supplies so we were able to get a brand new battery on the spot!  How luck is that!

It is nice to be back at the house – but full of the normal chores after traveling. 

                

Lots & lots of mail!  I went to the post office to pick up our business mail and all total we have 5 boxes of mail!  This is just one of them!

         

      

It’s surprising how many things we had on the boat for this trip!  Even though we planned and spent three years getting the boat ready – we brought along many replacement items like extra pumps, belts, filters, extra anchor, etc…  We weren’t sure if we would be able to get replacements and if we were how much would these things cost?!?  Thank goodness, with all of Bruce’s planning we really didn’t need to brake out these supplies!

Since I was unsure if we would be able to find grocery supplies easily while up in Alaska, I brought a lot of can goods that I do not ordinarily have on the boat like canned vegetables, as well as, freeze dried fruits, powered foods like milk, cheese, eggs, butter, hamburger, etc...  I always keep canned soups, stewed tomatoes, chili, stews and such in case we run into wet rainy weather.  It is really easy to just throw on a can of soup on top of the diesel stove and let it simmer awhile.

Our niece Lindsey is a rep for Shelf Reliance selling Thrive Foods – which is emergency food kits and food storage supplies.  So we brought a bunch of pantry size cans that are all double sealed of daily items we could eat if we could not get these supplies in the local stores.  Lindsey makes AMAZING meals from these products so I was fairly confident I could do it if needed!    

Since we have been home we have made several trips taking all these items off the boat and getting it ready for the winter. 

It will take a little while to gather our thoughts about our truly amazing journey to Alaska this summer. 

In the meantime let me share some statistics with you regarding our trip:

 

STATS:

 Left Port Ludlow for Alaska:        05.19.2013                          

Returned to Port Ludlow:             09.24.2013                          

Total miles traveled:                       3,000+ miles                                 

Total engine hours:                         430.9 hours

Pictures taken:                                  5,300+

It took us 21 days to reach Alaska; we spent 62 days in Alaska; & our journey lasted 128 days total!!!

 It was a wonderful trip and an event we will never forget.  Thank you all for following and your comments along the way.  We hope you enjoyed what we were able to share as much as we enjoyed making it available to you.

It’s nice to be home.

           

Friday Harbor, San Juan Island, WA 09.23.2013

The WWBA gathering was fun and it’s always enjoyable to visit with the other members of the organization.   

Our summer journey is nearly over and there are a lot of feelings about the experience, but for now let’s enjoy Friday Harbor and the wonderful amenities it has to offer.

Our plan was to come to Friday Harbor and see two sets of friends, Steve & Julie from M/V Secretary Isle and Peter & Nancy from M/V Sandra Jean II. 

So we headed south out of Ganges Harbor down Captain Passage into Swanson Channel and then into the U.S. San Juan Islands in San Juan Channel finally into the Port of Friday Harbor.  You may remember we started our trip from this marina after leaving Port Ludlow on 05.19.2013!

 

We got to see Steve & Julie in Ganges and they are now heading north for a couple of weeks boating so we’ll catch them a different time in Friday Harbor or out on the water.

 

And we got an email from Peter this morning that he and Nancy are traveling to Minneapolis so they will not be able to join us.  So we’ll have to catch-up with them this winter when we travel through CA as they stay in Oceanside for several of the winter months.

 





 

So while we're here overnight in Friday Harbor we'll take in the local town. 

 

 

We enjoyed a very nice dinner at the Cask & Schooner Pub and then took in a movie.

 

We always have a good time in Friday Harbor! 

 

Stormy Weather in Ganges, Salt Spring Island, B.C. Day 3: Sunday, 09.22.2013

Traditionally on Sunday morning the group has a sail pass out in the Harbor around 11:00 am then everyone usually leaves the event after the sail pass. 

This year we had heavy winds and rain so we had to cancel the sail pass and many of the boats stayed overnight again in Ganges to wait out the weather. 

Some of our boats left early to beat the weather (some even on Saturday like White Raven) and a few even left and wound up turning around and coming back to the harbor because the wind waves were too much!

We choose to stay another night and see what happens on Monday.  There isn’t really any reason for us to press on and chance the weather.

The feeling around the dock was like when we were kids and we had a snow day.  An unexpected free day! 

 

Since there were a bunch of us staying we decided to have another pot luck.  Bruce and I made a hugh pot of spaghetti and everyone contributed something towards the meal.  Garlic bread, a few different types of salads, soup, and pumpkin pie for desert!  We even had Mike donate a bottle of whiskey to John on Hayden Pass for hosting!

 

We certainly eat well at these events! LOL!  As you can see everyone had a great time.

WWBA Fall Rendezvous, Ganges. Day 2: Saturday, 09.21.2013

This day of the rendezvous is spent visiting and having the boats open to the public for touring from 1-4pm.  It’s always fun to see the new boats to the group or seeing the changes that have been done to the old boats over the summer.  And having the public view the boats is always a lot of fun.  We have met a lot of really nice people this way.

 

This year Terry asked me to help him with selling the groups apparel.  Jon from Penelope Isle let us set up shop on his back deck which now has a cabin roughly framed in which will keep us out of the weather if it starts to rain. 

 

Terry took over the apparel when MaryAnn decided to retire from doing it.  We were able to inventory all the merchandise and get everything organized and a system in place for keeping track of what we have and even set it up for easy storage.  This won’t be so bad!

4:00pm is typically the WWBA General Meeting and then a group pot luck at 6:00pm on the docks.  There is always SO MUCH food!  Unbelievable!

The last few years we have had a small band set up on the dock to play for us between the meeting time and the pot luck.  As luck would have it this year they set up right at the stern to our boat!  They were really quite good.

 

With the weather outlook marginal we found that not as many vessels showed up as usual for this year’s event.  I think we only had 46 boats where we usually have between 55-70 boats.

WWBA Fall Rendezvous, Ganges, Salt Spring Island, B.C. 09.20-09.22.2013

Day 1:  Friday, 09.20.2013

It’s always fun catching up with everyone’s summer travels and seeing what has been done to the retired workboats.  This is our seventh year as part of the group and each year is more enjoyable.  We have really made some good friends over the years.

Friday night of the rendezvous is spent having appies on the boats and catching dinner at one of the local restaurants.

When we got in we were welcomed by Martin & Marty from M/V Java!  You may remember them from the beginning of our trip.  They traveled with us from Nanaimo to Shearwater.  It was great seeing them again!   And Marty had plenty of fish stories to share!  Fish slayer that he is! LOL!

 

We all made plans to have dinner up at the Tree House Café which is located right at the top of the dock.  Jelly is with them and so is Marty’s wife Katherine.  So we’ll be 10 for dinner.

 

The rest of the day was spent helping people get docked and visiting with everyone as they came in.

 

The Tree House Café is an outside seating restaurant.  The tables have umbrellas but once our drinks had arrived and we were waiting for our dinners – it started to downpour!  So we moved all of the tables under the overhang of the nearby art gallery to get out of the rain!  It might not have been the best choice of restaurants due to weather but the food was fantastic!

 

Ganges, Salt Spring Island, B.C. Thursday, 09.19.2013

After a relaxing morning around the marina it was time to move onto “The Event”.  Our WWBA Fall Rendezvous in Ganges on Salt Spring Island! 

The weather has remained pleasant and we’re hoping it will stay this way for the weekend. 

Because Hayden Pass is such a large boat, they like to arrive in Ganges on Thursday to insure they get a spot on the dock.  As we all enjoy traveling together we have headed into Ganges early.

 

We came out of Montague Harbor passing through Phillimore Point and the south end of Parker Island.  Heading across Trincomali Channel over the north end of Prevost Island where we had a Canadian military ship steaming through the narrow point so we had to wait for it to pass before heading into Swanson Channel

 

Continuing north with the Chain Islands on our starboard side we motored into Ganges Harbor on Salt Spring Island.

Ganges is a great place to gather and it is nice to be back.

Estel and the ladies on Hayden Pass have planned for steak fajita’s for tonight’s dinner.  And there is still some of Karen’s chocolate cake left for desert.  Since the dinner is now Mexican themed Bruce & I are supplying margarita’s for the evening.  Good thing the liquor store and grocery store is up the street from the dock!
 

When we were finishing our evening we had a beautiful sunset looking out the stern of the boat over the harbor.