47.3 Nautical Miles (3 hrs 15 minutes on the Knot Wafflen')  across the Strait of Georgia separates quiet Poets Cove from Vancouver.  What a difference!

This is a very pedestrian and bicycle friendly city, including the huge Stanley Park.

Skyline from the Park at low tide

Sue Ellen flew out to be at home for Mother's Day and Pat is flying in after Mother's Day to help David and I navigate to the North.

Till next time....

Oh Canada

We left Sucia State Park and headed to Poets Cove Marina in Bedwell Harbour to clear Canadian Customs.  We had eaten all of our fruits and vegetables and had consumed most of our alcohol so we were not worried about being accepted by the authorities.

A quick phone call after securing the boat and we were in!

We grabbed a quick breakfast at the coffee shop and set our course to Vancouver.

Till next time....

Island life

We spent a couple of quiet days on a Sucia Island State Park mooring ball. David and Sue Ellen took their maiden voyage on the kayak.

Quite a diverse group of boats including a (very small & not pictured) cruise ship. The Nordhavn is from Australia and the sailing vessel has a bunch of kids on a field trip.

A glass of wine and Dominoes. Does it get much better?

Till next time.....

Underway

We are securely tied to a mooring ball, once again in the San Juan Islands.

It was a quick two hour trip @ 16 knots from Cap Sante Marina in Anacortes to get to Sucia Island and over a year of dreaming, planning and preparation.

We are underway!

The last 2 days have been a whirlwind of activity on the Knot Wafflen'.

Believe it or not- this is my queen sized bunk

All this was going on right before the 3 PM Bon Voyage party!  Fluid changes, engine alignment, installation of Sat Phone equipment, installation of SkyMate's Mazu/mSeries marine system plus a whole lot more.  I want to thank the crew at Aspen for all of their hard work.

The party got started and a good time was had by all.

 Afterwards there was a photo shoot featuring three Aspen C120s cruising in formation off Cap Sante. All in all a very full and satisfying day.

Check out these links for more pictures and information.

 www.passagemaker.com/trawler-news/the-10000-mile-cruise


http://aspenpowercatamarans.com/10000-mile-tour/



And now it is time for us to

Till next time.... 

Seattle and beyond

Back in Seattle for a couple of days - another chance for us to do some more exploring. My walkabout went from the sublime to the ridiculous.

I stumbled onto the SAM, went in and was informed that it was Senior Day.  All I had to do was admit I was old  and voila - Free Art!  Couldn't pass that up. I spent a couple of hours wandering the galleries.  As might be expected, wonderful exhibits of Pacific Northwest Native arts and crafts.

I am not a big fan of photos in Art Museums- so this is it.

Basking in the afterglow of some incredible art I continued my walk with no particular destination and came upon the ridiculous.

Seattle's famous Market Theater Gum Wall, located in Post Alley under the Pike Place Market. I had never heard of it so it was quite a surprise.  I turns out to be one of the biggest must visit places in Seattle along with the original Starbucks (which isn't the original at all- just don't tell the dozens of people waiting for their Latte at all hours of the day).

We pulled out of Bell Harbor Saturday at 10:00 am anticipating a 2:00 pm slack tide at Deception Pass. Those of you who have read earlier entries of this blog might remember I took some pics from the bridge over the Pass and said I couldn't wait to take the Knot Wafflen' under the bridge.

Well we did it! Spectacular!

For those those of you that have 3 minutes to spare (kill) here is a link to a video going under:

https://goo.gl/photos/S9a6iaub9bbnP1yr7

We are back in Anacortes for a couple of days getting ready for the send off event on Monday.

Till next time.....

3 for 1

Greetings all-

It has been a while since I posted so I will be consolidating 2 Islands and a freshwater lake into one. Enjoy.

Matia Island is one of the most northern of the San Juan Islands.  It is a beautiful little island that is primarily a national wildlife refuge.  Rolfe Cove, the only place really to land by boat on the island,has two mooring buoys, a dock with room for two boats and (as we found out pulling in) a rip roaring current. Had to back off and try again. All ended well, we tied up nicely and went for a walk.

There once was a hermit named Dave.........

We looked at our tide charts and were happy to find that low/slack tide was upon us as we were ready to leave so the exit was not nearly as exciting as the entrance.

 We motored the short distance to Sucia Island where we grabbed a mooring ball and settled in for a couple of days.

Taking advantage of a dreary day with very little wind, we left Sucia Island behind and hightailed it to Seattle where we took a slip at Shilshole Marina. We woke up this morning to a mixture of clouds and sun and still very light winds.  We took on some fuel and headed to the Ballard Locks to take us up approximately 26 feet to the freshwater of Salmon Bay and on into Union Lake and finally Lake Washington. We will be here 2 nights before heading to Bell Harbor Marina in downtown Seattle.

Till next time....