Monday July 16th – After a lazy morning in Roche Harbor we stocked up on some provisions and got the boat ready to take off. Our friends Todd and Tami left before we did heading to Nanaimo BC. We waved our goodbye from the dock then pushed off ourselves on our way across the border for a night in Bedwell harbor on South Pender island.

We stopped along the way to fish for salmon off Stewart island. No luck but it sure was nice floating along in the current in a beautiful area. We all cheered as we entered international waters then got in the long lineup to dock the boat for customs. Usually it’s a quick process but this time there were a lot of boats wanting in the country. Clearing was a simple process once docked then we went just around the corner and anchored in Bedwell harbor where the wind was blowing. This area is known for a micro wind tunnel that usually settles down in the evening.

Sure enough it did, so Skylar and I took Julie and Ava to the beach while we went bottom fishing. We didn’t catch anything except a rock, a sea cucumber and a Dog Fish.
After studying the weather and tides we decided the long run to Vancouver would be perfect tomorrow but will take some good timing to get through Gabriola Passage.

Tuesday July 17th – We left Bedwell and set our cruise speed through the Gulf Islands to arrive at Gabriola Pass at 1:30. The current through the pass would still be running 2 knots against us but I felt that was doable. No problems as we zipped through the narrow pass and out into the open Strait of Georgia. The strait was flat calm, and we had a wonderful cruise across this large body of water into English Bay. This is the first time we have been to Vancouver by boat, so it took some planning and new navigation, but we made it into False Creek’s Quayside Marina.

It was later in the evening when we finally got tied up, but we had to check out False Creak by dinghy. We cruised the waterway checking out all the sights getting familiar with the city.

Friday July 13th – Sunday 15th. It was tough leaving our anchorage at Kimball Nature Reserve but onward we went through the heart of the San Juan’s to Roche Harbor at the north end of San Juan island. We have had a nice time with without Skylar aboard (Love you Skylar ) giving Ava all the kid attention for a few days has been nice for her. But, tomorrow Skylar is flying in to Roche to join us for the rest of the trip.

Radioing in for a slip assignment had us at the very end of the seaplane dock, perfect for seeing Skylar off the plane and a quiet spot in the marina. Julie readies the lines and fenders on starboard side. 10’ from the dock its evident starboard is not going to work, the slip is too small, and we have to let the bow hang over. Julie quickly flips everything to the other side. 10’ from the dock we realize we can’t get the dinghy down if we dock on that side. We motor to open water and put the dinghy down then dock the boat for real this time. Just kidding, the power doesn’t work at the dock. “We are going to have to move you to I8 at the other end of the marina” the dockhand said. Ok, flip lines and fenders to the other side, again, and off we go this time to our permanent slip for the next 3 days. Wheeeeewwwwwww….

The next day (Saturday) was the opening day of crabbing season and we were excited to get some pots down. The 3 of us dropped the pots in our usual spot off Pearl island then went on what we call “the loop hike” then went back out to pull the pots. First pot had Zero keepers, but the second pot, just 100 yards away had 7 nice size crabs!

Skylar had a nice flight in that night and got settled in to the boat before we went to dinner at the Madrona Grill. Sunday, brought more crabs for a total of 19! Our friends Todd and Tami arrived by boat with Todd’s brother, wife and kids onboard. They are joining us for one night in Roach before heading north at a quicker pace then us. We are going to meet up with them in Desolation later in the trip.

Having caught 19 crabs, we prepared a feast for our arriving friends. We all had dinner together on Todd’s boat, eating crab until we could fit no more. We shelled the rest of the crab and still had another 5lbs of meat! Those were some hefty crabs.

Thursday July 12^th– Lazy morning at anchor, we didn’t get up and off the boat until around 11am. Nice to just sit and relax in a beautiful anchorage.  We finally got in the dinghy for a ride to the beach to do some hiking but with a minus 2.7 tide we couldn’t find a good place to anchor the dinghy.  So, we decided to do some touring of the local area by small boat and headed south to Mud bay.  Cruising along at 20 knots we came upon a huge house with multiple guest houses and a dock with a sign that said Welcome to Sperry Peninsula.  I told Julie “it says welcome, let’s go up and see what it is.”  I couldn’t convince her.  We later found out it it’s one of Paul Allen’s houses, probably better we didn’t venture on land, fine Julie was right.  We toured Mud Bay then Hunter Bay scouting out good anchorages for a return trip.  We got a little too close to some seals on a drying shoal, they seemed to bark and snort at us, but the babies were so cute we couldn’t resist getting closer.

After the tide came up we went back for the hike.  Really fun cliffside trail all the way around what I think is called Unnamed Island #3. The views were amazing, and Ava loved the challenge of the hike.  We then crossed back over the beach and hiked the other side (Decatur Island) up to the highest point overlooking the bay.

Tuesday July 10th – We left Edmonds at 7:44am and set our speed so we would arrive in La Conner at 12:30 for a scheduled haul out. The boat needed a new propeller shaft seal and the only what to do it is to take the boat out of the water by sling.

We arrived on schedule and hauled the boat where the American Tug crew quickly replaced the seal while we walked to town for lunch. 1.5 hours later we were back in the water working on installing a new air filter system. A custom metal fabricator had to come and template for a bracket that evening. He was awesome! He did the templating and built half the bracket that night then finished it in the morning and had it all installed by 10am! Very thankful for his efforts to get us back cruising so quickly. Kurt at American Tug was just as quick getting everything installed in record time.

Ava’s PLOP was easily extracted by Kurt with a shop vac, and she was very thankful. We got to hang out with Kurt (one of the owners of American Tugs) his wife Kristen and daughter Grace that evening. Ava and Grace get along great and we always have fun with Kurt and Kristen.

Wednesday July 11th – After the final fitting of the air filter, we had lunch on the boat while waiting for the rising tide. A minus 1.5 tide would have been a little sketchy leaving the Swinomish Channel. As soon as we thought it was safe to head out we started north through the channel. 12’, 10’, 9’, 8’ came up on the depth sounder. Hmmmm…. Not what I wanted to see, and I know we were not even in the shallowest spot yet. We turned around and slowly motored back toward town killing time as the tide came up. About 45 minutes later we turned north again and had a fantastic cruise across Rosario Strait, through Thatcher Pass and into a little anchorage on the south end of Decatur Island called Kimball Nature Reserve. New to us we studied the charts for a good anchorage then dropped the hook.

What a fantastic place, we couldn’t believe we haven’t been here before. We were the only boat in the anchorage and it was beautiful. After some exploring in the dinghy and beachcombing we cooked dinner on the boat then settled in for the night. More exploring tomorrow.

Monday July 9th – All the preparation is finally done, but not without some serious stress trying to find the time to get ready for this trip. The last 9 months have been a lot of work. Not only are we running Dillanos as usual, we have been planning, designing, constructing and moving our whole business to a new facility. All new 26,000sq foot offices space and all new manufacturing space complete with a lot of new equipment is a lot to organize and stay on schedule. But, we did it!! We are in, everyone all together (we were in 4 different facilities) in our new 125,000sq foot building feels awesome. In addition to the Dillanos build we are also in the process of completely remodeling two rental houses, working on those until late in the evening almost every day.

Somehow, we found time to get ready for this trip and now we are off for the next 7 weeks!

We finished the final packing on Monday morning then we cast off at 1:00pm one man/boy short. Skylar decided to stay home for an extra week and keep working at Dillanos where he is becoming a master packager. He is going to fly into Roche Harbor on Saturday and start the trip with us there.

The 3 of us left Tacoma cruising north up to Edmonds. The wind grew stronger the further we went hitting a constant 18-22 knots as we entered the Edmonds breakwater with waves and wind pushing us in. They gave us a funky slip away from the normal guest dock area and I didn’t know exactly where it was. Luck would have that the slip was just inside the breakwater giving us no time to prepare the lines and fenders. I struggled to hold our position while Julie readied the boat. Then PLOP, one of the fenders slipped off the rail into the sea. No time to get it in the chop and wind, I told Julie we will deal with it later, let’s get into the slip with 3. Julie has 16 years of boating experience and is the best deckhand I could ever ask for. She felt bad, but this was the only time she has ever dropped a fender!

We got into the slip without incident then we dropped the paddle board into the water where paddled on my knees to retrieve the fender that had blown into the breakwater.

We made dinner and settled in for the night. Ava was in the bathroom when she dropped a plastic screw cover in the toilet, luckily it had not gone all the way down in. Foreign objects in marine toilets are not good, they must be taken out or risk wrecking the grinding mechanism. No big deal, just stick your hand in there and grab it, I told Ava. She was grossed out and complained. No, I’m making you do it, just wash your hands after, I told her. More complaining gave way to her using 2 Qtips to chopstick her way out of this mess. Of course, it slipped off the Qtips and that’s when the second PLOP of the night occurred sending the object completely down the toilet. Major tears came shortly after, feeling bad she hadn’t just grabbed it in the first place and now “I wrecked the boat”. No big deal, we will be at the American Tug factory tomorrow and they will tell us what to do. Tears settled down after a while and we all went to bed while it started to rain.

Wednesday August 30th – We are leaving Seattle today ready to get back in the wild. Well, at least for one more night. Blake Island is our destination for our last night out. But first, we stocked up on some essentials at the public market and said our goodbyes to the love hate relationship we have with Seattle.

Docks were pretty full at Blake, but we tucked ourselves on the inner most dock shore side. It was a perfect spot! After getting settled we set off on a hike around the island. It was a beautiful day as we hiked along the beach watching an Osprey dive for fish. It was nice to be back in nature again.

Having stocked up on lots of fresh fish in Canada we cooked a slab of Skylar’s salmon over a cedar plank. Skylar loved it, saying “I will never eat salmon any other way”!

Thursday August 31st – Our last day on the water. We packed up then started our last cruise south to Tacoma. Every year it’s always a sad day. You would think we would all want to go home but none of us do. Being out on the water, trapped on a boat most of the time defiantly has its challenges. But, it’s also very rewarding. I always have the urge to just turn the wheel and head back north for another month or so, but those darn kids have to go to school.

During this trip we were out for 48 days and traveled 929 miles. We started the trip with 172 hours on the engine and ended with 276 for a total of 104 hours of run time.

Julie and I are so grateful for our ability to do this with our kids and the time we spend with each other is priceless.