Thursday, October 16, 2014 LaConner Washington

Friday, September 5, 2014 – underway from Anacortes to Vancouver BC

It feels good to be back on Serenity again.  She has spent the last two months in covered moorage with little company.  Earl found someone to wash her while she sat there.  It was a job to rival Fito’s in Mexico, for not quite twice as much, which is still not at all bad considering the work involved.

We are having a beautiful trip to Vancouver.  We plan on overnighting in Coal Harbor.  Depending on what we need to dispose of at customs, we will need to add to our stores, before leaving the dock with our dear friends John and Maria Luisa who are in Vancouver visiting John’s son Peter.  We are looking to showing off the Coast of British Columbia to these friends from Mexico.

The US gillnet fleet is out in force.  “Pushing the line” here means the international border.  They have apparently not had a good season with most of the salmon entering Puget Sound from the north.  The BC fleet is not fishing today.  We are seeing lots of salmon jumping and I can’t help thinking of the thrill of setting out the net and seeing it light up with splashing fish.  Those were some of the most memorable times of our gillnetting in Cook Inlet and I feel quite nostalgic!

Vancouver is a beautiful city

Thursday, September 11, 2014 – Returning from Vancouver BC to Anacortes

After a lovely trip up the coast, we pulled into Coal Harbor Marina about 7 pm on Friday.  This is a beautifully located marina, right in a downtown area near some big hotels and the cruise ship marina.  My only complaint was the absence of WiFi at the docks.  It was available at the office, but that is not the same. 

The next morning we went to look at a new boat, a 38 foot Sabre Express. Knowing that our long range cruising is now behind us, we are looking for something that might be better suited to shorter trips around Puget Sound.  Earl loved it. 

Around noon, our friends John and Maria Luisa togerther with John’s son Peter and his wife Miriam and children Kevin and Kerstin arrived for a luncheon cruise.  Kevin and Kerstin are delightful children.  They moved up from Mexico two years ago and are thoroughly acclimated and doing beautifully in school.  Kevin was the number 1 student in his class.

 

Kevin, Miriam, Peter and Kerstin

We cruised inland, up Indian Arm and found a place to anchor.  Being a Saturday and very much in the Vancouver area, it was relatively crowded, but Peter and family loved being out on the boat and we had a pleasant hamburger lunch.  We returned to Coal Harbor in late afternoon and said goodbye to Peter and his family.

The next morning, we made an early start to head north to Princess Louisa Inlet.  We were anxious to show John and Maria Luisa some of this beautiful country and have them experience our Trac stabilizers.  Maria Luisa who is not an adventurous boater was thrilled with the stabilized ride and they are looking forward to installing stabilizers on the Viking Spirit when they return to Mexico.  

Beautiful BC

 

It doesn't get much better than this

There are few things as fulfilling as showing off an area you love to someone who has not seen it before.  It makes you realize how very special something you have started to take for granted is.  We could not have had lovelier day and made good time to our anchorage at McMurray Bay in Prince of Wales Inlet.  It is a marginal anchorage with only a small shelf on which to put your anchor.  It took us a couple a tries to get a secure hold.

Everyone was enjoying the warm weather

The next morning we were up early to be sure to get to the inlet to Princess Louisa in time for the tide at Malibu rapids.  John had never been through tidal rapids before and was very apprehensive.  It is quite something to see a boiling stretch of water come to a halt.  It was for us an uneventful passage into Princess Louisa.  Although it was late summer and there had been little rain, there were still water falls.  We motored up to Chatterbox Falls where we found two other Nordhavns and a couple of other boats and spent a wonderful day enjoy the peace of the special place.  For the entire cruise we were blessed unseasonably warm weather – over 80 – and we loved it.

 

Slack water at Malibu Rapids

chatterbox Falls

Making use of Earl's 'Pavillion" - lunch on the boat deck

 

Dawn on Tuesday we were up and waiting for the tide at the Malibu Rapids.  Once again, John was anxious, but, once again, it was needless.  We cruised pleasantly down to Smuggler Cove, a delightful hidden anchorage where we spent a lazy afternoon and pleasant evening. 

 

Smugglers Cove afternoon

 

Smuggler Cove sunset

 

Northwest Light House

From Smuggler it was a short trip back to Coal Harbor and another look at the Sabre Express.  I don’t know how happy I would be to trade Serenity’s fuel consumption of less than 1.5 gallons per hour for something that takes 4 or 5 times as much.

With promises to see them in early 2015 in Mexico, we said goodbye to Maria Luisa and John and left early on Thursday September 11^th for the return trip to Anacortes.  This time the Canadian commercial fleet was out in front of the Frazer and we watched as they hauled in the salmon as we made our way south.  It was a speedy trip as we had the tide with us and we were all tied up in by mid afternoon.

 

Catching salmon

It has been quite a month since our cruise to Princess Louisa.  We spent the next few days watching in horror as hurricane Odile slammed into Baja and devastated our beloved La Paz. The boats anchored out were heavily hit and three cruisers drowned.  We are in sorrow for the lovely people that we lived among for five winters. 

We also made the big decision to sell our beloved Serenity.  We have spent the last month emptying her.  I have come to realize that it is always low tide when I have a cartload of stuff to take up to the car.  As we unloaded her, I was reminded by how much storage there is on a Nordhavn 43 and horrified at just how much we had accumulated in the time we had used her as a second home.  Our garage is now stuffed and we have a job ahead of us to sort through all of it.

We will be trying to sell her ourselves using NordhavnFSBO.  We are waiting for a sunny day to take some photos of her interior and I have the task of putting together the list of her equipment etc to list her.  It will be a bittersweet day when we turn the keys over to someone else.