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Well I wish I was writing of some grand adventure full of crazy excitement, but instead I am writing to fill everyone in on our further transition from the summer.

We are super glad to be home and visiting with family and friends, even though we would love to have spent more time exploring the beauty of the North.

Since we've been back though, life has felt like a bit of a whirlwind. From the tons of boat projects, to the preparation for Burning Man, my back surgery, and getting the children ready for school... the last month flew circles around us.

The weekend after getting back I took the day detaching our sewage system from our beloved Coqui and throwing it out. This left our boat smelling 95% better, but without a holding tank which has been a little inconvenient.

We have had many other things preoccupying or thoughts however, firstly getting ready for Burning Man (a week long festival in the desert we have gone to for the past three years). We built a yurt made out of canvas and framed using bamboo poles, and pine slats. It was really awesome and worked super well.

The Burn was a blast as always, but we are glad it's over and are equally glad to not be going next year. Four years in a row is good for now and we are looking forward to going somewhere next year for our honeymoon that requires very little planning and even less preparation. I'm thinking like the tropics in seclusion, with a small backpack, a cook stove, a tent and a sleeping bag. With no agenda other than to melt into each others lives and to get lost exploring a beautiful island we have never been to.

Anyway, I'd better not get to ahead of myself right now. There is going to be a lot happening between now and then. And as it stands I'm laying on a couch right now recovering from having had back surgery last Wednesday for two pesky herniated discs in my low back that have been afflicting me off and on for the past 10 years. Although I was anticipating having the surgery it came a little sooner than I had thought. I called to make the appointment on Tuesday after returning from the Burn and the soonest they could see me was October 20th. That seemed really inconvenient since I would just be waiting for surgery at that point. So I asked the receptionist if she could call me if there were any cancellations. Well she called me back about 20 minutes later and asked me if I could go in the next day. Although that put us in a bit of a rush it really worked out better in the end. I had very little time to think about it and it all happened so fast that I'm just glad it's over.

The procedure consisted of the surgeon going in and removing a small amount of bone and scraped away the portion of the disc that was bulging. Our hope is that the surgery will relieve the pressure from my sciatic nerve and therefore stop the pain and muscle spasms that have been bothering me forever.

I'm recovering well so far and am a lot more mobile than I anticipated. I am however not capable of getting in and out of the boat right now. So once again our amazing, supportive community is here for us and has been very generous in providing places for us to stay and houses to watch while in recovery. Thank you all again we are truly blessed and thankfully I should be in normal function within a couple of weeks.

We got the kids signed up for a new school which we were really excited about since the last school they were going to had major problems with the kids being under challenged and a principal that wasn't involved enough to respond to a letter. I have to say that I was thoroughly impressed in how brave the kids were to start a new school. Not only did they have to go to a new school, but they are for the first time ever not in the same building. For some strange reason the Hollywood district has separated their campuses between 1st and 2nd graders not between 5th and 6th graders so they can't even visit for lunch and recess. They were both a little distressed about this and I was sure there was going to be some kind of meltdown over it, but when the time came they both marched right on in and and came home telling us how much they liked their new schools!

Cuba and I were so proud of them both, but especially Asher. He has grown up so much this summer. For the longest time he's been so deathly afraid of change that his anxiety would consume him and constantly get the better of him. We would have to watch a totally different creature come out because of his fears. Leaving us the struggle of how to help him recognize, acknowledge, and overcome his fears while not allowing his bad behavior at the same time.

It has felt really great and amazing as parents to watch this new strength emerge in our son. I have to say that I am totally convinced that a great deal of this newly found courage and strength has been the product of a loving, stable father and a summer of facing the challenges of the unknown.

Before we set off on this endeavor I held a small family meeting (very informal) where I asked Asher and Liberty to tell me their fears, hopes, anxieties, anticipations, and everything they were excited or nervous about in terms of living on the boat and sailing. What I got in response was a wide variety of baffling honesty with everything from them being anxious about falling out when the boat tips over, to feeling like they might not be safe in the dinghy, and being nervous that they would feel stuck in too small of a space and get bored... to being excited at the opportunity to see lots of animals they have already learned about. I was amazed at how easy it was for them to tell us all the things they were feeling. I thanked them for their honesty and tried one by one to offer a little bit of reassurance, but not to over do it.

Instead I mostly just took inventory in my head of their concerns. About a month into our trip when I was noticing how well they had truly adjusted I asked them very casually how they felt about the various issues they had been previously concerned with. The great thing about this was that I already knew what their answers were going to be. I watched with joy as they both were in amazement with themselves realizing that the things they had been previously afraid of they hadn't given a second thought to. I felt really blessed to watch their sparkling little faces look at each other with a new sense of self empowerment. Too cool!

Thank you all for your support and love. We will keep you posted with upcoming events and can't wait to see those of you who we have not seen yet.

Love you all.

Finally Home!

As I'm in the living room of a house that we are dog sitting for I'm a little bewildered that we are already back. And a little stunned that we went, we did it, we sailed the ocean on our own, and we are finally living on a boat? It's funny I've been asked upon returning if it feels strange to come back to Portland and not have a house and, well, i honestly hadn't thought about it till i was asked. We have made that boat so much our home that I will need a huge reason to ever leave it. All summer the feelings of relief and finality rushed over me as it set in that we were at last on our journey.
We got back a couple of days ago and our trip didn't see the sun for three days. With the 100 degree weather everybody else was having I'm sure that sounds great, but for us being on the ocean, miles from any visible land(or anything) it was despairing, gloomy and empty. We had only the aid of our GPS and radar due to the extremely pour visibility we had from all the fog. I would have taken pictures of the transit except there was nothing to see besides 3-4 different shades of gray. Only now that we are home and its all like a dream I wish I had.
Bob and i took a bus from Portland on Friday morning and met up with Cuba 8 hours later in Port Angeles. It was really great to spend that time with him and connect on an even deeper level. I am so extremely grateful for the love and support in my new family. They have all been super amazing.
Saying goodbye to the kids after spending every day together all summer was super hard, it didn't help that they were balling in the car with Lynn as I hugged them. But I do have to say I was a tiny bit relieved that they missed me that much after being stuck with me for so long.
While we are talking about aching to see someone!
Cuba Said it well, but i feel the need to say it also. I was surprised to be with him every day in super tight quarters for months and then to spend a night apart and not be even the slightest bit looking forward to it. I got very little sleep that night, it was lonely and restless.
Bob, Cuba and I started out of Port Angeles at 3:30a.m. to catch a good outgoing tide(to Bob's disbelief that Cuba and I were capable of rising at that hour). The fog was thicker than we had expected so we tried to hook our radar up and it wasn't working. Hmmm. Well the waves were also little larger than we had thought they would be and as sea sickness started to kick in I handed out the Dramamine. I have only used Dramamine twice but both times i am bashed with the most useless wave of drowsiness. I'm talking the kind of drowsiness that you have no control over where your eyes start rolling back and you are nodding off while you are feeling confused and slurring your speech. I was USELESS. It felt horrible because the other two were feeling sick enough to be struggling also. Thank god for Cuba, once again my love, my hero, my knight in shinning armor and my sunshine on a very cloudy and dreary day. He over ruled his disabling seasickness and mustered the strength to be at the helm for a few hours while sending me off to sleep. God i love you!
Since it was just Cuba, his dad and I on the trip home. It meant that Cuba and i would have to take continual 3 hour shifts because none of us felt comfortable leaving Bob alone at the helm with his limited experience. Having him there was a huge benefit though as that we would often find ourselves taking ten minuet cat naps on watch while using auto pilot if he was up with us.
It is really awesome to me that our summer was so full of experience and familiarity with Coqui. When we left to go up to the San Juan's earlier this summer i demanded(with pleases as always) that we have someone experienced go up with us, even if it meant that I wasn't able to go because of schedule conflict. And i am every bit as glad now as i was then that we did. However, on the trip coming back i felt very different. I was content to only have the two of us if no one else could make it. I knew it wasn't ideal, but i wasn't concerned.
The ocean, like i said was gray and cloudy. for three days we were cold and damp from all the fog, like bone damp. Even in taking naps i would wake up cold and still damp. It was unbelievable, and we saw very little the entire time. Sleep was taken in 3 hour very restless shifts. I woke up every hour and wanted to know where we were. The only confirmation was the GPS and our hourly course plotting on the map as back up.
We had the current in our favor for the first time all summer but no wind so once again we motored the entire time with a couple short exceptions. At least we were making awesome time(in boat life) like 6-7 knots per hour so we had the ability to get off the coast a day early. And at the rate things were going i wasn't interested in spending another hour unnecessarily on the depressing gray ocean. So we sped things up a little to take advantage of time.
We were never so excited to see the bar at the Columbia River entrance at 2:30p.m. on Sunday instead of Monday. But we had made it there a little too early. We had two hours to kill waiting for the tide to change so we could go in. Cuba went to take a nap and then Bob followed. So as we were just drifting around in wait I decided to turn the engine off and pull out a sail. I had more fun than you would think just tooling around in circles killing time. smelling the sea for the last time maybe this year.Once it came time I woke Cuba up and we headed in. The Columbia Bar is world renowned for it's drop of the dime weather change and grisly seas, so although our other two crossings had been a piece of cake there was a mild ere of anxiety looming as we approached. The current was strong and the seas got a little boisterous for a while. We almost considered turning back and my small amount of anxiety definitely increased, but only for a short time. Then things smoothed out and calmed down. I have to say it felt really good to be in total trust of my partners capability as well as his judgments, which in times like that its super important to feel safe and of one mind.
Thank God we made it to Astoria!!!!! things only got better from there. The days of lingering queasiness that Bob felt finally started to go away. We were off the friggin ocean, and we almost saw our first patch of blue sky off in the distance. We arrived in Astoria at around 7:30p.m. and with the time we were making it was hard to stop so we motored on till 11p.m. and then slept for the night. I have to say that we all finally got great sleep that night. Not to mention that Cuba and i finally got to cuddle for the first time the whole trip :)
We woke up with the plan to get fuel at the marina around the corner. The charts showed the depth into the marina being 7ft and the depth in the marina itself being 10ft. since we draw 7ft we knew we were pushing it, but we didn't really have a choice. Going into the marina was ridiculous, not only was it shallow but it was extremely narrow. We approached going as slow as possible and as we rounded the corner to go in we could see the fuel doc. We got about 30ft from it and bottomed out. Hmmm.....Well? Luckily for us we were in there at the low, low tide and it was just on the rise, but in the mean time we had to get to the fuel dock. With a little effort we backed off and went around the shallow spot, but as we got closer to the fuel dock we realized we weren't going to make it all the way there. We got about 3ft from it and I jumped off, followed by Bob and we pulled Cuba over as far as we could. Thankfully the fuel hose is really long.
Fueled up and ready to go Bob and I swiveled Coqui's bow over and hopped on that way. The tide had come up a little while we were getting fuel so getting out was quiet a bit easier than going in but still narrow as all hell. Once out we were excited! The sun came out, there was a good breeze and we didn't have far to go from there!!!! We had been motoring so much I was determined to sail. I threw the Jib out the first chance i got and had a blast tacking it back and forth convincing myself that it was giving us extra speed, but when I convinced Cuba that we needed to fly the spinnaker that's when the fun really started. (The spinnaker is a huge parachute like sail that is good for when the wind is behind you). We have been nervous to fly it since we got the boat because of its ability to capsize if used improperly, ignorantly or in too strong of winds. But this was the most perfect of all opportunities to try it. The kids weren't with us, we had perfect wind, we were on the river 50ft from shore and we had three people on board to help.
We were a little edgy when we first put it up but as we gained familiarity with it we gained confidence in ourselves about using it. We gained so much speed that we were able to turn the engine off and sail the rest of the way home up the river!!! We even got home hours earlier than we thought we would. Arriving in Portland at 8:30p.m. we were able to be picked up by Lynn and the kids and taken back to their house for the night. We were all so happy to see each other.
It's really amazing how fast our time up there really was. We felt like we had just got there when the day actually came to be on our way home. If it wasn't for all the amazing people that we miss it would have been impossible to get me to come back. The fast pasted congested city has very little allure on the quiet ports of the San Juans. Its crazy how much slower I feel than the world around me right now, but that's a good thing I guess. People keep asking HOW I feel about all the change... Well, I feel amazingly blessed and fulfilled with life, love and family right now and that's more than I could have ever asked for.
Love you all and can't wait to see you!

That had me worried for a minute

The forecast has been inaccurate up here so often that when I saw a Small Craft Advisory with 20-30 knots for today I decided to go to Port Angeles anyway. But after bashing hard into waves for a couple of hours I decided to divert South to Dungeness so I wasn't taking them on the nose and to give myself the option of escaping open water if I needed to, especially since I was alone (see my sudden turn South in Google Earth).

That was a wise decision. By the time I passed the spit into Dungeness Bay the wind was 25-30kts and the 4-5ft waves were having their whitecaps blown off in gusts while I was soaked from spray and starting to get cold as the sun set. The video doesn't capture how big the waves felt, but the motion might give you some idea.

Kinda fun. Kinda scary.

Coming home with mixed emotions

My mood is melancholy because I just waved goodbye to Anna, the kids and my brother as their ferry slipped away. Liberty and Asher clung to me, crying, while I tried my best to console them but they nearly caused me to tear up as well since that's about the warmest feeling a father can experience. Anna and I ourselves need very little space and consequently spend almost no time apart. One would think that the few times we do would at the least feel like a refreshing change, but I find instead that those things that aren't made more difficult by her absence are made so much less enjoyable.

And so begins our return to Portland from a summer of magic, surprises and natural beauty. Anna's brother Bryan was, to everyone's disappointment, unable to come but having my brother here has been nothing short of extraordinary, though how we miss you Cloud! Tonight I will set out - with appropriate gusto and derring-do - on a seven-hour, singlehanded sail across the Strait of Juan de Fuca to Port Angeles where I will await the arrival of Anna and my father tomorrow. On Saturday morning we begin the return transit and should arrive in Portland on Tuesday.

As inviting as the San Juans are, the highlights of the summer were certainly the visits from our people and we dearly miss those that didn't make it up. So it is with some sadness but even more excitement that we close out our first sailing adventure and return to Portland and those we love. We'll see you soon!

XOXO

Love from Portland

Wow. It seems like a long time since I have written. It really is amazing how much can happen in a two week period. It seems like there is so much to tell.

Friday harbor was really a great little town. It was every bit as amazing as Cuba made it out to be. The amount of wild life hanging around the marina for the kids to see on a daily basis was phenomenal! They were constantly entertained and intrigued. The floating planes flying in and out right in front of our boat all day long never got old either.

I took the kids to the Whale Museum which was small, but pretty cool. The entire entrance to the museum is a staircase that has been painted in such a way that you ascend from the ocean floor to the sky above the waters’ surface. From the bull kelp and the crabs to the orcas jumping and the birds flying overhead. It was really well done and has made me consider doing something similar to Asher’s room since he was especially impressed with it.

When you walked into the main room there were skeletal systems from several large marine mammals. They had sound waves, pictures, charts, teeth, sculls and brains. It was a little sad though because of how many whales and other mammals have been hunted and put in danger. After we left Asher was in tears over the extinction of a particular species of gray whale. Luckily he didn’t stay heartbroken for too long. I do love how sensitive and thoughtful he is. He is so easily moved with compassion it blesses me, but I really hate to see my children cry.

On the third of July the town was having a little function down at the water front where the kids’ beloved stone seal is. We had gone up there because there are some public outlets and picnic tables where Cuba could finish up a little work and the kids could play. We had no idea there was going to be a gathering there. We found a table off to the side and sat down. At first it was pleasant Native singing, but at some point this woman started up an open mic and during the slots where no one was singing proceeded to sing herself. It was a train wreck if I have ever heard one and it went on and on. She even sang some songs more than once. It was absolutely redonkulous!

It was so bad that I paid Liberty $1.00 to go and sing a song just to get her off the stage. Well I got what I paid for. She went to go sing all right, but what came out was “um… Hi my name is Liberty and I’m going to sing you a song…. You’re a grand old flag. You’re a high flying flag…um” hands on mouth.

Next thing I know the woman who is running this open mic looks around and says,” Who’s your mother?” With a point and a smile I was compelled to help her out. I couldn’t just abandon her. So I sat in the only chair on stage with her on my lap and sang a song that I barely knew all the words to since she had learned it in her Kindergarten class (thanks Miss Ann). But at least I didn’t have to hear The Saints Go Marching In one more time.

That night we were fiddling around with our sewage holding tank system trying to fix something and a component that we suspected would break sometime finally did. Really bad timing. We were expecting our first visitors the next morning. This was going to require an early morning trip to town to buy a connector to splice our hose together with, then to come rushing back to fix it in time to get our friends from the ferry.

We were awoken the next morning at 6am, too early, by the sound of fireworks being tested on the water. The noise echoed back in such a way that we thought something had hit us, not to mention the boat doing the testing was no more than 300 feet away from us. It was a completely shocking and terrifying way to wake up.

On to the toilet repair, lets talk about gross!!! This was one of the grosses jobs I think I’ve ever done. There is nothing more real than the smell of raw stagnant sewage that has been sitting in the pipes for god knows how long. Our need for a proper holding tank and sewage grade hosing just got bumped to the top of the list of priorities. And I’m talking immediately!!!

Nevertheless we managed to temporarily fix the leak and splice the two hoses together in a very short amount of time. And rush back over to the ferry terminal and have a little time to spare. And as much of a hassle as these little problems and inconveniences have been they have bonded us closer and inspired us in our amazing capabilities to accomplish, problem solve and work together to do anything. We really make an awesome team.

After that whole debacle was over the day was great! We picked up our good friends Cate and Earl for the weekend. Our first visitors!!! They could not have come at a better time. Fourth of July weekend spent on a boat hanging out and watching the fireworks. We got ourselves stocked with groceries for dinner, ice cream and beer. We were blessed with the first really warm day we’d had since arriving in the Islands and great company. It was phenomenal.

After a delicious meal of grilled hamburgers and corn with salad followed by ice cream, we were ready and excited to watch the fireworks, not to mention very full. We were a little distracted however by the 165ft Westport yacht, named Katya, which had pulled in earlier that morning to block our view with her magnificent and tantalizing ways. She was like the devil incarnate, gleaming with brilliance and taunting us with a bad case of boat envy. Not to mention reminding us of all the egregious amounts of wealth that we were surrounded by. Ahhhh Katya, with your underwater glowing lights illuminating the way between me and you, and your streamlined hull with your shiny million dollar glossy coat that I could almost see my reflection in… Anyway the fireworks were awesome. They lasted a really long time and the sounds of thunder that accompanied them from the water were incredible. I think I could honestly say that they were the best display we had seen yet.

The next morning we wanted to take them to a state park and go explore so we pulled anchor and headed out. We ended up at the world's smallest state park. Although the entire island was indeed a park it was only about 500 feet across. We sat on top of the hill for 20-30 minutes and decided we should probably keep searching. So back into the dinghy, onto our boat, and off to find a place to explore.

We found our way up to Jones Island which was great. We tied to a mooring buoy and ventured out. The kids, Cate and I went swimming and ran on the beach. We hiked to the other side of the island and saw deer, built a campfire cooking stew and toasted bread for dinner. Then we rowed back to the boat for the night and slept. We saw them off on the ferry the next morning to everyone’s dismay and spent the next day getting ready for Bob and Lynn (Cuba’s parents) to come in the morning.

They arrived the next day at around noon and we showed them around town a bit before going back to the boat. While they were here we went on a tour around the island on a bus and saw some of the beautiful countryside, an alpaca farm, one of the other towns and a pod of whales off the coast at one of the state parks. It was pretty cool.

While they were here Bob helped me get our dinghy situation straightened out. Shortly after arriving in the San Juan’s we noticed that our dinghy was not holding air in the right side of the floor. We bought the dinghy a year ago and had only inflated it two or three times to mostly try it out. Then it landed itself on the top of our boat all folded up waiting for this summer to finally fly free.

I went to the West Marine in Friday Harbor earlier that week and talked to the guys down there about it and all four of them were more than obliged to help. The manager even had one of the employees drive me and the kids back down to the docks to check it out (every once in a while it really does pay off to be the woman).

They determined that it had to be sent away for repair and they were going to give us a loaner till it was fixed. Oh my god was I glad that Bob was with me that day. The manager brought down our loaner in a box and laughingly said, “Well have fun with that.” Only there was nothing fun about it. We sat on that dock for probably an hour in the rain trying to figure how that piece of crap was supposed to be constructed. Once we were done I still had the task of rowing in back to the boat in the rain. I really wouldn’t have minded this had the dinghy been really rowable. It tracks horribly and is way smaller than ours making any company require two trips now instead of one. In the long run we are a tiny bit glad this happened because ours is so big and hard to move that we were having a few second thoughts about whether we had outdone ourselves.


The last couple of days we took them to Jones Island as well. We liked it so much we really wanted to explore it more and show them how beautiful it was. We pulled up rocks and combed the beaches for hours. We turned over this one rock that must have had under it more than 300 crabs. It almost made my hair stand up to see them all scurry for safety after we disturbed their peace. The kids went crazy. They thought it was the coolest thing ever. Later while hunting for life on the beach Liberty found the smallest sea star I have ever seen in real life. It was so cute.

We built a fire and made sugar bears. If you don’t know what a sugar bear is you need to! They are the most delicious campfire treat I have ever had. You take a can of premade biscuit dough wrap it on the sticks and roast them. Then you roll them in butter and dip them in sugar. Yummmm are they good.

After we made the children crazy on sugar we made them burn it all off by playing hide and seek for a while. Once they were ready to crash Cuba rowed them all back to the boat and came back with some wine and a blanket and we cuddled up by the fire and hung out for hours. So beautiful. The night sky was perfect with the full moon, the stars and each other's company.

Saying goodbye to Bob and Lynn the next day was really hard. Having them here was loaded with fun.

We took the whole next day to get ready to go to Bainbridge Island where Cuba's company main office is (showers, shopping and laundry). I decided to try and save the $20 dollars it would take to do laundry at the mat and did it by hand. I used salt water for the wash and first rinse and fresh for the final. This worked out pretty well and I did about three loads in an hour and a half. But I failed to give the clothes enough time to dry before it was dark. They stopped dripping just in time for the rain and gale force winds to set in that night. We no sooner brought all the lines inside when we saw the lightning strike not terribly far from us.

I’m pretty sure I was told like a million times growing up as a child that the last place you ever want to be in the middle of a storm was either on the water or in the middle of a field. What the hell was I doing on a boat?! I had a flash panic thought to jump into the dinghy and row to shore. But after I realized just how ridiculous that was I calmed down. Paying out more scope with Cuba and adding a second snubber to the anchor chain was also a great deal more reassuring.

With very little sleep, from constantly waking to check on our holding, we woke up early and got ready for our 13 hour sail. The wind that morning was incredible, but unfortunately not usable. It was head on and only seeming to push us back, slowing us down and making us extremely cold. We spent the next 12 and a half hours taking turns motoring our way there. The kids did amazingly well. And just as I detected the first bit of boredom in them I let them watch two movies in a row. They loved that because our television watching all summer has been next to nothing.

At about 10 miles to go we finally got wind in a good enough position that we decided to raise both sails and turn the engine off. Finally, I was so excited. Ironically with not more than ten minutes worth of sailing it started to pour rain and we heard the huge crash of thunder. There was no way that either one of us were going to be up there straddling the mast when that come our way so without hesitation both sails were dropped. Total bummer. I am looking forward to sailing just for the fun of it while we are here. When you are trying to make any distance in the daylight it is really hard to always sail.

Since we have been in Bainbridge it has been really great. Cuba has been working in the office and getting to know the people he works with up here better. They are really great. The kids and I have been able to visit him at work for lunch and explore the surrounding areas. We walked down the main street and met a woman in a candle shop that was so impressed with the kids and their story that she gave them each a little sailboat candle. The kids thought that was really cool. Then we spent the next day roaming to Seattle on the ferry and exploring the science center. That was a day well spent. And we were all well spent at the end of it.

Being here has been really fun but we are getting excited to come back to Portland in a few weeks and see all of our beloved friends and family. To those of you who have been able to make it up here we greatly thank you, we really couldn’t have done this without a wave of love and familiarity being brought to us to help us with our home sickness. To those of you who were not able to make it up we are getting really excited to see you all soon.

Friday Harbor

For a full week now, we've been voluntarily stuck in our San Juan home-away-from-home, Friday Harbor. Never before have we seen such fascinating sea life within a marina and we gaze at it until we almost fall into the clear water chock full of jellyfish, shrimp, anemones, leafy seaweed, crabs and lord-knows-what-those-things-are. The marina even has a resident seal named Popeye who's been here since she was a pup, taking expensive fish from marks like us who happily buy it for her from the seafood stand.

In our smooth, glorious style, we announced our arrival with a botched docking maneuver that didn't do any damage but left me wondering what our powerboat neighbor thought of us. His name is George and it turns out I shouldn't have worried because even though he and his family are living aboard for the summer, he knows next to nothing about boats and has never driven his, as far as I know. He just bought one because he wanted to, and I love that.

Before long, our kids became fast friends with his son George (Jr.?) and they invited us out on a whale watching tour for which they'd hired a captain. I'm sure they wouldn't have died, but it was fortunate for all involved that we accepted. The first hours were uneventful and while we didn't spot any whales, we saw lots of beer. About half-way through the trip we pulled into Roche Harbor for appetizers and while hunting for dock space, Skipper Ryan discovered that the controls weren't responding quite right so he scrubbed the attempt and headed for deeper water to figure out the problem which turned out to be the port propeller stuck in gear. We were afraid to turn the boat off in case it didn't come back on so we helped him anchor while the boat did slow circles in front of folks who surely thought us idiots. After a full day, we arrived back in Friday Harbor having circumnavigated the island so that Anna and I could prepare for everyone an exquisite meal of hot dogs and mac & cheese aboard Coqui. I adore having eight people crowded around the table down below; it feels like home.

We've spent loads of time wandering around town petting any canine that will let us get near because we're stricken with an acute case of pet envy. It seems every boat has a dog aboard and though barely a day goes by that I don't long for my beloved Jackie, I'm ready for a new pup in my life and we're confident we can handle a fifth creature aboard.

In shop news, I've gotten used to working from the boat during the day while Anna takes the kids on endless errands and a few adventures, which I don't begrudge because I have a superb floating office. In contrast to air conditioning and sealed windows, I just witnessed a seal catch a fish in front of towering Mt. Baker. It's all idyllically perfect, except for how much we miss our people. We love it here, but for that reason we'll be glad to come home.

XOXO

***Nerd Alert***: You can now view our position and tracks in Google Earth. The link is on the right side of the page and will be updated regularly.