No salt on the rails

We have been on our voyage for 6 days and the rails are still salt free! A sure indicator that our kitty crew member is having a great ride.

Saturday evening we were tied up at Blake Island Marine Park. Later in the summer a place here is very hard to come by but with the cold & rainy spring few boaters are out and about.

Sunday evening we were at Spencer Spit off the east side of Lopez in the San Juans. The marine buoys here really need

some attention. Very few of the dozen or more original buoys are still functional and we would never choose to ride out a storm tied to one!

Monday we tied up at the pier provided by the Orcas Island Yacht Club. Here we joined Rod & Susan Dean aboard Merlin (a Nordic Tug 32). Our journey to Juneau will be shared with the Deans and their dog Katie. Weather reports for rain & gusty winds so, we were doubly happy to spend the day with good friends Rich & Alayne Goodhart. They have moved to land after living aboard water vessels for many years. They purchased a beautiful wooded Orcas Island home. The house is perfect for them! And a great place for friends to visit. We were given an all island tour. Dinner was potluck aboard Xanadu followed by Mexican Train & laughter.

Tuesday Katie miscalculated and took a little swim in the salt water. I fished her out. The least I could do since it was me she was jumping to see. John & Rod did a little plumbing repair on a leaky fitting in our engine room. The new part was just a 1/4 mile walk away. Hopefully all of our broken parts will be as easy to fix. With a 40 year old boat little repair challenges are not unusual. We checked through Canadian customs at Bedwell on South Pender Island. This was the first time in many years that a customs person was actually there. Usually John does the entry by phone & camera. Xanadu passed with no problems but Merlin got the rubber glove shake down! It pays to look sweet & innocent. We tied up for the night at Ladysmith.

Wednesday cooking John some oatmeal cookies and heading for Dodd Narrows.

This is one of the places boaters need to time their approach. Slack water is like a bath tub while full flow is whitewater and sinkhole vortices. With the slack water comes multiple boats & tugs with log booms all vying for the same narrow place. When the boats all follow the rules things work well. However, there seem to be many boaters unfamiliar with proper procedures. /@:&;)-(!!! Tied up at the Nanimo Yacht Club by lunch time. Too early in the trip to take advantage of the Looney a load laundry but I did jump into the hot continually running shower. Boat showers are not so luxurious. Dinner out at a Mexican restaurant to celebrate Quatro De Mayo.

And today is Thursday and we are heading for Comox on Vancouver Island. It will be our first time here since we have previously transitioned north via Pender Harbor and the Sunshine Coast. The Georgia Strait is a huge body of water and we are fortunate to have light winds and a very smooth passage. Time to go make myself some cookies.