In July we joined several members of the Bremerton Yacht Club for 2 weeks on the 2022 Commodore Cruise. Our 197nm cruise included: Blake Island, Port Townsend, Roserio, Sucia, Friday Harbor and Kingston.
We encountered our first rough crossing of the Strait of Juan de Fuca surrounded by fog as we headed to the San Juan’s. Great sailing from Sucia to Friday Harbor as well as Friday Harbor to Kingston.
Although rare, it does snow occasionally… making things a little more challenging.
With COVID restrictions easing, we planned a flotilla to Port Gamble along with 3 other liveaboards on C-Dock (Terry, Caitlyn, John, Karen, Steve, and Nicola) and our guests Nate and Kris.
We hosted the arrival dinner and drinks, had a shore excursion into Port Gamble, flew the drone, enjoyed fireworks set off on the beach by a local first nations tribe, and enjoyed dinner and drinks hosted by Karen and John our last night at anchor.
We hauled out 18-July-2020 at Boat Haven in the Port of Port Townsend Marina.
Living on the hard in a dry yard during COVID was a challenge… but we were able to get the bottom sanded and painted and install underwater lights. When we were back in the water we worked to reseat the skylight window and found a rigger to inspect our rigging and replace our halyards with stronger line (dyneema).
We enjoyed our time in Port Townsend. The mates enjoyed walking the docks and riding in the wagon to provision at Safeway, get treats at Pane D’Amore Artisan Bakery, help with laundry at Mom’s Laundromat, help the captain search the shelves at West Marine or take in the breeze at the Sunrise Coffee Company.
Before the COVID lockdowns we were able to get out and explore the San Juan’s.
SV Counting Stars arrived in Nanaimo British Columbia, CA on 7-June-2019. Larry Meyer met us to help offload her. Larry owns the local Leopard Sunsail charter company and sailing school branded Island Cruising as well as the Deep Cove marina in Sydney, BC.
After clearing customs, we headed south to Sydney to drop Larry and were asked us stay overnight in his marina. Early the next morning, Bob borrowed Larry’s e-bike and went to a nearby market to pickup water and food as we had not provisioned. We departed mid-morning crossing the US boarder using the CVP Roam app and anchored in Port Ludlow. We dropped the dinghy by hand as the winch switch disconnected during transport and the corrosion needed to be cleaned before a solid connection could be made. We made our way to the Resort at Port Ludlow for dinner.
The following morning we continued on to the Port of Bremerton. We arrived in Bremerton to find new faces at the dock offering to grab our lines. It was a wonderful welcome to her homeport!
Then the work began to check lines for chaffe, put the forward sails back on and clean the dirt accumulated during the last month on the cargo ship.
The journey to the PNW involved stops in Panama, transiting the Panama Canal, Golfito, La Paz, and Ensenada before arriving in Nanaimo, British Columbia, CA
