Roche Harbor, WA

We are again on the move. We left Port Townsend on May 5th, celebrating Cinco de Mayo and a smooth crossing of the Strait of Juan de Fuca with beers and tacos in Griffin Bay, anchored off the site of what was once American Camp. A multi-cultural collision of history.

We spent the winter in Port Townsend, focused on boat projects - repairs, changes, improvements, inspections, and on, running to a list of something like 120 projects large and small. From pulling and inspecting our chainplates, installing new engine mounts, rebedding a portlight, etc. Each task taking on multiple dimensions of research, sourcing materials, prepping, executing, tinkering, finalizing. And although there are many blogs and sites devoted to the arcana of boat projects (and thank you all for doing them - I visited many of them and they were immensely helpful!) this is not one of those sites......yet. I might someday post images from our winter work but at the time was mostly focused on doing not documenting. We had so many tasks to tackle that trying to properly capture them in a way to share would have blown our schedule and we’d still be tied up at Boat Haven marina.

Among the additions one that has become instantly beloved are new sails from Carol Hasse and company. Our previous sails were original to Tumbleweed and almost 20 years old. The new sails are excellent in light air. We’ve been sailing handily in 6 or 7 knots, windspeeds that would have had the old genoa sagging in the breeze. The new sails are beautifully made and hold their shape so well. It’s a joy to hoist them in the light winds we’ve had recently and drift along.

We returned south at the end of October, moving quickly to get ahead of the bad weather that was building to the north. When we arrived in Port Townsend we learned that Douglas’ mother was ill and we flew to visit her. Sadly, her health took a turn for the worse and she passed away in November. We were grateful that we could be with her, and with Douglas’ father. It was a melancholy end to the year.

After the new year we started in on our list of tasks to get ready for our next chapter. We had originally planned to head down the west coast and head for the South Pacific, but as we researched routes and weather it became obvious that it makes more sense to leave for the South Pacific from Mexico in March. We altered plans and are going to head for Haida Gwaii, specifically Gwaii Haanas which is a collection of islands off the coast of northern British Columbia, that is set aside as a First Nations heritage site and nature conservancy. We have a permit to visit the area for the month of June and are working our way north.

For the moment we are in Roche Harbor sorting out some other paperwork. Once we have that completed we’ll be able to cross over to Canada and begin heading north.