June 18th - 22nd Grey's Harbor to Port Angeles Washington

June 18th – 22nd         Grey’s Harbor to Port Angeles, Washington

Father’s Day we had a nice breakfast at one of the local West Port eateries and then it was time to bundle Zach, Aiden, Sophie and Jim into Jim’s rig for their drive home.  We loved having them and Nana Pam can now relax a bit when we contemplate another grandkids coastal sailing excursion.  We called our son Jacob to wish him Happy Fathers Day as well.

Knowing that we were going to sail through the night we got ExTerra ready for the northerly passage from Grey’s Harbor.  We passed an uneventful night at sea, which is just how we like it.  Carl let Pam sleep an extra hour before turning the helm over to her at 2:30 a.m. so he could go below and get some much needed rest.  We both explored our new radar and chart plotter so we know what all those blinking lights are before we get into a situation where we are calling them those blankety blank lights!

We rounded Cape Flattery, leaving the mighty Pacific and entering the Strait of Juan de Fuca around the break of dawn.  We decided to go right past Neah Bay and head on up the Strait to Port Angeles to settle in and wait out the predicted high winds.  

We settled into our reciprocal slip in the Boat Haven and fairly soon Carl saw our friends Bill and Liv from Rose City.  Recently married they are honeymooning on their boat Mischief, making their way up into Canada as well.  We spotted Mischief in Astoria, you might recall, a few days ago.  Bill had friends from Rose City help him crew up the coast and Liv joined the boat in Neah allowing the crew to drive her car home.  This is often how boats are shuttled up the coast.

We visited awhile, enjoyed a glass of wine and retired for the evening.  The next day Liv returned, asking our help to dock them in the increasing wind.  Mission accomplished and they thanked us by asking us over for dinner on Mischief. 

We also ran into Julie from the Club.  She came up the coast on a friend’s boat.  They ran into some mechanical problems and had to stop the trip so that the boat could be hauled out in Port Angeles and repaired.

We spent the remainder of the day happily completing small boat projects and staying out of the wind.  Regular looks at the weather indicated that gale force winds were still predicted for the Strait so we just kept digging into our “small projects” tub and tackling odds and ends.  A walk to town offered us an opportunity to check out the second hands/thrift/antique stores and grab an ice cream cone.  We found a nice wood piece to finish off a “catch-all” tray for the counter in the head to go with our teak water bottle and toothbrush holder Carl made recently.

At 1800 we went to dinner on Mischief.  We spent a nice couple of hours swapping sailing stories and sharing good food, wine and friendship.  We wish Bill and Liv a wonderful honeymoon on their well found boat.

Another day of high winds, more small projects, a two mile hike (round trip) to do laundry and then to bed to rest up for our crossing of the Strait on Thursday.