IT'S GETTING REAL

We arrived on the boat Wed Febuary 24 appx 10pm. That was our fastest time yet. A swift 975 miles, 16.5 hours. Only 4 stops, including the speeding just ticket outside of Oregon. Friday Dad and Dave arrived for a family weekend. A pork shoulder went into the crock pot, 

The cocktails and lies began to flow. Mat and Dave always enjoy golfing when they are together. There is also lots of yatzee and Dad likes to take everyone out for a special dinner. This time, on Sunday night, we went to "Beaches" on the waterfront in Vancouver, WA.

Mat and Dave (The Golfers) 

Cerul Competition

The Crew

After enjoying a fine dinner, we returned to the boat and appx an hour later, all kinds of fire crews were converging on Hayden Island, where we are moored at Salpare Bay Marina. The Sundance Marina is next to us to the east. There warehouse was engulfed in flames. They had had a boat show over the weekend and their storage facility was stuffed with over 350 boats! We walked up there

On Monday, March 1st. It was engine service day. Our guy Jimmy Palmer referred us to, Ryder, who in fact was the same guy the last owner used to service this boat last year just before selling her. As usual there is a long list of things to do to get the boat ready to cruise the Canadian inside Passage. Some of the boring details include: firing up the water maker which didn't work at first, due to a check valve problem. In tearing the bed apart (water tanks and valves are under the bed) we found a serious mold infestation the underside of the mattress.  Most of the day (on my part) was spent with toxic cleaning products. John and Mike required numerous beers in the cockpit to solve the check valve problem, while I made a decision to replace the mattress. 


Enough of this harbor life stuff.  I'll fill in the planks with more pictures next week when we reach Port Angeles, WA and relax for a few days. Today is Thursday March 31. Location is Astoria, OR, at the west mouth of the Columbia River.