7/28/06
Final Leg
Even though I had trouble falling asleep last night I woke up way before all but Harvey. I walked around a bit aimlessly in the morning. Thought about getting breakfast. I didn’t I got distracted by getting ice and other folks as they woke up. I was shocked that Ice could cost $2 a bag. Later I would find out that that wasn’t the worst price for ice to come. I hung out with Bill and Phil as they got coffee in the morning at the one coffee stand in town. It was very slow at getting things done. We spent 20 min waiting for 3 drinks to be made before we got to the window. We talked to the gentleman in line behind us. He was going fishing. He comes to Neah Bay ones a year for a week to fish. He had a NOAA Fisheries hat on. He seemed like a nice guy. We got back to Reliant and got under way at a reasonable time. We had slow rolling following seas coming from behind us. It was like being gently rocked as opposed to the beating we had taken over the last two days. Jim told us about the local dives at Seal and Sail Rocks. Skipper was after being pretty sick in good spirits again. His sense of humor was sharp and witty. It was a pleasure to me to see him that way. The crew told me that they had been worried about me because my skin had turned such a sick grey color while we were on the outside in open water. They told stories of how if you weren’t careful while on the helm the boat would do a 180 degree turn on you when the waves hit you just wrong. Lets just say they did that a few times. We even found seaweed in the dingy on top of the pilothouse. They said one of the crew especially had a hard time staying on course while on helm. Jim was very thankful we had Harve along. He was a savior. They said he was the most steady on the helm with a knack for finding a sweet spot in the waves while everyone else fought them the whole way. I am very thankful to them since I was entirely useless for the entire time we were on open water. They were thankful to me for being there to set up the routes on the computer. Everyone was still learning the Nobletech software. I got the hang of it faster than everyone else. I was glad that even when I was losing my lunch I hadn’t eaten I was having a positive effect. I felt really useless and it was good to hear that they needed me. I did my engineering shift and set up the Bar-B-Que while underway for lunch. Christy finished up making the chicken as I was on my Navigation/Lookout and Helm shifts. She took my spice ideas and made them come alive. It was the first great meal I had in a few days and I needed it. I made myself two large chicken quesadillas and over did it a bit. We sat around and relaxed while traveling to Anacortes. As we traveled along I got my first chance to miss my girlfriend. The water and the scenery we so beautiful I wished I could share that with her. The water was an amazing blue. The sky was clear. With Canada on one side of us and the Olympic Mountains to the south we cruised along the Washington side of the Straight of Juan De Fuca. As we made the turn north I was coming on to my Navigation shift. With Skipper on helm we got nearly there. My helm shift started as we turned out of Rosario Straight and into Guemes Channel. I brought the boat all the way into the slip in Anacortes with some throttle help from Jim at the end. Phil was helpful because he had been there the week before. He had even used the slip we were going to as the tear down point for his boat before he put it back on the trailer. After we got the boat settled in we went to a local Pub and had some appetizers to hold us over. At that time of night the pub was the only thing open. I am just glad we were in Washington so there was no smoking. We were all pretty happy about being done with the trip. We hung out and celebrated a bit then we walked back to the boat. We fell into bed and I slept fitfully with all the loud snoring going on.

7/27/06
Alive again.
Today was a continuation of yesterday. I slept most of the day away. Towards the afternoon things got a bit better. While still on open water the waves were farther apart and I was able to move around a bit. Not much but some. The open water is a pretty sight. I wish I didn’t get so sick on it. In the afternoon some time around 5 pm we rounded the corner into Puget Sound and headed for Neah Bay. We docked there for the night. We all showered for the first time on the trip. We went out to the one restaurant in town within walking distance from the docks. My dinner was less then edible and my stomach was a bit questionable anyway. It was good to feel human again. After dinner we came back to the boat and started cleaning up. The open water broke and washed about everything it could off. It also got lots of water into the galley. Making a huge mess of everything. So we went about cleaning up. We all headed to bed around 11:00 pm. I couldn’t sleep and so I am writing this now. It is 1:12am and I have a 15 hour day on the water tomorrow so I think I should head to bed.

Open Water
7/26/06
In the morning everyone did their own thing, had muffins and things for breakfast. I calculated the time we needed to leave to make our exit window with the plotter software. We moved the boat over to the main dock so we could go ashore did a few errands and then took off. I enjoyed working a line handler for a new boat. So much of the time all I get to do is teach it and keep my hands off. It is nice to get to run the boat. I had the helm shift for the first hour. After we made it out past Buoy #1 I went below and slept for a while. I got up and after being up for an hour or so I lost my lunch. Let me just say Goldfish crackers on the way back up are not yummy. I spent the rest of that day and most of the next sleeping. I get so darn sick its not funny. The rest of the crew later described my skin color as grey like a cloudy Oregon day. Only two or three of us didn’t get sick. It was quite the ride. The folks that didn’t get sick did a great job of covering for us and got us through the night and the next day.

Day of departure:

07/25/06
I got to see the girl a bit before she left for work and I left for the boat trip. I went to the bank after loading up the car and wrapping up the last few details around the house. On my way back from the bank I realized I had both sets of keys to my cars and that was going to cause her problems when she wanted to work on the fence. So I dropped them off and went to the Sea Scout Base. I unloaded my stuff and put it on the boat. Tim C and some guy I didn’t know were the only ones there. I got myself all set up so that when I was needed I would be done with my stuff. Harve showed up soon after me. When Jim L got there I started doing what ever he needed. I unloaded 90% of his stuff and brought it to the float next to the boat. Don S and his family came in after that and we worked on getting things ready. I had his son Tommy help me move life jackets off the boat and to the sail loft. Tommy recruited his younger brother to help also. When Bill got there at ten he was amazed the boat wasn’t ready to go. He started pushing things along. I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off. I got most of the things they needed done and we got underway. We got underway late but still made it out of the base without any problems. We were trying to hit high tide. The water is higher this year then most so we made it out just fine. We made a fuel stop at Portland Yacht Club. Then started down the river to Astoria. It was fun to have Don and his family with us. Tommy was better at the watch bells then my Sea Scouts are. He had a lot of fun with them. It was good to see him having so much fun. Don’s sons were overall well behaved. There were some folks that were a bit worried about that when they came. It meant a lot to Tommy to get to go and it was good for him to get to spend time with his dad. Tommy told me as he gets older he gets to come to Sea Scouts more often. That makes him happy. He likes boats. He also likes trains and things. His little brother is more interested in cars.
I took the first helm shift so I could relax and not have to worry about anything else for a couple hours after the fuel stop. I got us just past St. Helens. Then after that I ate lunch and ran around and helped out with a few projects. Phil built the new BBQ that Christy had bought for the trip. I gave him a hand at times. After we dropped Don and his family off at Rainer I started working on the plotter software on Jim’s new laptop. That was good fun. It also made everyone happy that someone knew how to run it. I made us a course for the rest of the way up to Astoria. I enjoyed the rest of the ride up to Astoria a lot. The weather was great and the river is very pretty. It was dark by the time we got to Astoria. Cruising in the dark makes things a bit crazy. It makes it almost easier in places but when we made it to Astoria there was so much traffic and all the lights were hard to distinguish from the city lights. We had lots of help on the bridge to get us through. It went just fine.
We got into Astoria around 11:15 or so. Christy and I made dinner. We made ribeye steaks with my whiskey butter sauce. That went over well. I needed to make more sauce but oh well next time I guess. We all went to bed and got up kind of late since our exit window over the bar was around 2:45 pm.

Day Before Departure:

07/24/06

I got up at a good time this morning. It wasn’t that hard even after getting to bed a bit late. I was up all hours of the night getting gear packed and laundry done for the trip. Work went as fine as it usually does. The only difference is that it was a bit hotter than normal. The work truck has good air conditioning and a small cab so I stayed comfortable. The only hitch I ran into at work was my bank calling me up and telling me my boss forgot to sign my check that I had deposited almost a week before. So I called my boss and left them a message asking them to write me a new check. Of course that was a waste of time when I got back they had to write it while I was waiting. They hadn’t listened to their messages. I think they got a new phone system and don’t know how to use it.
After work I went home and tried to find a place to get a physical for the trip. That went better than expected. After using two phones at a time to maximize my talking to a human and not on hold time, I found a place out in Gresham that said they would do a physical for $35. That sounded a lot better then the $250+ that the emergency room wanted, plus no four-hour wait. I think my wait was twenty or so minutes after the semi-long drive. The drive to the Gresham Urgent Care was hot and nasty. My car tried to over heat. Fortunately it didn’t although I did drive with my heat on for part of the way. All of this was better then the poor dumb lady in her nice new SUV parked with the engine running and heat on trying to figure out why her car wouldn’t cool off. I informed her that when you lose all of your coolant on the road the heater doesn’t help. No water to transfer heat. She turned the car off and my light turned green. The doctor was a no-nonsense Asian guy with a good sense of humor. He answered all my questions about my finger nail that is falling off after a fight with a hammer. I got my physical and drove home. My girl was home and had eaten. I slowly started on packing for the trip.
Packing went well other then having a hard time finding my dive tables and charts. I got to bed after packing and doing laundry all night at about two maybe two thirty A.M. I got up at six forty five A.M.