Alaska: We are off to a slow start

We were planning to head north for Alaska the first week of May but a confluence of events prevented this from happening. Let’s start with our health (OMG here comes another old person talking about their aching joints ). Marlene and I spent Easter with Dane and Erica and our grand daughters and along the way picked up nasty colds. We thought we were through the worst of it when Marlene developed a sinus infection that required a visit to the doctor and Antibiotics for 10 days. The following day we went to the dentist for a teeth cleaning and she found out she needed a crown replaced. They were able to start that procedure the following day, but we had to wait 2 weeks for the permanent crown to be placed. So, since the weather was sunny we decided to take a short trip to Victoria for a few days. We had not been back to Victoria since we picked up our boat there in 2017. We spent our first night on a hook at Roche Harbor then proceeded to Victoria for four nights. We docked out in front of Empress Hotel at the Causeway docks. The weather was great and we had the added good fortune to dock behind the Motor Sailing boat “One Ocean” which departed Anacortes on the same day we did on a 14 month circumnavigation of the Americas. The chief scientist on board is Mike Beemer whom we have taken several boating classes from. They are slowly working their way to the top of Alaska waiting for the summer thaw so they can continue their journey over the top. If you are so inclined you can follow their adventure at:oneislandoneocean.com. Marlene was also able to visit with her longtime friend Cathy Miller (The Singing Quilter), which made our time in Victoria even more special.

It was a great 4 day “shake down cruise.” We returned to Anacortes with a short list of projects I needed to complete before we departed for Alaska. The other major issue we were/are facing is that the Guemes Car Ferry has been out of service for the past 2 months. It was supposed to be back in service the end of April. It is now looking like mid June. It will now officially be the longest outage in Guemes Island history. Oh joy. We were due to have our house stained starting the end of April as well as have a window replaced in our sun room. Both projects remain open. We are now on to plan B which is waiting until the end of June when the car ferry is back in service. Fortunately we have our great neighbors to help supervise the projects. (Big shout out to our neighbors Gary and Kari). We are incredibly blessed to have them as neighbors. But enough of this rant. On to the present.

Marlene finished up the antibiotics however she continued to have ear pain and hearing loss. She was reluctant to take off until she could speak with our doctor about the symptoms and discuss with him if it was safe to travel North with very little in the way of available medical care. He told it could could take “weeks to a month” for any improvement, and since there was no other treatment other than the tincture of time, she should go ahead and leave for Alaska. So we talked it over and decided to press on especially since we definitely will not be returning to Alaska next summer. Our nephew, Nick is getting married in June and I am officiating the wedding. It will be a grand famdamily event.

So, we departed Thursday the 15th for Ganges BC. Holding Nexus cards we were able to call into the Nexus line 4 hours ahead of our arrival in Canada, go through the clearance questions, and receive our Canadian Clearance Number and proceed directly to Ganges Harbor. It’s always a treat to visit Ganges and we discovered what may be one of the finest restaurants we have been to in quite some time. The restaurant is called “Feast.” It is a very small restaurant with no more than 10 tables. Everything is farm to table and incredibly inventive and tasty. I would highly recommend you make a reservation if/when you go to Ganges, BC.

Our second night, Friday, May 16th was at Fairwinds Marina, Schooner Cove. Bar none, this marina has the best docks in BC. It’s a beautiful marina with brand new docks and a great restaurant, Nanoose Bay Cafe. The food is Asian fusion style. They are also open for breakfast and their pastries are fantastic. Now, weather-wise it wasn’t so great. After a challenging pass through Dodd Narrows (we encournted a pod of killer wales that were transiting south through he narrows at slack, and all the boats on the South side had to hold back until they went through) we entered the marina on a sporty windy entrance. It took us quite awhile to tie down our boat. Being out at the end on the F dock we were open to the winds that were howling at around 19 knots wind/25 gust. It was a rocky, rainy, windy night but we survived.

We left Fairwinds Marina at 8:00 am this morning for a 5 and a half hour cruise to Comox. We arrived at the Comox Harbor Authority Marina Dock around 1:30. We docked on the break water dock at the end giving us privacy and an easy out tomorrow. Our plan is to cruise to Campbell River tomorrow. The wind and currents looks good. Stay tuned. The “old couple” are back out for another summer of adventure.

One final note, I will close with a vanity pic. This is me standing in the pouring rain where I had returned from a walk. Why did I walk in the rain, you ask? For steps, it’s all about the steps. I was not about to break a 9 and a half month 10,000 steps a day record for a bit of rain. Now I know this will soon come to an end when we get into Alaska where walking is limited, and not just because of the bears. But for now. I walk on.