Day 120; Aug 28: Up at 4:30 to go at 6 AM. It was dark and foggy, I watched the radar, charts and AIS targets while Carolyn watched out the windows. Thankfully, the fog lifted shortly after leaving Neah Bay. The water turned out to be better than the forecast which was good since we pulled into Westport at 6:30 PM. We went to the bar for fish and chips and a drink once we were tied up.

Day 121; Aug 29: We got going at 6:00 AM again. We had several whales in the distance shortly after leaving. The water was more unsettled than yesterday. It was what I call wet, not big waves but very splashy. We had water hitting the windshield a lot. Once we got over the bar we had about 400 boats greet us as they were fishing Buoy 10. We were tied up in Astoria at 1:30.

Day 122; Aug 30: Our 45^th anniversary! We went to breakfast, checked out some shops and went to dinner for the summary. I did try to get some of the salt off the boat.

Day 123; Aug 31: We used the Astoria Trolley as a taxi to get to and from the Sunday market.

Day 124; Sept 1: We got started for St Helens about 7 AM.  I was really surprised at the number of the boats up river of the bridge. We had to make our way through many more fisherman today verses Friday out at Buoy 10. I increased the RPM expecting that later we would be fighting tide but that never happened so we made it to St Helens before 2 PM. We packed a go bag and then spent a hour waiting for an Uber. Being home is really strange.

Sunset at Home

 Day 112; Aug 19: Today was smoother than yesterday and not to long of a day. We got into Owen Bay and checked out the entire area before deciding where to anchor. There were many crab pots throughout the bay so that helped to make the anchor decision more difficult. I was surprised that by morning each one of the pots had been checked. The bay had homes all around the shore like lakes do.

Day 113; Aug 20: Today we needed to hit slack tide 2.5 miles away at 8:30. Our anchorage is only 0.5 miles past. The entry is a narrow one boat passage, we waited for 7-8 boats exiting, before we could enter. The place is Waiatt Bay and the Octopus Islands, it is a great place with many anchoring opportunities. You can stern tie in small coves or anchor in the big bay. There were 20+ boats in there and no one was close unless it was buddy boats anchored together.

Day 114; Aug 21: We left Waiatt Bay headed for Comox, we would have stayed longed but the forecast for the Strait of Georgia had Strong Wind Warning and we wanted to beat some of the wind. The wind didn’t happen and the water was calm all the way to Comox. We did have a rapid to go through which gave us a later start than normal.

Day 115; Aug 22: Today was a boring travel day. We started at 7 AM and we got anchored in Telegraph Harbour. We waited for 2 hours to get through Dodd Narrows so we anchored next to the narrows to eat lunch. The weather has gotten better this was our 3^rd day of summer.

Day 116; Aug 23: We made the push to get to Friday Harbor today. Once over the boarder we used the ROAM app to clear customs. After a few questions we were good to go. After getting to Friday Harbor we got our slip assigned, tied up and went to lunch. This was our first 80-degree day of our summer.

Day 117; Aug 24: We did some chores looked around a bit and went for drinks and dinner at a sports pub.

Day 118; Aug 25: We went to the grocery store, washed the boat a little and tried unsuccessfully to get a prescription filled.

Day 119; Aug 26: Today we got out of our slip at 8 AM and headed to Port Angeles to meet friends this afternoon. We filled up fuel once we got to Port Angeles, that should do us to get home. I hope!

Comox

Friday Harbor

 Day 107; Aug 14: The day started at 4:30 to check forecasts and weather buoys. All looked good, so we waited for enough light to see leaving the anchorage. We started moving about 5:50, shortly after we had a parade with several boats behind us. The crossing went smooth with the water being much better than the forecast and the measurement buoy reports. We changed our plan to go to Blunden Harbour and opted to go all the way to Port McNeill. We tried to get a spot in both marinas but no go. We ended up anchoring next to the marina in an unprotected anchorage so we could be close to the marina because we do have a reservation for tomorrow. That was a bad call, we had 3-4’ waves rolling into the anchorage all night with wind up to 45 mph.

Day 108; Aug 15: Friday morning the waves are still rolling in as we continue to be uncomfortable. About 10:00 I got a text asking if we still wanted our reservation in the marina. Yes and we would like to get into the marina as early as possible! The marina manager moved a boat to make room for us. Then we got the text to come in and where to tie up. Trying to get the anchor raised was a chore with the 3-4’ waves rolling into the anchorage. We got tied up, went to have lunch looked at a few shops and got back to the boat by 2PM for a much-needed nap.

Day 109; Aug 16: Did some laundry and then went to check out the happenings with Orca Fest. Orca Fest is a yearly community celebration with music and lots of junk vendors.

Day 110; Aug 17: We got up and went to breakfast, I think it is the first breakfast we have had out since starting the trip. Followed by getting fuel, checking the oil, adding water and Carolyn baked chocolate chip cookies.

Day 111; Aug 18: We left Port McNeill this morning with the wind blowing but not more than 10 mph. After a while the seas picked up which made for a wet ride. It wasn’t an uncomfortable ride it was just wet with splashes on the windows. All front and side windows have a good coating of saltwater on them. We anchored up in Port Neville for the night, we stayed here on the way up in May.