September 28^th and 29th, 2015 Left Port Angeles to Neah Bay

Arrived in Neah Bay.  All day motoring with a bout of sea sickness (only Monica), we were tired.  We were met with warm sun and many sea lions that are permanent residents of Makah Marina.  This is the last protected stop of the San Juan's according to the navigational guides, Charlie's Chart. It says we are committed once we round Cape Flattery.  That sounded like a good advice.  As a result we are staying another night to make sure that we have all our belongings on board strapped down.  We are sure to meet swells, winds that create 3-5 ft waves, not to mention more than 15deg heel while under sail. 

 The girls are fascinated by the "quick sand" like soft sand that exists near the marina office.  Personally not my favorite kind of sand. It's one of those real stinky muddy sand, where lot of clams like to hide.  They dug, scraped, piled, and simply wallowed in that stinky muddy sand as if in hog heaven. Beach time was long overdue for them since we didn't get out to the San Juans this year. Apparently, it doesn't matter what type of beach or sand as long as there is water and you can pack and mold it to some kind of shape.  I just don't like to deal with the aftermath especially when laundry is not so easy on the boat.

Fish bone vertebrate. 

Girls are squinting in the sun trying to capture pictures of the sea lions.

These are Anna's comments:

we saw sea lions fighting on the dock. One pushed another one off the dock. Then, the one that was pushed jumped back onto the dock and fought again. The same one got pushed off again. Then, the sea lion remaining on the dock snorted victoriously making fun of the one he pushed off. Another one jumped on another dock, and took a nap. Also,if you ever go to Neah bay you should go to the museum. Unfortunately,you are not allowed to take pictures.

These are Sophia's comments:

In the museum there are stuffed sea lions and real bear skin and seal skin. There are also whale bones.

There is a replica of a long house that has the bear skin, the seal skin, and dried salmon.  

September 27th, 2015 Stayed another night at Port Angeles (Sunday)

We found Queen of Angeles for mass at 11AM.  We made it to mass after about 35mins of trekking.  I have never been that determined to find and make it to mass on time.  Clearly, our trek to Queen of Angeles was to be a pilgrimage of some kind. The homily started out with, "I didn't lose my leg because I sinned." The priest was in a wheelchair but I didn’t realize that he had one leg amputated. He didn’t go into why one of his legs was amputated but had a good homily about how every one of us is called to do God’s work, not just priests and nuns.  The church was under construction so the mass was held in the school gym.  Sophia's comment, "They had the crucifix under a basketball hoop." We enjoyed this blessed little church from the bleachers. 

It felt so weird not having our own car to go grocery shopping.  We visited the Safeway in PA with our backpacks and had to be very mindful to not overbuy beyond our backpacking capacity. 

 

We were able to witness the Harvest Moon this day.  The eclipsing of the moon was really cool especially because you didn’t need a special device to view the eclipse.  The moon was also especially large and bright. 

September 25th, 2015 (Friday)

The day of departure.  When we woke up this morning we weren't completely sure that we'd be able to pull off the dock.  There were so many things to take care in terms of the house, affairs, cars, boat, provisioning, and schooling that the end did not seem to be an imminent reality.  But, our gathering and cleaning frenzy took off and our house started getting empty while the boat started to weigh heavier.  We met with Roger and his wife to sell our Toyota Sienna van.  He was so gracious to ask for all kinds of denominations at the bank and being patient about our date of car sales.  Since we needed the car until the last minute, we needed as much flexibility as possible in use of the car before we sent it off to its new owner.

Paul and Sharon our neighbor sent us off with warm hugs. Below are pictures they captured as we untied the lines from our dock.  We actually left our dock at 4:30PM.

September 26th, 2015 Left Jones Headed for Port Angeles (Saturday)

Leaving Jones Island and into the fog. 

Untied from the mooring buoy at Jones Island. Left the island with some fog that became thicker by the minute.  Our fog horn system automatically sent off its blaring honks every 10 mins to let others know that we were coming in the fog.  Good to know these safety features Jeff installed were working.  

The girls are happy to be at the bow watching the waves.  It is actually quite hypnotizing.  

The morning fog turned into a welcomed sunlit afternoon as we watched two orca whales feeding on our southward journey to Port Angeles. 

The captain looks content with clear skies. Doesn't he?

Sophia says the whole trip would be boring without Cutip.  Let's just say that there is a bit of commotion over Cutip between the girls.

Some wonder if we are torturing our cat to have her on our trip. We just didn't have a good home for our Cutip and couldn't bear to leave her at a shelter. She is getting used to the boat life again. 

 It felt as though we covered great distance today. We headed into the Port Angeles Marina with a cross wind breeze that made it difficult to get into our assigned slip.  After several attempts and entertaining a few bystanders, we decided to leave the slip for an easier port side tie on the E dock with the big boys, mega yachts like Westport and Nordhaven.  Port Angeles happens to be where Westports are built and are often moored at the marina.  PA, as the locals call it, is also a major stopping point for great big oil tankers.