Today was all about timing our arrival at Seymour Narrows. Seymour Narrows is one of the fastest flowing tidal rapids in the world, with current that can exceed 16 knots, so we definitely don’t want to cruise through at the wrong time. We got to sleep in this morning, and didn’t leave False Bay until just after 9:00 a.m. The sun was out and the sky was blue and it … Read more
We’ve been unusually quiet for the last year. Cancelling trips, refunding money, doing circles around the San Juan Islands while waiting for the COVID crisis to blow over had us a bit down. But we’re finally underway again, and it feels great! A few months ago, several things became clear: any American who wanted to be vaccinated could be fully vaccinated by the end of May, travel and socializing is … Read more
Kevin and I finally got to get aboard Airship again last week! Before we talk about our quick cruise, let’s do a little catch-up: With the Alaska and Vancouver Island flotillas cancelled this season, Airship has been having another major round of maintenance and upgrades. You can see the initial round of upgrades from 2018 (when we bought the boat) HERE. This year’s upgrades started back in October at the … Read more
Most of the content on Slowboat focuses on cruising north from Puget Sound. This is the area where we have the most experience, and where most of us from the Pacific Northwest naturally go cruising. The Pacific Northwest is undoubtedly fantastic—plentiful and diverse wildlife, thousands of miles of sheltered “inside” cruising, and magnificent scenery—but it’s also cold much of the year. And there’s a big world to explore by water! … Read more
According to Rich our magic weather router, it was looking like Monday morning (September 30) would be the optimal time for us to head further south. Unfortunately, Kevin (Morris) had meetings in San Jose to attend staring Monday, so he booked a Sunday flight from Crescent City to San Jose, and the three of us (me, Alison, and Kevin Jeffries) would continue with one less crew member. But with a … Read more
Well it appears we’ll have a few days (okay, maybe a week) to kill here in Crescent City due to some weather we’d rather not be out in, so we’ll get to know this town and its surrounds better in the meantime. Day 1: We all happily slept in on our first morning in the marina, but Kevin Jeffries was up (temporarily) to take one of the dogs out and … Read more
Thursday, 4:15 a.m. — Our original plan was to catch the early morning high slack at the Grays Harbor bar, which meant heading out before dark, again. However, in the morning we didn’t get an agreeable bar report (boooo!), so we opted to wait until the midday low slack and went back to bed (yaaaaay!). Thursday, 11:15 a.m. — We left our slip at Westport Marina after a few more … Read more
Kevin and I had a few days off in Victoria after our Vancouver Island flotilla ended, so we spent the time relaxing, exploring, eating out, and of course, doing boat projects. We fixed a plumbing leak in the washer/dryer plumbing, worked on getting the boat all dried out with our new dehumidifier, went to the IMAX theater at the museum to see the Great Bear Rainforest movie (which was very … Read more