Captain Kate Easton
"Harvey" drugged out on sea-sickness medication
Sanitation Officer Kevin Simpson
"BeeGee Prospect" "Grover" "Mr.Spillypants"
Ship's Engineer Cy Hersch
"Charlie Hotel" "Joe Seventy-eight"
Photographer with big camera and quick shutter finger; illustrious DJ
Medical Officer Maya Sardesai
"Bindi Meadowlane" "Mike Sierra"
wielder of push-off stick
Saturday
Arrival and Preparation
Pretext pre-board at Port Sidney Marina
Maya wanted to remember the VHF alphabet. When she struggled, kate gtave her obscure clues. For example, the clue for J was "think romance" Strangely, this prompted Kevin to guess "Jello". We don't want to know how Jello relates to romance for Kevin.
The crew closed down Fish on 5th
Human sculptures by Kevin
Waiting til the wee hours for Cap'n Kate (who lives closer than any of us) (Not really, Maya. I just used a faster mode of transport)
Debates on Pinochle; new alphabets
Nostalgia on nostalgia (with associated shame)
knots
and rocking the boat (Kevin and Cy)
Snug in bed
Contemplating the day ahead
Kate thinks she might need seasickness med.
She sticks the patch on
Then sleeps until dawn
She wakes dry mouthed and messed up in the head.
Maya wanted to remember the VHF alphabet. When she struggled, kate gtave her obscure clues. For example, the clue for J was "think romance" Strangely, this prompted Kevin to guess "Jello". We don't want to know how Jello relates to romance for Kevin.
The crew closed down Fish on 5th
Human sculptures by Kevin
Waiting til the wee hours for Cap'n Kate (who lives closer than any of us) (Not really, Maya. I just used a faster mode of transport)
Debates on Pinochle; new alphabets
Nostalgia on nostalgia (with associated shame)
knots
and rocking the boat (Kevin and Cy)
Snug in bed
Contemplating the day ahead
Kate thinks she might need seasickness med.
She sticks the patch on
Then sleeps until dawn
She wakes dry mouthed and messed up in the head.
Sunday
Wrong Place at the Wrong Time, September 28th, 2008
Port of Sidney to Roche Harbor
As it turned out, we had flat water and fair wind for crossing Haro Straight. Kate's seasickness meds were completely unnecessary, but this could not be known 12 hours ahead. It's unlikely that Kate will test Transderm V again. She woke up feeling dizzy and off-balance with dry mouth and sore throat. She became accustomed to dizzy within a few hours. Later she felt nautious. Kate read the instructions to find out how to take the patch off. Unfortunately, potential side effects of the aftermath of the patch were worse than just leaving it on. So the patch was left on for the critical part of the day. By 9pm drowsiness set in and Kate couldn't think straight or stay awake. The crew found it quite hilarious to see the Captain all strung out on Transderm V. The patch is off.
After docking at what the guide book had shown to be the customs dock, Captain Kate instructed the crew to stay on board, collected passports and marched down the dock to the customs office. Part way there, she remembered that she should have brought the customs decal number but didn't turn back as it didn't seem right to march around on American soil without clearance quite that much. The customs office had closed about half an hour earlier but they had a special black phone to call in arrival with a list of required documents. Kate marched back to the boat, picked up the rest of the papers and the customs decal number and then went back to the black phone. She called and told someone the passport numbers, names, birthdays, etc of everyone. You would think that would be enough, but at the end of it all she was told that a customs officer would be calling me back shortly and that we were not cleared yet. The marina office was also closed and Kate quite illegally spoke with someone on the way back to the boat about what slips were usually available to visitors.
No phone call, just an announcement "Coming aboard!" The customs officer came on board to a table full of rum (unspilled, mind). "YOU are in the wrong place at the wrong time!"
Hmmm..did you know? Customs closes at 5pm as of Sept 17th. And Roche Harbor moves the customs dock in then too. So there we were at 5:30pm on the dock that used to be the customs dock but currently wasn't. Which meant that Kate had invaded the USA twice already, but that wasn't worth mentioning at the time. It really is too bad that Kate was not in top thinking form at this stage in the evening. When the customs officer asked what kind of rum, Kate looked at the crew who answered honestly, "Bacardi." The customs officer then asked, "No Havana club?" Kate, who would normally exercise restraint of her smart-ass tendencies in circumstances involving people with army boots and guns then says, "No. Should we have? Is that your favourite kind?" We'll have to chalk it up to the seasickness meds that Kate took the response that that sort of thing would put a black mark on your file forever meant that the customs officer didn't like jokes about bribery. It wasn't until somewhat later that Kate remembered that America has this whole strange hang-up with Cuba. Who knew they would be so serious about stopping import of Cuban goods? Thank you, Cy, for realizing in Sidney that passing up the opportunity to buy Havana Club was a good idea right before going back across the border.
As it turned out, we had flat water and fair wind for crossing Haro Straight. Kate's seasickness meds were completely unnecessary, but this could not be known 12 hours ahead. It's unlikely that Kate will test Transderm V again. She woke up feeling dizzy and off-balance with dry mouth and sore throat. She became accustomed to dizzy within a few hours. Later she felt nautious. Kate read the instructions to find out how to take the patch off. Unfortunately, potential side effects of the aftermath of the patch were worse than just leaving it on. So the patch was left on for the critical part of the day. By 9pm drowsiness set in and Kate couldn't think straight or stay awake. The crew found it quite hilarious to see the Captain all strung out on Transderm V. The patch is off.
After docking at what the guide book had shown to be the customs dock, Captain Kate instructed the crew to stay on board, collected passports and marched down the dock to the customs office. Part way there, she remembered that she should have brought the customs decal number but didn't turn back as it didn't seem right to march around on American soil without clearance quite that much. The customs office had closed about half an hour earlier but they had a special black phone to call in arrival with a list of required documents. Kate marched back to the boat, picked up the rest of the papers and the customs decal number and then went back to the black phone. She called and told someone the passport numbers, names, birthdays, etc of everyone. You would think that would be enough, but at the end of it all she was told that a customs officer would be calling me back shortly and that we were not cleared yet. The marina office was also closed and Kate quite illegally spoke with someone on the way back to the boat about what slips were usually available to visitors.
No phone call, just an announcement "Coming aboard!" The customs officer came on board to a table full of rum (unspilled, mind). "YOU are in the wrong place at the wrong time!"
Hmmm..did you know? Customs closes at 5pm as of Sept 17th. And Roche Harbor moves the customs dock in then too. So there we were at 5:30pm on the dock that used to be the customs dock but currently wasn't. Which meant that Kate had invaded the USA twice already, but that wasn't worth mentioning at the time. It really is too bad that Kate was not in top thinking form at this stage in the evening. When the customs officer asked what kind of rum, Kate looked at the crew who answered honestly, "Bacardi." The customs officer then asked, "No Havana club?" Kate, who would normally exercise restraint of her smart-ass tendencies in circumstances involving people with army boots and guns then says, "No. Should we have? Is that your favourite kind?" We'll have to chalk it up to the seasickness meds that Kate took the response that that sort of thing would put a black mark on your file forever meant that the customs officer didn't like jokes about bribery. It wasn't until somewhat later that Kate remembered that America has this whole strange hang-up with Cuba. Who knew they would be so serious about stopping import of Cuban goods? Thank you, Cy, for realizing in Sidney that passing up the opportunity to buy Havana Club was a good idea right before going back across the border.
Monday
Maya Gets Hit!
Roche Harbor to Shallow Bay, Sucia Island
September 29, 2008
18.NM, max speed 6.1 kts, tacking close hauled all day
Maya and Cy talked to the customs guy. Maya expressed interest in his life and curtsied before asking each question.
We had breakfast at the Lime Kiln Cafe (not the site of the Pig War). Yummy!
Onward to Sucia, hitting 6 knots with some fine steering by Cy. Kate kept us on course with chart and tide and current reading, although Cap'n Kate thought we were at low tide when it was high. (this is what happens when Kate writes down the tides at the beginning of the day and goes by memory at the end instead of checking what she wrote down, which was correct)
We rowed ashore and a little hike took us from Shallow Bay to Echo Bay for a beautiful view of snow-capped Mt. Baker and its little hill twin. Rock skipping ensued, with 10 or 20 or maybe 326 skips in a row by Cy, missing the sea otters playing in the water.
We bamboozled Maya with a funny non-cooperative picture, and later Kate and Cy and Maya snuck up silently on Kevin.
With flashlights in hand, we set out for Fossil Bay, pausing only for a picnic table log rolling competition between Maya and Kevin, (won by Maya's little finger – which photographic evidence will show), a sunset over Shallow Bay, and marvelling at strange human made protrusions from the ground (alien silos?).
Despite the ghost stories amongst the “tunnel of trees”, Kevin did what you're not supposed to do when the eerie music soundtrack comes on and veered off on his own. He scared some other travellers amongst the concrete-wielding tractor, the sacrificial hut and other scary pyre structures (not to be confused with parking structures). Fortunately, we re-grouped at the fork in the road, after seeing a second beautiful sunset over Fox Bay. Surely, though, this was the site of human sacrifices and burials in concrete.
Nevertheless, we escaped alive and lived another day...long enough for Maya to hit Kate's paddle with her head, and to play with the bio-luminescent organisms in the water, and eat the quickest tacos in the west. Don't cry over spilt wine.
(a little salt water cleans red wine off of cushions quite nicely)
Also, Kate found a ball of granite at Echo Bay amongst all the sandstone. Seemed out of place. Broke when she threw it so we didn't use it for countertops. Sandstone showed layers at the shore, from tides or something.
September 29, 2008
18.NM, max speed 6.1 kts, tacking close hauled all day
Maya and Cy talked to the customs guy. Maya expressed interest in his life and curtsied before asking each question.
We had breakfast at the Lime Kiln Cafe (not the site of the Pig War). Yummy!
Onward to Sucia, hitting 6 knots with some fine steering by Cy. Kate kept us on course with chart and tide and current reading, although Cap'n Kate thought we were at low tide when it was high. (this is what happens when Kate writes down the tides at the beginning of the day and goes by memory at the end instead of checking what she wrote down, which was correct)
We rowed ashore and a little hike took us from Shallow Bay to Echo Bay for a beautiful view of snow-capped Mt. Baker and its little hill twin. Rock skipping ensued, with 10 or 20 or maybe 326 skips in a row by Cy, missing the sea otters playing in the water.
We bamboozled Maya with a funny non-cooperative picture, and later Kate and Cy and Maya snuck up silently on Kevin.
With flashlights in hand, we set out for Fossil Bay, pausing only for a picnic table log rolling competition between Maya and Kevin, (won by Maya's little finger – which photographic evidence will show), a sunset over Shallow Bay, and marvelling at strange human made protrusions from the ground (alien silos?).
Despite the ghost stories amongst the “tunnel of trees”, Kevin did what you're not supposed to do when the eerie music soundtrack comes on and veered off on his own. He scared some other travellers amongst the concrete-wielding tractor, the sacrificial hut and other scary pyre structures (not to be confused with parking structures). Fortunately, we re-grouped at the fork in the road, after seeing a second beautiful sunset over Fox Bay. Surely, though, this was the site of human sacrifices and burials in concrete.
Nevertheless, we escaped alive and lived another day...long enough for Maya to hit Kate's paddle with her head, and to play with the bio-luminescent organisms in the water, and eat the quickest tacos in the west. Don't cry over spilt wine.
(a little salt water cleans red wine off of cushions quite nicely)
Also, Kate found a ball of granite at Echo Bay amongst all the sandstone. Seemed out of place. Broke when she threw it so we didn't use it for countertops. Sandstone showed layers at the shore, from tides or something.
Saturday
Our Last Full Day
Saturday, October 4, 2008 Stuart Island to Sidney Marina
Winds. Big winds. Carrying across the channel. Creating light nausea and sleepiness. And a little apprehension (for Kevin anyway). A little bit of (accidental) wing on wing and some fine sailing time, interspersed with sunshine and rain.
Tsehum Harbour gas and customs dock was filled with silly folks who took up unnecessary space and unnecessary time So we went in circles and circles and waited and waited. But customs phone was easy and gas too, and we were on to Sidney Harbour. Docked on the end of dock F, far out, because of the wind, and later wandered off for pizza at the second of the Greek places (we discovered).
Now we're downloading photos, sorting out moulah, packing, napping, and hanging around ...and listening to the music of the wind in the rigging.
Winds. Big winds. Carrying across the channel. Creating light nausea and sleepiness. And a little apprehension (for Kevin anyway). A little bit of (accidental) wing on wing and some fine sailing time, interspersed with sunshine and rain.
Tsehum Harbour gas and customs dock was filled with silly folks who took up unnecessary space and unnecessary time So we went in circles and circles and waited and waited. But customs phone was easy and gas too, and we were on to Sidney Harbour. Docked on the end of dock F, far out, because of the wind, and later wandered off for pizza at the second of the Greek places (we discovered).
Now we're downloading photos, sorting out moulah, packing, napping, and hanging around ...and listening to the music of the wind in the rigging.
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