Provisioning

Are we ready to sail yet? No matter, we're on our way. But our provisioning was so fast, complicated and incomplete that we've been at it ever since!

A week ago we started the major feat of packing our Honda Civic for the drive to the Aurora. Not only did we have groceries - some swept off our own shelves - and gear - "dinghy dogs", a deck hammock, scads of charts, chart holders, scooter, bicycle - but also stuff we had removed from the boat for previous expeditions - life jackets, foulweather gear, pots and pans, folding chairs, binoculars and sleeping bags. Yes, this month we've already sailed the Columbia and gone over the Bar into the vast Pacific, did four days of Waterfront Blues Festival and pitched our tent for a family reunion in the California Redwoods.

No sooner did we roll up to the boat with our first cartfull of stuff when we ran straight into a lovingly caught crab feast. Yep, just like last year when we left with Kinza on board: Nikki and Al interceptd us even before we went aboard and fed us.
Day one of our cruise would be last Thursday when we motored through thick fog to the Port Townsend work dock. There Bob from Goldstar Marine linked our cheap fix AIS (see previous post) to the main electrical panel. Lisa and Dan of Port Townsend Rigging sent Josh up the mast to install a new mainsail track, lazy jacks with clever snaplocks and a cunnungham. Then Carole Hasse of Port Townsend Sails showed up with a spectacular state of the art mainsail.
No sooner had everyone left than Vicki Phillips of the Coast Guard Auxillary showed up. We'd taken her up on her offer of a free safety inspection and her checklist hit all the pre departure essentials, from documentation to the active status of chemicals in our lift jackets, flares, and fire extinguishers. We did quite well but lo and behold could not get the all important anchor light to work until after Vicki left and we figured out the magic combination of switches on the electrical panel.

When Vicki left, we finished cooking a copious bottom-of-the-Flanders-fridge beef stew and Felicia and Steve showed up to spend the night along with Rich and a friend. Then Roland, Rose and Fleur, also en route from a couple of coolish nights camping on the Olympic Peninsula, called but opted for the Aladdin, a bargain motel right on PT's working waterfront. In the morning Felicia met me at the Safeway to transport a supply of canned and bottled goods, which Rick and Lucas carried below deck to add to the mounds of chaos already there. It was a bit before noon when I threw my bike on the deck, a farewell delegation of Roland, Rose and Fleur untied us and Jack and I were off across the Strait of Juan de Fuca..