Lyn's Log, 24th August 2008
Juan de Fuca Straight.

Neah Bay, Washington
N48º22', W124º37'
18,331 miles.

While waiting for delivery of the windlass and hot water-tank at the beginning of August, we pottered about in the Howe Sound for a few days, picking up mooring buoys or anchoring in shallow water. The area seemed so much more attractive in the warm sunshine than when we visited in May. It was a good place to 'swing' our compass (check its accuracy) by taking measurements off the islands.

But there was a lot to do on Sentinel. The new windlass needed a new purpose-made hatch over the anchor well. Thor, the welder living on his boat just along the dock from us, made up one for us. We also replaced the front cabin hatch with a new one we had brought back from England in March. As we feared the old one had caused severe rusting to the deck beneath and some holes had to be welded over. It took us a week to get the coats of paint on the new steelwork and fix up the wiring for the windlass, but when it was finally finished Thor celebrated our last night in Vancouver on 14th August with a wonderful marinated fresh Sockeye salmon barbeque on his fishing-boat. It was a great evening with his girl friend and two of her friends joining us.

Next morning it was up and away across the Strait of Georgia to Port Sidney Marina where Sentinel had spent the winter. Neil and Debbie, who we first met in April, invited us to join them for a barbeque with some friends of theirs. It was a very pleasant evening with good food and interesting people.

For three days we had some very interesting sailing in the Gulf Islands, ending up at Maple Bay where we needed to anchor using the new windlass for the first time. This one powers the anchor down as well as up. Andrew complained that he could not 'feel' the anchor touch bottom and set itself in, as he could when lowering by hand. Sure enough, at about midnight the wind rose and we heard a shout go up from the next yacht along - for the first time in two years our anchor was dragging. Quickly we raised it, only to discover that with the pawl set, the windlass had completely locked up. The pawl can't be released under load, unlike our old one. So there we were circling around in the middle of the night in our underwear while Andrew was once again on the foredeck dismantling the windlass, our neighbours flashing lights at us warning us to keep clear. We took the anchor off the windlass and dropped it by hand, and this time it held fine. Andrew reckons we will need more practice.

Then it was back to Port Sidney where we picked up and fitted the new hot water tank and the repaired wind generator, which took a couple of days. Finally it was time to leave. Our first move was to sail round to Victoria. Well actually we motored as there was not a breath of wind. We moored right opposite the famous Empress Hotel in the heart of downtown Victoria. That evening we saw more street-life than we had seen since Chicago. Crowds were teeming down Government Street and around the dockside walkways. A lively street market started up, there were pavement artists, fortune tellers, buskers, and street entertainers galore. An unusually talented band of three women and two men playing on a variety of xylophones and drums sticks in the memory. The rhythm was Afro-Caribbean and it was difficult not to move to the lively music. A well-dressed but very elderly man kept picking out young women from the crowd of onlookers to dance with him.

Further on we spotted a sedan chair lying behind a kiosk. While we were wondering about it, a group of lads came and hoisted one of their number up in it. He was wearing a T-shirt with "Groom" on the back. Then we realised the others all had matching T-shirts, on the back of which was written variously "Best Man", "Usher", "Friend", Another Friend", "Gatecrasher", etc. Andrew was amused by the Darth Vader playing a violin. Beyond him was an enthusiastic crowd watching a mime with quite the tallest unicycle I have seen - whether he ever mounted it I don't know. All this was against a backdrop of the Empress Hotel floodlit in changing colours, and the impressive government building picked out in white lights as if it were drawn on the night sky.

The next morning we visited Victoria's maritime museum to see Tilikum, the dugout canoe that Captain Voss sailed around the world in 1910, and then set sail to an anchorage fifteen miles around the coast.

It was time to tackle the Juan de Fuca Strait out into the open Pacific. However, the weather forecast was for rain and strong adverse winds later so we set off at dawn. In fact the wind stayed light most of the day, so we motored, and the rain was bearable, but what really made the day was sighting a pod of Orca whales. There were perhaps a dozen, and they swam all round us, though at a respectful distance. They were graceful arcing out of the water. Their long dorsal fins looked like sharks to begin with, but they just got taller and taller until the top of the whale appeared, sometimes showing the white patches on the sides of their heads. I was so excited. We had not seen them close all the time we were in Canada but at the last moment they came to say farewell.

We arrived in Neah, Cape Flattery, the very north-western tip of mainland USA, in the early afternoon of 24th August and checked in with US Customs.