Day 406/66 Back in the good old USA!!!

Well, this is day 406 and day 66 since we left Port Townsend and we are back in the USA!!!

We've gone 1058 miles to get here in 66 days so that works out to just 16 miles per day. You could walk faster. Doesn't seem like much does it? It may not be, but it sure has been a lot of fun to do it. Yeah, a cruise ship would have been cheaper and easier, but there is no way we would have learned what we have learned on this trip without taking it. We are far more in tune with Zephyr and all her sounds and needs. We know more about what is important while cruising. OK, yeah I hit the dock coming in yesterday--not bad but the worst so far. I got nailed by a sudden change in wind and current and it just up and threw us against the dock. I almost swept the starboard side of our outboard, crane and barbecue trying to get past another boat as we came in, but I knew that if I had engaged the reverse gears to slow us down, the starboard prop walk would have taken us right into him. So we make the best of it and just hit the dock with a glancing blow. There was help on the dock, but you don't stop Zephyr with just a hand. She's a heavy boat and doesn't stop easily. Well, no harm, no foul.

We left Prince Rupert at 0455 this morning since the weather forecast was as perfect as one can hope for. Just about dead calm--both with wind and seas. There was the hint in the forecast of 10-15 knot winds so we took the sail cover off in hopes of hoisting the main, but the winds never materialized. That's what they make diesel engines for.

All told, there were four of us in this crossing. Astarte, Nightfall, Aye Aye Sir, and us. These are the four boats that were all in Codville Lagoon back on May 29 that all went to Aye Aye Sir to celebrate Russ's birthday. We keep running into each other every so often. When we put into Prince Rupert yesterday, Astarte came in with us and Nightfall and Aye Aye Sir were already there. WIth the weather so close to perfect, we all ended up making the crossing of Dixon Entrance together. Dixon Entrance has a reputation of being a bear to cross so we got lucky. Not only in weather but also in getting someone to replace our lost zinc on a Sunday.

The seas were flat and the winds were just about calm so we averaged over 6.5 knots and did our 53.6 miles and dropped anchor by 1300 hours. We thought it would take much longer, but with the correct tides and current flows, we made great time. Aye Aye Sir(the biggest) got here first, followed by Astarte and Nightfall. We weren't that far behind.

Since we have already started the check in procedures with US Customs(called them yesterday in Ketchikan from Prince Rupert)to come back into the USA, I took down the Canadian courtesy flag that all foreign boats must fly while in another country. We'll need it again for the return trip. Having made the call to US Customs, we can stay the night in Foggy Bay(54 56.969N 130 56.364W)and then MUST go to Ketchikan tomorrow to complete the checkin procedure. If you don't, apparently they(US Customs) get a bit huffy and make it much harder to check in. The only reason they allow boats to spend a night in Foggy Bay is that it is to far to travel from Prince Rupert to Ketchikan in one day. From what we have heard from other boaters as we go up the coast, we have to check in with US Customs at every larger town we stop in. Once is apparently not enough. It will be interesting to see what they take off the boat as not being allowed back in the US even if you have receipts showing you bought it in the US and just had it on board for the trip through Canada. We know fresh veggies are on the hit list so we bought sparingly while in Prince Rupert at the local Safeway store.

When I called US Customs from a pay phone at the Visitors Bureau in Prince Rupert, I followed the instructions on the pay phone to dial 0 then 1 and then the number. I was advised by an automated voice that I could not complete the call since it was made to a "non-approved area" or some such jargon. I was forwarded to an operator that asked where I was calling. After I said the US, she told me I had dialed in the area code for Turkey!! That will teach me to follow instructions on a pay phone. No wonder it wouldn't go through.

We filled our water tanks late yesterday as one of the final things to do before we left. We were down about 5 inches in the tanks. That's about 1/3 of our supply. We made sure to take our showers before we filled them. At a $1.00 for two minutes at the marina's showers, taking them on board made a lot more sense to us. Our diesel supply is just fine and will probably hold till Juneau at the rate we are using it.

I checked the "raw water" strainer this evening. It filters the water that is sucked in through a through hull that passes through the engine and keeps it cool. It's the same water that then shoots out the stern exhaust pipe. We have been going through a good bit of flotsam(crud in the water) as we pass through the water and it needs to be checked regularly. If it gets clogged, the engine could over heat and that could cause other problems. Always safer to do the routine maintenance than to have to do the bigger jobs later.

I hope everyone enjoyed the photos I posted last night. Being on line on someone else's wifi access makes it much easier and faster to up load them. Plus, I'm limited in how much data I can upload and download. I only get 5 gigs per month. Tomorrow, I'll be calling Verizon to see if they have the internet data service from here North and if so, what it will take to get me back on it while in the US. I'll have to switch back to the Canadian I've been using over this past month when we get back to Prince Rupert. While there is cell phone service(new this year!!)in Prince Rupert, I could never get my phone to work. I had four bars but there was just no connection. Oh well, maybe next time.

Have a good week everyone. There's more to come!!