The real adventure begins

Our "adventure starts now" picture

Its now been almost 5 years since I verbalized my interest in sailing to new and interesting places.  I can remember clearly when Karina verbalized back that I had lost my mind.  Looking back over the years since, I think we've approached this adventure like all our others and are now as prepared as we can be.  Sure there is lots that we'd like to do on the boat and more we could learn about sailing.  We'd love to have more money, we would really love to have learned spanish.  Oh well, I'm sure we will figure out the rest as we go.  We both feel that now is the time to go, and we are as ready enough.

Saying good bye to Canada (for now)

Even the birds said good bye

On Saturday we sailed away from Canada.  It was an interesting moment for us both as we realized it may be a while before Sea Rover see's her home shores again.  Knowing that we'll be back in under 8 months makes it easier.  Knowing that lots of people will be more than willing to come down and visit us in order to get away from the Canadian winter makes it even easier.  A couple of birds stopped by for the voyage across the strait.  They waited until we crossed into US waters and then realizing they'd forgotten their passports, flew off back home.

You need to be a bit different to live here

We've spent a great few days hanging out in Port Angeles.  We wandered around the quaint town with a fantastic history.  It was once considered the "western capital" of the USA.  You can tell its now struggling a bit with its identity.  A local who gave us a ride to the grocery store put it best:  "Port Angeles just needs to get over that its no longer a resource town and embrace the fact that tourists like to come here."

We haven't only been sitting around.  As usual there have been lots of boat projects.  It seems that when ever we work on the boat the windlass craves attention.  This week was no different but hopefully we've now given it enough love that it can do its thing without our intervention for a while.

The first hurtle will be getting down to San Francisco.  We maybe pushed the good weather window a bit by not going in early September but then again the experts are calling the weather now "November weather" so I expect if we had tried to leave earlier the boat gods would have simply moved up their timetable further.

It seems we aren't the only ones who've delayed leaving south and we've met 5 other boats who will probably be traveling down the coast with us.  Two notable ones are Aussie Rules and Coastal Drifter.  We've had a great couple of evenings hanging out with both and Im sure we'll be bumping into them all the way.

No need to go there today!

Tomorrow morning we will leave Port Angeles and head to Neah bay.  There's a nice winter storm brewing off the coast that we've been waiting on to pass us by.  We'll post when we decide to start the real voyage.  Those that know us, know we are cautious.  This being our first voyage offshore alone together, we certainly wont be pushing the limits of our abilities.  If we have to motor all the way to San Francisco, waiting out each storm in a new and interesting place along the coast, so be it.  Sea Rover will take care of us way better than we'll take care of ourselves anyway so there is no need to worry.

Going forward, be sure to check out our "Where to find us" page.  We are using all sorts of tools to keep those that care updated as to our whereabouts.  We figure with 4 methods, if one doesn't show an updated position (due to the boat gods keeping us on our toes) one of the others will.

Sailing away into the Sunrise (A new beginning for us both)