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July 17, 2017
Chris McCandless once quoted that ‘happiness is best when shared’, and he couldn’t be more spot on! We are so fortunate to begin, and to share, such a journey with the one we love the most.
Our journey has only started yet it feels like we’ve been gone for awhile. With career lives behind us, our new job of surviving and keeping our boat afloat seems to now fill all our time. Good thing the high moments offset the bummer moments, which there are a lot of!
Our journey out of Alaska into BC has been incredible so far. I am writing this as we pass Campbell River BC enroute to Comox and thinking back on leaving Juneau already seems like forever ago. We departed good old Auke Bay marina for the last time on July 17th,2017.
Alaska was rainy, but still stunning. Unbelievably rainy even for us Juneau-ites who spent a few years in a rainforest. We left Juneau and made it to BC with maybe only 2 days of no rain. Not only rain but COLD!
We started our journey by first visiting Fords Terror along with our buddy sail boat Lea Scotia (a wonderful cruising family of four). Fords Terror is a majestic fjord with dramatic rock cliffs and mountains that drop straight into icy blue water that is littered with ice bergs from near by glaciers. The pictures don't do a place like this any justice at all...it is truly jaw dropping.
Prince Rupert, BC seemed to be the turning point for weather, to the exact opposite of the spectrum. 90+ degree heat made for different emotions but the sun felt good and our boat finally dried out.
We’ve caught fish, ate lots of crab, saw wildlife, explored caves, pushed ourselves beyond our comfort zone with the boat (thanks to few nudges from our friends on Lea Scotia), and relished in what an amazing world we live in. Might be easier to describe with a few pictures.
Passing through BC some of the highlights included Weewanie and Bishop hot springs, Ocean Falls, Calvert Island, and many of the other remote anchorages nestled in the backcountry.
Ocean Falls deserves a little more than a few photos. Once a bustling paper mill town of 5,000 the "town" has now a mere 20 people reside year round but the old metropolis still stands, kind of. A place that held the second largest hotel in Canada is now a great place for a zombie film. We scored a place on the dock and just in time for a free pig roast (should I mention it was stuffed with three chickens and a pot roast)! The twenty people that live there really know how to throw a party. Unreal. Just a quarter mile up the broken cement road Ocean Falls still boasts a working dam and above that a magnificent lake full of fish according to the locals (we on the other hand, caught only a buzz). An unbelievable place to spend a few days.
Oh and Calvert Island...whew. Teddies body language can describe to you how amazing the sand beaches were.
We stopped in Comox,BC on Vancouver Island to see some friends, Grant and Marie Atchison that have been in my life (Travis) since I was a wee kiddo. We had an amazing two days with them on their incredibly beautiful property.
Sailing back into the USA! Crossing into the San Juan Islands, WA we were greeted with this sunrise.
The last night anchoring out before heading into Bellingham , we got the chance to rendezvous with one our favorite people, Cathy Franklin. Cathy taught us how to sail in 2015 when we did not have a lick of sailing experience. While we were in Bellingham Cathy was so kind and generous to us. She lent us her car, slip and taxi'd us around in Bellingham, fed us, encouraged us, and treated us like we were two of her own kids. She will forever remain a pillar in our sailing lives as our original sailing instructor and an amazing person we will always look up to. Thank you for everything Cathy!
We arrived into Bellingham, Washington on August 19th,2017. We were met with a wonderful welcoming party of Larry and Yvonne Dalke (Travis's parents). They stayed for a few days and showered us with unending generosity and love. They have also adopted Teddy while we head out to sea. And they were an affordable delivery service for our huge solar panels ;) These are two amazing parents that have always backed our crazy adventure and supported us through the tough times!
We even had a visit from a Knutson! Erik (Marta's oldest brother) had a flight layover into Bellingham and was able to hang with us for a few hours. We fed him some breakfast and then made him come help us running halyards. Thank you Erik!
Then the serious work started ...Our first haul out and mast unstep was quite the experience as they used an actual crane instead of the typical travel lift. We demasted the boat in order to redo all of the standing and most of the running rigging and wiring , which we thought to be original to the boat.
Can we just say that we have the most amazing friends?! We had so many surprise and spontaneous visits from friends that lived in the area or were passing through.
Our great friend Alexa, was so incredibly generous to help us out on the grueling task of painting the bottom of Merrion. She is an artist! Not only did she help us paint but we were invited to her Mom's place for an incredible meal and even free laundry ;) So amazing! Thank you Lex!
Juneauites continued to show up at the boat yard to say hi and encourage us. Photo to the left are our great friends Sean and Diana. We had a fabulous night and early breakfast together. There were many other friends that we failed to get pictures with sadly.. Julie, Dave, Kelly, Dane, Carrie, Teal, and Mike (the former owner of Merrion).
Sarah and Christina even dropped in for a nice hello and helped restore Marta's sanity after Teddy had left. Christina's parents then cooked us a phenomenal meal while we were there. The generosity that we experienced was so incredible!
We had to install a new transmission, which we couldn't have done without our friend Dane's help. Installing 150lbs of dense mass into a small square hole was way easier said than done, but we managed to get it installed with lots of grunting and sweating.
This was then followed by yet another dive to install our new prop.
Holy cow were we stoked when we sea trialed Merrion and everything worked! What an incredible relief.
Our last job was solar panel installment , which completed Merrion for our new journey. September 13th completed three weeks of work on the old girl. It was not an easy three weeks to say the least, many jobs did not go as planned, as always with a boat, but we persevered and finished them all. Teddy left to live with Travis's folks while we sail.. and boy did that little dog leave a big void on his departure.
Thankfully the boat was finally ready and the crew were very eager to leave the marina. It was now time to leave for the big open ocean...
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