Documenting a vessel is like a title search for a house or piece of property.
Faraway is documented.
It's easy to document a vessel that is purchased new from the vendor, because there are no previous owners.
I had been down in the Gig Harbor area for a number of months before I realized that in WA you have to register your vessel even if it is documented. And so I started down the road to follow the procedures to document Faraway. I figured at worst it would be a few hundred dollars.
It didn't take long before the cold hand of reality slapped me in the face. As part of registering the vessel you must prove that you paid the equivalent of WA sales tax on the value of the vessel. In our case that came out to about $19,500, just for the sales tax portion of the registration. With the other fees added it would have cost us $22,500 to register the vessel in WA.
In addition they charge an annual "excise" tax, which is similar to a property tax, which for us would have been about $1500 per year.
So the decision was made to run Faraway back up to Ketchikan and keep her there.
Next came the decision on timing and crew, interrelated.
We had established that wife Lisa is no longer physically able to handle the bumpers and lines as she has in the past, and so we looked at getting one or more of the grandsons to help out. In the end it was decided that Bryan (age 12) would be the only one to go with me on this trip.
It was also decided that we would try to schedule it as closely to their spring break to minimize missed school days. And so it came down to a departure date of 03-27.
Yikes, that only gave me a few weeks to prepare for such a long journey.
I had scheduled a short mileage day (25 nm) for day 1 just because I didn't really know how long it would take us to actually get underway. First destination was Shilshole Bay Marina.
Day 1, Wednesday 03-27, was just a big disappointment. The weather was terrible and we ended up slogging our way up to the Blake Island area and then turning around and going back into the harbor.
In the morning we pulled out about 9 AM to encounter much better conditions. We made it to Shilshole Bay Marina with no problems. We took on fuel there. (Amazingly, there are no fuel stations within Gig Harbor proper.)
I must apologize here too for the lack of photographs. I will add some as I have them, but both of my cameras were on the fritz, and frankly I was more concerned about getting to our various destinations safely than on whether or not we had photos.
Here's a shot of the boat at the SBM guest float from our southbound trip. I think we tied in the same slip on our north bound journey.
Dinner was Hamburger Helper, and the after dinner movie was "Act of Valor."
We were sacked out by 8:30 PM in calm conditions.
Our destination from SBM was Friday Harbor.
I usually go through Deception Pass to get past Whidbey Island, but that must be done at slack tide and the timing just didn't work for that this time. So I took the outer route, through Admiralty Inlet, which can be rougher but was fine on this passage.
We made it to Friday Harbor about 4 PM with no issues along the way.
Dinner this evening was spaghetti and the after dinner movie was "Olympus Has Fallen."
Here's Karen again at Friday Harbor taken during our south bound run.
Our next objective was to formally check into Canadian waters. I had chosen Sidney BC as our port of entry. It is only about 20 miles from Friday Harbor so we could have easily checked into customs there and continued on further. But I had scheduled it as an overnight since I did not know how long it would take to clear customs, and I wanted to walk to a grocery store that is near the marina. So this was a very short day as far as mileage goes.
We had no issues clearing customs. It was all done by phone and only took about 15 minutes.
We both took advantage of the down time to shower in their facilities and also to do some laundry. Bryan told ne he had brought some clothes that were already dirty, and so we took care of that problem.
Dinner was hamburgers and the movie was "Act of Valor," (yes, again).
Bryan seems to like watching movies more than once.
That's a good thing because our library of movies is not very large.
Our next destination was John Henry Marina in Pender Harbour, which requires a long straight run up the Strait of Georgie. We were fortunate to have great weather conditions for this run because it can be a bad one.
The relatively new auto pilot is working well and I use it well over 90% of the time I am at the helm.
We made it to John Henry's with no issues, and took on fuel and bought a few things at the store. Their café was closed or we would have eaten there. Instead I cooked hot dogs with beans for dinner. The movie was "Castaway."
The next day we had to transit Seymour Narrows. This is one of those spots where you really need to watch the tides and currents. Lives have been lost here. We were fortunate that we were able to pass through about an hour and a half before slack tide. 2 big fishing boats came by and started through and I figure if they could make it so could we. It was a bit of a wild ride though. There were very strong currents which kicked the boat around a bit.
We went through Seymour Narrows and ended up at Blind Channel Resort for the night.
We also got fuel here.
Dinner was informal tonight.
Bryan polished off 3 left over hot dogs and the left over Hamburger Helper.
I had toast and jelly I think., not much of a dinner.
The next day we pulled out about 7:30 AM, destination Port Hardy.
We got a nice boost from the current that pushed us along at about 13 knots, when we normally run between 9 and 10 knots.
We ran all day in calm conditions and arrived at Port Hardy about 4 PM.
We took on fuel and then got tied up at their guest dock.
We had dinner at a nearby restaurant.
Movie tonight was "Pain & Gain."
Port Hardy is our jumping off point for crossing Queen Charlotte Sound, one of the open ocean crossings we have to make. I checked in with "Weather Bob," and he said conditions were good for a crossing.
So we pulled out about 8:45 AM and enjoyed calm conditions all day.
We pulled into Dawson's Landing at about 4 PM.
It was here that Karen and I spent a week waiting for good weather on our southbound trip.
Dinner was chicken and rice and the movie was "Snitch."
The next day we ran in calm conditions to Shearwater Resort.
Got fuel and tied up at their almost empty floats.
We are so early in the season that very few cruising boats were out and about.
We had dinner at their restaurant and enjoyed their fine showers.
We didn't know it at the time but we would end up spending 5 nights here waiting for good travel weather. I had been in touch with "Weather Bob" for advice on when we should leave. The weather was pretty bad with one storm following another.
We had one night in particular that we really got hammered. The wind was driving us into the dock and I doubled up lines and bumpers. It was very noisy and very rocky on board.
So we sat and we sat and we sat until Tuesday morning when we finally pulled out,
I topped off the fuel tank before we left the area as we were not scheduled to get fuel again until we got to Prince Rupert.
We ran to a remote anchorage called Bottleneck Inlet.
I have anchored there several times before and it is a nice place to spend the night.
Bryan had left over Hamburger Helper and I had a cheese sandwich for dinner.
The after dinner movie was "Hitch," which turned out to be a chick flick.
It was a calm but wet night on the anchor, as it rained hard all night long.
We ran about 73 nm to a place called Lowe Inlet.
Once again this is a spot I have anchored in several times before.
There were no other boats around and we got anchored safely for the night.
Dinner was spaghetti and the movie was "Parker."
Fuel was showing about half and Prince Rupert was about 60 nm away, but I still was worried about fuel. There is fuel at Hartley Bay, but I have been treated rudely there in the past and so I don't like to stop there unless I really need the fuel.
We had a calm night on the anchor in Lowe Inlet.
In the morning we pulled the anchor and left at about 8 AM.
I kept a sharp eye on the fuel gauge all day but it all worked out OK in the end, we had plenty.
We ran in calm conditions all day, and then took on 600 liters of fuel in Prince Rupert.
We got a temporary slip in Cow Bay Marina, which is a very nice marina.
It is right next to the Prince Rupert Rowing and Yacht Club.
We caught up on texts and e-mails after 2 nights being remote.
We also enjoyed the good showers they have there.
We had dinner at a café just up from the marina.
I spent some quality time with the Garmin chart plotter studying Venn Passage.
Venn Passage is a "short cut" that saves a 12 mile detour around Digby Island.
I wanted to make sure I knew what to expect when we went through there. Depths can go below 10' in places so it is important to stay in the channel.
Friday April 12th we were up early and checked in with "Weather Bob" on conditions in Dixon Entrance. It is an open ocean crossing that must be taken seriously. Bob said good to go, so off we went.
The first 20 miles or so were pretty flat. There was some protection provided by Dundas Island.
The next 25 miles from there to Foggy Bay were a little bouncy, but not dangerous. From Foggy Bay into Ketchikan seas were calm.
We got into Bar Harbor at about 4 PM and got tied up in a temporary slip.
The voyage from Gig Harbor to Ketchikan was complete. It took 17 days, which included 5 nights at Shearwater.
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