25 Days – ready or not!

I have been meaning to start this blog since Aug 3, 2023. I’m working my way through a tutorial so, it might get better 😛

The winter has flown by! I know some of you are yearning for a hint of spring. We have crocuses blooming, daffodils on the way and yesterday I saw a bush with little flowers on it. Oh, and the Island Explorer has resumed whale-watching expeditions. Yep. It’s around the corner.

With spring though comes the next adventure. We purchased a one-year cruising permit and that is up March 13th. They are very strict about that in Washington state, one year to the day with no extensions. Period. Also, believe me, I have read every regulation trying to find a loophole. Why don’t we simply stay? We don’t want to write a big fat check to the Washington Department of Revenue; it would be huge.

We have been hanging out at Cap Sante Marina in Anacortes Washington since October 13th. We spent the winter exploring the area with a few trips home peppered in.

We planned to put our nose to the grindstone in January. Maybe that wasn’t such a great plan because we’re now under the gun. Here is what we would like to do before we cast off our lines for the last time in this marina:

• Install a watermaker that took the entire month of January!
• Fire up the watermaker – you do not make water from marina water. gross.
• Solar panels
• StarLink (that was easy!)
• Quarterly zinc and bottom cleaning (scheduled)
• Fire Extinguisher inspections (scheduled)
• Upgrade our dinghy and davits (dinghy/outboard will be ready Wednesday. Waiting to hear from davit dealer)
• Install washdown hoses – both front and cockpit. They no longer make the adapter to fit a hose into our installed washdown system, the previous owner took it with them. Thanks, JA. So we have to install new ones. That’s only about $150 each
• Wash and Wax the boat (this, my friend, will not be happening. We wanted to hire it out and no one is returning calls or emails.)
• Make sure we have all the necessary documents to cross the border into Canada
• Provision

I’m sure I’m forgetting something. But you get the idea. My goal is to have a few paragraphs each day and a few supporting photos. I think I’ve surpassed that, so I’ll sign off for today.

Talk Soon.