I left Bellingham at 11 a.m. on Thursday. I had hoped to catch some of the Croatian fishermen on their coffee break at the Weblocker in the morning. But they all went to a funeral of one of their comrades. There was plenty of wind in Bellingham Bay and I had the ebb tide with me in Hales Pass between the mainland and Lummi Island. I made a nostalgic stop in Echo Bay of Sucia Island in the San Juan Islands. This was an easy weekend sail from where I used to have a weekend retreat in La Conner. My kids still remember when in 1978  both the Canadian and U.S. fireboats came too late to the rescue of a sailboat that burned down to the waterline a few boats anchored away from our boat. Today I made a 45 nautical mile sail to Bowen Island, to the N.W. of Vancouver. Sailed it in 10 hours, following and reaching winds. Slalomming through the gillnets set at the mouth of the Fraser River. The last time I was in the marina here was 20 years ago. My twin brother and sister in law came to visit from Germany. My boat sat on it’s trailer in Gig Harbor and I borrowed a friend’s boat, also a NAJA like “Fleetwood”, who kept his boat in Eagle Harbor, nearby Bowen Island. The owner of the marina here went to CalPoly architecture school with Sid, who I met on Wednesday in B’ham. I’m meeting my long time Canadian American friend Paul de Leeuw ( de echte) here and my son in law’s father who lives here on the Island. Then I sail to Vancouver tomorrow.

No pictures, yet. The weather has changed to normal N.W. summer weather, drizzle and grey.