We left Scappoose on the 2nd of July and met up with several boats on the way down the river, including Polaris and Knotwood. It was a nice sendoff. We also talked on the radio with a boat "Chakara" which knew Kestrel when the previous owner had sailed her up in Nootka Sound back in '94. Maybe we'll meet them here as they are suppose to be here now.

We then had the boat hauled in Ilwaco, Washington near the mouth of the Columbia River. We had the boat up on the hard for about 10+ days, and had all kinds of projects. The most difficult was pulling the flange off the prop shaft -- a three day ordeal. We've got it all figured out now, and if we need to do it again, it will be a much less time consuming project. The boat yard is very reasonable. It cost us less than $400 in yard fees, pressure washing and return trip with the travel lift, so any of you Portlanders may want to consider Ilwaco for do-it-yerself yard work! We definitely know our boat now! Our learning curve is very steep, but we are getting there!

Part of the color (I can't say charm) of Ilwaco was our boat neighbor, Steve, on the fishing vessel "Helen L". He was in the midst of a break-up with his girlfriend, so it meant three nights in a row of late-night yelling and screaming, mostly her! This made us want to get the boat done a little hastier than we'd wanted. Anyway, ultimately, Steve and his girlfriend had an out-and-out at their home in Chinook, and he pulled out his... Chainsaw!... She took a hammer or something to the windows of his pickup. He ended up in jail -- but Jay and I agreed it was she who should have ended up in jail. Anyway, he eventually got out and they eventually made up and were back together when we left Ilwaco! It's a hard life in Ilwaco.

We splashed the boat on the 17th and lo and behold, she floated! Wow! Houston, we have success! We had several visitors, both planned and unplanned, including Loren and Kathy Beach of Yacht-L, Leslie's original sailing instructor, Tom Henkle, and Bob and Jackie Kennedy from our Houseboat moorage. We still had quite a bit to do to the boat to get her ready for sea, so we didn't get out of Ilwaco until around the 21st of July.

We left in the morning and had a fairly easy bar crossing under power. About an hour North of the Columbia River bar, Jay heard a tinking noise and had me go down and check it out. I thought it was the pans rattling in the stove. Then Jay said, oh no, we don't have any water in the exhaust! Quick, Kill the engine before it overheats! Went below and checked the engine, the raw water pump pulley had sheared! Bummer. There was hardly a breath of wind, so we put the rest of the sails up and pointed the bow West. We inched along and Jay had a bright idea to put up our Number 1 sail to give us a little more boost. He bent the sail on, and with great anticipation, we hoisted it... only to find out it was LITTLER than our working sail! I didn't say a word as I didn't want to bring this sail in the first place, Jay appreciated that. He then said, Yes, let's get rid of this sail! :-) (See, we are now trying to lighten Kestrel up and she's pretty low on her lines!)

Anyway, the trip ended up taking us 36 hours to reach Westport (Grays Harbor) Washington. It's about a 40 mile trip. We did over 90 miles beating to windward to get there. We sailed in with a nice breeze over the bar for a smooth crossing and motored the last little bit to get into a slip in the Marina. We found a machine shop to machine us a new pulley and alternator bracket (which also broke) for a total of $22 (and the Isuzu dealer who installed the engine in Seattle wanted $240 for the pulley -- hmmm!) We highly recommend the machine shop in Westport, Humburg, a really nice family owned business.

Guy and Melissa Stevens visited us from Seattle while we were in Westport and we took a trip to Aberdeen to visit the tall ship, "Lady Washington". What a neat boat that was and friendly crew. We really enjoyed the break from our on-going boat projects!

We left Grays Harbor/Westport on Tuesday afternoon, the 28th in thick fog. We figured we'd go out of the harbor and check how the Radar does in fog and figured we could turn back if it's too hard to navigate. The bouys were easily visible with the radar, even though visibility in the fog was down to 1/8 mile, and we navigated slowly out of Grays Harbor. The fog didn't lift until after 0100 in the morning on Jay's watch. The radar is indespensible when navigating in fog!

We were going to go straight to Barkley Sound, but erred in our ETA of Cape Beale, the entrance to Barkley. We would have gotten in about 2300 the 29th, and we didn't want to hang out offshore for a night outside of Barkley, so we detoured to Neah Bay Washington at the mouth of the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

Neah Bay is an Indian Reservation with a very nice new marina, though expensive for our budget at $22.00 p/nite. We stayed only one night at the marina, then anchored out the second night. They have nice showers and the community is very friendly. There is a bird reserve all around the entrance of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, so birds were in great abundance! We saw all kinds, including Tufted Puffins and Bald Eagles among others. "Salty Dog" from SIYC also pulled in and anchored the second night we were in Neah Bay. We said hello, but didn't have the dinghy down, so never got to chat with them.

We left Neah Bay for Barkley about 0700. Had a motor trip up the coast to the entrance, which we reached about 1500. The seas got rather steep going over the Swiftsure Bank on our way up and we were thankful the Northwesterlies hadn't kicked in as they had predicted. We figured the seas to be 5-7 feet, which aren't huge, but when the period is short between the swells, it makes for lumpy going. If the wind had picked up it could have gotten kind of ugly. The seas didn't spread out till we were about 15 miles out of Barkley Sound.

Trying to clear the entrance to Barkley for the first time was exciting for both of us! Cape Beale was easy to see, but finding the green bouy inside was a challenge as it blended in with the islands. We were very focused on finding the correct passage in the channel and were just starting to make our turn in, when we looked to starboard and lo and behold there was a fishing boat and a Canadian Coast Guard vessel. Now where in the heck did they come from?! We knew we had clear water and more or less followed them in!

Yeah, we finally made it up to Barkley! We were very happy indeed! We headed up into Bamfield to check in with Customs/Immigration and had heard all about Lorraine at the General Store who checks people in. We were looking forward to getting a stamp in our passports! So, we were sorely dissappointed when we got there and found, we no longer check in at the General Store, but we call an 800 number and check in over the phone. So much for the stamp in our passport. Also, they are fairly lax on allowing alcohol in. We were overstocked by about a case of beer and several bottles of wine. Jay declared it all, but no worries on paying any kind of duty. So, don't forget to stock up when you come to Barkley by boat. (Our guess is that Victoria probably wouldn't be so lenient.)

Bamfield is an adorable little community of about 300 in an Inlet about 5 miles from the coast. The mainstreet of the town is the actual waterway and boats are a way of life here. The only way to get here is by boat or by dirt road (probably about 50 miles from Port Alberni), so it is very isolated.

We anchored just up from Rance Island in Bamfield and we've been there for 4 nights, just relaxing and enjoying ourselves at the pace of life we have been looking forward to all along! We Finally feel like we are on vacation and not spending all our time working on the boat! :-) And the SUN is shining -- not grey like on the coast!

Wildlife abounds here with bald eagles all over the place, as well as other interesting birds. We also saw a black bear foraging on the shoreline the second day we were here. We hiked to Pachena Bay yesterday, a beautiful bay with fairly warm waters about 4 miles from Bamfield. Needless to say, our feet were very sore when we got back to the boat! It was a beautiful hike.

One thing about doing this boating stuff is we are losing weight and getting fit and nimble. We both agree we are not nearly as stressed as we were when working, but it doesn't mean there aren't stresses included with this trip! Doing the offshore stuff definitely keeps you on your toes! Also, we are finding that each time we go offshore, the queasiness goes away a lot quicker as you become accustomed to the motion of the boat. That's encouraging!

That's it for now. We will be spending a couple weeks here then head in for Victoria for a few days. At the end of August we will begin our journey down the coast stopping in Newport Oregon for at least a week to visit with friends and family before heading to San Francisco in the first part of September. We should be in the Bay Area by mid-September. Yes, going by boat does take a long time, especially when you are only averaging about 4 knots per hour! :-)

Please keep in touch with us as we love hearing from our friends and family as we journey along.

All the best and Fair winds,
       Leslie & Jay