Back in the USA

October 15, 2010

Friday Harbor, Patos Islands, and Henry Island, WASHINGTON, USA

  

Friday Harbor was our Port of Entry back into the United States.  It really great to be once again plying our home waters.  It is actually bittersweet as our sabbatical adventure draws to a close.  We know that LIFE itself is an adventure and it will continue, but we are little sad to have this chapter of it ending.

Before we return, though, we are still exploring “in our backyard” as they say.  Two nights in Friday harbor got us checked in and caught with our daily and re-entry tasks.  We received the news that West Coast Yachts has been acquired by Swiftsure Yachts and we are now the official dealer for Hallberg Rassy.   This turn of events is fabulous, but will hasten our re-entry process.

With that in mind, we skipped Matia and Sucia, vowing to return soon so that the boys can check out these favorite local cruising destinations.  We opted for a much smaller spot suggested by a friend.  We had not, one, but two small islands to ourselves.  We explored the trails and the lighthouse and had marshmallows over a campfire.  Even on the “0” tide, we didn’t quite touch bottom.

Our trip down to Roche Harbor unfolded under typical Northwest gray skies, not too cold and not raining.  As we ate dinner at the dock at Henry Island, we were treated to an incredible sunset out toward Haro Strait with the most definite line of clearing heading our direction.  There is something about the variation of weather or the angle of the sun on a clear day in fall here that is so different from the monotony of the blaring sun of the tropic.  Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the day after day of clear sunny weather that we encountered over the last year with only a handful of days that would even be considered “inclement” to Northwest Natives.  But I am definitely hard wired to rejoice in day like today here.