Bellingham

We made it to Bellingham. It was a wild downwind ride from Victoria, about 51 miles, maybe a little more. We had to cross the border, which entails going to Roche Harbor (on San Juan Island) and then getting inspected by a customs agent. The US customs agents are always tough, but this guy was pretty nice. We motored out from Roche Harbor, and right into the waiting jaws of the Coast Guard, who, upon seeing us, promptly dropped a zodiac into the water and came over to board. So after waiting for that to go through (like 30 minutes) we put up sails and tore off at a amazing 7 kts (over water, it was more like 3 over land). The current was torrentialy against us, building big standing waves, which in some places were almost 5 ft tall. We would surf down the waves and get up to 8.5 kts. And that is really scary, especially when your hull speed is 6 kts.

Over the past few nights, I've turned on a wood stove that I made out of a tea kettle, and it heats the boat up nicely. I spent about two months working on this stove, but it works nicely. Here's a picture of it glowing in the dark...


I need to post more pictures, so I'll put in some that I've taken from the Port Townsend. This is what port townsend looks like:


And here's Bellingham: