We Did It!

FINALLY Day 1/94 -  We threw off the lines and left the marina! It is official. Halleluiah!! So much work and prep to make it happen and it really felt fantastic. Our first day was Olympia to Gig Harbor. It took about 6 hours and we were happy to stay in a marina that night. Easy peasy.

LONG HAUL Day 2/93 – Gig Harbor to Everett. We had a beautiful day with an early start. We spent a good part of the day winding our way between sailboats racing near Seattle. They looked so beautiful with their colorful spinnakers. We high tailed it as far north as possible in hopes of avoiding some bad weather expected over the next few days. We made it to Everett in our longest day on the water to date, almost 7 hours.  

SUNDAY Day 3/94 – Spent the day in Everett and went to church. We started to get lots of rain and the wind began picking up. We spent hours looking at the forecasts for the next few days and made a tentative plan. We love being at the marina docked next to 50-90 foot power yachts. We feel very small but are thankful for our lovely boat.

YIKES Day 4/94 – We expected some wind and small waves today, but instead got high winds and pretty big waves. We left the marina around 10 and motored for about an hour, rolling and pitching on the waves. We felt a little nervous, but knew Endeavor could handle it. The questions was - could we? We worried at what might await us as we got to more open water. We could see in the distance the tell-tale line of bigger waves and white caps. It almost looked fake, but as soon as we saw it we made the decision to turn around and go back to the marina. It was the right choice, and we enjoyed the rest of the day grocery shopping, hitting the marina store, and getting to know our new neighbors on Golden Eagle. (Can you see Endeavor in the picture?) Tonight we worked on a few projects, watched some videos, and listened to the wind howling outside.

We may end up spending another day in the marina tomorrow as high winds are predicted again. We are very early in this trip learning the truth of the saying, "A sailor's plans are written in the sand at low tide." Every choice we make, every plan is dependent upon the weather. It is the boss and we can only do what it allows. We will get where we want to go, but we have little control over the when. And that is ok, we have lots of time.