SATURDAY June 20th – We all slept in the next morning until about 8:30 (very late for our family) then fired up the generator so we could make some hot water.  A few minutes in, the generator suddenly stopped. Not good.  Generators have safety controls built in that will shut the engine down should there be a problem.  After 10 minutes or so I fired it back up to find raw water not flowing to the engine.  The engine was getting too hot and automatically shut down.  I took apart the raw water pump and found the impeller in bad shape – so much for the diesel mechanic that said it was in good condition a month ago.  Luckily I had a spare so I was able to put a new one in and get everything going again.  Always a fun adventure on a boat, but there’s something so gratifying about fixing your broken boat yourself while anchored far from any services!  It pays to be prepared.

We all went to shore for a hike and relaxing on the beach.  We met some campers with a double kayak and they asked Skylar if he wanted to paddle around the island.  He was excited and had a lot of fun while the rest of us played paddleball on the beach and searched for treasures.  Ava is starting an interesting junk collection of things she finds on the beach.

Skylar got his tent all setup at a campsite for a night alone on the island.  I still can’t believe at 13 years old he loves to do this all by himself, but I think it’s awesome.  Skylar and I went fishing that evening and we watched the sunset over Sucia Island.  A beautiful night.

FRIDAY  June 19^th –  Our cruising plans this summer have us spending most of August in Desolation Sound – about 220mi north of Tacoma.  The kids have been begging to go back since we were last there the summer before last.  The plan is to spend 3 long travel days getting there so we can maximize our time up north.  Now, with the kids just out of school we decided to take a quick 12-day trip to the San Juan’s since we will be skipping by there later this summer.

Thursday June 18^th we spent the day at home doing final preparations for the trip.  We figured we would spend tonight on the boat in Tacoma so we could get an early start tomorrow.  By the time everything was packed and ready to go it was 10:30pm.

4:00am my alarm goes off.  I feel miserable but drag myself to the galley to make some coffee. Luckily and unexpectedly Julie gets up with me.  We shove off at 4:25am, coffee in hand and well before the sun peaks over the horizon.

I absolutely love early morning departures but this time I was so tired I could barely stay awake.  Julie felt the same way so after a couple hours she went back to sleep!

We were planning on a really long run today.  We figured we might as well bust out an all day run to Matia or Sucia Island 100 miles north of Tacoma.  We had a beautiful calm run up the inside of Whidbey Island, through the Swinomish Channel, past Anacortes and through the San Juan’s to Matia Island.  Matia is one of the most north islands in the group.

At 3:10pm and 10 hours 42 minutes run time we arrived to find the lone buoy in Matia’s Rolfe Cove available for us to snag.   As tired as we were we knew the kids had to run, so we took the dinghy to shore for a little hike around the island.  Dinner and bed could not have come sooner!

Our kids are getting bigger, making our boat feel much smaller.   Our current boat – an American Tug 34 – only has one stateroom and one head.  Skylar sleeps on the convertible salon settee while Ava sleeps on the hard floor of the pilothouse.  There is almost no privacy, both of the kids are extremely cramped, and sharing one head has gotten more difficult, especially with Skylar going through……. well you get the idea, he’s just about 14.  From a short 1-night cruise, to a month long summer cruise to Desolation Sound, we use our boat quit a bit.  Spring, summer, fall and winter it doesn’t matter, any free time we get is usually spent out in the boat.  Our kids have grown up on boats.  They love it and it’s a bond that really keeps us together.  There’s nothing like the responsibility they (and we) must learn around boats.  The closeness our family shares stuck on a boat with no place to hide cannot be replaced.  We want it to last as long as possible.

So after much debate we are getting a new boat!  The American Tug 48 fits exactly what we want.  Problem is there are no used ones, so we have to build a new one, a process that takes about 8 months.  If all goes well she will be completed sometime in January 2016!!  We are all so excited!!   Photos courtesy, Steve Scruggs/American Tugs