Thursday August 24th – Skylar and I started a little business where we designed and manufactured what we call the Killer Crab Knife. It’s a tool used to kill a crab just before you cook it. Our company is Scout Trading Co. check out our website. Roche Harbor has a little store that sells fishing supplies, so Skylar and I introduced ourselves to the manager. She was nice enough to buy 6 of our knives and put them for sale in the store. It was super fun getting the sale and such a great experience for Skylar.

Today we are headed back to Canada to visit Victoria. From Roche you need a fairly good weather window to make the trek across Haro Strait and out through the Juan De Fuca Strait before arriving in Victoria harbor on the south end of Vancouver Island. Today that window was short. Wind in the morning, a brief calm mid-day then wind in the late afternoon. I don’t really like forecasts like that because things change too quickly but we took the opportunity. The weather was a bit unsettled but nothing we couldn’t handle.

We cleared customs about 1pm then made our way to Ships Point for our slip. Todd and Tami right behind us we both got settled in right next to each other. We all went shopping in town and Todd bought 2 deck chairs that we all carried back to the boat from about a mile away. Nice thing was that when we got tired we had a place to sit! Dinner at Pegliacci’s that night, always a fun experience.

Friday August 25th – Julie and I took a long walk in the morning then packed the calories back on with lunch and beer at Irish Times. Tea at David Tea, then more calories at Dutch Bakery (we happened to meet the owners out boating). Todd’s parents Bruce & Gloria joined us on their boat and brought Todd’s sister Emily and her husband Tim with them.

Skylar and Zach signed up for a spot at the art fair to try selling crab knives. They were excited at the prospect of lots of sales, but it turned out that all the attendees were off a cruise ship. Not quite the demographic you want when trying to sell a crab killing tool. Needless to say, they didn’t sell a single one but not for a lack of trying. They were persistent, talking to everyone as they walked by trying to get their attention. Super proud of their effort but sometimes things don’t work out.

All the adults went to nice dinner at El Terrazzo then back to the boats for the evening. About 12am I heard a noise on the back of our boat. Stumbling out of bed I made my way out of the stateroom to see what was going on. We had left a bunch of extra crab knives and other items on the back of our boat in a bin. To my surprise this guy was on our boat going through the bin. I charged to the back of the boat and I think scared him as much as he scared me. He jumped, then slowly walked to the head of the dock like nothing had happened.

This is the second time we have had a problem with thieves in Victoria. Last year Todd got his dinghy stolen right from the dock.

Tuesday August 22nd – We wanted to show my brother and his family some San Juan sights, so we left our Roche Harbor slip and cruised over to Stewart Island’s Reid Harbor. After getting anchored in the bay we lowered the dinghy and piled in. Todd and Tami cruised over in their dinghy and we all made our way to shore for a hike. We had a great hike to the old schoolhouse and back down to the beach stopping at the famous homemade swing tied to a tree branch. Rogue did especially well on the hike. Every few minutes he would complain he was tired but just kept going strong!

Leaving Stewart, we took the long way back through Mosquito Pass but not before stopping in Open Bay to try without success for a salmon. Back in our slip at Roche we cooked up the remaining crab and had a feast! At 6pm Skylar’s friend Johnny caught the Kenmore Air flight back to Seattle. We all said our goodbyes and watched him take off. The rest of the evening was spent with all of us relaxing and cooking dinner on Todd’s boat. A fun evening filled with great food, too much to drink and lots of laughs.

Wednesday August 23rd – We woke up and took Ava and Hannah on a fun dinghy ride through the harbor. David, Celeste and Rogue all came down from their hotel room and we all went to Madrona for late lunch. The kids had fun playing in the grass then at 3pm they flew back home on Kenmore.

It was great spending time with family especially after recent events and Julie and I loved getting to know the kids better. Such nice kids and it was fun showing them a part of the world they don’t typically get to experience. RIP Jeff Morris.

Sunday August 20th – Ok, so as I’m posting this it’s obviously not Sunday August 20th 2017. I am WAY behind finishing up our summer boat trip blog from last year. Go back in time a bit and pretend like it’s still summer. Here’s where I left off, and there’s more to come.

Back to Sunday August 20th – We pulled anchor from Sucia after 2 eventful nights & blazed back to Roche Harbor. My brother and his family are flying in tomorrow and we had to get ready for their arrival. Roche dock hands guided us into a great slip close to everything on the newer docks. Well, it was great until we settled in and realized the vacant boat next to us spewed loud splashing water into the sea for hours on end while Julie and I tried to relax on the upper deck. Who runs the A/C for days while the boat sits empty? They do apparently.

We all went out and set the crab pots then toured the docks looking at all the huge boats. Dinner at Madrona was fantastic then a check of the crab pots yielded 2 nice keepers to add to the stockpile.

Monday August 21st – After we had another delicious fattening breakfast at the grill it was fun to see all the people abuzz over the eclipse that was about to happen. Having been out of reality and retail for a few weeks we were not prepared. Apparently, we needed special glasses to see it. As the full eclipse drew closer the temperature fell, light dimmed and there was an eerie feel in the air. Some nice people on the dock loaned us some glasses and we all took turns looking at the eclipse.

David and family flew in at noon, and we met them as they piled off the seaplane. It was great to see them. As mentioned in a previous post David’s dad Jeff Morris passed away just a couple weeks ago. We were glad to be able to spend some time with family and pull them out of the day-to-day for some time on the water.

We put all that crab to good use in the form of crab cakes for their arrival snack. David, Celeste, Rogue and I took the dinghy out to check the crab pots. It was so fun to see Rogue out of his element, he loved being out there and didn’t even care about having to wear a lifejacket, which most kids throw a fit over. Our friends Todd and Tami came in on their boat and we all hiked to mausoleum. After checking David and Celeste into their hotel we all had a late dinner at Madrona. Hannah stayed the night with us on the boat and the girls got a serious case of the giggles, there was no stopping them.