Itinerary

I'm getting scared to look at the calendar; there isn't very much longer to get things done before we have to start going places. I've only just worked out our itinerary for the near future. I'm not even going to try to figure out the whole trip, other than sketching in some broad outlines... we're just too dependent on wind and tide. But the closer we get to our mid-May departure the more certain I can be about the days leading up to that point, at least.

We have a few drop-dead dates that are driving the first month or so of the trip. First, I've finally scheduled a haul-out date with the boatyard in Port Townsend (more on that later) for April 25th, so we absolutely have to have the boat up there by then. So we'll probably leave town temporarily on the 22nd or 23rd to sail up there, and do some complicated ferrying around to get one of our vehicles up here so we can get back to town afterward for the next important date: my sister's wedding.

The wedding is actually in Las Vegas the second weekend in May, so we'll fly down for that the second week of May. Right afterward, we'll fly back, drive back up to Port Townsend, and head north.

I still haven't worked out exactly what route we'll take into Canada and it may very well depend on the weather at the time. All that I do know is that I intend to move north pretty fast to start off with. Partly this was something I had decided ahead of time; we'll have years and years ahead when we'll be able to get away for a couple of weeks and explore the Gulf Islands and Desolation Sound, so it seems to make sense not to dawdle there now but instead get north quickly and spend our leisure time in parts we may not get back to anytime soon. The other reason is that Mandy just found out that she has landed a contract with a major local company to teach a class in late May and early June. So we have to make pretty good time to get to our first destination (Princess Louisa Inlet) and have some time to spend there before getting back out and getting her to some major transportation hub for a lift back to Seattle by May 24th.

Then I'll have to figure out what to do with myself for nine or ten days while she's away. I'm going to see if any of my friends want to come up and putter around; it would be nice to make a little more progress during that time, but on the other hand I can't realistically go north of Port Hardy and still have Mandy be able to get back to the boat easily or cheaply. So I'll have a little time to kill either way. I'd rather not spend it just sitting around but we'll have to see.