This is one hell of a boat town. The services here for sailboats are amazing. It is host to a world class sail loft, riggers, boat yards, chandleries, tradesmen, and so on. Where else would you find a local bronze forge as well as a full line of Davey and Company bronze? I have drooled over sketches online of things that are on shelves in Port Townsend.

We arrived at Point Hudson marina and shortly thereafter met Jon. We headed downtown to drink at the Sirens, which overlooks the bay from the back deck of an old brick waterfront building. The next day Caitlin arrived and we had a full boat with Caitlin and Kristin in the v-berth, Jon strung between the masts in his hammock tent and me on the deck in a sleeping back and thermarest. We kind of stuck out in the posh marina.  We were tied up next to Suva, an incredible teak yacht. Though we stood out everyone was very nice. Brian Toss said that Madrone was the most reasonable boat in the marina. I think it was a complement. We later moved to the boat haven, a much larger marina with more plain boats but still a dazzling array. Marina fees were the same both places, 1$ a foot. Ouch.

Jon left and Ryan arrived. We watched the fireworks display over Fort Worden. It was many miles away, and it was almost more fun to watch the expanse of other displays that spread out over the sound. The next day Ryan left early, leaving behind a big bottle of Kraken rum. Uh oh.  Then Caitlin left, taking with her various chores to do for us. Nicest sister ever. It was great to see everyone and we had a blast.

In Neah Bay the diesel became harder to start. It took longer and the cranking was more anemic. Today I replaced some undersized wire and discovered a wire that had been so overloaded that it melted its insulation. I suspect my negative starting battery line became too resistive and the negative return found a creative path through a wire that was never meant to do such duty. Now I have nice big clean wires to the starter and it turns over better than ever. Its amazing the trouble that a good shaking up at sea can reveal!

Kristin went to Hasse Sails to talk about adding reef points to our mizzen and jib. They weren’t just helpful, they were falling over themselves to be helpful. Its an amazing place filled with people who love what they do. Get your sails there, you will not regret it. With the extra help we got from them we have already planned out both reef points and marked the mizzen up. We have all the parts needed, so it is just a matter of doing the work now.  I can’t wait, I’ll practically be begging for 40 knot winds.

We have a few chores left, but soon we should be headed to our first international destination: the mysterious, exotic Canada.