Day 1 - An auspicious start

Dave took Curt to the airport for an 8am flight to Huntsville AL space camp. I was supposed to go too - but seeing as how I was dead tired Dave decided I should sleep in so he swung back by the house to get me. Zzzzzz. I have been working a ridiculous number of hours so I am starting this trip totally wiped out.

When we got to Anacortes, we had 30 minutes before check in. So I ran through the grocery store grabbing things as fast as I could. It would save us having to buy them after the pre-cruise training session, thereby getting us out to the boat and on board faster. After that mad adrenalin dash I was awake - having slept the whole way there in the car. The 1 hour training session was a joke. All the danger spots Dave already knew about. A couple of times Dave corrected the guy giving the lecture - like what frequency was Seattle traffic on (its 14 not 22 - that's the coast guard).

When we got to the dock and began to inspect the boat - fortunately the check out fleet captain that we did our checkout ride with a month ago was there. (Dave BACKED the boat into the slip whereupon the guy declared the checkout ride finished). We started going through the systems. When they got to the anchor winch it wouldn't work. Dave promptly took out his multi-meter (doesn't leave home without it) and started diagnosing the trouble. He and the fleet captain spent the next 2 hours diagnosing the problem down to a faulty switch. Meanwhile I played pack horse and hauled all the supplies that weren't too heavy for me to lift down to the boat and stored them. So at least when they diagnosed the problem we were about ready to roll. That is until they found that the GPS wasn't working either. Turned out to be powered by a switch that wasn't marked. It was wired to the VHF radio switch instead of the navigation switch. The fleet captain gave up giving Dave the systems tour, eminently satisfied that Dave could solve whatever might come up. And gave up doing a second check ride and just untied the boat and we were on our way. Oddly enough, Dave sensed that the boat characteristics didn't seem the same as last time - but oh, well, probably just his imagination. And just after we pulled out Dave discovered that the auto pilot wasn't working either. (He fixed that on the morning of day 2).

With that auspicious start we were off. I slept for the next several hours. I awoke as we were pulling into Reid harbor for the night. Ahhhh. Piece and quiet. Ahhhhh.