May 18th - Douglas Bay, Forward Harbour

The morning started out quite pleasant. We visited with the other boaters on the dock. The sail boaters are a group of three couples each in their own boat travelling together to Alaska. The power boat is a live-aboard couple also working their way to Alaska for the season. Everyone was from the Puget Sound area.

One of the "how-to" books we read in preparation for our trip talked about how the ages of the cruisers tend to creep up the further north you get. Of those tied to the dock last night, we were the youngest couple. Besides every boat being run by a couple, there were many pets aboard. Marcia, Maggie, Annie & I just fit right in.

After carefully checking the current tables, we concluded that our best bet for getting past the next set of narrows, Green Point Rapids and Whirlpool Rapids was to hit Green Point on the slack before the flood and Whirlpool on the slack before the ebb. Because of the relatively short distance between the two narrows, though, that meant we had to kill nearly four hours between the two.

Not a problem, though. We pulled into a little cove just off from Whirlpool, dropped the anchor and waited. The time was productively spent by Marcia baking a loaf of bread she had started preparing the evening before. Marcia is using a recipe that we got from the NY Times that produces excellent crusty bread with very little kneading. She cooked it in the toaster oven we brought along.  The genset provided the large amount of AC power needed during the baking.

Besides the bread, Marcia cooked up a batch of bean soup in the pressure cooker. There you go, dinner prepared by 3 PM.

While the day started nicely, the rain began while we waited for slack.  As we sit at anchor in Douglas Bay (May 18), light showers continue to roll through. The weather forecast, and more importantly, the wind forecast are making us think that tomorrow may be a layover day.