Hi everyone---I don't know why I never had time to update our blog through the end of our cruising time last year, but you know how it is when you're retired, you just don't have much time anymore.

We departed Alaska on August 1st arriving in Prince Rupert, British Columbia, where we cleared Canadian customs. After departing P.R. we traveled south through the "inside passage". This is usually very calm water, and an easy trip. It is quite remote so we anchor every night until we got back into population around a week later. Once we did the open ocean passage around Cape Caution, always a potential dangerous and rough area, we entered into Southern British Columbia where there are actual population centers. We spent a week or so in our favorite area the Broughton Islands. We then went to Vancouver. There we spent several days just enjoying this fabulous city. If you haven't ever been there, this is a must trip.

Upon entering U.S. waters we went to Bellingham where we stayed three days while we had some warranty work done on our engines. We made the decision to not leave the boat wintered over in the North West like we usually do, but instead decided to bring Mairead to San Diego. We had made the trip down the west coast once before so we were familiar with the trip.

This is all open ocean travel unlike the inside passage. Trip planning around the weather forecast is critical. We stopped each day, but unlike the previous months where we would travel no more than 4-6 hours, it was not uncommon to make 12-14 hour runs due to the long distance between safe harbors. With minor exception, all the harbors on the west coast are river outflow areas. If the wind and sea condition is not right, entering these harbors can be EXTREMELY dangerous due to the outflowing current colliding with the incoming wind and waves. The idea is to arrive when the tide condition is rising, which has a tendancy to push the river back and therefor reduces the wave action. There have been a number of boats lost at all these locations and many lives lost too. The Columbia River, separating Washington from Oregon is known as the "graveyard of the pacific". The Coast Guard uses this entrance for training their people. Anyway, by carefully planning and watching the weather we had no problems at any of the locations. We stopped at Grey's Harbor, Wa., Tillamook, Or., Newport, Or., Coos Bay, Or., Crescent City, Ca., Eureka, Ca., Monterey, Ca., San Luis Harbor, Ca., Santa Barbara, Ca., Oxnard, Ca., Marina Del Re, Ca., Dana Point, Ca. and finally San Diego. A friend of ours joined us on part of the trip to help out, so when he was with us we did one LONG non stop leg, Eureka to Monterey, 288 miles, and 332 hours, an overnight non stop trip.

Here are some details regarding our cruising for 2010.

Total Miles Traveled 3,577
Engine Hours 456
Average Speed 7.8 knots
Gallons of Diesel 2,957
$ of Diesel 9,576
Price per Gallon $3.23

We have spent the winter months having lots of work done on the boat. A big upgrade to our electrical system, varnishing, painting and waxing the exterior, varnishing and painting the interior, bottom paint, stabilizer repair and on and on.

The next post I'll tell you about our plans for 2011.

Chuck and Margaret