This month James finally became a US citizen, after a nearly three-year delay. We’d both applied in late 2005 and were interviewed in early 2006. I was approved in a couple of months and became a citizen in the summer of 2006. James, however, went into application limbo pending an FBI name check, but eventually was approved as part of a class-action lawsuit.

Our overriding interest in citizenship was the ability to vote, but citizenship actually is required for a number of things in the nautical world. Some boat loans and insurance policies require that a vessel be documented, and some countries allow entry by boat only on documented vessels. Non-citizens, however, cannot document a vessel, nor pilot a documented vessel out of the country. Only citizens are eligible for USCG licenses other than the OUPV (or “6-pack”). And twice we’ve missed opportunities to tour a US navy nuclear submarine because we weren’t citizens.

The Lake Union Boats Afloat Show seminar schedule has just been posted. We’ll be presenting some of our favorite destinations between Victoria and Bella Bella, along with and tips and techniques for improved boating safety and comfort, at 11am on Saturday September 13^th. One area we’ll highlight is the Dodwell Group, our name for the group of island off the southern tip of Campbell Island in Queen Charlotte Sound. The Dodwell Group has several good anchorages and is excellent dinghy territory.

We use vacuum sealing on board for a variety of purposes: extending foodstuff life, protecting valuable mechanical parts from moisture damage, reducing package size and isolating smelly or messy garbage. In the past, we’ve always used 8-inch and 11-inch continuous roll bags. These work well for most applications, but not so well for breads. It’s difficult to seal them properly without crushing. Ideally we’d freeze breads, but our freezer has no space after we’ve loaded it with meats for longer trips.

This year we bought four 6-quart vacuum seal canisters. The canisters are 11 inches tall with an 8.5-inch diameter, the biggest FoodSaver sells. At $25 each, the canisters aren’t cheap, but they look and feel solid, and are attractive enough to sit on a counter if we had the space. We filled the canisters with croissants, pita bread, outdoor buns and small loafs. Opening and resealing the canisters to periodically remove items over the course of several weeks was simple and efficient using the attachment that came with our sealer.

Everything lasted at least 3 times beyond their freshness date. The croissants and outdoor buns lasted particularly well—3 weeks instead of the best-before date of about 4 to 5 days. Moisture seemed to be the main life-reducer rather than staleness. The salty crust on one bread particularly attracted moisture. Next time we might try including a moisture-absorber such as Ever Fresh.

Overall we were pleased with the canisters and likely will buy some different sizes for storing dry goods and perhaps for marinating. We also liked the fact the canisters are reusable, more so than the bags, so are more environmentally-friendly.

The vast majority of time, close quarters maneuvering at low speed is fine. But strong current or big wind gusts can greatly reduce the margin for error. We recently saw an example of exactly that at Eagle Island, where strong currents wrap around the island. A particularly large exchange that weekend made for especially swift currents.

The people on one pleasure craft had just finished raising anchor. As they cleaned off the tackle, the current carried their boat towards another moored to a buoy. As the boats closed, someone on the moored boat became concerned and walked up to their bow. Those on the drifting boat moved their vessel forward slightly so that they drifted closely past the moored boat. But their dinghy passed on the other side and hooked on the buoy.

Held by the buoy, the drifting boat now spun towards the moored boat. The person on the moored boat jumped into the dinghy to try to free it and prevent damage to his vessel.

Soon after, the painter snapped from the strain. The dinghy rocked violently and the person aboard was thrown in the water. Fortunately, they appeared unhurt and were able to make it to their stern and climb aboard at the swim platform.

Big clouds of diesel smoke came from the drifting boat as the crew throttled up to turn and retrieve their lost tender.

When things go wrong, either on our boat or another, we try to learn what we can from it in the hopes of avoiding a similar incident. We thought about what we would do if our boat were in the same situation as the moored boat. The first step would be to get our engine started to give us maneuverability. Then we could release the line to the buoy and hopefully get away. Were we at anchor, with the engines running we still would have a reasonable amount of leeway to move the boat around and perhaps even let out more rode. Slipping the anchor quickly might be difficult because our first 200 feet of our rode is all chain. Was our boat the one drifting, we’d want to get well away at the first sign of trouble. Barring that, we’d release the tender if it hooked.

We arrived back from nearly 3 weeks exploring the Outside Passage.  And, similar to our exploring in Queen Charlotte Sound, we found a wonderfully complex shoreline with literally thousands of anchorages.  Some were quite challenging and most were incredibly beautiful.  For example, the entrance to Port Stephens is a bit of an eye opener at low water.  We chose to enter at high water J.

Particularly notable was Cann Inlet, where we anchored in front of three waterfalls. 

The one consistent factor is there simply was no boat traffic.  During the entire time we were in the area, we rarely saw another boat and never shared an anchorage.  The crabbing was good, the exploring was fun, the hiking was amazing, and we’ll certainly be back.

We’ll post more when we get the time. Here’s the overall trip summary:

·         1,309.5 miles traveled

·         204 total engine hours

·         Fuel consumption over trip: 966 gallons of fuel @ $5,566

o   Least expensive: $5.06/gallon (Campbell River)

o   Most expensive: $6.84/gallon

o   Average cost: $5.76/gallon

o   Average MPG: 1.36 MPG

o   Average GPH: 4.74 gallons/hour.

·         Fuel consumption running north (2100 to 2200 RPM):

o   33.4 hours

o   359.4 Miles on 511 gallons

o   0.70 MPG

o   15.3 gallons/hour

·         Fuel consumption while in Outside Passage (1050 to 1100 RPM):

o   88.9 hours

o   404.5 miles on 192.28 gallons

o   2.1 MPG

o   2.16 gallons/hour

·         2,232 pictures

jrh@mvdirona.com, http://mvdirona.com/