Oak Harbor to Bellingham

We arrived in Oak Harbor, WA on Whidbey Island June 10 to finish readying Teal for her 2006 cruise. We spent the week in a motel and eating out, while prepping, sanding, painting the topsides and bottom of the boat.

(for better viewing click photos)

June 16 she went into the water.

We spent the weekend cleaning inside the boat and Monday June 18 was our first night of sleeping onboard. Nice feeling to be on the water and living aboard again for the summer.

June 19,20,21, George worked on the tender (AKA TT/Teal) and we hauled her in a dock cart to the water and launched her.

June 23 – installed Solar Panel… working great! June 24 finished putting on graphics, ie, the name and the registration number in vinyl lettering, and the stripes down each side. She really looks great!

June 25 – George aboard Teal departed Oak Harbor at 9am for the 40-mile trip to Bellingham. JoAnne boarded her Honda and headed for the Dollar Store in Oak Harbor for small item boat provisions, and onto Bellingham, checked Post Office for mail, finished shopping at Bellis Fair and greeted the skipper at 5:15 pm at Squalicum Harbor Guest Dock.

(click to open large chart in new window)
Teal went from Skagit Bay into Padilla Bay via the Swinomish Channel through the little tourist town of La Conner, then on to Bellingham. I ran into a foul current, running on average 1-1/2 knots and as much as 3 knots, all the way through Skagit Bay, Swinomish Channel and into Padilla Bay before Teal found favorable currents. Fortunately, Teal made good enough time the rest of the way to log just eight hours for the forty-mile trip.

Cruising through the Swinomish Channel is reminiscent of cruising through some of the sloughs of the Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta.

After finishing our provisioning of Teals stores here in Bellingham we head north through the San Juan Islands into Canada.

Teal Not Ready Yet.

Teal is sitting on blocks awaiting her final coat of paint. Besides filling and fairing the hull to deck joint, and repainting the bottom, we are painting the topsides. We started all this stuff a couple of months ago but have been repeatedly delayed by foul weather. This last week we were able to finish sanding both topsides and bottom, and were all set to paint when weather set in and sent us home again. We will get things squared away here at home so on the next weather window we will be able finish the paint work and get Teal back in the water. We should be underway on our cruise to the north coast of B.C. by mid-June.