Dear friends
Almost Christmas already, and we have been looking back at the promise we made in August to try to be more prompt with our next newsletter and at our intention to be briefer! Promptness has failed, but this time we hope brevity will win the day!
We left Whitehorse on 23 August for the long haul back to Vancouver. Our 2300 mile route took us to the southern end of the Alaska Highway at Dawson Creek in British Columbia, then on to Alberta and the Rocky Mountain National Parks of Jasper and Banff. Spectacular country with some wonderful walks, though the roads and campsites felt crowded after our time in the empty spaces of Alaska and the Yukon! The dryness of the summer in British Columbia had taken its toll on the forests, and numerous fires were still burning out of control, creating a haze throughout the Rockies and reducing visibility in some areas to far below normal. Much of the time, we could only make out the very closest of the peaks - though there were occasions when the haze lifted and then we were able to see for ourselves the incredible splendour that surrounded us.
We arrived back in Vancouver on 10 September, where Tony (who looked after Harvey for us last winter) again provided us with a great welcome and a comfortable base from which to start our next project - the search for our new boat. We had decided that the replacement for Island Way should be another Island Packet 40, and the Internet revealed about twenty available at various points around the USA. We were keen to start again from the West Coast, and so decided to drive to California to follow up the two IP40s for sale in San Francisco. After a week's relative inactivity, Harvey the RV swung into action again. Three days and nearly a thousand miles later we were in San Francisco, regretting that we had not allowed ourselves more time to explore the wild and beautiful route which we took down the Pacific coast of Oregon and California. However, within a couple of days the negotiating process had started on the boat which was to become our new home. Before finally deciding on Songline, we flew back to England for a few days and then to Washington, to look at six more IP40s for sale in the Chesapeake Bay area, all of which helped to confirm our San Francisco choice. A rather unexpected finding of the pre-purchase survey on 14 October was the existence of osmotic blisters in the rudder. This necessitated removal of the rudder and its return to the Island Packet factory in Florida for rebuilding. The whole process took several weeks, and it was late November before the rudder was back in California and ready for re-installation. In the meantime, we returned to England for a month to catch up on visits to family and friends, returning to San Francisco in good time to take delivery of Songline on 25 November.
We are thrilled to bits with our new boat. Songline is identical in most respects to Island Way, though three years younger - built in 1997 - and in virtually new condition. Her 200 engine hours reflect the fact that she has never been far from home and both we and her previous owners are excited that she will now extend her range to more distant shores. Steve and Janet wanted to transfer her existing name to their next boat, so we were left to choose a new name and decided on Songline. Songlines are the invisible paths by which the Australian Aborigines navigate their way across the empty spaces of their continent. We will be using GPS to create our invisible paths, but since we share the Aborigines' nomadic lifestyle and their love for the earth we decided to use their concept for our own travels.
As in the North West, we have had lots of help and hospitality from friends we have made while cruising. Thanksgiving Day this year was on 27 November and Steve and Lovisa, whom we had met in Panama two years ago, invited us to spend it with them. With more than thirty other guests, we found ourselves playing soccer on the 26th and then on Thanksgiving Day itself spending 5 hours running, walking and kayaking in the hills near Steve and Lovisa's beach house on a treasure hunt for elusive clues. SUCH fun, and a wonderful prelude to one of the most protracted and delicious meals we have ever eaten!
Moving aboard Songline was put on hold until the end of the Thanksgiving Day weekend, when we started to get to grips with the multitude of things which need doing to turn her into a live-aboard cruising boat. Kim and Sandi of Kewaydin (another IP40), whom we had last seen in the Bahamas in 2000, have been in San Francisco for several months helping Kim's Mum who had had a bad fall. With their own boat far away in the Virgin Islands they were keen to be back on the water and they have made several visits and been an invaluable source of advice and assistance. Three weeks after Thanksgiving we now have several installation projects under way and a guest cabin full of boxes and bags all waiting to find their right stowages. The whole process, as is usually the case with boats, is taking much longer than anticipated and our hopes of Christmas in Mexico have been replaced with plans for a mid to late January departure from San Francisco. We have already sampled some of the bad weather that this part of California can dish out during the winter, and expect to make the voyage at least as far as Los Angeles in easy stages, aiming to avoid the storm systems as they pass through. South of Los Angeles the weather should be kinder and, we hope, warmer! We are very much looking forward to being back in the sun and are planning to spend the first part of the summer exploring the Sea of Cortez and getting our tans back!
And what of Harvey the RV? He continues to perform sterling service as our means of transport around Alameda, though we try not to venture too far afield into the traffic jungle of San Francisco's high-speed freeways. We are hoping that we shall be able to sell him before we sail south, though a large part of us is very reluctant to part with him at all. If we can't find a buyer, we may take him to the dry climate of South-East California or Arizona to store him in an RV park for possible future use.
So for us, it's going to be Christmas and New Year afloat, though still tied to the dock at the marina in Alameda.
We hope that you are all well and will have a wonderful Christmas and we wish you all that you would wish for yourselves in the New Year.
With love and best wishes
John and Barbara