Day 4

            Though it started innocently enough, May 31 turned out to be a long day. A very long day. And not just a long day, but also a boring one.(probably one of the reasons it was so long) We woke up at the now usual hour of 0500 AM, and first thing left Blaine and motored 2 miles to White Rock, Canada to check in. At least the checking in went quickly. In fact, checking in and fuel consumption were probably the only things moving quickly all day. After being tied up to the customs dock for ten minuets and checking in over the phone, without seeing anyone but some fishermen who helped us tie up, we left and actually went back into US waters for a few miles in order to get out of Boundary bay and on our way to Plumper Cove, 47 nautical miles north.

            There was no wind at the start.

            There continued to be no wind three hours later.

            We avoided some shipping and tugs near Vancouver: Still no wind.

            Almost halfway to Plumper we had used up three of our seven gallons of gasoline and began to get concerned if we were going to make it, but luckily the little current there was pushed us northward all day. No wind.

            At the three quarters mark the total lack of anything at all resembling wind persisted.

            At around 1730, after twelve hours of nonstop motoring at four knots, with a maximum windspeed (headwind of course) of under 4 knots over a sea that could have been made of glass, we crossed the shoal channel between Keats Island and the mainland, then half an hour later silenced the engine after far, far too long at one of the public mooring balls off Plumper Cove marine park.

Raising the courtesy flag crossing the border

Birds on a log - No wind