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| September 2006 |
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40,000 Miles Sailed and 2,300 To Go
Altair set sail from Hawaii August 1, on the last leg of a six year voyage around the world. The Cal 35 with Paul Baker and Suzette Connolly on board hopes to be back in Seattle by the end of August. We wrote this letter enroute and sent it via Snailmail. As we tick off the miles toward the Straits of Juan de Fuca, we are excited to soon see all our friends and family again, but sad to give up this lifestyle that we have come to love. It is said that cruising is doing boat projects in exotic places but in all truth that is not as dull as it sounds. In between those boat repairs we"ve been swimming with whales, penguins, sharks and turtles. We have peered through the hide at wild rhinos and lions just a few feet away, walked amongst a troop of baboons and hugged a giant leather back turtle as she dropped her eggs in the sand. The ocean passages have been good to us, the gale force winds that we encountered we can count on one hand. The weather forecasting is so good now days that we were prepared by the time the storms were upon us, but the power of the wind and sea is frightening to behold and something we will never take for granted. The wind was aft of the beam most of the way and sometimes uncomfortable but the breathtaking land falls like Fatu Hiva in the Marquesas, Sidney Harbor and Cape Town soon make you forget the long days at sea. The true magic of our world tour has been the people we"ve met and the friendships we will forever cherish. The people who shared their homes, their culture and unassuming friendship with us have left us feeling very good about the world. Those that we met who had visited the USA had nothing but good things to say about America and the friendly people they had met there also. Though we have seen many beautiful places, the Pacific Northwest is still very high on the list. We laughed at ourselves as we sat at the Bora Bora Yacht Club with some other Northwest cruisers telling stories of Duck Dodges and sailing on Puget Sound. We hope that many of our friends that we made around the world will come visit us in Seattle so we can repay the hospitality shown in their homes. We look forward to seeing the familiar sight of the Seattle skyline in a few weeks time and the hugs from so many of our friends and family. Paul Baker And Suzette Connolly Altair, Cal 35 Latitude 37 49 North Longitude 160 14 West Now that you"ve tantalized us with a few hints of your many adventures, we"ll look forward to hearing more on your return. Welcome back, the Duck Dodge and Puget Sound are waiting. 
72° North!
I work as a Remote Site Medic for Remote Medical International, based in West Seattle. I am currently providing medical support for The National Science Foundation"s research operations at their 10,500 feet Summit Camp (no wonder I can"t breathe), in the middle of the Greenland Ice Sheet. I hearby donate the above copy, and attached digital images to 48° North, and/or Boundless Enterprises, Inc., to publish, alter, edit, resize, print or destroy as they wish. Nick Rathbone (on the ice ‘til Aug. 22) Seattle, WA 98107 S/V Baloo, C&C Landfall 38 Shilshole Bay Marina That's Nick Rathbone, usually of K-Dock at Shilshole, chilling out on the Greenland Ice Cap with the July issue from two months ago…it"s summer! Thanks for the great shot. There should be some warmth left for you when you get home. Actually, it"s probably even warmer here in November. CNG Locations in BC I was looking for CNG distributors in BC on my last trip up north and I was having some difficulty. So I looked it up and thought I"d send it your way so that you might publish it for the other sailors that use CNG. BTW--I also saw where a reader from Vancouver BC was wanting this information. http://www.suremarine.com/cancng.htm Western Canada CNG Distributors Vancouver Island Sidney All Bay Marine (250) 656-0153 Maple Bay Maple Bay Marina (250) 746-8482 Nanaimo Anchorage Marine (250) 754-5585 Comox Desolation Sound Yacht Charter (250) 339-7222 Port Hardy Quarterdeck Marine (250) 949-6551 Sunshine Coast Gibsons Gibsons Marina (604) 886-8686 Garden Bay John Henry"s Marina (604) 883-2253 Lund Lund Water Taxi (604) 483-3979 Lower Mainland Port Moody Inlet Marine (604) 936-4602 Vancouver False Creek Esso (604) 733-6731 Vancouver River Marine (604) 324-9454 West Vancouver Fisherman"s Cove (604) 921-7333 Ladner B.C. Massey"s Marine Supply (604) 946-4488 Best Regards, Joe Sulham Camano Island, WA 98282 Thanks to Sure Marine for putting up all that information on their website. Sure Marine Service Inc. 5320 28th Avenue NW, Seattle, Washington 98107 800-562-7797, 206-784-9903, Fax: 206-784-0506 www.suremarine.com Swap Meet SEPT 9 Details I was just telling a friend about the swap meet on September 2nd (WRONG DATE!), so when I went to the website to find out where, all I saw was the information for the last one you did in April. Bee Sea n'ya, Bruce Hinds Northwest Seabee Club Sorry Bruce. Site is updated, details are the same, but the correct date is September 9! Very Displeased with I-68 I"m writing to express my displeasure with the I-68 program and our Customs and Border Protection people. This summer, my wife and I are cruising the beautiful Northwest and went up into Desolation Sound. We stopped at Port Angeles in late June on our way from the Walla Walla Yacht Club and applied for and were granted I-68 clearances. It was a worry free process as I expected it to be since I held a Top Secret clearance for more than 30 years. We headed north and checked into Canadian Customs at Tsehum Harbor, again without any problems at all. We continued north and visited some beautiful country and met lots of extremely nice people. When we returned to the US late July we crossed Boundary Pass and anchored in Prevost Harbor on Stuart Island. I got our cell phone out to check in with Customs but we had no cell coverage. Being the law abiding man I am, I climbed our mast and with the extra altitude, I could get the cell phone to work. So here I am, sitting on the spreaders, holding on with one hand, the cell phone in the other, answering a multitude of questions when the man from Customs told me I had to go into Roche Harbor and check in to be searched. So I did, unhappy as you can imagine. When I arrived I learned that I was required to check in because I had two chicken eggs from Canada. Two eggs! I later found out that boiled eggs are OK so why didn"t Customs just tell me to boil them! I asked the Customs people in Roche Harbor when the rules had changed since my 2006 Waggoners says eggs are OK, but chickens could be problem. They didn"t know. Sure seems like a waste of valuable manpower to require a search over two eggs, especially since I had gone to the trouble and expense to get the I-68 clearance for my wife and I. I won't be wasting time and money over I-68 clearances next summer when we go into Canada again! Dwayne Speer SV Panacea Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Neither, they couldn"t get across the border. Bad joke, in fact abominable, but unfortunately I"ve heard stories like this before, only with potatos. It all sounds good on paper and has worked for many people but it seems subject to many interpretations and you wind up just checking in anyway. If we"ve any doubt the fish usually get a free meal. Hopefully customs was just a glitch in what otherwise sounds like a very pleasant vacation. Clark Turner, One of the Good Guys Sadly, we lost an avid sailor and good friend when Clark Turner passed away last week. Clark was a member of Quartermaster Y. C. and an avid sailor. Those who raced against his Newport 27, Giftig or his Aphrodite 101, Blue Wing, knew him as a good friend of the sport and a keen competitor. Clark was one of the good guys. He'll be sorely missed. Scott Rohrer I had the chance to sail on Blue Wing a couple of times and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Smooth sailing Clark. Recognizing Harwar's Win at Swiftsure Seems you were just a little hasty in your Swiftsure results. Your results, as published, listed HARWAR as DSF. This was Swiftsure"s early results. Since then they have been corrected putting us first in our division as you will note in the attached. We raced hard, made some good decisions and had a great race - and we did it without any of the known “rock stars”. Gee, it would be nice to get the recognition we deserve! Fred Butler, Speaking for the entire crew aboard HARWAR. Congratulations to Fred and the entire crew of Harwar. We were working with what we thought were final results which were sent down to us from Royal Vic. They were marked preliminaries but we were told they were finals. Must have been the final preliminaries. Sorry for the exclusion and again, nice sailing. Looking for Wooden Cutter, Heather I'm trying to find a boat. My father owned this wooden cutter, he sold it to a guy, and the last I knew it was moored at Shilshole Bay. I do not know the designer, but it was a full keel, at that time she was called Heather. Bob Lennon svmermaid101@yahoo.com
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