It’s been hard to begin this blog entry. Usually, I stew a bit while looking at the beautiful scenery around me while pondering the recent chapter of our adventure. But the last few weeks, although full, have been disjointed. And of course there is the melancholy of reaching the end of our great summer adventure. So it hasn’t come to me as easily.

After our last blog we moored in Pender Harbour and boarded our seaplane to fly back too Seattle for our 2nd Annual Family Business Assembly.

Travel by seaplane is always awesome and it was truly wonderful to be back in Seattle to see the Grandkids especially. Our Family Assembly Meeting was a lot of work, but a big success. We learned, played and grew together with the goal of nurturing and educating future generations.

Two weeks after flying home we were on the seaplane once again to meet up with our friends Carrie and Troy Shaw for our final excursion this year back into Princess Louisa Inlet. Carrie and Troy drove to Egmont and we left the Back Eddy Resort to cruise up Jervis Inlet to PLI.

Despite an iffy weather forecast the weather turned quite lovely. We shared 3 nights and 3 days in our favorite place by far in the Salish Sea. PLI feels like our true summer home. We walked trails, kayaked, paddle boarded, played scrabble, floated and even watched a movie. The last night the skies cleared and we enjoyed some fun star gazing complete with shooting stars.

Carrie and Troy headed home by water taxi from nearby Malibu Young Life Camp after taking a fun tour and enjoying lunch with Jim Troyer, Carrie’s old boss at the WA Legislature.

The barometer had been falling steadily for the 3 days before Carrie & Troy left and the clouds finally rolled in followed by a heavy evening rain. This is the first time we have been in PLI in late August. With most of the winter snow melted, the waterfalls were as small as we’ve ever seen them, the rainforest paths were bone dry and the trees seemed to be holding their breaths waiting for rain. So we welcomed the rain. The sounds of the rain and the waterfalls rebuilding echoed throughout the inlet and we woke to abundant waterfalls followed by mid-day clearing. Perfect!

Our final days in our favorite spot were spent doing what we love, kayaking, floating, reading and generally enjoying each other and the beauty around us.

But all good things come to an end especially as the summer begins to fade and I needed to get back to Pender Harbour for another seaplane ride home. Unfortunately, my sister Rachel had to have her second back surgery in 3 months and I wanted to be there to help her threw it. So we docked once again in Pender Harbour and I flew home while the Captain stayed with the True Love.

Rachel’s surgery went well, but it seems like it will be a slow recovery. Getting older can be a challenge sometimes, but as we all know it beats the alternative. Thanks to some family help from Brittany, Chad’s girlfriend and soon-to-be nurse, I was able to fly back to the True Love after only 3 days. Jasmine helped Rachel get home Monday from the hospital and Rachel is now in the good hands of Hannah, Rachel’s oldest daughter, who flew in from Colorado.

After arriving back on the True Love on Sunday, the Captain and I were both ready to leave the dock and we ventured to Anderson Bay, a little bay about an hour’s cruise from Pender Harbour, on the south tip of Texada Island. Anderson Bay is a little gem of an anchorage in a northwest wind (although it is completely exposed to a SE wind). I scavanaged up dinner from what was left in the fridge and we watched an old Star Trek movie before going up to the top deck to watch the stars come out.

Until our recent time in Princess Louisa the star watching this summer has been mostly blocked by clouds. But by the end of our trip we’ve had good weather for watching the last days of the Perseid meteor showers as well as watching the Summer Triangle (Vega, Deneb and Altair) appear in the Milky Way. We’ve seen several big shooting stars and lots of satellites.

On Monday and Tuesday, we cruised south, anchoring first at Montague Harbour and then Bedwell Harbour. The stars both nights were truly spectacular. And the views allowed us to see Saturn and Jupiter very clearly (including two of Jupiter’s moons with our binoculars). Because it was close to the horizon in the southern sky, Antares (in Scorpio) twinkled red, blue and green.

Last night in Bedwell Harbour was our last night in Canada. As I write this blog we are back in the USA, anchored at Sucia Island (in the northern San Juan Islands).

The sand stone formations around Sucia Island are very interesting. And Jim remembered that his Dad, long ago, found a dinosaur bone exposed here, lodged in one of the sandstone cliffs.

Tomorrow, we will anchor near Friday Harbor so we can prepare and repovision the The True Love for our final guests: Jasmine, David, James and Robert. The Captain and I love having the grandchildren (and their parents) on board and we truly look forward to sharing our final days with them. They are taking the Victoria Clipper fast catamaran to Friday Harbor where we will scoop them up before heading to Port Townsend for a couple of nights before cruising back to Seattle on Sunday, September 1st.

I’m planning to do a final “best of” blog after we get home. Thanks for sharing the journey with us!

We were treated to our best sunset of the summer last night!

The Captain and the First Mate of the True Love.

“They slipped briskly into an intimacy from which they never recovered.” F. Scott Fitzgerald