Gratitude

Quijote and crew are home. We Stopped at Shilshole on our way by and refilled the fuel tanks, then transited the locks and put her in her slip sometime around 2:30.

When we arrived Dave, the owner of Molly and Will, Quijote crew for leg two, were there to greet us and welcome us home. Thanks guys.

I have to say, going through the locks on a Sunday is for crazy people and sadists. Everybody wants to go through on Sunday it seems.

In addition to the problem of too many boats trying to funnel through the locks, there are two types of boaters: those who are willing to wait their turn and those who aren't. And even for those willing to wait in the queue, it's really difficult to keep track of who's in front of whom because everyone mills around waiting in a pack.

Then suddenly the lock light turns green and it's pandemonium. Some people charge in and some people hang back because they know they're not supposed to be first.

Add to that the confusion that sailboats can't go under the railroad bridge. We're forced to hang back until the bridge opens.

When we arrived there was the usual Sunday queue/bunch of boats and the bridge was down. We gave the audible signal to ask the bridge operator to open the bridge (one long, one short blast of the air horn). The bridge operator ignored us. Then two long, slow trains rumbled by. We waited. While we were waiting, boats were streaming past us, all headed into the waiting area for the locks.

When the second train was finally through the bridge was raised. We had two choices: pull in behind all the boats that just passed us or charge to the front of the queue. If we waited behind the other boats the bridge might close again and we wouldn't be through it. I said screw it and we charged under the bridge and to the front of the line. The bridge closed behind me.

At that moment the light turned green for the large lock. I could hardly believe our luck, but proceeding into the lock in front of everybody would've been cutting off a lot of boats that deserved to be in there before we did. Pulling aside would be allowing a lot of boats in front of us that didn't deserve to be.

I hesitated for a moment and then charged in.

The loudspeaker suddenly came to life. Understandably they wanted bigger boats in first and asked us to let them by. Halfway into the lock we pulled aside. More waiting. I've never seen them try to organize the boats by size before, but it makes efficiency sense.

We were happy to comply. It's much easier to raft up to a bigger boat than to the wall of the lock.

Tying up to the wall requires managing lines while the water level changes. Rafting up to a bigger boat requires no effort. Sometime is it pays to be the little guy, Although we weren't the littlest. We rafted up to a bigger boat, a smaller boat rafted up to us, an even smaller rafted up to them. Everybody is little to somebody.

So we're home and the trip was a success. I'm so happy with the way everything worked out. I'm really glad I did this in September. It was a nice difference to experience. It was also nice to revisit some of the same places and see all the new and forgotten details.

The massive mooring balls and windswept nature of Sea Otter Cove, the lush forest path to the hot springs, now a boardwalk. Being stern tied in pocket coves, going a week without seeing another boat. The design, reliability, and efficiency of Quijote.

And the crew. They were so helpful at every turn; constantly anticipating our collective needs and stepping forward to make things happen. Honestly I feel such gratitude. Mick, Yoshi, Bek, Will, Doug, and Diana. Thank you all. The trip could not have happened without each of you.

So another good trip comes to an end. Until next year.