7/11/2006

Sailed in winds averaging 18 knots today which is just about perfect. At one point during the day I looked down at the GPS and noticed something peculiar. It reported our heading as being exactly opposite of the way I thought we were heading. I asked Dave what island he thought our boat was pointing towards. His answer didn’t agree with the GPS. “That’s weird,” we thought. Our knot meter reports movement, our GPS reports progress over ground, but the heading is 180 degrees off. Just as we were calling for a third opinion, we realized what was wrong. We were actually sailing backwards. The current was so strong that, although we were making progress over the water, and progress over land, the direction over land was backwards. I fired up the engines and, sure enough, our GPS heading matched up with our visual. The crew got a big kick out of that at my expense.

We had a slip at Friday Harbor again this year. It was a tight spot again but Captain Joe whipped it in there like a pro.

Upon arrival some of the crew of the Adventuress helped us out by taking a few Anais crew photos.

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After that it was hot showers, a little shopping, and then some dinner and drinks at the Front Street Ale House. Great microbrews and delicious pizza. The jalapeno beer battered fish and chips also looked pretty awesome.

The next morning while Captain Joe spent some time looking at boats Dave and I went for a 2-3 mile hike in a light drizzle, through the residential area up past the fairgrounds to the other side of the peninsula on which Friday Harbor sits.

On to Day 6.