Originally published: 8/21/2005; 3:00:36 PM

7/29/2005, San Juan Islands–The flight was uneventful–it left on time and provided an awesome view of “the three sisters”, Mt. St. Helens, and Mt. Rainier. On first glimpsing Puget Sound, my heart jumped at the thought of spending a week on a cruising catamaran, the Anais, with 7 friends and family members. Baggage claim was slow but at least my bag showed up and we were en route to Bellingham soon enough.

San Juan Sailing is on Squalicum Bay in Bellingham, Washington. Friday night we all made a grand entrance at the Skipper’s Meeting. Each of us had our Anais 2005 t-shirts on which caused quite a stir. SJS put on a modest–but delicious!–barbeque. [The BBQ is a new Friday night tradition for SJS]. We had a couple of brats and then walked among the boats at the marina. We have the largest catamaran currently in the marina. There is one larger [the Ninja] but it is on a two-week charter to Desolation Bay. [It was great to be on the receiving end of envious glances! We received many complements on “our” boat.]

After dinner talk turned to bathroom details, as it often does on these adventures. On Mt. Rainier, the issue was one of privacy while on this trip, the technology and technique are the subjects of interest. No one wants to be the one to clog the head and then have to be the one to clean it out.

After the walk we stowed our gear. Surprisingly, there was ample room for all gear to be unpacked and stowed. Ken’s my bunkmate so that helped because he’s not with us the full week. Brian and Ken are another story–they brought everything that wasn’t nailed down. After stowing the gear we hung out on the tram, getting caught up after many years apart.

Jeff at the helm of Anais

The author at the helm of Anais

On to San Juan Islands 7/30/05 — Squalicum Bay to Matia Island