September 4 -- Postlude

As we were planning our trip last spring, we felt badly that we would miss summer at home. As it turns out, we came home to summer after missing it on our travels. Now that we are here, we are in no hurry to move back into the house. The transition will be gradual, and soon enough we will be at home looking for something still on the boat, or vice versa. As long as the weather stays good, we will stay close to the water.

As we look back over the past three months and 2,000 miles, we have a sense of accomplishment and a new understanding of the northwest coast of this continent. Words that come to mind to describe the landscape: vast, imposing, empty, powerful, majestic, daunting; to describe the people of this sparsely populated coast: adventuresome, brave, tough, hard-working, friendly; to describe the water of the Inside Passage: dark, predictable, challenging but do-able; the weather: cold (no surprise), wet (disappointing), spectacular (occasionally).

We met many very nice people along the way and hope we can continue to be in contact with some of them. Many of them do the trip to Alaska every year. Once is enough for us—having “been there, done that”, we would stay south of Cape Caution on future sailing adventures. While faraway destinations have their appeal, home is better. We can see mountains and wilderness from our marina on Indian Arm. Within an hour’s sail north “up the Arm” we have majestic waterfalls and bears on the beach, or if we motor an hour west we can dock and walk in sophisticated downtown Vancouver.

Our next boating challenge will be one of separation, as the time looms ahead when we have to sell our old friend Skylark II, and become full-time landlubbers. As we look over our logs, photos, and the journals we have posted, we realize that we have a rich treasure chest of boating memories. Thanks for sharing the trip.