2010 - Facing Future

[Orvil Newton]

January 7th 2010, Shilshole Bay: Facing Future

I hope everyone had a satisfying and renewing solstice and holiday season. Leaving political correctness aside for moment; as Christians and Americans, we celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas with Laura's family in the traditional ways. On New Year's eve Laura and I had dinner with friends and retired early. We were sound asleep by 10:30, grateful that we are not in Honolulu where fireworks are the traditional way to bring in the new year.

We don't do New Year resolutions but we do set goals and make plans. For instance: We will leave the Pacific Northwest, wind and sea permitting, on about May 1st. We will spend next winter South of latitude 30.

Looking forward to 2010 I have been going over charts and using Google Earth to plan our next major voyage. We intend to sail out the Straight of Juan de Fuca, offshore and Northwest, around the outside of Vancouver Island, to Southeast Alaska; our first destination - Sitka. We want to explore the southern part of the 49th state for a month or six weeks before we attend the 10th annual Pacific Northwest VEGAtarian Rendezvous to be held at Port Browning, North Pender Island, BC. The Rendezvous will be July 24th.

After the Rendezvous we will be leaving the Pacific Northwest for lower latitudes. Our plans from that point forward are less specific. I have long wanted to visit Monterey Bay, having lived in Monterey before moving to Hawaii in the mid-nineteen seventies. Laura's Mom is now in San Diego and I have family and many friends in Southern California so a stop there is mandatory. We have discussed going back to Hawaii for a few months so we can take the time to properly cruise the Sandwich Islands.

18th and 19th century explorers and whalers often sailed north to Alaskan waters in search of whales or the fabled Northwest passage and South to Hawaii or what is now French Polynesia for the winter. As I wrote in my letter of resignation, I have long dreamed sailing in the wake of Cook and Vancouver. Vancouver, however, did not have to contend with idiots in Bayliners or the wake from the Victoria Clipper, nor did he have to clear customs at Friday Harbor on the American side or Bedwell when entering Canadian waters. Similarly, I doubt James Cook had to put his cat through quarantine in Honolulu. On the plus side, we need not be concerned about the menu at the barbeque in Kealakekua.