4 Aug 21

The dawn broke overcast and cool with a light southerly wind. We cleaned up the boat, tidied up the last of the project stuff and got going about 10:50. Originally, we thought we would stop at either Saddlebag Island or Boat Harbor, both of which are only 3 miles from Anacortes, since we have to go back there tomorrow to collect the mail, which did not get delivered as scheduled. But, both of those small anchorages were full(ish). So, we headed on around the north end of Guemes Island and over to Eagle Harbor on Cypress Island, where we picked up a mooring ball at 12:50. While we were eating lunch, I went onto the Walgreens website to book a Covid-19 test (for entry into Canada) on 7 Aug (their website only books reservations up to 3 days in advance. There were no times at any Walgreens in the state of Washington, literally, during the next 3 days. We will try at midnight to book a reservation some time on the 8th, although I’m not confident. As a fallback, a couple of weeks ago (24 July, to be precise) we booked test reservations for 10:15 on the morning of 6 Aug in Poulsbo, WA. Unfortunately, the CBSA is going on strike starting this weekend, so they will be “working to rule” on Monday the 9th, which means that it is highly unlikely that we will be able to clear in to Canada before our test results expire at 10:10 on 9 Aug (we have heard from a recent traveller to Canada that they will not accept results that are 1 minute beyond the 72-hour applicability period). And, it is a bit of a pain to get to Poulsbo from the Anacortes (a ferry to negotiate) area; not impossible, but a pain. Plus, there is no room at the marina in Anacortes, so we would have to anchor out, row in early to be at the car at 06:00 (did I mention we have to get our car our of storage?), to catch the 07:55 ferry from Edmonds to Kingston. So, as an amended fall-back, we finally found an available time slot at a CVS in Burien, WA at 14:40 on 7 Aug. We will still have to anchor outside of Anacortes and row in, but there is no ferry to deal with and we do not have to get out of bed at 05:00. We should have results available in time for arrival in Sidney on 9 Aug, and we have until 14:40 on 10 Aug to finally clear in, in case there are a bunch of boats in the queue ahead of us. All of this fol-de-rol took literally all afternoon and left us both mentally exhausted. I swear, it would be easier to learn how to juggle chain saws while riding a unicycle on a high wire. And at least then, I would have a marketable skill; I always wanted to join the circus. I sure hope we have fun in Canada. If it is this hard to get back into the States, I’m not coming back. The good news is that the solar panel is working just fine; it kept us at 100% SOC until just before sunset. And, we still have plenty of gin.

48-35.339’N, 122-41.622’W; Log = 9.0, Sum = 206.4 N-m; Eng. hrs = 1.8, Sum = 2776.7