Ray - We left the dock on Sunday morning about 10 and motored straight into the westerly through Thatcher Pass. If my spouse had better balance and strength, we could have angled down toward Lopez Pass. Jack motored up and caught us just past Thatcher Pass and sailed just behind us down to Hunter Bay. He was towing his dinghy and couldn't catch up. We spent a windy evening on a well set hook, it calmed down about eight. I'm glad I bought the Magma BBQ with the built in lighter, or I never would have gotten it lit to cook dinner.
Not being purists, we motored out Lopez Pass this morning and caught a breeze coming up from the south that gave us a nice close reach back toward Fidalgo Head. We wound up motoring from about Ship Harbor back to the slip. It's so nice to get 2+ knots of favorable current coming in Guemes channel. Traffic coming home this afternoon was pretty good too.
Sorry to hear about the alternator. When I re-wired for the Balmar and new charger I went straight to the batteries, appropriately fused, so I didn't expose myself to mental lapses.
I started getting a payback this weekend for installing the new diesel heater this spring. Linda got cold yesterday and warming the cabin up to 75 last night helped her attitude. I still have a few more weekends to go to payback the $2K.
Craig