Warm Rain Ship's Log

Home Again

After 4 years and 8 months Warm Rain has returned to her slip in Blaine Marina. It's ironic that we were assigned the same slip that we had before we left and she looks right at home resting quietly at the dock. It's been a fabulous adventure that we won't soon forget. However, because the "big cruise" is over, we won't update the blog again until we're out on the water again later this spring or summer.  It's a bit like Humpty Dumpty right now - our time is spent putting Warm Rain back together again after her overland journey from San Diego.

Almost Home ... 31 miles to go

After our 8th day in the boat yard in Bellingham we are very close to putting Warm Rain back into the water and stepping the mast. Tomorrow is the big day and by this time Wednesday she will be back in the same slip in Blaine Marina we left in 2006. It has been 22,000 nautical miles that we have sailed her and most of those miles offshore, 7000 nautical miles she spent being shipped from Auckland to Ensenada, Mexico on Dockwise and 1300 statute miles she spent on a Dudley Boat Transport truck from San Diego to Bellingham. We are very tired but see the light at the end of the tunnel. Dawn has unloaded at least a ton (really) of gear off the boat while in the boatyard. So nice to do it there where we can lower the stuff down with a rope and into the car. I have been busy being mister rigger man and mister boat bottom man and have the blue fingernails to prove it. Wednesday we take Warm Rain 31 miles north from Bellingham to Blaine. She and we will rest for a couple months until the boating fever bites us again.

We Wimped Out

After last week's devastating tsunami caused damage to several of our planned stops going northbound, we took a long, hard look at the trip north and decided to pursue putting Warm Rain on a truck to get her back to Washington. We were lucky enough to get several recommendations for the same shipping company - Dudley Transport - and contacted them. They were thrilled to hear from us as they had a delivery to make in San Diego at the end of this week and didn't have a load going northbound and they made us a screaming deal. On Tuesday we went into a local boatyard and have been working like demons for the past 3 days prepping the boat. Warm Rain goes onto the truck tomorrow (Fri.) morning and will be delivered to Bellingham on Monday - woohoo!

We're thrilled about not having to bash north in the boat and don't mind one bit being called wimps.

Interesting Day

We got out of a marina at 7:30 am yesterday, one hour before the Tsunami waves were due to hit San Diego. I was working on deck about an hour later and saw Warm Rain spin 360 degrees within 20 seconds. The water also changed from blue to brown river color in the entire harbor. We felt no wave action but saw the current in here run stronger than locals have ever seen. We must have spun in circles well over a hunderd times yesterday. No damage here at all but many of the ports we hoped to stop at on our way north were impacted like Santa Cruise and Cresent City. We had an email from cruising friends Dick & Anna in Mexico that said the lagoon in Barra was closed yesterday due to recurring surges.

There's No Place Like Home Auntie Em

Warm Rain arrived safely in Ensenada last weekend - yippee! We took her off of the Dockwise ship on Monday and spent the day prepping her to go to sea again. After a long debate about spending another season in Mexico or going home to the Pacific Northwest we have decided to head home. It will take a few months with the weather systems dictating our progress. We left Ensenada at o'dark hundred Tuesday morning and were tied up at the Customs dock in San Diego by late afternoon. The ride north was uneventful but VERY cold. There is snow on the hills here, that is just not right. Customs check-in was a breeze and we've spent the past week visiting family & friends in the area. Our inverter/charger died and we're waiting for a new one to arrive, so we'll stay in the area awhile longer. It's great to have Warm Rain back in the U.S.!