Cruising Caro Babbo – Caro Babbo

Saturday with the seals and Selkie

Eagle Island, 20-SEP-2025 – We’re continuing our travels around South Puget Sound. We traveled nine miles yesterday, four the day before, and twenty-something the day before that.

Not much traveling and no extra fuel tanks, something I can’t remember if I thought I would then get while we were in PT or not. I didn’t, so that is that.

The vagaries of dock space

Blake Island State Park August, 28th 2025 — Labor Day weekend starts this Friday. Today is Thursday and I expected people to start to fill the docks last night. Instead, it is more than half empty this morning.

We were here last Friday. The marina was completely full with boats, jockeying and rafting.

People

Parks Bay, WA, 4-Aug-2025 – I haven’t been writing. The compunction hasn’t been upon me for a variety of reasons. The first time we went to Alaska, I wrote fifty posts in 150 days. This is my third post this year, we’re 100 days into the trip.

The reasons are manifold: It has become like work, something I never wanted to happen.* The places we’ve been to have been very much like every other place we’ve been to. Jennifer’s fears have infected me so much I have to fight against my fears to sail, which has taken a lot of life out of me.

Things have been good, however, beyond not writing.

People

Van Anda, Texada Island, BC, 31-MAY-2025 – On our first trip north, I remember getting to Texada Island. We had traveled so far, to the brink of the world it seemed. Today, we have just been piddling around for the past month and had stopped here to wait out some not so terrible weather.

Blogging Dam?

Newcastle Island, Nanaimo, BC, 16-MAY-2025 – I haven’t been in the mood to write recently. I’m sorry. I’m also afraid to write how well things are going.

We moved out of Point Hudson on May first to Mystery Bay on Marrowstone Island, where we discovered how much we left behind, which was just as well since we hadn’t finished cleaning the house for VRBO rental.

Last Port Before Home

Eagle Island, WA, South Puget Sound, 26-SEP-2024 – In my past posts, I’ve tried to keep you up-to-date with where we’ve been as a setup for talking about the people we’ve met. People who I thought I would keep in touch with. People I thought were fascinating and worthwhile – a small subset of the people we’ve met.

Floating Southward

Eagle Island, WA, 20-SEP-2024 – We’ve been floating southward with little urgency and less stress. Jennifer does not want to sail at all, but when there is wind I’ll set sail and we’ll sail for as long as it lasts.

The Last Leg

Port Townsend, 2-SEP-2024 – There was heavy dew on the windows and a grey sky. I opened the companionway door to a whiteout: Cotton Candy.

I could hear women’s voices speaking, ‘‘I keep hitting the front stop and that’s never happened,’’ the voice said. I turned and looked at the water level and could see sixty yards to an eight-person rowing shell sitting, the crew talking amongst themselves. Looking toward town, there was no town, I could just make out the ferry terminal, the large boat nearest me, and the Hawaiian Chieftain at her dock. A sailboat outboard of us had her mast top anchor light lit without a boat below. The two sailboats with no anchor lights were a mystery. The fog horn of the ferry said she was in the bay on her way to the dock. After a few moments, I could see her at a right angle to me.

Midcentury Star

Rebecca Spit, BC, 21-AUG-2024 – We’ve run hell-bent-for-leather to get south and now that we’re here we have two weeks to get a week’s distance. We’ll relax a bit on the pace, and then get there a few days early – we hope. The weather next week looks wonderful.

Ketchikan, 2024

Ketchikan Yacht Club, Ketchikan, AK, 07-AUG-2024 – The world has changed since we’ve last been here. StarLink is the major yachting change and the cities quest for more tourists is the other.

Here in Ketchikan, we’ve started speaking to the boats we’ve seen along the way. Everyone stops in Ketchikan. There are the groups that travel together, either from a yacht club, or a tour led by a manufacturer. These seem to be the normal number moving back and forth.

The power boats are oftentimes aging sailors who sold their sailboats and opted for a power boat. They seem to enjoy them. Other power boats are working people, who in years gone by could never have come here, but now with StarLink and no need to go to the office, are here. During this summer Ketchikan harbor became completely full with no slips available.