Neah Bay - Poised for the Pacific

Light daysails took us from Nanaimo to Narvaez Bay on Saturna Island, then to Friday Harbor the next day for an uneventful border crossing into the US - no guns, no dogs, no problems, other than the confiscation of a few contraband oranges. The next day we sailed to Port Angeles, where we picked up a new oven door, having shatterred the glass on the old one the day before leaving Nanaimo. An overnight sail to Neah Bay was the first real passage for this crew, with a watch schedule and a real ocean swell building with every mile closer to the Pacific. About 20 miles out of Neah Bay, in light and variable wind, we decided to motor for the last stretch when out of nowhere... BANG! We blew a hole in the side of our muffler! After several hours of cursing (and dropping the same wrench in the bilge three times), we managed to jury rig a makeshift repair, which got us safely into Neah Bay. A few hours on the phone finally tracked down a replacement (we ordered two, so now we have a spare) and here we sit, awaiting delivery. This is not such a bad thing afterall, as the weather offshore had kicked up a bit, so the wait was inevitable, as we watch the weather charts and plan for a Monday morning departure into the Pacific. New friends found in a fellow southbound cruising family, and Sunday was a surfing day for Austen.