Piloting Arrowleaf

We decide to winter in San Diego and attempt to get boat projects completed.

We discuss our time in San Diego and the projects we have started!

**Content Warning** (Talk about the death of a pet and mental health issues) We look back at our overall journey south and discuss the highs and lows.

We depart Santa Barbara for San Diego on the last leg of a 3 month journey that was supposed to take 10 days.

We make it to Santa Barbara and spend Thanksgiving with some new friends!

We head to Santa Barbara but a stubborn storm system forces us to turn around and put in at Morro Bay.

We travel from Bodega Bay to Monterey where we are greeted by the local sea lion colony and have an interesting night docking!

As sailing weather windows close we find ourselves stuck in Bodega Bay, to lift our spirits we explore San Francisco and play a picturesque round of golf.

We have a rolly night passage from Eureka to Bodega Bay, where we find a good Mexican restaurant and some new birds for our life list!

We are momentarily stuck in Eureka, CA. We use the time to go to a nearby zoo, hike in the Valley of Giants and see a free Sara Bareilles concert from our boat!

On our way from Crescent City, CA we acquire two passengers and have our roughest bar crossing yet without a working VHF or Nav lights.

In this chapter we discuss our reasons for going electric, the engine we chose and its specifications.

We have our roughest night yet, sailing into Coos Bay, and many things on board break from the constant slamming. After a short break in Coos Bay we continue south to Crescent City.

We completed our first ever night passage, and we struggled to find a good weather window.

****Trigger Warning**** (Death of a pet) In this episode we talk about our cat, Toby, dying during the beginning of our passage south. It was a horrible experience, but to not talk about it would be inauthentic to our journey. We miss him every day and struggle with his absence constantly. Listen with caution. 

Despite not feeling ready to leave Washington, we pick a weather window and finally leave the Pacific North West.

In this bonus episode we discuss our plans to leave the safety of the Puget Sound for the open ocean!  For more bonus episodes and content, please consider supporting us on Patreon. https://www.patreon.com/pilotingarrowleaf

After extending our stay in Canada, we visit the Royal British Columbia Museum, and then take Pilot to Fisherman's Wharf via water taxi. 

We check into Canada, get stopped by the police, and are welcomed into our dock slip by bagpipes.

After just missing the ferry, we have drinks with our mail, then we very nearly run out of fuel and have a great weekend with friends up in Sucia Island (where Kyle falls overboard).

We spend a long time waiting for the locks, making us late for the Beneteau owners meet up. We finally got the name on the boat!

We go through the Ballard Locks again and find it a bit tougher than the last time. Haul-out logistics keep Kyle busy all day!

We sail with the full-enclosure up for the first time, have an embarrassing moment with a Washington State Ferry, and talk about getting the boat hauled out ... again!

We return to Roche Harbor after we were unable to secure a slip at Friday Harbor. There, we were treated to a unique spot among super yachts. We also discuss our electric engine install plans and Mexican Food. 

We finally made it back to the San Juan's, we made new friends, had an interesting docking experience and almost ran out of fuel!