Too big to describe

Thursday,

A fellow pulled in yesterday and parked right in front of us, his boat was named "Some Luck"
He kept going on and on about the beautiful day, indeed it was, apparently this area is heading into a rainey season and people are milking the weather for all it's worth.

He joked it was hard to see that beautiful sky with all that 10,000 year old granite in the way, that cracked everyone up.
What indeed could hide the sky so magnificently but 10,000 year old canyon walls.


Another lady made the comment "I just didn't know that I needed to see this." Really true.





Chatterbox Falls. The noise from the water was huge, the spray went out about 100 yards past the bottom. Warning signs said do not try to climb the falls, 12 people have lost their lives trying to do just that. Hmmm I must be getting old because it never occurred to me to even try.




The boat is great, a few little issues but nothing is ever perfect. It is cold ......    David is doing a fabulous job as captain.  Larry is wonderful crew, he is often much more patient showing me how to do things. :).

Sunday we pick up another of David's yacht club friends Bay Peterson and his girl friend, Donna,  and sail for another week in the Gulf Islands and maybe down in the San Juan Islands (USA)

Yes you are welcome to come visit us on the boat next summer, we are probably heading home to Austin the end of October. We will be back to finish sailing the Canadian islands and maybe try to make it to Alaska.

Princess Louisa

It's Wednesday morning and only 52' but the humidity is hi 86% so it is
really cold feeling.  I think I am wearing 3 layers just to sit and sip tea
inside the boat, there isn't a defroster so I put the fans on to the clear
the windows and that makes it feel cooler....sheesh I might need my gloves.


We are anchored in Princess Louisa Inlet. Mainland Canada,  basically all
these inlets are glacier cut canyons with water over 1000 feet deep.  The
walls are several hundreds feet high and I can see by the brightness in the
cloudy sky that the sun is up but hasn't reached down into the canyon yet.
We'll stay here for two days, thank heavens because David really needs some
down time;  So I won't be able to send this until we get back in the world
of wifi signals.


There are waterfalls everywhere, it's a constant white noise festival....

It's funny, there are four boats here total,  we all have radios but the
only other radios we can reach are each others , ie the ones right here, the
4 of us right now are it.  

One boat is a big power boat named ToyBox II and there are lots of toys on
that boat. He helped us anchor last evening so we figure him to be a good
guy. There is another very small sailboat, and a trawler that looks like a
home to its occupants. Their name is " evening star" they seem to be doing
the same thing we are.


Last night we tried to call Evan and report in to him on the sat phone but
it cut off right after we said hello. It must have scared Evan, I am proud
to say that rather than worry, he followed the protocol in the float plan
and called the coast guard they were able to get in touch with us and verify
that we were ok, then through a circuitous route we managed to call Evan
back and let Jim know we were ok. The coast guard guy was great, he said I
am so glad you have a float plan and that everything worked out as it should
have. It made me wonder if maybe not all cruisers have them.   David
informed me the float plan was only for the designated two, Neal and Evan,
the rest of the world can just get a list of places we are going....sorry
folks themselves da rules. We do have a voyage plan it's really boring just
ticks off the things we'll pass as we get to where we are going, we need to
mark the time on that.

The ships log is kind of fun, once an hour someone writes where we are and
what we are doing weather etc, not as good as a diary but close.

I miss you guys but I am totally dying to see my grand kids. William is 7.
He was just born when the mcCormick mt house first went on the mkt. sheesh
where does time go.


beauty and awe join worship with people i may never see again but who became
my friends just by standing with me in prayer and praise.

Please keep us in your prayers as we continue through the month of October
then we will tuck this baby in ( probably in Port Angeles Wa ) for the
winter and head back to Austin out of Seattle.

We are not alone. Ha ha ha sounds like something from the 60's horror genre. But I realize briefly from time to time that even though I know and truly believe God is with me, I don't live it, act like it , trust like it is true.

Who steals this or do I just let it flop to the floor beside me like a toddler absent mindedly drops a blanket for the treat of the day.

I do just assume I can pick up Gods grace and use it when I think I need it.

Problem is I do not know how when or much I need it.  When I am thinking " I need to leave this place" or person, or situation I need Gods love and support the most. If departure is what is called for it will happen appropriately, if however I am called to face something how can I do this? I have already decided I can't.  If I do t want to deal with someone, or some situation I avoid it.    But God can and will help me handle it  And i do not have to figure it out first.  Indeed I need to give Him a chance to show his stuff.

Open my eyes Lord, let me not miss your face.

Get out of here

It seems like we could be finished with the major parts of the boat and we would be on the water in a month.  Oh how many times we have thought this was possible.  Only to have our plans doused in a brutal reality.  Checklists and checklists are being made looked over, detailed.... Bad people out, good people in.....What is going to happen now?

I want to have hope, to move forward, one minute I am up then I'm shutting down. Ugh! David has himself on a crazy autopilot regime. 6 days of working on the boat. Paying the people who work, buying the stuff that is needed. I want to believe, we both need to have faith.

come around

Somedays I just want to fall on my face and cry.  I'm not really sure why because I have a lot to be so thankful for.

My angst lies in just knowing there will be yet another iteration of the same process of problem solving, one side saying it can't be done, we tried that etc. etc. The other side saying what they say and on and on....

Were we not told back in that garden that our work would be hard and we would never feel resolved, it sure doesn't make it any easier.

I want a new outlook , one that says "yes! here we go again lets see how this group handles things"....bright faces encouraged by experienced people who know at least to some extent, that there will be repetition; but, that there will also be breakthrough, and prayers that someone is alert enough to notice.

Lord
Give me confidence,
Let my insecurity rest with you.
I do not have to win or worry about loss,
Just let me reach out and
maybe make contact.

A lesson from my two crazy dogs today!

First off I am one of those pet owners that occasionally  let's food Drop on the floor. okay okay I give food to them.

The end result is that they are often under foot or under the table begging.   Today was interesting...I came in with two rotisserie cooked chickens.   They both sat near by looking hopeful, but there wasn't the usual underfoot stuff.  When the piece of chicken skin came their way they accepted with a slow graceful reverence.

I laughed to myself as I washed my hands how they were so patient because they knew this treat was indeed worth the wait. The treat was so good they didn't snatch it they allowed it to slip from my fingers into their mouths.


Can I think of something so worth the wait, that i might receive it with that same grateful reverence. Certainly nothing of this earth, (sorry pups). I think of how Mary said yes to the angel and at that moment received fullness  of grace for her life journey.   I know that in my own life I am in saying yes to God receiving grace sufficient for my challenges to handle what ever comes my way. Do I wait as patiently and receive so graciously? Did I just get a lesson from my dogs?

I used to catch myself being impatient with people who always lost their phones or forgot to change it back after they had silenced it.  I am now catching myself in these small social crimes. The poem says,  "Oh to see ourselves as others see us" but I wonder if it isn't more to the point to catch ourselves as others have been. Is that to see a speck while looking past a log? Or to find the log on the way back from cataloging the speck...