Who says you can't leave port on a Friday?

We decided to break all the rules in the boating world and leave port on a Friday. We also have bananas on the boat, tend to whistle from time to time, stepped on the deck with our left foot, and believe it or not, have a female on the boat too! At least we didn't change the boat name for the maiden voyage. Ben wants to name the boat after my middle name (Elizabeth) and according to nautical folklore, it is bad luck to name a boat after an engaged woman. We had better wait till we're married :) 

Nautical superstitions aside, we made it to Anacortes with happy faces and shivering wet bodies. We laughed when we quickly realized that this is going to be a really cold and wet trip. Each one of us added all our layers within an hour of taking off. We all looked at each other and laughed again when we realized that we should turn around right now and head to the Bahamas because it's only going to get colder from here on out. Thank god for carolans and coffee. 

Nevertheless, we decided to spend a day in Anacortes to pick up a few more things, change some batteries out, and say hello to a few friends. "Croatian night" is a gathering of family and friends in Anacortes so we'll be heading over there this evening to enjoy some yummy food and good people. For tomorrow, we will be off again. We plan to cut through the San Juans and head to Nanaimo for the evening. The weather has been really nasty here the last few days - I heard there was snow in Seattle. We will hug the east side of the islands heading up to Nanaimo so if any weather hits us, we can duck in and hide pretty easily. Hopefully the wind will be with us on our way north tomorrow!

Heading into Anacortes

 Finally leaving Shilshole. Hell yea!

 Massive container ships

 Olympics on the peninsula

 This is another reason we're waiting a day to take off. It blew about 50 knots last night. (Notice Ben creeping in the corner, biting his nails. I think he might be scared.)