Day 80 - Crew Overlap; Rod

We're in Prince Rupert for a couple of nights on our way south, refilling tanks, and exchanging crew.  After a great nine day leg from Petersburg, through Ketchikan, and around the Misty Fjords, Tom, Sue, and Tina will be flying home tomorrow.  Wendy and Jerry will be with us now until we reach Shearwater.  I always enjoy the crew overlap; it's a day of chaos getting everything done, meeting up with the new and saying our fond farewells to the outgoing folks.  It's fun to have a dinner meal in town together with incoming and outgoing crew as it is usually a time filled with stories and a lot of laughs as we relive the previous couple of weeks and regale the new crew with things to look forward to.

One of the things that I've been doing on this trip is asking crew members to contribute two dinner meals a week per person.  I've asked that each of us provision, and take charge of those two meals for each week that we're on board.  I think most of the crew that have participated in this trip so far will tell you that it is a request that has been satisfied with no small amount of anxiety.  Most of that anxiety is, I suspect, a fear of the unknown.  How will it go, preparing a dinner meal for a crew of strange people on a small sail boat?  What if I crash and burn?  The anxiety created by this seemingly small request is not dampened by outgoing crews who wax eloquent about the truly amazing meals created on the previous leg.  As understandable as these concerns may be, I have to say the meals that have been enjoyed on our little voyage have been uniformly exceptional.  Everyone has put a lot of thought and preparation into what they want to do; the creative juices have flowed, and the meals have been awesome.  I'm so glad it has worked out so well and I so appreciate the effort that has gone into such good eating.  Eating well is, I think, one of the primary pleasures of (cruising) life.

Overlapping crew has created some sleeping challenges as well.  We have seven overlapping crew tonight.  When we were in Wrangell, we had eight crew for one night of overlap.  In that case, Frederic graciously volunteered to sleep on seat cushions laid end to end on the floor.  Tonight we're making use of a hotel room.  Thankfully everyone has been flexible and maintained a spirit of doing what it takes to make things happen.  Thanks guys!

I'll wrap this post up with a few of the many photos that Sue sent me.  She took them over the last week and a half; including Petersburg, Ketchikan, Prince Rupert and the Misty Fjords.  At some point I think we'll try to put a Drop Box together that will give us a place to share our best images of the voyage up the Inside Passage to Glacier Bay on SV Quijote.

Petersburg

Ketchikan

Green Island

Prince Rupert

Misty Fjords