Return: whales, fog, and "Papers? Do you have your papers?"...

Our time in Victoria passed quickly.  This morning, we cleaned up, had breakfast, checked the weather forecast, and shoved off.  The views heading out of Victoria's Inner Harbour...

It was a lovely morning; 59º when we got up.  Sunshine.  The forecast stated, "Fog in some areas."  Seems like the last few times we've come back from Victoria, we have run into fog across Haro Strait.  Our timing was good to run with the tide/current, and there weren't much in the way of wind waves.  Out of the harbour, we turned east in the Strait of Juan de Fuca.  Yep, there is some fog ahead...

Passing Trial Island, the water lumped up a bit.  Nothing like the way over.  Coming by Discovery Island... "Whales ho!"  Since Joan is in the office all the time she is working, she doesn't get to see the whales; I deviated from our route to check out our friends from J and L-Pod...

I asked Joan if she wanted to drive or shoot - she took the camera.

For Mark J.: check it out - a t-shirt.  Love the enclosed, protected helm.

A very nice viewing.  We turned off from the whales and pointed Wild Blue east.  The water smoothed out, but the fog rolled in...

Visibility dropped to less than 100' across most of Haro Strait.  A weather alert came across Channel 16 for "greatly reduced visibility in fog for parts of Puget Sound."  I guess this was one of those parts.  The radar did its job, allowing us to avoid the sparse traffic we came across.

As we neared Cattle Pass, it started to lift - a little at first...

Once through Cattle Pass, the fog really began to lift.  From this...

to this, in about a minute's worth of travel...

It was clear the rest of the way into Friday Harbor (spelled in American, again ;-) ).  Before going to our slip, we had to clear Customs.  The Customs officer was on the dock... he asked if we were clearing as we approached the dock.  "Yes."  I was thinking: this will go fast, since he is right here.

I was wrong.

He checked our passports.  Thoroughly looked over the boat's registration.  Asked me a bunch of questions.  Needed to see my drivers license.  Had us both remove our sunglasses so he could see that it was really us.  I said, "Your name is _______, isn't it?"

"Yes.  How do you know that?"

"Well, you have checked us in every time we have come back from Canada, and we are spending the summer in Friday Harbor - I see you on the dock about every other day."

"I see a lot of people on the dock," he said.  Then, "Miss Joan, you stay with the boat.  I'll need you to come with me."

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"This way."

"To your office?  You have always checked us in here at the shack.  What's up?"

"I am by myself right now, so we have to go to the office."

Along the way, he continued to ask me questions, often phrasing the same question in different ways.  Several times, he asked if we bought anything in Canada..."Only food that we ate at various restaurants.  No other purchases."

Then he said, "Can you prove you didn't make any purchases?"

I asked, "Are you kidding?"  We continued walking.  "Slow down, big fella," I said, "your legs are a lot longer than mine."

"What is your home port?"

"Spearfish, South Dakota."

"I thought you said you are from Friday Harbor?"

"You are mistaken.  South Dakota.  Same as the boat registration.  And my passport.  And my drivers license.  We are currently staying in Friday Harbor.  For the summer.  Like I told you before."

He said, "I am not familiar with Spearfish - what is it near?"

"Rapid City - in the Black Hills."

"Have you ever been to Custer State Park?"

"Many times.  Great motorcycle riding there.  No passport necessary.  Just kidding."

"We take our work very serious."

"I can see that."

We finally made it to the office.  He put my passport number into his computer, looked at the boat registration again, back at the passport, then said, "This all checks out."

"I guess I'm the only one not surprised about that."

Then, the long walk back to the boat, where I got to answer more questions... "What took you so long?  You weren't a smart ass, were you? ..."

"Don't ask."

We pulled Wild Blue around to her slip.  Along the way, we saw a bald eagle in the trees...

Interesting trip back.  And now on with the "stuff after vacation"... laundry, getting the boat cleaned up and set up for livin' instead of traveling.  Little Izzy sat at the aft dinette seat all the way across.  She wanted to know why I was late getting her lunch ready.

"Don't ask."

;-)