Edmonds Alaskan Inside Passage Seminar

The last post I made was as we entered the Port Edmonds harbor. This is only our third port on Cinnamon Girl, but it is important, since it is the site of the Alaskan Seminar sponsored by American Tug (AT). There are 17 AT’s moored here for the seminar, and each of the owners has much experience on the boat. Most of them have already cruised many years, and many of them already to Alaska. After tieing up and getting situated, Chris and I headed into town to find a bar. The town is perfect, sea-side and quaint. They are a ferry port for transportation across the Sound to Kingston, WA. This is another little “dream town”. We crashed without meeting but one other AT owner and looked forward to the seminars.

This morning, we began meeting the 30 or 40 other owners who have traveled to Edmonds just for the seminar and camaraderie. The Bynums are from North Carolina (second AT), John and Joyce from Port Townsend (first AT, but long time boaters), Hal and Ellen Farley who we met last June in Anacortes. Ellen’s sister is Emily O’Mara, a physician at UAB. Al and Brenda Skiber from B.C. (British Columbia) who have cruised the Inside Passage for years, and Carol Kerley and Linda Dunham who own the AT 41 just before ours in the production. The Volvo representative was here to give each of us one-on-one Q&A on our boats, and the Northern Lights rep with the generators. What a session this was. Then we spent the afternoon in class listening for 4 hours to the details of getting from Victoria, BC to Ketchikan, AK. That will be 620 miles of the trip to Glacier Bay, which is our plan for the summer. Chris was clearly worried as we were cautioned about the treacherous currents and tides along the way. She said to me “we have to talk”,implying that she was more uncomfortable than she thought I was about this trip. I could only reply that we had to talk less than she realized, since I was now very intimidated about this daunting journey. There is much to learn, and thank God we are spending the next 3 months getting ready in Puget Sound and the San Juan Islands.

After class, we ran for 30 minutes in a cold drizzle, and came back to the party and dinner…what a group of people. The owner of the company, Tom Nelson, and his wife Chris, were the original owners of the boat we are on (until ours is ready next week) and he wanted to visit us on the boat. Great guy and fun to talk to. He’s been everywhere and done everything, but shares his knowledge easily. It’s off to sleep now and more class in the AM, with more fun to follow it seems.