The Alaska Adventure Begins (Via Canada)

June 12, 2021

We were up and at ‘em this morning. Got in the last run we’ll probably do for a couple weeks and then headed over to Coda for morning coffee. Do miss him being my neighbor because he makes a great cup.

Selfie on the morning run by the San Juan Island Distillery

We were off at 7:45 am and headed to the Canadian border. Put out the quarantine flag as we crossed the border and had a nice easy trip into the Port of Sydney. There was already a boat on the dock, so Coda took up the other space and we waited about 30 minutes to dock. While we waited, we did the final call in for the prep work and only had to wait a few minutes after we arrived for the custom officers. The experience was great. The officers were really friendly and easy to talk to. They asked the standard questions about our intent, experience, stuff to declare, and all the normal border crossing questions. One question I found funny is after we told them we didn’t have any firearms they asked how long it had been since firearms were on the vessel. We’ve never had any on the boat since we moved on because we live in the Pacific Northwest, which is pirate free.

As we were getting ready to be cleared, they had the final call with the clearance folks and at that point they pulled me aside and said there was an issue. Uh Oh! I was asked when the last time I came into Canada, if I was ever denied access to Canada, if I tried to cross the border during the pandemic, and if I had any issues with law enforcement. The answers were pretty much no for all, and they said they’d look into it later and it’s probably because my common name. I guess I may have to move to Alaska if they don’t let me come back in the fall. 😊

After the final questions we were cleared, put up the Canadian courtesy flag, and off north we go.

The remainder of the day was wonderful. Nice calm winds and calm seas. About an hour before the anchorage, we got a notification over the radio that a wind advisory was going into effect starting Sunday morning. We contemplated getting farther north so we could avoid it tomorrow but after 10 hours (customs time included), we called it a day and anchored in Northwest Bay just north of Nanaimo (photo at top of post).