Most
days you’ll find me awake and moving around the boat hours before David so when he said,
“MetVuw has the weather looking really good by the weekend” I was sure he was still
asleep . . . or experiencing the first stages of dementia. Either way, it was only Monday morning – surely
the weather would break before then.
It did, and we
were able to up anchor and cross the border a couple of days later. But if you’ve been following our blog for a
while, you know that we’ve had our fair share of bad experiences dealing with
US Customs and were concerned about checking back into the country.
When we left in May, the officer we dealt with insisted we import the boat (Cambria carries a British flag) and tried to back us into a
corner by asking leading questions. In
the end, he let us go but not before leaving a bad taste in our mouths that’s lingered
for the last five months. To make things worse, our friends aboard Sarita, another British-flagged sailboat, received an equally frustrating welcome
when they checking into the US
David and I never
really discussed our options, but we both knew what was going to happen if we
were greeted in the same manner – we’d simply untie Cambria from the customs’ dock and sail back to Canada
So, you can
imagine our surprise when we were met by a courteous, helpful and welcoming
agent who truly seems to enjoy her work – Officer Merry Graham. She’s been stationed in Friday and Roche Harbors
for two and a half years, and we’ve had the good fortune of working with her
three times without her ever mentioning that we need to import the boat, what
we did wrong when we entered the country or what we need to do in the future to
make her life easier. In fact, this time
around, she told us all of the things customs could do for us (like we’d
ever ask!). She’s truly a breath of
fresh air in an office known for being difficult – I bet they hate her
there.
After checking
back into the US Strait of
Juan de Fuca
and sailing Cambria to her winter home in Kingston
So, what about that MetVuw forecast?
They got it
wrong. Sort of. An approaching low began to intensify on
Tuesday, closing the window they’d originally forecasted. By the time Saturday evening rolled around, gale
to storm-force winds were blowing out in the Sound and every now and again you
could hear one of us say, “For once, I’m really glad we’re tied up.”
0 comments