A Slow Day

 It was a slow day from the start. It took us two and a half hours to get through the locks, more than double what it normally takes. There was never any explanation.  The locks just wouldn't open.  Even the commercial traffic sat and waited while the locks sat idle.

The tide was flooding into Puget Sound from the North for most of the day, so the current was against us. The wind was blowing against us too.  It's a good thing we only had 25 miles to travel.  Fighting our way into the chop, 20 knots of wind in our faces, it was impossible to go any faster without burning a lot of fuel, and there was no hope of making progress under sail.

Thankfully we weren't in a hurry. We plodded along, as slow as at 1.5 knots for a while, and waited for improvement. Eventually things turned and we made better progress. At 4pm we were finally anchored and ready to start dinner. Plans to dinghy to shore for more cooler ice were shelved, and we started dinner, the one thing that came together quickly. My recipe for pressure cooker, beef stew was adapted from an instant pot recipe book. It was easy and delicious.

Tomorrow should go a little more smoothly. We’ll get an earlier start, and hopefully get through the day without doing battle with the elements.

Thanks, Bob for your photo of Quijote in the locks from above.