| August 14, 2002 When we left for this trip, our house was newly on the market, spiffed up to look like House Beautiful, and impossible to live in (because of the "House Beautiful" thing). Our worst fear was that we would get to November or December -- hoping to depart for the South Pacific in March -- and not yet have sold the house. But we didn't really think the house would be sold in our absence. So we planned to stay out until Labor Day, distanced from having to maintain the house in pristine condition. All the buyers in the world could come look at it, and it wouldn't make any difference to us. But on Sunday we got an urgent message from our realtor to phone her. We headed back from Quait Bay to the Grand Central Station that is Tofino. Several phone calls and several faxes later, we had an offer in hand, we made a counteroffer, and it was accepted. They wanted to close the deal by September 9 (!!!) and we countered with September 30. So it's done, and now we have to go back and find an apartment, and move our stuff out and do the six-way sort: (1) to storage; (2) to the apartment; (3) to the boat; (4) to the dumpster; (5) to recycling; (6) to goodwill or other charity. Of course, wouldn't you know, the weather has been absolutely gorgeous. Just a little bit of fog in the early morning, and then bright clear hot sunny skies. Yesterday we hiked back and forth to the harbormaster's office numerous times, tried to coax his antiquated fax machine into accepting back into its maw the same paper it had spit out (each page of the offer had to be initialled by us and faxed back) (thank you, legal staff at the Oregon Association of Realtors, for so many pages...). Then we had to wait around for the return fax ("yes we agree") followed by our return fax ("yes we agree that you agree..."). Finally we went for a celebratory dinner where we had "local ingredients with an Asian/vegetarian flair" (very yummy)and met some interesting folks from Seattle who were sitting at the next table. We gave them a tour of the boat afterwards, and gave away a brochure (the salesman had left us a few). This morning we gave another tour of the boat to another interested couple (this time from Ontario) and gave away another brochure. Interestingly, both the guys were retired dentists. The marina in Tofino is so tight that boats are at times rafted four deep (if you're the fourth boat, you have to climb across three other boats to reach the dock). We had only one boat to cross, but on the other side of the opening were two GIANT fishing boats. We could almost reach out and touch the closest fishing boat. At one point the entrance was so narrow that only a rowboat could get in or out. We conversed with the tuna boat across the way who says he regularly goes to Fiji in his tuna boat. Could this be? We also talked at length with a 55 foot aluminum sailboat who says he's leaving for the Marquesas (where we'll be going in March). He's the guy who always has 8 or 10 people on his boat, and who anchors our in the harbor to throw big parties with five or six boats rafted on. We've seen him in Tofino every time we've been there. He did leave "for the south seas" while we were there, 8 or 10 people on board, but it turns out he only went to Ucluelet. [He left all but one woman and set sail from there -cj] Today, having completed our business, we decided to sail out where the whales reportedly are, and on to Hot Springs Cove. We left Tofino in a flat calm, but before long the wind got up to 35 knots. Once again we had forgotten the cardinal rule (don't tow the dinghy in heavy winds or seas) and it turned turtle. Will we never learn? No damage this time, but we were reminded of our experience last summer when we did serious damage to the dinghy in heavy winds. We did see lots of tourist boats and float planes congregated over by the shore of Flores Island, as we passed by, so there must have been whales there. But we didn't think it was prudent to go have a look in shallow water with 30-35 knots of wind blowing! Tomorrow we head down the coast to Ucluelet. Ian has agreed to help us take the boat back to Portland, and he'll meet us there on Friday. We expect to be back home by Monday night, and then the work really starts! |
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| Right: Craig on the phone to our realtor -- Clayoquot Wilderness Resort in the distance. |
| Above: Crowded conditions at 4th St. Marina in Tofino |