GOOD LUCK, JEANNE!

While I've been laying around whining about my leg, a 67-year-old grandmother by the name of Jeanne has been aboard her sailboat here in the harbour preparing for the trip of a lifetime. I was hoping to get over to meet her before she left, but instead I drove over yesterday just in time to see a local whale-watching boat ready to tow her to the start line at Ogden Point.

It was a drizzly, gray day, but apparently perfect for her to catch the outgoing tides and currents for the Juan de Fuca, and to be out to Cape Flattery (where she'll turn left, more or less, to head south toward Cape Horn) by the time this weather system passes by us.

Normally we'd be in our  dinghy for an event like this, but between the weather and my leg, I had to just park at Ogden Point and get the best vantage point I could... here's the buoy (centre of the photo) which is her official start line:

 And now you can vaguely see that she has one sail up.... the dark sailboat was just accompanying her out to the start, I guess.

 And she's away! All being well, she'll sail back in to this harbour in about seven months, but I'll be following her blog here.