Chapter Six
T
he deep blue waters south of Victoria were choppy, and the lumpy swells felt heavy as they slammed against my laboring vessel. Using this boat’s under-powered motor to push against the straits blitzing current was useless. At this point, I was already feeling the exhaustion settling in. I turned my 45-foot sailboat southwesterly in an attempt to head towards the calmer waters near Port Angeles. Pushing the throttle to the floor, I sensed the stern of my boat dig in as the propellers struggled to make way.
Rolling and pitching viciously, I grasped a handrail and held on tight before clipping the engine kill cord into my life jacket. This old sailboat was the only vessel I could find to do this job on such short notice. Having purchased it from an American citizen who lived
