Roche Harbor with Angie

While we chatted over coffee aboard her boat, M/V Desert Venture, I sketched this little portrait of Angie. She and her husband, Bruce, are full-time live aboard cruisers and she keeps a wonderful blog about their adventures. You can check it out here.

We met them a couple of years ago when we were on our boat up in the Broughton Archipelago in British Columbia. Our friendship has grown as they spent two winters in Portland and Angie is the person who got help for me when I nearly died in the waters of Bremerton. Whenever I see her, I think of the line I wrote in this blog July 2009, "Angie saved my life."

It has been a special treat to spend the last week with them in the water of Roche Harbor. This morning, they pulled up their anchor and departed for points south. I will miss them. Good friends are precious, indeed.

Angie liked the little sketch I did of her, and I was happy to give it to her. Life is good. Don't ever think otherwise. I know I won't.

Watercolor sketches

Here are just a few more of my watercolor sketches from the boat. These two guys were waiting to get through Customs and I loved how the light was on them. Man, I do love doing figures. I've got to get back to that when I get home.

At 5:00 am, the light was perfect on Johnstone Strait. Not too long after this painting we saw orcas near Telegraph Cove. Wow. I think I stopped breathing while I watched them. A mother and baby, coming up to the surface frequently for gulps of air. And another on the other side of our boat. Unforgettable.

You can see that I attempted the rock face of Burly Cove, too. I think that I have enough information in these sketches to paint them bigger in the studio.

Life is good. Particularly sweet some days.