Today, I fly to St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada, to meet up with Breskell and Olivier Huin to prepare the vessel for the voyage of a lifetime.

I am sitting at the South Gate, in Sea-Tac airport awaiting my flight. That’s Seattle if you were unsure. My friend dropped me off at 12:15 for my 4:33 flight in an effort to a) miss traffic, b) get me plenty of time to check my gear, c) make it through processing and security in a relaxed manner.

Traffic was not too bad, which I am thankful for, mostly for my friends sake. I was able to check my bags curbside which was a relief, as I had enough gear to make man-hauling a serious chore. I realized I have never traveled by air with this amount of gear. This upcoming sailing endeavor requires being prepared, with limited intel. The gentleman at the kiosk was refreshingly chipper and helpful, and got me checked in with ease. I was concerned about one of the bags being overweight, but alas, it came in spot on the limit. Yes, exactly as planned!

The security check point had an epic line. I had plenty of time, so I decided to remain relaxed about it and roll with the  situation. The adage, attitude makes all the difference, applies here. When I finally arrived at Checkpoint #2, I used five bins for my carry-on screening. Shoes, overshirt, toiletries and pull out all of the electronics and other gear that you know will look weird on the x-ray. Like the water bottle with flashlights and batteries inside. In my effort to make it easy and transparent with all the gear, I forgot to remove my belt. Ha, that meant I needed to get the full pat-down with the “second observer.” No worries and no stress though. “What’s that in your pocket?” “Oh, you mean these earplugs?”

One of the carry-ons had to have a personal search too. “Okay, sure.” As the agent unpacked the bag, she found some wet wipes, a last minute addition for which I had checked the TSA website to see if they were admissible. “Oh, this must be it. I’ll just have to swab this” she said. “Sure, okay.” So she swabbed it and, of course, it was fine and she sent me on my way.

My next task was to find my gate, S4. Hmmm, I walked in one direction for about seven minutes before I realized I was headed to N(North) gate. I backtracked and saw the signs for A,B and S gate. So I walked that way for about seven minutes and soon realized it was all A gates. Duh, look at a directory. It turns out that the S gates are the ones you need to get on the train loop for. But, no worries, there’s plenty of time.

So far, so good as I wait for my flight. While things are going well so far, the day of travel has only begun. So much can still happen. Relax and stick to the plan. Enjoy the ride. For now, I am happy to be exiting Ballard and it’s dual culture of  progressive expansion and degeneration for parts less populated.

“St John’s, here I come.”

The bags.

Mount Rainier’s Cone Peeking Through the Clouds.