This year has been a crazy one. Fortunately, there were a few more opportunities than usual to move boats. The closure of the border meant many people couldn’t cross the border but professionals moving boats across the border was considered an essential service.

This boat had been put on a ship before the pandemic outbreak. It was going from Florida to Victoria but the owners being American couldn’t pick up their boat when it arrived so they hired me. It’s 16 miles as the sober crow flies from Friday Harbor to Victoria. I figured if I left from the west side of San Juan Island it was an even shorter distance so when the ship came in and I got the offloading schedule I launched my 11-foot inflatable off a small launch ramp on the west side and bombed over. You can imagine the look on the customs official’s faces when they cleared me into Victoria. Once cleared I headed out to the ship that was offloading the various yachts and came alongside the Catalina 50 I was moving and after that, it was a short trip back to Friday Harbor where I met the owners and explained the situation to the US customs.