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PORT ANGELES — The weather was a far cry from the Caribbean when Paul Cronauer sailed into Port Angeles Harbor on Tuesday afternoon.
But despite the slanting rain, he was glad to be home after a three-month, 6,000-mile journey through the Panama Canal and up the Pacific Coast on his 50-foot sailboat Bijoux de la Mer, the Jewel of the Sea.
The best part of the trip?
“Maybe getting here,”‘ said the 51-year-old Port Angeles native. “It’s nice to be back.”
On Jan. 24 Cronauer, a real estate developer, left Tortola in the British Virgin Islands where he has kept his boat for the past four years.
The trip began “just after the hangover wore off from New Year’s Eve,” said crew member Alan Block, who joined Cronauer in Panama.
Along the way the crew of the ship continually changed. Close to 30 people went on some part of the trip.
Cronauer’s son, a University of Washington student, joined the trip until Mexico, then returned to Seattle for the school’s winter quarter.
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