Tuesday, August 7: Penn Cove to Seattle!

It’s time to end the trip.  We always expect the last day to be long and somewhat boring, much as the first day where we cover the same stretch of Puget Sound.  It was, but it was made slightly more interesting by a low cloud / fog combination that made it chilly and difficult to see where we were going.

We knew it would be tricky when we got up to leave and yesterday’s sunshine was nowhere to be seen.  In fact, we could hardly see the shore.  As we left the confines of Penn Cove, this was the lovely view looking south:

Things didn’t improve much as we continued.  We weren’t in thick fog; we could see maybe a couple of hundred yards so we knew we wouldn’t run into anyone, but most of the time we couldn’t see any of the reference points on land that we use to guide us.  Thank heavens for my cheap little handheld GPS!  Although we could have gone completely old school and navigated just by compass, the GPS made it much easier.  After about 5 hours we just offshore of the town of Edmonds, seen here:

Finally, as we approached the locks where we would get out of the salt water and back into Lake Union, the pea soup broke up a little and we were able to see.  We were treated to some kind of “class” (?) in the bay just outside the locks that made us chuckle.  The students were doing headstands on paddle boards:

We got a lucky break once again on our transit through the locks – the east bound traffic was just exiting as we pulled up, and even with four boats ahead of us in line they were able to squish us in with just a couple of feet to spare so our wait time was zero.

Finally, nearing our marina, we took a victory lap and were happy to see the downtown skyline once again.

Monday, August 6: Cornet Bay to Penn Cove, Whidbey Island

Another day to visit people.  Kristine has a friend whose husband started the famous Penn Cove Mussels business, the largest commercial mussel farm in North America.  He retired and sold the business to his sons, but they still live in Coupeville and invited us to their home for dinner.

We stopped enroute at Oak Harbor to fill the fuel tanks.  Our boat is pretty economical, as power boats go – even with today’s prices for diesel, it only cost $360 to replace all the fuel we burned in the last 3 weeks of cruising (100 gallons).  In and out, we headed for nearby Penn Cove and anchored just as a rain cloud passed overhead.  “Sign of things to come,” we thought, but it actually did pass and the rest of the afternoon was warm and sunny.  We explored Coupeville for a bit and then had a wonderful dinner with great people.

Sunday, August 5: Blind Bay to Cornet Bay, Whidbey Island

Today we began a two day cruise home.  We didn’t go far, but wanted to get across the Rosario Strait and through Deception Pass when the tide there turned to slack, which was about 12:30.  We calculated we’d need to leave our anchorage at 10:00, which we did, and it worked out perfectly.   As we approached the bridge we could see several boats heading west -- everyone wants to be there at slack tide, regardless of which direction they are heading! 

Just inside the pass is a small bay, Cornet, and we decided to spend the night there.  It was a warm afternoon, and we found a map of some hiking trails back to the bridge we had just crossed under:

Looking west, San Juans in the distance

Looking east, Mt Baker in the distance.  Notice the current through the pass -- slack tide has passed

 and to the summit of Goose Rock, a 400’ hill with some great views:

Another shot looking west toward the San Juans

We were pretty sweaty by the time we got back to the boat, but it did feel good to get some robust exercise.  Tomorrow will be our last night at sea before we make the long trek back to Seattle.

Saturday, August 4: Friday Harbor to Blind Bay, Shaw Island

We didn’t go very far today, but we had a great time.

After getting coffee and internet access in the morning, we left about noon and cruised for a whole hour before we dropped anchor in Blind Bay, on Shaw Island.  On the way, we had a beautiful view of Mt. Baker:

We have two sets of Montlake friends, the MacLeods and the Frankenbergs, who used to be neighbors but moved away several years ago.  They both have homes on Shaw and since we haven’t seen them in a long time we arranged to spend the afternoon visiting.  We dinghied over to the ferry landing where the MacLeods picked us up.  Shaw Island has a number of beautiful homes, but only one small business which is a little grocery store.  Nevertheless, Alex gave us a great tour of the island and pointed out lots of things that we never knew were here, like the community run library, the museum, the oldest continuously running school in the state (K – 8), the community center, and the glorious views.  We went to the Frankenberg’s home and had a great time catching up – Allison used to babysit their kids, and now the oldest is beginning high school.  Man, time flies.  Over to Alex’s house to see it for the first time, and then back to our dinghy.  A fun day.

Friday, August 3: Roche Harbor to Friday Harbor, San Juan Island

I’ve never been much of a fisherman, but I love crabbing.  You don’t have to hang around with a pole or try to figure where the fish are and how deep they are.  You just bait the trap, throw it overboard, and come back the next day.  You can literally catch all the tasty Dungeness crab you want in your sleep.  Which is what we did last night.  Yay!  Dinner tonight.

Not much to report today, this is mostly a provisioning stop.  We haven’t been at a dock for a week and it’s time to get some water and groceries, take nice long showers, explore a town, and let someone else make us lunch.  Firday Harbor, on the other side of San Juan Island, fit the bill.  It’s the biggest town in the San Juan Islands and we always like stopping here at least once.

We went out to lunch at a new Mexican restaurant, which was pretty tasty, and Kristine recognized the woman at the next table as “Captain Deb.”  She saved our vacation a couple of years ago when we needed to be towed to a marine center for an engine repair.  We said hi and she actually remembered us and the fact that she had been helping with some training when she got our call.  Kristine and I were really impressed with Deb – she’s a 30 something woman who has really made a name for herself around here in a traditional man’s business.  She acts like AAA on the water, providing towing, jump starting, diving, and salvage services.  And she’s a really nice person.  It was nice to see her under calmer circumstances.

The only picture I took today was of the dock behind us, as we were preparing for our crab dinner.  No, it’s not a boat fire, just some guy who got a little too enthusiastic on the BBQ prep.  This is one of the reasons we prefer to anchor out somewhere instead of cruising from dock to dock like some people do.

Thursday, August 2: Sidney Spit to Roche Harbor, San Juan Island

We got up and got going today so that we could get through customs before the rush.  There is a customs dock at Roche Harbor resort, and when we arrived it was totally vacant.  A pleasant surprise, as sometimes you need to mill about for a long time waiting for a spot to open up.  Unlike some of our previous visits, our check-in was quick and painless.

Roche Harbor is known for its population of mega yachts.  MEGA yachts.  We haven’t stayed there in years, not since it used to be a sleepy little place with a few guest slips.  Oh, and once when we were having engine trouble.  This trip, we thought it would be fun to anchor out in the harbor and watch the big boys come and go, jockey for position at the customs dock, and generally putt around showing off their toys.  We did, and it was definitely entertaining.  I took a bunch of photos of boats, but here’s one that probably gives the best perspective on how big “big” is – that’s me in the dinghy, waving:

Here’s part of the harbor from the land – if you squint, you can see the Elsa anchored in the upper right corner.

Ashore, it really is a charming resort.  If you’ve never heard of it, you can google it and find all sorts of photos.  Here’s one you probably won't find online -- a little pump-out boat that makes its way around the docks, pumping out boats’ holding tanks:

Up the road from the resort is a wonderful sculpture garden, and we took a lazy stroll through to see what had changed since our last visit.  Quite a bit, it turns out.  Here’s a sample:

This last one, you have to approach it from behind where all you can see is an easel set up with something on it. It's not until you come around that you see yourself! Very clever.

We’re back in the US now, where we have crabbing licenses, so we set out our trap for the night and went back to watching the hustle and bustle of this busy place.

Wednesday, August 1: Cadboro Bay to Sidney Spit, Sidney Island

The wind kicked up again as the night went on, and we didn’t sleep real well.  But it was calm again first thing in the morning and we decided to leave before things got too fussy out in the Strait.  It was about a three hour cruise back north, against some current in Haro Strait, and we were relieved to have relatively calm water.

We headed to Sidney Spit, which is another huge park in a very interesting area.  The sand spit itself extends about a mile from the rest of the island appears and disappears as the tide falls and rises.   There's a 10 foot monument at the end that you can't really see from here, it's so far away.



Low tide

High tide

We like it here because it’s a beautiful place and because it’s close to our re-entry point:  the customs dock at Roche Harbor.

We took a couple of long walks ashore, past a big grassy meadow and the remnants of an old brick manufacturing plant:


In the evening, we came across some people who busily doing something on the dock and we stopped to take a look.  It turned out they have built several nests for birds called Purple Martins (new to me) that are native to the area, and they are conducting a long-term study of them.  At the moment, they were putting ID bracelets on the legs of the babies, which they estimated at 12 days old.  Interesting people to talk with.  Apparently the birds can’t fly until they are 25 days old, so the researchers can just climb a ladder to the nest, reach in, put all the babies in a sack, bring them down, tag them, and put them back.  The parents are flying around squawking like crazy, obviously not pleased.  But as soon as the babies are back in the nest everyone is happy.  I asked if the human scent bothers them, and was told that they can’t smell, so no.

The evening was super calm in tonight’s anchorage, and we were looking forward to a good night’s sleep.  Tomorrow we re-enter the US and start working our way back to Seattle.

Tuesday, July 31: Cadboro Bay to Victoria, by bus

Oh, man.  The wind howled and the waves rolled until around 3 or 4 in the morning.  We didn’t get much sleep.  Then, suddenly, everything stopped and we both managed to doze off.

When we woke, the water was still pretty calm.  We started second guessing our plan – should we just head out in the Elsa?  Is the wind going to pick up again as soon as we enter the Strait?  What if it’s okay today, but then turns nasty again when we want to come back this way tomorrow?

Over coffee we decided to stick with the plan to bus into Victoria and were glad we did.  We went through a lovely neighborhood of big mansions and yards, and speculated this must by where Victoria’s wealthy live.  And in about 20 minutes, we were dropped off right in the heart of downtown.

Not much to write about, but we wandered around, looked at the dock where we would have stayed (plenty of room!), had lunch at the Reef (our favorite restaurant from last time we were here), and took some photos:

It says:  "Welcome to Victoria"

Empress Hotel

Flowers!

Flowers everywhere in this city

Parliament Building

Dome inside the Parliament Building

Water Taxi!

.

By late afternoon we’d had enough and hopped back on the bus, getting back to the boat in time for dinner. It was blowing, but didn’t seem as strong as yesterday. Little did we know that that would change. At least it was calm when we went to bed.

Monday, July 30: Princess Bay to Cadboro Bay, Vancouver Island

Today we head south for a destination we’ve been looking forward to:  Victoria!  We’ve been there by boat a couple of other times, but it’s out of the way of our usual cruising area and eats up at least 3 days so we don’t go often.

In the past, we’ve enjoyed a stopover in Cadboro Bay.  It’s the home of the University of Victoria, a nice bay, a quaint village in its own right that has a one-block business district and a great park right on the sandy beach, and only about 8 nautical miles from Victoria.  We like to anchor there overnight, then get an early start into the city in the morning.  We usually stay a night or two right downtown, then come back for another night at Cadboro before heading north again into the Gulf Islands.

Both Cadboro Bay and Victoria are on the very south eastern tip of Vancouver Island, and basically lie on the Strait of Juan de Fuca.  We travel SE down Haro Strait, with Vancouver Island off to our right until we “turn the corner” and reach Cadboro.  As we got closer, the wind really started picking up and the sea got choppy.  We’ve been in worse, but it was still uncomfortable.  Once we actually made the turn, it really picked up.  We couldn’t wait to get into the protection of the bay.  Unfortunately, to our dismay, the bay was almost as choppy as outside!  After we anchored, the wind was howling from the southwest and good sized rolling waves were bounding in, hitting us broadside and rocking us back and forth.  Hmmm.  It’s never been like this for us in here.  Not much we could do, though.

We checked the marine forecast and found out that there are strong wind warnings in this area for until Friday.   We were REALLY looking forward to going to Victoria, but we REALLY didn’t want to venture out into the Strait of Juan de Fuca during strong wind warnings.  We know the boat can handle it, just not sure about our stomachs.  You don’t want to mess with the Strait when it’s misbehaving.

We sat on the boat, at anchor, almost feeling seasick because of the waves.  What to do?  And then it dawned on us:  we’re only about 10 miles from Victoria BY LAND!  Instead of beating ourselves up tomorrow cruising there, followed by the same thing the next day cruising back, we could just dinghy into shore and grab the bus that stops a block away!

Oh we feel much better.  This is a good plan.  The only downside is that it is going to be a long, sleepless night if this wind doesn’t die down.

Sunday, July 29: Montague Harbour to Princess Bay, Portland Island

Well, Kristine and I got lost today.  Really lost.  Seriously.  No, not aboard the Elsa but on perfectly dry land. 

First things first.  It was a nice calm morning, and we went ashore to say goodbye to Montague Harbour.  At one part of the park, there is a stretch of low land that’s wider than an isthmus but narrow enough to walk across in a few minutes.  It is the home of a big marshy area, home to lots of wildlife.  Not the stinky kind of marsh, just very nice with a trail along one side.  We took a walk over to the beach on the other side and saw a little fog out there – pretty unusual for this area.

Back aboard, we set our course for Princess Bay, on Portland Island.  Another Provincial Park.  We came here last year for the first time and only stayed for lunch and a hike, this year we decided to spend the night. It’s a nice bay, gets a little crowded sometimes because the room to anchor is limited but we found a good spot.  Last year, we were with Kristine’s sister Barbara and took a hike counterclockwise around about half the island, then followed a trail that cut through the middle to get back to where we started.  This year, we figured we’d go the other direction.

It’s a great trail, with views:

And it drops down to a great campsite right on a shell beach that looks across to another similar beach:

This is where the getting lost part starts.  At this campsite, there is a map that shows the trail system. 

We had started at the ? on the bottom and hiked clockwise around to the red “you are here” star.  After taking some photos, we wanted to continue on that trail shown on the map.  We had a little trouble finding it – it didn’t seem to continue where the other one left off, and there were no signs pointing to where it might be.  We poked around a little and finally found it.  We thought.  It wasn’t quite as developed as the other one, but we rationalized that it just wasn’t as popular and how nice it would be to have the whole trail to ourselves.  We followed it for a while, and it got less and less easy to follow.  We had misgivings.  But we persevered.  Finally we reached a point where we decided it was just too hard to follow and turned to go back.  Trouble was, when we turned around we couldn’t even see where we had been walking.  It all looked like the same underbrush.  We went a few yards in one direction, then another, then another.  We picked what we thought was a trail and went several yards until it ran out.  After a half dozen false starts, we literally didn’t know where we were.  It sounds silly, but we got a little nervous.  It gave me a new appreciation for how people can get lost in the woods – you look around, and everything looks the same in every direction.

We weren’t totally lost, of course, we knew we needed to go downhill and eventually we’d hit the water.  But we had to start bushwacking through underbrush.  To shorten the story, we made our way back to that campsite (although not to the trail we left on!) and from there it was an easy hike out on the trail we came in on.  But jeeze!

That was enough excitement for one day.  Back to the boat for happy hour and a barbeque.

Saturday, July 28: Selby Cove to Montague Harbour, Galiano Island

Before I start on today’s entry, I realized that I forgot to point out something from a few days ago, when we stayed our first night in Canada.  It’s something we’ve only seen on the Pender Islands that exemplifies one of the big differences between the Gulf Islands and the San Juans.

While out for a walk, we came across this sign:

If you can’t read it, it’s for a “car stop,” sort of like a designated hitchhiking zone.  People wait there for a ride, and drivers can pick them up or not.  The rules are spelled out on the sign:  either person can turn the other down, the ride is free, etc.  There’s even a map of the islands showing where the other official car stops are.  We thought it was pretty cool.

Now on to today’s adventure:  nothing much happened.  The weather continues to cooperate and feels much warmer than the mid-60’s that were forecast.  We didn’t feel like going too far today, rather we wanted to go somewhere in an hour or two where we could just relax in the sun.  Montague Harbour, on Galiano Island, fit the bill.

Before we got underway, we dinghied ashore and explored a small peninsula that would be an island in a few hours when the tide came up.  The main part of Prevost Island is on the left and the future island is on the right; the shells I’m standing are what will become the seafloor. 

In one of the trees off to the left, a bald eagle was perched up high looking for breakfast:

We’ve been to Montague many times – I even went there once in Junior High as part of a YMCA Camp Orkila session.  It’s a big, protected bay, probably the biggest we’ve stayed at so far, and it’s all a provincial park including campsites on the shore. 

We mainly wanted to be lazy, as I said, but we did go ashore and hike some of the trails that make up the park.  We found an isolated shell beach and some clever artwork:

As boring as it sounds, we went back to the boat for the afternoon to finish a couple of books, work on our tans, and enjoy the scenery.

Friday, July 27: Ganges to Selby Cove, Prevost Island

A lazy day today.  We spent the morning running, well, walking some errands around Ganges.  Here are some photos of notable landmarks:

About 1:00 we cast off and headed out into a pretty stiff breeze.  The sun was still out, but it was definitely cooler than yesterday.  A newspaper we bought in town forecast sunny days ahead, but highs only in the mid to upper 60’s.  I have a definite feeling that we are getting cheated out of summer this year.

Once again we didn’t have a specific destination for today.  We decided to cruise down Long Harbor to see if that might be a good spot to stay.  Long Harbor is on the same island as Ganges (the biggest island in the Gulf Islands by far) and is a long, skinny inlet that roughly parallels Ganges Harbor and is very close.  On the chart, it looks like the fingers of a glove where the fingers are land and the spaces between are the harbors.  We’ve been by Long Harbor a million times, but never ventured in.

It is very pretty.  The BC Ferries stop about midway down; if you are coming by ferry to Ganges, this is where you would get off and then drive probably 15 – 20 minutes.  We passed the ferry terminal and went to the head of the bay, where there was a tiny private marina and several boats tied to permanent buoys.  It looked nice, but we chose not to stay there this time.  We turned around and made the very short hop across Captain Passage to one of our favorite spots, Selby Cove on Prevost Island.

We’ve never seen more than a couple other boats here, and today was no exception.  The cove is wooded all around with tall evergreens and a few Madronna trees, or Arbutus as the Canadians call them.  By the time we finally got situated it was about 3:30, we spend the rest of the day reading, barbequing, and watching the sunset: