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!

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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.