Just Another Beautiful Day with Beautiful Boats

Distance traveled:  23.2 miles

Travel time: 3 hrs, 38 mins

A pretty boat at Roche Harbor, visible from our slip. Ryan and Jaime enjoyed coffee on the aft deck in the warm sun.

A parade of Ranger Tugs left the marina all morning, ending their weekend rendezvous.

We took two trips today: the first from Roche Harbor back to Friday Harbor where we tied up at the courtesy dock for two hours to eat lunch and say good-bye to Ryan and Jaime as they headed back to Seattle and the “real” world by ferry.

And ended the day traveling from Friday Harbor to an anchorage in Blind Bay on Shaw Island. This is the first year we’ve owned a boat in the Pacific Northwest in which we’re comfortable anchoring overnight, so there are lots of destinations we’ve missed in the past, always staying on State Park docks or mooring balls, or else in marinas.

Our short trips were enlivened by the many pretty boats out enjoying the late-summer sunshine.

And the wind was so nice there were lots of sailboats sailing instead of motoring.

 

We didn’t see any whales today, but great to catch a sailboat, seaplane and Mt. Baker all in one photo.

And Mt. Baker (10,781 feet) with a Washington State ferry and more boats.

We’ve developed a minor problem with the dinghy/davit system that can’t be fixed until we get home and means we can’t use it, so we may skip some anchorages we’d planned and arrive home a few days earlier. But Blind Bay is a pretty anchorage with views of both Shaw Island and Orcas Island and both ferry landings. It’s sunny, calm and 74 degrees at 6pm, so what’s not to like? Think we’ll drop the kayaks and go for a jog in the morning.