Jarrell Cove, Lakebay Improvement Club

After two very enjoyable nights at Oro Bay on Anderson Island where we got skunked trying to catch crabs (only illegal females and not tasty Rock Crab; no male Dungeness, the prime catch of Puget Sound), we pulled out and headed north and west. We made a stop at Fair Harbor Marina in Grapeview where the very best marina gift shop in all of Puget Sound resides. As usual, Cathryn, who normally hates shopping, picked up a couple of items. Lynn and David re-joined us here, and after loading up the stuff they brought for 3 days, we headed south to Jarrell Cove on Hartstine Island, another perennial favorite.

 

There are two docks in this State Park cove, and almost a dozen boats were at one dock, so we tied up to the other for more quiet and solitude. The small sailboat also parked nearby was unoccupied, so we had the dock to ourselves.

The weather was mostly cloudy and a tad chilly, but with frequent, if brief, sun breaks.

After dinner the four of us piled into the dinghy and went for an exploratory trip in the shallow, narrow coves nearby.

The scenery was beautiful, the water shallow (our portable depth sounder got another workout), but the only wildlife was a blue heron and a couple of seals.

The next morning we’d planned to travel to another favorite destination, Penrose State Park on Key Peninsula, but after checking tides, we realized the days’ unusual “minus 3.1 foot tide” would mean we’d be sitting in mud at the dock, if we could even get in. In our smaller boat in the past, we’ve had to wait for mid-tide to get in and out, and this boat has a 4-foot draft, so requires deeper water. So we headed for Filucy Bay instead, a new destination.

The Lakebay Improvement Club at Filucy Bay has had a significant face-lift in the past 4 years, we learned. It would still be considered a “not fancy” marina, but it has wonderful new docks, gated security, wifi that actually reaches boats on the dock (not common at marinas) and an outdoor clubhouse facility with tables and chairs for enjoying sun or shade. The locals were friendly, and we were the only transient boaters there.

Lakebay Improvement Club sits in a well-protected harbor, and we’re told on sunny days it has a beautiful view of Mt. Rainier, but we missed that in the clouds.

We went for a walk and came upon the community cemetery, so spent half an hour wandering and reading headstones which date back as far as the first half of the 1800s to recent years, with lots of large family plots including many Scandinavians and former military folks.

We never did figure out why one grave had an “Inukshuk” on it, a human-shaped cairn commonly built by Inuit First Nations people in eastern Canada, something we saw lots of and learned about while in Canadian waters during the year we spent traveling The Great Loop back east.

Lynn provided delicious dinners both nights she and David were on the boat, and our good luck with weather held in that all the rain fell during the night while we were sleeping, or else when we were underway on the boat, so we were able to take lots of walks and sit outside for cocktail hour without getting wet.

Sunday morning we cast off dock lines and headed north toward home, expecting a long day. We traveled close to shore near the Narrows Bridge in Tacoma to get a good look at the interesting Salmon Beach community where 75 or so homes are built over the water on pilings, and residents have to climb stairs or a switchback path up a steep bluff behind their homes to get to their car parking area, as there are no roads down to their homes.

We were delighted to find the ebbing tide was with us almost all day, so this 7-knot boat (8mph) was traveling 13.9 mph as seen on the GPS below, with a maximum speed of 15.1 mph under The Narrows Bridge, way faster than we’ve seen her go before!  We actually ended the 44 mile journey for the day with an average speed of 10mph, a new record.

We had a wonderful 6 days on the boat, and Lynn and David were terrific boat crew as always, helpful and easy-going.

South Puget Sound Cruise

After a month-long hiatus from boating, working on the boat, house and yard projects, a trip to Houston to visit Cathryn’s parents and some hiking and many dinner parties, we’re finally back on “Next To Me”.  This time of year the weather can be unpredictable, but it’s almost always calmer (wind and waves) in south Puget Sound, so we headed there for what has become an annual trip (this is #9).

The first leg took us 28 miles to Gig Harbor where we tied up at the free public dock at Jerisich Park.

Boat traffic of all kinds is heavier this time of year than during our many winter cruises. This enormous Ro-Ro ship (roll-on, roll-off, usually transporting vehicles of some kind) was especially intimidating. Stay out of her way!

Bob enjoyed giving his super-duper new boat binoculars a try, a gift from our three kids for Father’s Day. He loves them, and they hold a much steadier image than the pair we’ve used previously. Thanks for the suggestion on brand and type, Aaron and Julie!

 

We’re enjoying the new upholstered cushions on the flybridge seats made with considerable guidance and assistance from Bob’s sister Lynn, a “master quilter”. These are made from Sunbrella fabric, and the colors in the photo below aren’t “true”, but one of the stripes almost perfectly matches the plum color of the bimini canvas.

It was the perfect day for dinner outside on the deck at Tides Tavern, a short walk from Jerisich Park where we tied up. Bob’s sister Lynn and brother-in-law David were good company as always. Can’t beat sunshine and 77 degrees.

Every Tuesday evening all summer the City of Gig Harbor sponsors live music performances in the park. The crowds are huge when the weather’s good, and this week’s band was excellent. The dock we stayed on is visible in the center of the photo in the background, and we sat on the flybridge to enjoy the music.

 

The dock was pretty much cheek-by-jowl, and for the first time we can ever remember, our boat was the biggest on the dock. It was mostly smaller weekend cruisers and ski boats, with a couple smaller trawlers thrown in.

 

Wednesday morning we left Gig Harbor and traveled south 17 more miles to a new-to-us destination in Oro Bay on Anderson Island. We joined Bremerton Yacht Club last Fall, and they own an “out-station” here for use by members.

Tacoma Yacht Club owns the first dock (on left in the photo below) comprising their out-station, Bremerton’s is next, and Anderson Island Yacht Club’s mid-size marina makes up the last docks in the bay. Tacoma Yacht Club’s dock was empty, and ours had only one boat other than Next To Me, so the two of us parked facing each other. We’d met John and Nina on the other boat previously, so enjoyed chatting with them over a drink at happy hour. It seems they enjoy the same kind of cruising we do, and we might run into them in Canadian waters later this summer.

 

Mid-afternoon we hit the water to drop a crab pot and had a fun run in the dinghy that came with this boat. Other dinghies we’ve owned had 2hp or 4hp engines, and this has an 18hp engine, so we could actually get up on a plane, though mostly we puttered along checking out Oro Bay’s shoreline and homes.

There were lots of jellyfish in the water, and they look like enormous eggs cooking in a fry pan. This one is about 12 –15 inches across.

 

Last year for Father’s Day Bob received a portable depth sounder from our kids, and this was the first chance we’d had to use it. We wanted to make sure we were dropping the crab pot in water less deep than the line on the crab pot (a check we failed to make once in the past, thus lost a pot to the deep). You can’t see the digital read-out in this photo, but the depth sounder works great. You put the top edge into the water and within seconds it gives you a reading. Thanks Ryan, Mackenzie and Adrienne! We’ll show you how to use this too, Justin and Adrienne :-)

 

Wrapping up our dinghy exploration in Oro Bay, we came upon the shell of an old ferry named “Ocean City”. It’s pretty well stripped of anything of value with a badly rusted-through hull, and looks like it’s been sitting there a long time. An internet search yielded the story that a couple of brothers purchased it on a verbal contract in Baltimore years ago and brought it through the Panama Canal planning to put it into service here, bringing Anderson Island residents back and forth from the mainland near Tacoma. The contract to operate the island ferry service fell through when that contract was taken back by Pierce County who took over the service, leaving the brothers out in the cold with an expensive, unused boat. Thank goodness we have an attorney who would never let us buy anything on a verbal contract.

Check-in/OK message from Anacortes

Latitude:48.51371
Longitude:-122.60791
GPS location Date/Time:05/11/2014 17:49:58 PDT

Click the link below to see where we  located.
http://fms.ws/GoLLg/48.51371N/122.60791W

If the above link does not work, try this link:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=48.51371,-122.60791&ll=48.51371,-122.60791&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

Cruising With Friends in The San Juan Islands: A Sampler

Last weekend, the day after our harrowing docking experience in Anacortes, friends Doug and Jill with their German Shepherd Lua came aboard to cruise the San Juan islands with us for the week. We first met Doug, Jill and Lua early in 2009 while RV-ing in Baja, Mexico for 3 months, saw them in Baja two more winters, and traveled with them most of our third winter there in early 2011. They're Canadian, and we've seen each other infrequently, as we live 8 hours apart.

The short version of our week is this:

Night 1 -- Anacortes, Cap Sante Marina
Night 2 -- Sucia Island at the State Park dock
Night 3 -- Friday Harbor marina on San Juan island
Nights 4 and 5 -- Fisherman's Bay, Lopez Island

On day 6 we returned to Anacortes, dropped them off at Cap Sante marina, and we continued to Oak Harbor for the night.




Doug, Jill, Cathryn and Bob on a 6-mile hike, exploring Sucia Island

Lua, the world's best "boat dog", a black German Shepherd, exploring Sucia Island.

Doug and Jill each happily took turns at the helm, and were great deckhands as well.

The view up Fossil Bay on Sucia Island is always lovely.

It rained almost every night, but most days had partial to full sun, with afternoon temps in the 50s.

This is the first time we've been to the San Juans by boat in any season other than summer, and Friday Harbor was incredibly quiet and un-crowded. We enjoyed the shops and galleries anyway.

The spring weather yielded some great cloud formations and only one thunder clap.

As always, we walked the docks looking for pretty boats and had no trouble finding them.

We even managed to store 4 bicycles on board, so went for a ride on Lopez Island to Shark Reef Point.

There were fewer seals hauled out at Shark Reef Point than usual, but a couple eagles were on the rocks too. And we enjoyed a fabulous dinner, as always, at "Bay Cafe" in Fisherman's Village on Lopez.
























We have a Canadian courtesy flag, which always flown when in Canadian waters of course, but we flew it this week in honor of our wonderful Canadian guests too.

We never get  bored with the San Juan islands and enjoyed our first Spring trip there by boat. And plans are in the works to see Doug, Jill and Lua again at their Okanogan mountain cabin in Canada in July.

May You Be Cursed With Interesting Times

Distance traveled:  44.8 miles
Travel time:  5 hours, 27 minutes

Even Wikipedia won't tell us who authored that quote, but he or she was surely thinking of a day like today! Having already decided the unsettled weather meant we didn't want to cross the Strait of Juan de Fuca, we took the inside of Whidbey Island to Hat Island yesterday so we'd be going north via the very protected Swinomish Chanel instead. We traveled this same route on our March trip to Victoria, Canada. This morning we left Hat Island at 7:00 am under benign conditions.

We checked NOAA and multiple other online weather sources as always, and as usual, our biggest point of concern was wind velocity and wave height. We don't care about temperature or rain. The "Wind Alert" app said the morning would be comfortable, with winds rising from 8 mph to 20 mph between 11am and 2pm. That's what lead us to get an early start, planning to arrive in Anacortes before the wind came up.

Today we met Euronotus, the Greek God of the South East Wind. He is not a favorable God.

We have no more photos for the day, unable to manage a camera. As we departed the town of LaConnor at 11 am, we called the Cap Sante Marina 90 minutes away to inquire about availability of a  reciprocal slip for the night, and check the sea and weather conditions. We were told it was blowing 10-12 mph with the highest gust at 21 mph and no whitecaps. So off we went.

The next 40 minutes were pleasant. But as we rounded the corner from the Swinomish Channel into the Guemes Channel, we were hit by an unexpected wall of wind on our beam, clearly much higher than 20 mph, that kept us rocking hard.

Thirty minutes later with considerable tension aboard, we entered the breakwater of the Cap Sante Marina expecting the wind to die down in the protected water. Nope, not happening. The waves disappeared, but the wind seemed to be channeled even more forcefully between Cap Sante (land mass) and the town of Anacortes, blowing directly down the marina fairway we had to enter to get to our assigned slip.

The next 5-10 minutes (felt like hours!) was among the top two most tense times in our boating life! As we entered the fairway, careening between 50 boats ranging from 40-50 feet in length, the wind repeatedly caught the boat as if it were a billboard and slung it 90 degrees sideways, and we were unable to straighten it with our single engine and revved up throttles, transitioning rapidly from forward to reverse gear to keep from hitting boats only 1-3 feet off both our bow and stern. Blowing into the dead-end of the fairway and worrying we'd smash into it, unable to stop, two men came racing down the dock to grab our lines and help us dock. Saints these men were! Disaster was averted, but Cathryn was in tears and Bob was badly rattled.

After tying up and walking to the Harbormaster's Office to register and tell them we'd missed our assigned slip and ended up in the last one on the fairway, we were told the wind was blowing 30-35 mph with gusts to 42 or 50, depending on who you believe. And we spent the next 2 hours listening to Channel 16 on the VHF radio where the Coast Guard was assisting with 3 disasters in the immediate vicinity: one sailboat that capsized and left a person in the water who was later rescued by helicopter; one boat that grounded just outside the Cap Sante Marina and was able to re-float themselves just before crashing onto the rocks (they continued back to the safety of La Connor and the Swinomish Channel, undamaged), and a dis-masted sailboat, the outcome of which we didn't hear.

It took awhile to de-brief this tough experience and try to divine the "take-away lessons", but our equanimity returned after dinner and a glass of wine. Later the Security Guard at the marina helped us handle lines to walk the boat around and move it to the slip we'd been assigned to, after the wind calmed, so whenever we leave here we'll be pointed in the right direction, not requiring a 180-degree turn under almost impossibly tight conditions.

We won't go into all the details of also learning our hot water heater is dead, and having the nicest man in the world, Jeff, a live-aboard here, volunteer to disconnect it from the rest of our pressurized water system so we can at least continue to use cold water on board until we get home. Hot water heaters have to be ordered, so we we'll be showering in shoreside facilities for the duration of this trip.

We're hoping for sweet dreams tonight, not nightmares of what could have been.

On The Way to The San Juans, Tonight Hat Island

Bremerton Yacht Club to Hat (Gedney) Island

Distance traveled: 41.8 miles

Travel time:  5 hours

Yesterday in Olalla it rained cats and dogs, and the NOAA forecast for the next two days was "unsettled", leaving us uncertain whether we could make it to Anacortes in one day to meet up with friends who are joining us for a week in the San Juan Islands. So this morning we slipped our lines at 10am and headed north. What a great decision!

The water was flat, the sky was mostly sunny, and the solar heat through the windows on the flybridge left us driving the boat in short sleeves. Climate change may be a bad thing in many ways, but for boating in 2013 and 2014, it's been wonderful! We've had more dry, sunny weather than normal, while the rest of the country shivered and shoveled snow for the past 6 months.

When we bought this boat, the auto-pilot was more or less functional, but its' performance has deteriorated since then. We tested it today to see if we could live with it rather than replace it, and as it hunted for a proper heading, it swung through 70-degree shifts leaving the track below. We finally gave up and went back to hand-steering. New auto-pilot will be on the list of upgrades before this summer's six-week trip into Canadian waters.

We were astonished when the osprey below, with a fish in it's talons, flew within 5 feet of our flybridge windshield, circled around again with a gull in pursuit, then flew away. Spectacular!

As usual, there were large tow boats and some other traffic out, but clearly the summer boating season has not yet begun, despite the wonderful weather. We mostly had the water to ourselves.

We'd planned to spend the night in Kingston or Edmonds, but were getting such a boost from the out-going tide (hitting 12.9 mph briefly as we traveled Agate Pass; normal speed is approximately 8 mph), so we continued on to Hat (also called Gedney) Island west of Everett. We first came to Hat Island 13 years ago when a neighbor offered us a stay at their summer/weekend home on the island. We were enchanted then, and enchanted again today. The island is 1 mile by 1/2 mile, all privately owned, with a newly-rebuilt marina, 9-hole golf course, yacht/golf club, and private ferry.

We walked the shoreline adjacent to the marina and found this stump/trunk in which someone took the time to carve an eagle, baby bear, and Pooh-bear-like hind end! This is not a totem pole; rather a real tree stump!

While there are 200 homes on Hat Island, very few people live here full-time, and almost no roads are paved. The only access is by private ferry (foot traffic only), so if you want a car to travel from the marina to your home, you barge it over and leave it parked in the parking lot at the marina (with keys in the ignition, we're told). Not that anyone would want to steal these cars. Most of them are rusty and green with algae, looking like they've been sitting here, only occasionally used, for years. 

The afternoon was warm, so after tying up the boat, we sat on the bow in the sunshine for awhile. Later we had a glass of wine on the flybridge, admiring the distant mountains and flat water. We're told we somehow missed seeing the whales as we came into the marina this afternoon.

Road Trip

We have 3 adult children, and all of them moved within the last year. Ryan and Jaime (newlyweds New Years Eve) bought a larger condo in downtown Seattle. August newlyweds Adrienne and Justin bought their first home in Denver. And long-time marrieds (6 years) Mackenzie and Matt moved to Marina del Rey (LA) for new jobs two weeks ago. So for the second time in less than 6 months, we drove a truck from Seattle to deliver furniture and boxes, this time to LA.

We covered the 1,100+ miles in 2 days and arrived at Mackenzie and Matt's new place a block off the beach, with sunshine and temps in the high 60s. They'd already completed the move except for the items we brought, so most of the weekend was spent playing.

We went to a great Italian place in Venice where we sat in an outside courtyard for dinner Friday night. The rest of the weekend included a bike ride to Santa Monica,

 a brief stop at the Santa Monica pier,

and breakfast at the Santa Monica Farmer's Market where we picked up some veggies for later,

a picnic lunch and tour of the J Paul Getty museum and gardens,

and from which we could see Matt's new office tower in Century City,

After a whirlwind weekend, we went for a jog along the beach Monday morning, then headed north at a more leisurely pace than the southbound trip. After wandering through Malibu, we stopped in one of our all-time favorite cities, Santa Barbara, for lunch. Squished between the Pacific Ocean and the mountains, with palm trees everywhere and houses spread out on the hills with views of the ocean, this place has it all! Including great clam chowder at a harbor-front restaurant where we walked the docks ogling pretty boats.











After spending the night in Morro Bay, we headed north again, stopping just north of San Simeon (where Hearst Castle resides, though we didn't take that tour, same as the last two times we traveled Big Sur) to look at the always-hilarious Elephant Seals who haul out by the hundreds (or thousands?) on the beach. They snort, growl at each other, waddle in or out of the water (graceful in the water, but AWKWARD on land) and sleep in piles on top of each other. Fascinating!

We've driven the Big Sur stretch twice before, both times southbound, so this was our first northbound journey. The weather was gorgeous most of the way, though it began raining toward the end. This is really spectacular country, though very remote and windy, so doesn't appeal to us as a place to live. But it sure is worth seeing, including the slow travel speeds around all the curves.

Tonight we're at Point Reyes Preserve, a little north of San Francisco, and the weather forecast calls for sunshine tomorrow, so we have no plan from here.