2010 San Juan Cruise: Part II

Wednesday, July 7

While waiting for the oar locks to arrive, I decided to take a shoreline jaunt in the marina at low tide.  I found a huge concentration of 1 inch long  bubble shell snails (Haminoea virescens) along with their egg masses.  I’ll have to come back tomorrow to collect some eggs for Sammi, a graduate student at Friday Harbor Labs (FHL) who is studying their antibiotic properties.

I then went on a lengthy walk to find out what I could about new outboard motors and what might be wrong with ours.  One thing I learned is that it will probably cost more to fix our motor than it’s worth – this after I’ve already put $450 into it.  We’ll get a new motor sometime after this cruise is over.  The oar locks arrived as scheduled so at least we’ll have some type of dinghy transportation.

Thursday, July 8

I took another low tide jaunt into the mud flats of Cap Santé marina and collected a couple of vials of Haminoea eggs for Sammi. We then cruised to Friday Harbor and dropped anchor just outside the entrance to FHL. Sammi was delighted with the eggs and now owes me twosix packs – her advertised price is one six pack per vial of eggs.

 Haminoea virescens (A "bubble shell" snail)

 

Hobbit Anchored at Friday Harbor

Friday, July 9

There was a -1.9 tide this morning so, naturally, I had to take advantage of the opportunity to row to shore and see what interesting things I could find and photograph.  We then went to Shallow Bay on Sucia where we dropped the anchor in the middle of a moderately large number of boats. 

Saturday, July 10

The tides keep getting better – today the low tide was -2.7.  I rowed the dinghy over to Little Sucia to explore and take pictures. 

Sunday, July 11

Once again the tide was really low – a -3.0.  The lowest tides for this area are -3.2 so this was almost as good as it gets for exploring the beach.  Linda came with me and learned a little about seaweed.  Two in particular caught her interest: Porphyra, better known as nori, which is used to make sushi, and Chondracanthus, better know as Turkish towel because of the rough bumps on the blades.  Turkish towel is used to remove dead skin while taking a bath.  After eating quite a bit of Porphyra on the beach, Linda collected what appears to be about 2 gallons and, as I am typing this, is in Hobbit’s galley washing and preparing it for drying.  A brusque wind came up late in the afternoon and caused Hobbit to start dragging anchor.  Fortunately a buoy was vacant and we moved there.

Porphyra (Nori) on Little Sucia

Processed Nori Drying on Deck

Monday, July 12

Last night may well have been the worst night we’ve ever had on Hobbit!! It’s a good thing we were on a buoy rather than at anchor.  About 12:30 in the morning Hobbit started severely rocking as large rollers, my guess is up to 3 ft., came into the Shallow Bay from either Haro Strait or the Strait of Georgia.  The wind was probably in the 15 kt. range.  We were thrown around all night as Hobbit and all the other boats oriented themselves broadside to the rollers.  Things kept coming loose and clanking around both inside and on deck.  We tried to sleep but to little avail.  Sleeping on our side was out of the question as our whole body then moved back and forth with the rolling of Hobbit.  About 4 a.m. Linda and I fell asleep in exhaustion as our bodies became oblivious to the noise and motion.  It was somewhat calmer when we woke up, but Hobbit was still rocking and rolling.  The bow is covered with black scuff marks from where it rubbed against the buoy.

Right after breakfast we moved to Fossil Bay as the weather forecast indicated more of the same.  With an eastern exposure, Fossil Bay is protected from the westerly winds and swells.  Once again there was a good minus tide so I took the dinghy and explored one of the steep rocky shores.  I find that I now have pictures of most of the common seaweeds and am much more selective of what I take pictures of.  Today I came upon a mother (?) otter and two pups.  I managed to get a few pictures of the mother but never got a good shot of the pups.

In the bright light of afternoon I noted that the bay was pea soup green and that I could see the green swirl as water passed under Hobbit.  I took a sample of the water and, using the microscope I borrowed from Cash, determined that the water had a very dense concentration of single cell organisms, probably diatoms.  Diatoms are thick enough throughout Puget Sound so that, for the first time in my memory, all harvest of bivalves is closed.

Tuesday, July 13

Linda needed Internet to communicate with Vivid so we returned to Friday Harbor.  The trip from Sucia was pretty rough as we crossed the open water before getting to President Channel on the west side of Orcas.  I found myself tacking back and forth to avoid taking 3 -4 ft waves on the beam.  At Friday Harbor we lucked into an empty reciprocal spot on the dock.  While we were in town doing some shopping, two other trawlers rafted along side us. 

I communicated with Charley, my algae instructor, about the bloom at Sucia.  He was back east at a conference and asked if he could get a sample.  As luck would have it, I had a bucket of water with me that I had collected to keep seaweed samples wet.

Wednesday, July 14

After departing the dock at Friday Harbor, we swung by FHL and tied up at the dock long enough for me to drop off a few ounces of water from Sucia for Charley.  Sammi had picked up a 12 pack of beer for me which I asked her to store so I didn’t have to pay duty going into Canada.

It was a beautiful day.  Linda had me stop near the Lopez Island ferry terminal so she could take some pictures of Mt. Baker.  Continuing on to the south end of Lopez Sound we set crab traps for the first time this season – the season opened today in the San Juans.  We then anchored in Mud Bay for about 5 hours.  As we don’t have a motor for the dinghy, we weighed anchor and checked our crab traps.  We got our limit of 10 crabs.  Because a stiff westerly breeze had come up, we went to the shelter of Hunter Bay to drop anchor for the night.

Thursday, July 15

This was really a lazy day.  We went out mid morning to check our crab pots, got our limit, and spent the rest of the day just relaxing.

Friday, July 16

We headed out mid morning totally expecting to get another limit of crabs.  Unfortunately, it soon became clear that someone had helped themselves to the contents of our traps.  We should have brought up 30 to 50 crabs, most of which would, of course, not be keepers.  Instead we brought up only 3. 

Initially we had planned on meeting Curt and Sharon Johnson in Fisherman Bay.  Unfortunately, they got a late start then decided to sail rather than motor after they got to Anacortes.  With an expected arrival time for the Johnsons of 5:00 or later, Linda and I decided to spend yet another night at Friday Harbor to stock up on provisions.  We were fortunate enough to find an open spot for rafting at the reciprocal dock so tied up there for the night.