2010 San Juan Cruise Part III with the Navy Yacht Club Everett

 Saturday, July 17

We left Friday Harbor in late morning after doing some last minute grocery shopping and went to Fisherman Bay where the Navy Yacht Club was gathering for their annual summer cruise.  Fisherman Bay has been a favorite of ours for more than 20 years.  It was always our first stop in the San Juans when we owned Magic Medicine.  We dropped our anchor as close as possible to the dock where the rest of the club was staying.  In the evening we rowed to shore and joined the club for a great dinner at the marina’s restaurant.  The marina had a collection of burgees that didn’t include the NYCE.  With the Commodore and Vice Commodore not in attendance, I was asked to present the owner with a club burgee to hang on the wall.

Sunday and Monday, July 18/19

NOAA weather radio had forecast an afternoon small craft advisory and 3 to 4 ft seas for our trip down the Strait of Juan de Fuca to Victoria.  With that in mind, eight of us elected to leave really early in order to catch the 5:41 am slack current through Cattle Pass and get to Victoria before the wind and waves developed.  Unfortunately, the wind waves were already 3 to 4 feet in the Strait.  Four boats turned around and went to Friday Harbor or Roche for the evening.  Two of us headed north up Haro Strait which put the swells on our stern instead of our beam and made the ride much more palatable.  The remaining two boats braved the swells, much to the chagrin of the wives, and continued straight across to Victoria. 

As we approached Lime Kiln Point on the SW side of San Juan Island, there was a noticeable reduction in the size of the swell.  The other boat, Morego, and Hobbit turned west across Haro Strait then down through the Protection Islands and onto Victoria.  Several other boats came across in the afternoon and reported that the seas were greatly diminished.

Linda and I hiked to a market to stock up on some supplies we can’t get in the US.  In particular we purchased some golden syrup, which we got addicted to in England, and Canadian hard cider.

On Monday Linda and I spent most of the day at the provincial natural history museum.  One day wasn’t enough time.  In the evening I went back to see the movie Iron Man 2 on the IMAX screen.

Tuesday, July 20

While we had been to Sidney many times as a result of it being the main ferry port for lower Vancouver Island, this is the first time we have ever had Sidney as a destination.  It is really a beautiful city.  We purchased more golden syrup and rounded out our legal limit of hard cider to bring back into the United States.  While Linda wondered through book stores I worked on cleaning gunk off Hobbit’s hull.  Linda ended up finding an out of print watercolor book by Charles Reid, one of her favorite painters.

Supper was heavy hors d’oeuvres and a potluck on the dock with the yacht club.

Wednesday, July 21

The last time Linda and I were at Butchart Gardens was about 20 years ago when we came with my parents as well as Melinda, Meredith, and Mark.  This time we came by boat and lucked into one of four Butchart Gardens’ mooring buoys right beside the boater’s entrance.  Linda and I had totally different agendas for wanting to spend time in the gardens.  Linda wanted to take close up picture of flowers to use as subjects for her watercolors. I wanted to get ideas for planting our gardens at home.  As a result, we kept having to swap lenses as one of us would see something they wanted to take a picture of.

About 5:30 we rowed back to Hobbit for dinner then rowed back to the gardens for a marvelous concert on the garden lawn by the “Paperboys”.  I liked their music so much that I bought an overpriced CD.

 Sunken Garden at Butchart Gardens

Thursday, July 22

The trip from Todd Inlet to Otter Bay was uneventful.  The weather was beautiful but there was quite a breeze in the open water.  We chose to anchor for the night in what was very solid holding ground.  There was a stiff breeze and the anchor chain spent several hours stretched out tight as a violin string.  In the evening there were hors d’oeuvres and a buffet.  Unfortunately Linda and I ate way too much.  We also gathered for a picture of all cruisers.

 Group Picture at Otter Bay

Friday, July 23

We left Otter Bay about 8:00 on a beautiful morning and headed to Roche Harbor where we planned to clear customs.  In the middle of Haro Strait I spotted the fin of a male orca and called Linda to the bridge.  Much to our delight the orca appeared to be feeding and, consequently was not traveling at a speed which would have made it difficult for us to keep up.  After 15 or 20 minutes we spotted a second orca – this time a female.  After a while they were joined by two more orcas, one of which was intent on jumping out of the water.  I had the camera set on speed priority at 1/200 which resulted in an F stop of about 20.  I switched the camera to continuous shooting as long as I held the shutter down.  All together I took over 280 pictures of the orcas with many of them depicting an animal in the air.  Most were interesting but blurry; however, few turned out really well.  Naturally I notified the club and several others were able to observe the whales.

We cleared customs in Roche – the customs officer was really surly but didn’t give us any real trouble.  Several others who had the same officer got the same impression. 

Unfortunately, about half the boats departed the cruise choosing, instead, to head north or turn south for home.

Orca Jumping in Haro Strait

Reid Harbor, only a few miles from Roche, was the next stop for the club.  We joined others on a float out in the middle of the harbor and had a wonderful period of relaxing sun and conversation.  Ed Baumeier and I took his dinghy out to the mouth of the harbor and set some crab traps.  We only got a couple of keepers in part due to two monster sunflower stars that got into the trap and wrapped themselves around the bait.  We moved the traps and hope to do better tomorrow. 

An impromptu happy hour and hors d’oeuvres was heavily attended and provided our supper.  Fortunately there was much less food than last night.

Saturday, July 24

While at Otter Bay, Curt Johnson handed out a questionnaire on the history of Roche Harbor and Stuart Island.  I managed to answer some of the questions using the Internet.  Today we took the questions with us on a five mile group hike from Reid Harbor to the Turn Point light house on Stuart Island.  Curt is a retired school teacher and really asked probing questions that could only be answered by observing closely while on the hike.  Things like, what’s the date of the newest and oldest tombstone in the cemetery, and what is the connection of Eisenhower’s Secretary of Agriculture, Ezra Taft Benson, to Stuart Island.

One of Curt’s questions was “What languages does the light house keeper speak?”  At the lighthouse I found the keeper, a young woman in her late 20s, holding a discussion with our Commodore, Dale Moses.  She actually spoke first and asked with a smile on her face “do you have a question for me?”  Clearly all of the other hikers had gotten to her first.  After asking what languages do you speak she offered me a glass of wine if I could guess one of them.  For some strange reason my mind went to the TV program “JAG” where one of the stars portrayed a woman Marine Corps LTC who spoke Farsi.  Less than 2 seconds after the light house keeper asked me the question, I said “Farsi.”  The keeper and Dale were dumbfounded as this was a correct answer – she also spoke several other Middle Eastern languages as a result of training in the Navy.  True to her word, she gave me the remains of an open bottle of cold white wine which really tasted good after 2 ½ miles of hiking.

NYCE Hikers at Turn Point Light House Residence.

I’m holding a bottle of wine I won

On the hike back to the boats we stopped at the school house where they were having a bake sale.  Cherry pie and ice cream was great!  I struck up a conversation with one of the locals and learned the connection of Ezra Taft Benson to the Stuart Island.  He was a distant cousin to the family that owns the “Treasure Chest” business.  This family makes Stuart Island shirts and leaves them in large chests.  It is an honor system business in which you leave no payment.  You take the shirt home and either send them a check or pay online.  The name of the father is Ezra Taft Benson IV.  I think I was the only one to get that answer correct on Curt’s quiz.

After returning to the float, Ed Baumeier and I went out to pull the crab pots.  We got several more rock crabs and a Dungeness.  The final tally was 6 of each species.  With 12 crabs we had enough for an impromptu potluck/crab feed which was a lot of fun.

Stuart Island Crab Feed

Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, July 25 – 27

Once again Linda and I chose to anchor while the rest of the club went to the dock at Friday Harbor.  We rowed to shore to join everyone for an hour of bowling followed by supper.  The bowling included 3 frames where you could, optionally, get extra points for rolling the ball on your knees, backwards, between your legs, or with your off hand (left hand for me).  Scores were averaged by boat.  Somehow I managed to have the high score for a male and won a lighter in the shape of a perch.  I also won Curt Johnson’s Roche Harbor/Stuart Island history contest and chose a $50 gift certificate at Anthony’s restaurant for our prize.

On Monday Linda spent much of the day working for Vivid while I worked on Hobbit and went to Friday Harbor Labs to talk with people.  Tuesday morning we had every intention of leaving but the warm sun just made us feel good and we saw no reason to pick up anchor and leave.  We did row to shore for a few supplies and to peruse a used book store where Linda managed to find a bunch of water color books she wanted.

Wednesday, July 28

For the second day we woke to fog and an outside temperature of about 50 degrees.  After waiting till the fog lifted, we went to the Friday Harbor Marina to fill up with water then went exploring places we haven’t been before.  First stop was Turn Island which is a state park only a couple of miles from Friday Harbor.  This looks like it would be a wonderful place to take Cash and Catie if the weather is calm and you can catch a buoy.

We then went to Blind Bay which is on the north side of Shaw Island – a spot which Curt Johnson says he stays at every time they come to the San Juans.  We were quite surprised at the large number of boats anchored there.  It is a beautiful bay but subject to wakes from boats passing in the channel between Shaw and Orcas Islands as well as from the ferry.  We rowed to shore then took a short hike to the general store by the ferry dock where we bought ice cream cones.

Thursday, July 29

Once again the morning dawned cool and foggy – 47 degrees reported in Bellingham.  Two blankets on the bed made sleeping cozy and made it a struggle to get up into a cold boat Having a good, reliable generator to run both the stove and space heater, not to mention the battery charger, is really making this cruise a lot more pleasant than with our old generator.  After turning the generator off, I tried the diesel heater.  True to form, it didn’t work.  This is probably the biggest piece of junk that came with Hobbit.

Mid morning we cruised up to Fossil Bay, Sucia Island to meet up with Curt and Sharon Johnson.  The plan is for Curt and me to go diving tomorrow.  After tying up at a buoy, Linda and I rowed to shore and took a 3+ mile hike out to Johnson Point.  What a gorgeous day it turned out to be.

Friday, July 30

Last night we closed the boat up expecting another cool night.  Instead, it got hot and stuffy.  I got up in the middle of the night to open windows then threw off one of the blankets.  In the morning I spotted three otters foraging near Hobbit – mom and two pups.

At 9:00 in the morning Curt and I loaded our dinghies with dive gear then he towed me to the entrance of Fossil Bay.  We went diving on the south side of the south point of the entrance.  It is more and more fun diving or tide pooling when you know the names of what you’re looking at.  My quest to identify one bladed red algae was finally fulfilled; we saw lots of “slimy leaf” or Schizymenia pacifica which had blades up to 2 feet or more.  The identification, which has eluded me based on samples washed up on shore or in my crab pots was easy for a fresh sample.  After our gloves were off the blades were really slimy.  Back at Hobbit Linda took my sample and tried her luck at pressing the algae onto water color paper.  We’ll know in a few days if it worked.  Two other red seaweeds new to me were abundant:  “Prickly pear” (Opuntiella californica) which superficially resembles prickly pear cactus, and “kelp-fringe nori” (Porphyra gardneri) which is an epiphyte on kelp.  Unfortunately I dropped my sample of Opuntiella on the way back to the boat and couldn’t take a picture.

I think this is the first dive where I’ve seen a sea pen.  However, it looked strange to me; I have my doubts that it was the common orange sea pen, Ptilosarcus gurneyi, because the color was off white rather than orange, and the shape didn’t match what I’ve seen in aquariums and at FHL.  We also saw lots of solitary or cup corals, several species of nudibranchs, and several ling cod in the 5 – 10 pound class.  I think one of the nudibranchs was Aldisa tara which is only about an inch long and has a reported range of southern BC.  The limited range is probably because its discovery wasn’t that many years ago.  However, it could have been a member of the genus Adalaria.  Two other nudibranchs we saw were the sea lemon, Peltodoris nobilis, and large numbers of what I believe were white dendronotids, Dendronotus albus, feeding on hydroids.  Unfortunately, we didn’t see any abalone.  The dive was 54 minutes down to a depth of 71 feet.

We had planned on meandering towards home after the dive, but it turned out to be another beautiful day in paradise and we couldn’t bring ourselves to move.  Mid afternoon I started rowing around the bay and found another otter.  After a while it got tired of me taking pictures and climbed out of sight onto an island. 

Otter at Fossil Bay

Interesting that the green algae bloom is still present.  It first becomes visible mid morning in shallow water along the edge of the bay.  As the day progresses the bloom covers more and more area.  By evening a large percentage of the bay has thick clouds of green algae hovering just below the surface.  About 6:00 you can see it start to settle – there is a clear layer at the surface and down below is a thick cloud of green.  I collected another sample for Charley.  Hopefully this time he will be able to find some life in it.

Saturday, July 31

The morning was gorgeous in Fossil Bay.  However, looking east towards Bellingham and the end of Orcas Island I could see thick fog banks.  After breakfast we untied from the buoy and went down the west end of Orcas towards Friday Harbor.  As we turned eastward at Jones Island we ran into fairly heavy fog.  Fortunately I had decided to do some experimenting with the autopilot hooked to the computer at the lower helm.  Thus, I was able to watch our progress on a chart plotter while looking out for other boats with the radar.

We dropped the anchor close to Friday Harbor Labs so I could easily take Charley’s algae sample to shore.  While there I ran into Sammi and picked up the beer she owed me for giving her two vials of egg masses early in the cruise.  Back at Hobbit I did the monthly financial summary before we left to spend the night at Spencer Spit.

While walking along the road at Blind Bay, Shaw Island, Linda and I had noticed people using drift wood for yard ornamentation.  Believing that this approach might look good in our “deer garden” I rowed to shore and picked up 4 large pieces of wood with character.

Sunday, August 1

A cool and foggy morning. We have no plans.  Just before noon it was still cool and foggy so we decided to weigh anchor and head towards home.  Rosario Strait was nearly flat as the fog hung over the water holding visibility to about a mile.  Our timing was nearly perfect for Deception Pass which was near slack when we went through.  With no ambition to make it a long day, we caught a buoy at Hope Island and stayed for the night.

Monday, August 2

As we woke in the morning Linda suggested, only half in jest, that we really could turn around and head back to the San Juans.  I must admit that the suggestion was tempting.  Had it been a bright sunny day I might have taken her up on it.  However, it was another day with fog and a low ceiling hanging over us and the thought of all the weeds and yard work facing me made me want to get to work.

The fog and low ceiling stayed with us for the first 4 hours of the trip home.  For the last hour and a half, however, it was a perfect day to be out on the water.  As usual, coming home was bittersweet.  We still have yet to be out on Hobbit so long that we didn’t want to stay longer.  We end this journal with a watercolor Linda did of Orcas cruising Puget Sound.