San Juans with Melinda, Cash and Catie

After completing a lot of maintenance work on Hobbit including a new bridge enclosure and putting on 5 coats of 2-part epoxy paint on the upper helm station, we were ready to depart on a two month summer cruise.  We planned to leave for River’s Inlet the first thing Wednesday morning, June 5.  The evening of June 4 we got a call from Melinda asking if she, Cash and Catie could join us for a week starting after school was out on Friday.  Given that grandchildren trump just about everything, we agreed and slipped our departure day in order to meet them in Anacortes.

June 6, 2013, Thursday

It’s incredible how much stuff gets loaded onto a boat when you head out on a long cruise.  Even after a pick-up load and several car loads of stuff, we still just barely got everything into the car for our last trip to the Naval Station.  We departed just before noon on a lovely, CAVU day and had a leisurely cruise to Hope Island where we caught a buoy for the night.  Later in the season, particularly after July 1 when crabbing season opens, the 4 buoys are almost always full – today we were the only boat.

June 7, 2013, Friday, Anacortes

I figured that it would be best to go up the Swinomish Channel on an ebb tide and timed our departure from Hope Island accordingly.  Much to my surprise when the tide goes down in Saratoga Passage, water flows south in the Swinomish Channel.  Totally counterintuitive.  Naturally that meant we had a significant current against us for almost the entire trip to Anacortes.  At the Cap Sante Marina we lucked into a reciprocal spot from the Anacortes Yacht club.  MC&C arrived in the evening.

June 8, 2013, Saturday, Anacortes

Weather reports were confusing.  Marine weather that I got on my phone reported a small craft advisory while other sources reported wind less than 10 kts. While mulling over what to do, the 5 of us walked to town and had a great breakfast.  When we returned to Hobbit, another boat had arrived in the adjacent reciprocal spot; they reported rough seas and wind particularly when crossing Rosario Strait.  Based on this and the confusing electronic reports, we elected to stay another day at Anacortes.  All of us just sort of messed around and whiled away time grocery shopping.

June 9, 2013, Sunday, Roche Harbor

Cash had a strong desire for clam chowder and asked if we could go to Mud Bay to dig some clams.  As we were in a spring tide cycle with good minus tides in the middle of the day, this was an excellent idea.

Before departing Anacortes I topped off the fuel tank then let Cash drive Hobbit out of the marina.  The day was beautiful but crossing Rosario Strait was challenging.  There were areas of significant standing waves which we had to go around and areas with enough chop and swell that Catie got upset.  We maintained a crab angle of about 20 degrees to maintain our course across the Strait.

We anchored in Mud Bay then dinghied to shore.  It didn’t take long for us to get all the clams we wanted.  In the process, C&C managed to get mud all over everything.  Cash wasn’t allowed into Hobbit until he changed his clothes. I had to take the dinghy out and wash it down with buckets of salt water.

Much to our surprise C&C weren’t much interested in going to Spencer’s Spit and I didn’t want to stay anchored in Mud Bay because of exposure to moderate wind.  After some discussion we decided to go to Roche Harbor and anchor for the night.

Catie at Mud Bay

Cash digging clams

June 10, 2013, Monday, Fox Cove, Sucia Is.

Cash woke up commenting that Roche Harbor wasn’t anything special and didn’t see why we came here.  Nevertheless, after breakfast and an hour of complaining by C&C we took the dinghy to shore.  Fairly quickly we went to the bocca ball court and spent some time playing.  Before long the complaining went away and there were smiles on everyone’s faces.  From the bocca courts we walked to the sculpture park.  Back at Roche Harbor we bought ice cream and a few groceries before returning to Hobbit.  Cash confessed that he actually enjoyed Roche.

Our next stop was English Camp which, in spite of all her trips to the San Juan’s, Melinda had never seen.  Garrison Bay at a minus tide was iffy; there were times when the depth sounder simply went blank.  From English Camp we went to Sucia where we tied up to a buoy in Fox Cove.   Fox Cove is the easiest jumping off spot for tomorrow’s obligatory trip to Little Sucia where we will beach comb during a minus tide.

Linda and Catie playing bocca ball

Cash and Linda mulling over a sculpture

  

June 11, 2013, Tuesday, Fossil Cove, Sucia Is.

We woke this morning to Hobbit rocking and rolling significantly.  Swells were coming into the cut between Sucia and Little Sucia and our buoy was, unfortunately exposed.  Fairly quickly we untied and moved Hobbit to a more protected buoy.  I spied a pair of otters near the bank in Fox Cove and jumped in the dinghy with my camera to investigate.  They allowed me to get surprisingly close as they fed and went ashore to clean themselves. 

Fox Cove otter

As low tide approached we went to shore for a couple of hours of tide pooling.  Cash is growing up and I allowed him to do the ferrying which meant that he was in the dinghy by himself at times.  He is definitely more serious while driving but still has some maturing to do.  

After beachcombing, we verified that there was space on one of the docks in Echo Cove then moved Hobbit.  We really needed the opportunity for C&C to be able to walk around on shore.  Cash promptly left on a “short” walk and ended up at Johnson Point which is more than 2 miles away.  This was a good day.

June 12, 2013, Wednesday, Fossil Cove, Sucia Is.

Another nice day at the dock.  Cash and I took a long walk down the southern shore of Sucia.  Cash had fun looking for fossils while I took lots of pictures of marine life. Almost since MC&C arrived the card game “Speed” has been played for several hours a day.  Today was no exception.  I find it amazing that when we’re in paradise, time is spent inside the boat playing cards.

Given the number of days we have not had a good charge, we need to put 3 – 4 hours on the generator. One interesting thing we did today was turn Hobbit around so the generator would not be facing the dock where it provides noise and minor diesel smell for others.  What was interesting was our use of the dinghy for a stern thruster.  After untying Hobbit, Cash held a bow line while, with the dinghy attached to the swim step, I used its motor to move Hobbit in a half circle.

Cash and Catie playing in the rocks on Sucia

June 13 - 15, 2013, Rolfe Cove, Matia Island State Park

Leaving Sucia we headed for Patos where we hoped to get one of the two mooring buoys.  Unfortunately they were both taken and we decided to try Matia Island.  Matia is a small island about half a mile long and is located 3 miles east of Sucia.  It is part of the San Juan Islands National Wildlife Refuge.  Initially we tied up to one of the two buoys in the bay on the east end of the island but then moved to the small dock which can hold up to 4 boats.  We had planned on staying only one knight, but C&C asked to stay a second then a third night.  It is a wonderfully peaceful place much like Sucia but with fewer people.

During our 3 days there most of us walked the one mile loop trail through the woods.  I went tidepooling one day and Cash and I went fishing a couple of times for ling cod. Unfortunately he didn’t even get a bite (I didn’t have a license).  We saw otters surprisingly close to Hobbit every day.  The one down side of Matia was mosquitoes.  They weren’t present in huge numbers but there were enough so that Cash and Linda stayed up in the evening till they managed to kill the few that were buzzing around.  There was lots of friendly discussion with other boaters.

Looking down on Hobbit at Matia

  

My grandson, at 14 years of age, is constantly into things and unable to just relax.  On the second day he took a walk up the hill through the woods and down onto the rocky shore.  Once there he decided he couldn’t climb back up the rocks and called for me to come get him in the dinghy.  He didn’t bring enough of his own clothes so started borrowing mine.  One sweat shirt and one long sleeve shirt promptly got totally dirty and now he has no clothes that are clean.  He accidentally touched the Magma grill while I was heating it up and burned the fingertips of all 4 fingers on his left hand.  He soaked his hand in the ocean for about 10 minutes then soaked his fingers in ice water for several hours.  A woman on one of the other boats was a retired nurse and gave the advice to use ice water.  She thinks the fingertips will blister and gave advice on what to do if they do blister.

Cash driving Melinda in the dinghy

One of the key activities is keeping all the phones, iPads, iPods, Kindles, etc. charged.  Cords and chargers seem to occupy every horizontal surface.

June 16, 2013, Sunday, Friday Harbor

On another beautiful day we departed Matia and headed to Friday Harbor.  The garbage is now taking up quite a bit of space on the bridge.  Probably 70% or so is made up of drink containers: pop, water, wine, beer, butane, etc.  We are also getting low on clean clothes, water and many staples after so many days in the islands.

Friday Harbor is always a fun spot that C&C really enjoy.  First stop was for ice cream then some wine and other supplies at the market.  Cash wanted fish and chips so we went to The Hungry Clam, a restaurant we have liked in the past.  Unfortunately, the fries were so greasy that Melinda and I were feeling gastric distress by the time we got back to Hobbit.  Linda also was not feeling too good.  We won’t go back there again.

June 17 - 18, 2013, Jones Is.

First chore for me was to do the laundry followed by buying a spare fresh water pump in case our current one, which sounds questionable, dies during the journey.  While I did the laundry others took showers then Linda finished the grocery shopping.  In the early afternoon we departed Friday Harbor and went to Jones Island.  Cash drove Hobbit the entire way from leaving the slip to guiding us up to the mooring buoy.

Soon after arriving I took C&C to shore for some exercise and to pay for the buoy.  While filling out the paper and writing a check, C&C asked to head down one of the trails on their own.  Given that it was a small island with well manicured trails, I said ok.  A few minutes later I followed after them but they were not to be found.  Eventually I completed the 1.2 mile trail around the west end of the island back to the dock.  There I found that the dinghy was back at Hobbit.  After getting back to Hobbit I learned that C&C had wandered off of the trail onto a steep hillside overlooking the bay we were moored in.  They had passed a sign that said “Warning, loose rock” but ignored it even though Catie only had on flip flops.  The hill angle was probably in the 50 – 60 degree range.  Catie got scared and started screaming. Cash tried to comfort her and Melinda asked another boater for help.  Eventually a man walked out the hillside and rescued Catie.  Important lesson learned.

On the 18^th, we were able to move to the dock.  Being on the dock is always desirable with C&C on board.  They didn’t want to take a hike, perhaps still somber over yesterday’s incident.  A huge number of children, perhaps as many as 100, were unloaded by a small flotilla.  The children were considered “at risk” because of their socio-economic circumstances and were brought to Jones Island for a picnic and to view marine life.  Three divers collected starfish, whelks, sea cucumbers, etc for the children to see.  Upon learning that none of the divers were naturalists, I offered my services as well as the loan of a small aquarium I take for the benefit of C&C and photography.  It’s always a lot of fun working with children.

June 19 – 20, Friday Harbor

We reluctantly left Jones Island fairly early in the morning.  I want to come back here some time when there are minus tides as the shoreline, particularly on the west end, seems really good for tidepooling.  Cash is developing a good understanding of how the propeller and rudder work and is starting to understand how to use the GPS and autopilot.  I wish I could spend the summer training him. 

Cash drove us from the Jones Island dock to the entrance of Friday Harbor where I took over.  We lucked into a dock side reciprocal and, just as we tied up Contessa came into view.  Contessa is a 47 foot wooden sailboat owned by Kent and Cathy Wehle. Contessa is moored next to us at the navy marina. They will accompany us on the trip north. As they arrived the other dock side reciprocal opened up.  The seven of us walked into town and had lunch at the Bluewater Bar and Grill.  This time the fish & chips was excellent.  We will eat there again. 

After lunch everyone went their separate way.  Catie and I went to the whale museum then to the ice cream shop.  Cash dragged Linda to the Arctic Raven; a northwest Indian art gallery.  Linda reports that “it was like he was in church—very quite and respectful of his surroundings.”

We had planned to see MC&C off on the ferry back to Anacortes then leave with Contessa for the Broughtons. We did see the three off, but decided to stay securely tied up at the dock as there was now a gale warning and moderate rain.  After arriving at Anacortes, Melinda called to say that even the ferry was rocking enough to upset Catie.  The rest of the day was spent cleaning the boat and catching up on e-mail.

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