To pick up where we left off in the last post, we had left Poulsbo on Sunday morning around 8:30am. This would get us through Agate Passage with a following tide and that tide should carry us most of the way to Port Townsend. The original plan was to continue all the way up to Garrision Bay on San Juan Island in one long day. But there was no wind and the tides worked against us a little, so we decided to stop in Port Townsend on Sunday night. We stayed in Boat Haven Marina and walked into town for a pizza. (Guess, what Cleve likes Olives now!)
This is the Port Townsend Water front:
We got up early the next morning and continued the trek north. About half way across the straights of Jaun De Fuca we spotted a friends boat “Gaucho”, he did not see us until I phoned him and got his attention.
Being that it is August there is typically no wind in the San Juans. Today be no exception. We motored almost the entire way. A little sailing early in the AM and a few miles in the Afternoon. We gave up sailing just south of Lime Kiln Point and motored the rest of the way to Garrison bay and dropped anchor. The anchorage was a little more crowded that I thougth it would be, but not too bad.
Hiked around on shore and checked out Britsh Camp, site of famous or not so famous “Pig War”. Which arose way back in the day (1859) between the US and Britian over a border dispute. It got started by an american farmer shooting a british farmers pig on the island. Read all about here if you’d like: Pig War on WikiPedia
We also dinghied over to Roche Harbor for a stroll around and to stretch our legs, and to prove it, Tawn took a picture of me and Cleve walking. The columns in the picture are of some old ass millionaire idea of a picnic area or something?? It’s called The Mousolium…whatever:
The next day found us on Stuart Island, on a mooring ball in Ried Harbor. The main attraction of Stuart Island is the Turn Point Light house. It’s a 2 or 3 mile hike from the anchorage. We made Cleve do it anyway. :) So much for tough wanna be Marine! :P
We left Stuart island and headed for Tawn’s favorite anchorage in the San Juans. Blind Bay, which is on Shaw Island. This is the site of the famous A.R.E, in which Me, Scotty, Dave and Rich dove to retrieve Scotty’s stuck anchor from last years trip. Me and Tawn also did a dive on the same boat this time as well:
We also took some picutres underwater as well, but have not gotten those developed yet.
Blind bay is also the site of me and Tawn’s favorite vacation tradition. Sitting at the mouth of the bay is a small island, Blind Island. The tradition is simple enough but fun. First you have to have set out the crab traps and have caught a crab or two. Once the crab is caught, we dinghy ashore with booze and the makings for a Low country Boil and a large pot to cook it all in.
Eat your crab and enjoy the sunset:
We spent the next night tied to one of the Mooring balls at Rosario resort. This was pretty fun. The resort is an old school resort, it totally reminds me of the resort in Dirty Dancing. I kept expecting to see Patrick Swayze and Baby practicing somewhere. Never did though, and remember “NOBODY puts Baby in a corner!”. We made good use of the Swimming pools, hottubs and bar while we where there.
Here is a really bad picture of the resort:
The next 2 days we spent at Sucia Island. This is in our opinion the best spot in all of the San Juans. It’s remote, no one around. Cool hiking, camping and fishing. We did lose one of our crabpots though. That sorta sucked. We hiked all over the island and caught some rock fish for dinner one night. Actually, Cleve caught them. I did’nt catch anything.
We decided to give Cleve a break and head back to Friday harbor for some civilization. We tied up in front of the customs dock and they let us stay there for the night. We checked out the town, at some chinese food, and went to a movie. The next day was an early one, due to the long trip we had planned and we wanted to time the tides right.
With absolutly on wind we left Friday harbor around 7am and motored all they way back to Port Ludlow where we anchored for the night. Port Ludlow is boring! Very boring…not sure why everyone always raves about it? Not that I don’t mind a nice chilled out anchorage, but I’ve always heard from my boating friends that Port Ludlow is a great place to go and lots to do there. It was very scenic, except for all the apartment complexes on shore, but there was nothing on shore to do, maybe we missed something? Not sure, probably won’t go back to find out. Of course, I say the same thing about Mackaye Harbor on Lopez Island as well. It’s a nice place but nothing to do and I won’t go back. When in reality, both of these harbors are actually pretty cool places, but both have the unfortunate honor of being the last place we stopped on our last night of vacation. This seems to leave a stink on a place for me.
Anyway, as we were on the last leg home and only a few miles from the marina, I spotted our friends Bob, Sheri and thier girls (and Tabor). They had been using our slip for the last couple weeks and were headed north for a month on their own vacation. We bobbed in the middle of the sound for a few minutes and caught up, then they headed north and us south to home.
BOO! The End.
Oh and as usual, i’ve include a crappy little map of the trip.
