CB

When we last saw our hero’s they were partying on Lopez Island, so without futher ado.
Sunday, August 6th {Fishersmans Bay Marina, Lopez Island}:

Today was basically a day of recovery and the nursing of hangovers. Everyone was leaving, but none to early. Just about everyone needed to wait till the tide had risen quite abit. A few folks tried it a little to early and got stuck. But luckily the bottom is soft and no damage was done.

We left with plenty of water in the channel for us to float out on. Ghost left at the same time we did or a few minutes later. We sailed togather over to Friday harbor, taking pictures of each others boats as we went:

Ghost was just going to Friday Harbor to refuel and reprovision. We were going there to spend the night in the marina and drop Tom & Beth off at the Ferry on Monday morning so they could get back to Seattle to catch a plane back home to Chicago and back to the real world.

We got docked in a slip that was a little to small for Palarran, but managed it anyway and pumped out the holding tank with a hoopty little portable pump. I ended up getting poop on my forehead! Dammit! That should never happen in an entire life time, and yet it did.

After that little fiasco, we wandered around town for abit and saw the sites. Had dinner in a little mexican restuarant and went back to the boat. Everyone was pretty tired from the week so we just relaxed on the boat and watched a movie and went to bed fairly early.

Monday, August 7th {Friday Harbor Marina, San Juan Island}:

Woke up pretty early, at least early if your on Vacation time. Walked with Tom & Beth to get some coffee and drop them off at the ferry terminal. We wandered up the hill and bought a few groceries for the rest of the trip. There was a little fog but by the time we left it had lifted and the sun was out. We headed towards Reid Harbor on Stuart Island to meet up with Ghost, Lorein and Quest for a convoy north to Sucia Island. But about an hour away from Stuart Island we got a call from Scotty on Ghost who informed us that they had a change of plans and were going to stay in Reid Harbor today and head north tomorrow. We thought about it for abit and decided that we would join them and explore Stuart Island a little more.

Once we got there we found out that Typhoon was there as well and everyone was rafted up to them. We grabbed a mooring ball and dinghied over.

Spent the rest of the day hiking around the island and out to see the light house that we did not see the the last time we were here, below is a picture of Mt. Baker looking across Provost Harbor:

And this is the lighthouse keepers house, which is being restored and turned into a museum:

The rest of the day was spent hanging around on Typhoon just bullshitting and drinking and eating. The crew of Typhoon, Cody & Toby were wanted us all to sail up into Canada with them and we really thought about it, but we REALLY wanted to go up to Sucia, so we decide not to join them.

Tuesday, August 8th {Reid Harbor, Stuart Island to Echo Bay, Sucia Island}:

Woke up fairly early and slipped the mooring lines. Circle Ghost and Typhoon, and glided up close to Typhoon to exchange contact info. Then headed out of Ried Harbor to wait for Ghost to join us for the sail up to Sucia. Quest had already left earlier this morning and was taking a more direct route. We along with Ghost wanted to go out and around the west side of Stuart Island so we could take pictures of each other with the Turn Point Light House in the background:

There was not a lot of wind, actually, there was no wind so we both motored all the way to Sucia Island. We turned on the auto pilot (we really need to give the auto pilot a name) and gave Palarran’s topsides a saltwater bath on the way.

We entered Sucia’s Echo Bay on the incoming tide between North Finger Island and South Finger Island. The tide was really coming in so we got really sideways and flew in. I was odd watching Ghost do the same just ahead of us. I had no idea about the current there so it was good to have Ghost going in ahead of us, so we could see what to expect.

Once in we circled the anchorage, but had decided before hand that we were going to tie up to the State Park lineage. Quest was already there and we saw Pam & Timber’s boat Savarna and Scotty and his family on Petra at anchor as well. We had not seen them since Fisherman’s Bay and the Lat’s and Atts Party.

After getting tied up to the lineage. We broke out the booze, dropped a few crab pots and started fishing. Not too long after that, look who decided to join us in Echo Bay:

The Lady Washington! This boat was used in the filming of both Pirates of the Carribian movies. She was the boat named Interceptor.

After dinner we decided to head to shore for a campfire and some Smores:

Wednesday, August 9th {Echo Bay, Sucia Island}:

We spent the majority of the day hiking around the island, crabbing and fishing. Me and Tawn caught alot of fish, but none of them were big enough to keep. So back they went.

Sucia Island is a great place, there are hiking trails and caves all over the island to explore. Definetly a place to come back to.

We had a big dinner on Ghost and decided to play a board game of Dread Pirate after the kids went to bed. Only we added a slight twist to the rules, if you rolled a 1 on the dice you had to take a drink of rum…..I think Angie and Tawn were cheating and not taking their full shots. :)

Thursday, August 10th {Echo Bay, Sucia Island to Spencer Spit, Lopez Island}:

Another semi early morning wake up, Mike and his daughters on Quest had gotten up early and left for home (everett). They were long gone by the time we left. We sailed south around the east side of Orcas Island. And by Sailed, I mean motored, because there was absolutly no wind what so ever.

The anchoring at Spencer Spit is not very good and it is pretty exposed so we waited around circling the mooring field and grabbed a mooring ball as soon as someone left. Tawn put out a crab pot and we lounged around the boat all day. We took the dinghy to shore and hiked around for a bit. But I could definetly tell the vacation was coming to an end. Pretty bummed about that. Did’nt even take any pictures.

Friday, August 11th {Spencer Spit, Lopez Island to Mackaye Harbor, Lopez Island}:

Got up early and dropped the mooring lines. We decided to go between Spencer Spit and Frost Island. This was tight, but very cool. There would have not been enough room for two boats to pass at the same time,but it was 40+ feet deep. Very wierd feeling. We continued south down Lopez Sound and shot out on the tide through Lopez Pass in to Rosario Straight. No wind and Tawn was below asleep so I motored on checking out the sights with the binos.

We hit some pretty good sized waves and confused seas as we rounded the southeast side of Lopez and entered the Straights of Juan de Fuca. I don’t know if it’s the openness of the Straights or just that we were at the end of out vacation and first trip to the San Juan’s, but this part of the island seemed WAY different than the rest. Seemed really remote.

The wind decided to start blowing just as we rounded Iceberg Island, but since we were almost to our anchorage, we continued to motor in. We picked a good spot and dropped the hook for the last time on our trip. Very good holding. We got there pretty early in the day so we just hung out for a few hours on the boat. All the shoreline is private property so we could only go to shore at one spot. There was a small dock and boat ramp there. We tied up to the dock and walked up the road about a mile to a small country store and got a few supplies and some icecream. We got back to the boat and had a great dinner and went to bed fairly early as we wanted to get up around 6am for the long haul home in the morning.

Saturday, August 12th {Mackeye Harbor, Lopez Island to Shilshole Bay Marina, Seattle}:

Woke up at 6:30am and raised the anchor…….oops. The electric anchor windlass decided to not work today. So I had to hand crank up 100+ feet of anchor chain and anchor. Once that was done we motored out into the Straights of Juan de Fuca. We had the tide with us and the wind until just past Smith Island. At which point the tide coming out of Puget Sound turned against us, and the wind died, oh and the fog rolled in. So we went from cruising along at about 7 knots on a nice sunny downwind run, to creeping along at about 2 knots in complete fog with no wind at all. We motored against the tide for almost 3 hours before it let up and turned at about 2pm.

We almost got plowed over by a big ass motor yacht going full speed in the fog. Luckily he saw us at the last minute and came to a stop about 50 yards to starboard. Talk about scaring the crap out of you. Tawn slept through it. :)
Once we got south of Port Townsend the fog lifted and we got a little bit of wind. Our speed picked up and the sun came back out. We spent the rest of the day just chilling out in the cockpit reading and watching Whidbey Island float by. We also took advantage of the time to get the boat cleaned up and everything put away. So that when we did get home into our slip and tied up, we jumped ship and went into town for a Sushi and then a movie. Tawn had to go to work the next day, so we called it a night after that.

And so ends the tale of our First trip to the San Juan Islands aboard our own boat.

Ok, I know this has been a long time coming. There are several reasons for the delay, most of which is the fact that I am so very good at procrastinating. The other is I wanted to wait till I got the photos from the trip uploaded for all to see.

So now that I have the pictures up, I might as well get the details from the trip posted. I’m gonna pile the trip into two sections, instead of going back and posting each day seperatly.
Me and Tawn had planned to take a 2 week vaction in August on our boat up to the San Juan Islands. We invited her parents, Tom and Beth to join us for the first week of the trip. They flew in on Friday night August 28th.

I’ll start this tale from Saturday morning, July 29th {Shilshole Marina to Port Townsend}

We got up and got the boat ready to go, most of which was already done the day before. The tide was with us, but there was not alot of wind. We got into Port Townsend around 5pm that afternoon. Got a slip at BoatHaven and took a walk around town and had a pizza for dinner.

Sunday, July 30th {Port Townsend to Garrison Bay, San Juan Island}:

Woke up to a slightly overcast day, but once this burned off and we headed north from Port Townsend the sun came out and the wind picked up and we had a great sail up to San Juan Island.

This picture clearly shows just how stressful sailing on Palarran is on a nice sunny day:

Seriously, Tawn you need to relax!! :)

About 2 hours after this picture was taken the wind really picked up and we had to put a reef in the mainsail. As soon as that was done it started to rain, but before we could all get into our foulies, the rain let up and the wind almost completly died and we found ourselfs in the middle of a pod of Killer Whales (Orcas). It was awesome, there had to have been 20-30 of them just swimming all around the boat. Most were aways off, but there were a few that got really close to the boat. Unfortunatly, not ONE of the pictures we took of them turned out? We just could not get the timing right.

After the whale show, we motored the past Lime Kiln Point on San Juan Island and into Mosquito Pass which took us in to Garrison Bay.

This was probably my favorite anchorage the whole time we were in the San Juans. Maybe because it was our first or the sail over and the whale show just before was awesome, i’m not sure. But I really liked it in Garrision Bay.

Monday, July 31st 2006

We hung out in Garrison Bay all day on Sunday and the first half of the day on Monday. We dinghied over to Roche Harbor for a hike around town and the hills outside of town and grabbed a burger for lunch. At the marina in Roche Harbor we saw the best buisness sign of all times on the boat that pumps out the holding tanks of the boats in the marina, i’ll let you judge for yourself if you think it ‘s funny or not:

After lunch and the Pheacal Phreak sighting, we pulled up the anchor and headed further north to Reid Harbor on Stuart Island, where we ran into our best friends, Scott, Angie and their kids on Ghost. We rafted up to them and took a hike around the island and then had a great BBQ on the deck of their boat that night.

Tuesday, August 1st {Reid Harbor, Stuart Island to Deer Harbor, Orcas Island}:

Me, Tawn, Scotty and Zach all got up early and went fishing the next day, but did not catch anything. After breakfast we dropped off the raftup and grabbed mooring ball for a little bit. Scott and Angie were headed to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island and we were going to go to Deer Harbor on Orcas island. We planned on meeting up again on the weekend in Fishermans Bay on Lopez Island. We said our goodbyes and headed our seperate ways.

We had a GREAT sail on the way to Deer Harbor. The wind was blowing about 15knots out of the north. Pictures never really show it but here are a couple to try:

Tawn takes the helm with Spieden Island in the background. Stuart Island is just on the otherside of the this island and is where we started from earlier in the day:

I love this next picture, it’s a little out of focus but I think it is cool as hell. This was taken a few minutes after the previous two. It gives little better idea the wind that day:

Sailing into Deer Harbor was freaking AWESOME, it is, to date one of my most memorable sailing experiences. The wind was blowing about 17 knots around a little island right at the entrance to Deer Harbor. The island was basically blocking the entrance so the opening was only about 100 yards wide, we were pinched up right on the wind. I could not fall off anymore or I would have ran aground on Orcas Island. We were heeled WAY over, more so than in the picture above. There was a 30 foot sloop about 35 yards behind me on the same tack trying for the same opening. We both had HUGE grins on our faces. The boat was flying. As soon as we got to lee of the island the wind dropped, as it was blocked by the small island. We dropped the sails and the boat behind continued on past. We exchanged waves and nods. We continued in to the harbor and dropped the anchor on the 2nd try.

The rest of the day was great, but nothing compared to the sail in….I’ll never forget it.

Wednesday, August 2nd {Deer Harbor, Orcas Island to Blind Bay, Shaw Island}:
After hoisting the anchor we motored out of Deer Harbor and out through Pole Pass….This was a tight fit, deep but man was it tight. Not a lot of wind today, so we motored to Blind Bay. Blind Bay was only about 8 miles from Deer Harbor so we got there pretty early in the day. I grabbed the crab pots and jumped in the dinghy after we got the anchor set and picked a good spot to get some crabs for dinner.

Tawn and her parents took the dinghy to shore to check out the town. I just hung out on the boat and laid in the hammock. For dinner we decided to cook a Low Country Boil on shore with the crab we had caught, or hoped to catch. We did end up getting two good sized crabs for dinner. Me and Tawn went to shore on Blind Island and setup for dinner. As I was cooking, Tawn went back to the boat and got Tom and Beth. The water was boiling when they got back.

I have to admit, the boil turned out better than I could have hoped for. Dinner was awesome:

And the sunset was pretty awesome too:

Thursday, August 3rd {Blind Bay, Shaw Island to Fishermans Bay, Lopez Island}:

Took a dinghy ride all the way to Skull Island for a hike. You have to go to an island called Skull Island.

Just after leaving Blind Bay we were sailing down wind and the boom lift got wrapped around the port spreader. The only way we could get it unwrapped was for Tawn to climb the mast and swing out in the bosuns chair.

Despite the fact that there was very little wind we were having a good time sailing and sailed up wind almost all the way to Parks Bay, where we met up with Scott and Angie on Ghost and Rich and Echo on Lorien. We only hung out for about an hour and we all headed over to Fishermans Bay so we could go in on a rising tide:

The entrance to Fishermans bay was a bit tricky but we all three got in just fine without hitting the bottom at all. Once in, Ghost dropped the hook and we all rafted to them. Great dinner was had and Beth made the best tin of brownies EVER! No forks or plates were needed, we just ate out of the pan.

Friday, August 4th {Fishermans Bay, Lopez Island}:

After breakfast we broke up off the raft first and headed to our slip at Fishermans Bay Marina and got ready for the party. Spent the whole day visiting with old friends, and making new ones. There was a lot of rum and beer being consumed…I did more than my fairshare. Alot more!

Saturday, August 5th {Fishermans Bay Marina, Lopez Island}:

Another great and sunny day in the San Juans. I was nursing a hangover, but Tom and Beth borrowed Angies’s kayak and went for a row around the bay:

More partying and boozing and visiting. I did alot of sleeping and recovering from the night before. But was back in stride by the time the sun was setting. The party was great, here is a picture of the gang:

Here is a picture of Tom and Beth enjoying the band:

And so concludes Week one of our two week trip to the San Juan Islands.