Crew:



Leaving Port Townsend

Marrowstone Lighthouse

Marrowstone Lighthouse

Being chased by boats and ships in lousy weather

Fort Flagler

Bella Keeping Watch

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Our final vacation day and the autumn rains finally came.  I'm so glad we were blessed with great weather throughout our trip so this bad weather the final day wasn't too bad.  I donned foulweather gear and kept dry despite the pouring rain.

Once again we were bucking the tide, but using the lessons I learned from the Race To The Straits I stuck to the shore and made decent time despite the adverse tide actually beating a tug and tow in the middle of the channel.

Nothing much eventful today - just a wet day working against the tide and finally arriving home after a wonderful first cruise on Andiamo.  This is really what this boat was supposed to be for us, both a day-sailing-racing boat to enjoy on weekdays evenings and weekends, but also a family cruiser to get us away for some rest and relaxation.

Leaving Friday Harbor

Cattle Pass Lighthouse

Sarah keeping watch

Sea Lion in
Strait of Juan De Fuca

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Fortunately and unfortunately, we are headed home.  Instead of making a long trip home we divided it in half with a stop in Port Townsend.  The trip to Port Townsend was smooth even though we didn't get to sail.  We got to see plenty of sea life - porpoises, sea lions, birds, etc.

I got a bit nervous when my computer/auto pilot controlled course nearly took us through a kelp bed.  A quick correction got us back on track.  As we approached Admiralty Inlet we heard the call over the VHF about a test of flares that would happen at Point Wilson - which we were just in time to see.  That was the first time I'd seen flares in the day light, and I'm glad to have the experience.  The demonstration was for a huge kayak festival at Fort Wilson that made the beach look like a rainbow of composite hulls.

Unfortunately we weren't able to find moorage at Point Hudson Marina, so we went to the larger marina where moorage was easier to find.  We soon headed off to town for a meal - where we found a highlight of the vacation.  After a bit of searching which ended up with Sarah and I heading into separate art galleries asking recommendations.  We ended up with a great Thai place and an absolutely superb family run Italian Restaurant.  The Italian restaurant was a hike up the hill, but we made it and were very glad we did.  Lanza's had one table left when we arrived and with some smiles we captured this last table for ourselves and proceeded to enjoy a fabulous meal that finished off with a family secret - 'Grandma's Coconut Cake - an off menu dessert that was excellent.  This will definitely become a regular stop on our sailing travels.

Our last night cruising was finished off with a couple more episodes of West Wing... our comfort zone.

Family Photo at Turn Point

Jamie at Turn Point


Turn Point Lighthouse
Keeper's House

Sarah and Dogs
Hiking on Stuart

Our PortaBote (Center)


Bella Thinking of Dinner

Doesn't Look Pleased...

Boca's Favorite Cockpit Position

Sarah checking for moorage

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Another day starting with a hike - this time across the Island to the lighthouse at Turn Point stopping along the way to take a peak at the honor system T-Shirt bins and the school house.  The views from the lighthouse was amazing as always, and we'd enjoyed a great picnic lunch at the keeper's house porch while watching many boats pass by.

Upon returning to the boat, we packed up and headed out for Friday Harbor to start the beginning stage of the end of our vacation, the turn south towards home.  The initial part of the trip was under power as the wind was light from the South, and San Juan Island was blocking the wind until we entered San Juan Channel.  Finally we got a nice wind, and we set sail and enjoyed a nice beat upwind tacking near some kayakers heading for Jones Island, then heading for the Eastern shore of San Juan Island where we admired quite a few beautiful homes along the shore's cliff.

I really enjoyed this sail pursuing a number of other sailors on the way to Friday Harbor.  We were able to sail nearly into the harbor before dousing and heading into the marina.  The marina was hard to reach and moorage tough to find, but we worked and found moorage after a bit of a ballet with the boat.  After mooring we headed into town for a walk and meal.  Sarah bought a book the local bookstore, and we had - not really enjoyed - a mediocre meal the Ale House.  What is it about the restaurant's on the island?  This one charged high, premium prices for food that made Red Robin look like a gourmet restaurant.

In all it was a great day - I really enjoyed the hike and the sail and even enjoyed the meal with Sarah.  This is what I really love about cruising in the San Juans.

Crew:



Andiamo in Reid Harbor

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Started the day off with a good breakfast and a walk around Victoria including some shopping, we even stopped by may favorite little hibachi restaurant for a Japanese lunch/show.  Though, I imagine we would've like to stay the night in Victoria we headed out due to the expensive moorage - used to be cheap when the dollar was strong, but $50 a night is a bit steep.  So we headed out, once again against the tides making for a longer trip than ideal.

To avoid tides, we took the inside route around Trial Island which was a bit trickier that I would have liked, but seemed somewhat effective to fight against the tides.  We had a smooth trip to Roche (no fog) where we cleared customs and grabbed some ice in Roche and then headed onto Stuart Island and Reid Harbor where we found a mooring buoy and settled in for the night with a great dinner, and some more West Wing.

A small summer home
in Roche Harbor


Roche Harbor Marina


Sunset in Roche Harbor

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What an interesting day - it started off slow.  We made a much needed stop for fuel - seems our fuel tank is fairly small and the indicator is a bit pessimistic showing an empty tank when there's still about 1/4 of a tank left.  Things started to get interesting when the fog delayed the seaplane that was supposed to deliver a key to our friends Nic and Emilie George.  We used the delay to walk around and enjoy an early lunch, which was rather disappointing - lots of cash for a pretty mediocre burger and fish & chips.  I don't know why I keep remembering the cafe food being better than it really is.

After a lunch, we finally gave up on the seaplane delivery (after several hours of delay) and handed the key over to the USPS for an overnight delivery - not nearly as cool, but nonetheless effective.  We set out from Roche after seeing the fog was starting to break focused on heading to Victoria.  The voyage through Mosquito Pass certainly saved time, but was a bit of a nail biter since it's been years since I've navigated this rather shallow specific channel.  Once we got out of Mosquito Pass, we headed directly for the corner of Discovery Island.  While we couldn't see the island due to fog, the fog seemed to be thinning so we didn't worry.

The next interesting bit came at the corner of Discovery Island.  Our plans have been pretty casual, and unfortunately this casual planning didn't work so well with finding favorable tides - this became very clear when we were traveling under auto-pilot controlled by the notebook PC when we hit the jet stream of incoming tide coming off Sea Bird Point on Discovery Island which must having been running at close to 5-6 knots causing the boat to turn about 90-100' in a second or two nearly knocking me off my feet.  After this turn, the running got quite slow as we bucked a fast tide.

Then the plot got thicker... with fog.  A second bank of fog rolled in as we closed in Victoria.  Sarah had retired below with the dogs for a nap while I continued to encounter more and more fog, going from a mile of visibility and slowly decreasing to a 1/4 mile then a hundred yards.  This is when the radar/chart plotter became my good friend.  Working with the radar, I was able to feel comfortable even as the visibility decreased less than 100 yards.  With it I was able to see the shoreline and the boats popping out of the fog well ahead of time.

I only got scared when a the entrance marker that I thought was a large buoy which should have been about 10' x 4' around, turned out to be the size of a small lighthouse when it appeared only about 50 yards away.  We were safe, but it was more than a bit unsettling to see a lighthouse where your expected to see a buoy.  Though it didn't seem like it was possible, the fog got thicker.  This made things even more interesting but lucky for us a whale watching skiff popped out of nowhere behind us and lead the way into the Inner Harbour.

We found our way to the customs dock, cleared customs and then headed on to the marina in front of the Empress Hotel and finished the day off with a walk through downtown snacking on sushi and enjoying some dessert at the Cactus Club Cafe, and finally a couple more episodes of West Wing to cap the night.

Andiamo at Fossil Bay

Fossil Bay

Jamie driving the dinghy
 

Sarah hiking on Sucia Island

Shelter at Fossil Bay

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After a peaceful night at anchor, we enjoyed a great breakfast then headed off of a hike on Sucia that took us all over the island - only after pulling anchor and relocating to a vacant mooring buoy.  Our first mooring buoy tie maneuver left some to be desired, I'm sure we'll get better.

 It was wonderful to stretch our legs and the dogs enjoyed the hike as well.  The island was as beautiful as ever, and left Sarah and I wishing that we were in better shape so we could do the more challenging hikes without feeling too 'challenged'.

We returned to the boat, and debated the relative merits of staying put for the evening or moving onto Roche Harbor for the evening.  I won and got to head to Roche, even though Sarah was advocating just chillin' at the island (I'll now admit - we should have just chilled).  The trip to Roche was fine, once again not much wind so we motored the entire way.  I got to play MacGuyver when Sarah showed me the a screw fell out of her glasses.  I lucked out when I found some small screwdrivers in our tool kit and a couple spare pairs of sunglasses that the boat has collected.  Thanks to whomever left their sunglasses since it made it possible for Sarah to see without her contacts.

Roche was as wonderful as ever.  There were challenges finding a good anchorage in the harbor due to our rather meager anchor rode (about 200'), but with some time we found a spot that worked out.  The dogs enjoyed the feel of solid ground, as they're not quite big fans of the boat yet at least when compared to the shore.  I spent some time in the evening working on plans to get a key to client who had a house closing early - the best plan I could find was sending them a key on a flight from Roche to Lake Union - only $20 - not a bad deal.

Sailing Out of Port Townsend


Boca Seeking Comfort

Bella Hangin Out

James Island

Dog Nap

Sarah Reading


An Artsy Shot of Sarah's Tattoo

Bella Checking Out The Water

Time For My Close Up

Cliff House on Orcas

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The morning started off with me walking the dogs through the town to the 'general store' to pickup a lantern and a pillow to clear up a few holes in our trip provisioning.  After returning to the boat, we made quick breakfast and headed out to catch the favorable tides so we would be able to make to Sucia Island without too much delay.

The winds around the entrance to the Strait of Juan De Fuce were good so we struck out sails and enjoyed a close reach with great boat speeds and a favorable tide, but about 1/3 of the way across the strait we had to furl the jib and start making better speeds over ground so we could actually get to our destination.  We enjoyed a brief air show from the Whidbey Naval Air Station and many wonderful sights of the islands.

The winds were quite uncooperative either too light or from the wrong direction for most of the day, but we did finally got a break when we finally turned the corner of Orcas Island and connected with the southern most part of the Strait of Georgia.  Even though they were Northerly's, I took advantage and set the jib for a nice long beat to Sucia.  After a couple hours and a three tacks we made it within a couple miles of Sucia Island were we turned the engine back on to make our way to the island and find an anchorage.  I particularly enjoyed sailing along the north shore of Orcas and viewing the various beautiful homes both small and extravagant along the shore including the little village that seemed have lawns ran right down to the the water.

We weren't able to find a mooring buoy in Fossil Bay, so we anchored - perhaps a bit too close to the shore for my ideal comfort, but it worked.  The day ended with a quick trip to shore, grilled fajitas from our new grill and a quick apple crisp.  Despite being a cold night, we enjoyed the warmth of the new portable propane heater and a couple episodes of West Wing before heading off to sleep.

Crew:



Sailing Up Admiralty Inlet

Sarah resting with Boca

Bella

Cruise Ships Races
Not really, but it sure looked like it.

Sunset over Marrowstone Island.

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We took the better part of the morning and early afternoon, to get the boat and ourselves ready for our first cruising vacation on the boat setting off at a rather late 330pm in the afternoon, but still with enough time to potentially make it up to Port Townsend before sunset.

The wind was nice as we set off from Edmonds - enough to give us nice boat speed under main and the smaller jib.  We enjoyed a nice sail about as far as Double Bluff while Sarah made dinner - penne pasta with meatballs.  It was a perfect dinner while underway.  Just before Double Bluff, it was clear that the northerly winds while nice weren't going to get us to Port Townsend before 10pm, so we furled the jib and turned the engine on headed directly for Port Townsend.

Our entry into Point Hudson Marina was a bit wild.  It was very dark, very little moon and the entry to the marina isn't really well lit with ambient or navigational lights, not to mention it's a pretty sharp right turn with a narrow channel.  We managed well despite the challenge with the last minute aid of a bright spot light.  With a bit of searching we found an empty spot in the marina and took it for the evening.

We finished the night off with a long walk for the dogs and some awesome ice cream at a shop on the main street of Port Townsend.  That night, we enjoyed our first sleep on the boat since the early summer and realized we didn't pack a second pillow and that I forgot the anchor light... there's always something you need on a boat.

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