Nov. 28, 2010 - Thanksgiving, Westsound and Jones Island

We ended up in Sandpoint Idaho last week and had our traditional Thanksgiving dinner over there a few days early with Kathy's parents and Steve's Mom and Sister.  That freed up our Thanksgiving weekend to allow for a longer boat trip.  It snowed in western WA a few days before Thanksgiving which caused all sorts of driving problems for people.  A boat is relatively immune to such issues, so we decided to escape the mess on the roads and seek out some peace and quiet on the boat.

Leaving snowy La Conner on Thanksgiving morning.

The wind forecast for Thanksgiving evening is not good with 30-40 knot winds coming.  We really feel like we want to spend Thanksgiving night on a dock, so we can sleep easy if the winds do kick up.  We are going to try the Orcas Island Yacht Club reciprocal dock in Westsound.  Since we belong to the Swinomish Yacht Club there is no cost to use the dock.  We arrive after a nice easy trip to the islands and find the dock empty.  Nice!

Thanksgiving.  Synergy at the Orcas Island Yacht Club dock in Westsound.

 We have a very nice, but non-traditional, Thanksgiving dinner; pizza!   It was unique and it was great!  After dinner we play games and enjoy being tied to the dock when the winds do indeed kick up a little.  For once though we get a good nights sleep despite being in 30 knot gusts.  In the morning I take a little exploratory walk in hopes that a nearby bed and breakfast's restaurant is open for breakfast.  But, it's closed for the season.  We have breakfast on our boat instead and then depart Westsound thankful for the nice solid dock we were tied to last night.

We are now headed to Jones Island where we spent New Years Eve this year.  It's a great island, but we have not been back since.  We've heard they are rebuilding the dock so we don't expect to find any dock space there this time.  We are also worried that we might not find an empty buoy too as this is a popular island (at least in the summer).  As we enter the north bay we find it completely empty so we grab a buoy.  After lunch we row over to the dock (under construction, and a TOTAL mess) to go for a long hike.  We bring our cat along, which we do when there aren't other people (or dogs) around.  We are gone for about 2 hours and have a great time getting some exercise on this cold but beautiful fall day.

Talking a walk on Jones Island with our cat Zappa.

Zappa isn't your typical kitty cat....  He's really more like a dog in many ways.

Our friends the Dalton's are coming later today to join us at Jones Island and we hope the buoys remain open all day. Nobody else arrives and the Dalton's grab the buoy next to us.  Perfect!

Our two boats alone in the north bay of Jones Island.

They row over for a visit shortly after arriving.  It is really nice to have such great friends to meet up with out here.  We have seen almost no other boats despite the great weather, which makes this island experience even more special as we know that no one else is enjoying this wonderful place.  We have it all to ourselves.

On Saturday morning we meet the Dalton's at shore to go for a hike.  They have never been here before and the kids immediately start exploring.  We all hike around the island which has a wonderful trail circling it.

Cindy, Grace, and Kevin peeling bark from a Madrona.

Jenn, Aidan, Grace, and Mark.  What a nice day!

Kevin, Grace (holding Zappa) and Cindy.



Picnic time.  Hot chocolate with whipped cream for the kids.



Kevin says "Shhhh.... don't tell Mom where I'm hiding!"



Kathy and Jenn go for a row, and some alone time.

It's a very nice day filled with activity and fun in the sun.  Saturday night, after we all eat dinner together on our boat, we witness 3 major lighting flashes to the north, probably north of Sucia and Patos.  Everything is calm where we are with clear skies, but it's pretty ominous looking to the north.  A bit later we all row to shore for a beach fire and some left over fireworks from the 4th of July.  The weather is very calm, for a while.  The wind starts to whip up a bit, and it starts to rain despite the clear skies overhead. 

Beach fire and marshmallows with our friends.

After some fun fireworks we pack up our stuff and head for the dinghies.  They are bouncing around like corks on the waves, and it looks pretty spooky in our flashlights.  This is going to be an adventure.  Then I notice that one of our ours is missing.  Great; now we can't even row back.  Fortunately Jenn is willing and able to row her family back to our boat and then come back for us to get us to our boat, with our one-oared rowboat in tow.  Thanks Jenn!  The Dalton's pile into thier dinghy and row back to their boat.  As I pull our dinghy back onto the swimstep to secure it, the remaining oar slips over the side and into the cold waves.  We watch helplessly as it disappears from view in our fading flashlight beam.  "Oh, well, I think they sell them in pairs anyway."  It's a rough night with some pretty big waves pounding us.  It starts to calm down around 3:00AM I guess.  And this was supposed to be a night with NO wind?

Sunday it was calm again but us adults were pretty tired because of the waves and wind.  It never seems to fail, a few nice days/nights followed by a rough and tumble night.  It wasn't forecast at all, but that's not unusual for our neck of the woods.  It was probably totally calm last night just 5 miles away.  Mark goes out in his dinghy looking for our missing oars and finds one on shore, and the second under teh new dock.  They appear undamaged.  Phew!  I know now that I need some sort of tether on these oars to keep them attached to the boat.  We row to shore after breakfast to hike around the other side of the island, which is just as nice as the side we hiked yesterday.  After lunch it's time to leave, and Grace gets on our boat to play to with Cindy on the ride back to Shelter Bay.  Another fantastic weekend on the water, with our great friends.

Spectacular rainbow on our way home.  So that's what the pot of gold looks like!

Just a few more minutes before we are home.  Bummer!!!

November 14, 2010 - Guy's Trip to Lopez Island

It's my semi-annual guy's boat trip.  This time we are headed to Mud Bay at the south end of Lopez Sound.  This is a good place to be in strong southerly winds, and the forecast for Saturday is calling for rain along with stong winds from the south.  Mud Bay is shallow (about 10-15 feet) and has a great mud bottom that our anchor really works well in.  No waves will make it into the bay in a south wind so it stays calm even when the winds are howling.  We should be safe here.

The guys arrive early on Friday afternoon, and we are underway by 1:15 which will allow us plenty of time to get to Lopez before dark.  Daylight savings has kicked in and it's dark by 5:00PM these days.

A beautiful day to cruise to the San Juans.

We have a terrific ride over in the sunshine.  There is almost no wind so crossing Rosario Straight is uneventful; just smooth water and sunshine.  As we go through Lopez Pass I am blinded by the sun which is now pretty low in the sky.  This made it hard to see all the crab pot floats in Mud Bay.

Blinded by the Light!  Lopez Pass headed toward Mud Bay.

We drop the anchor and get a great bite from the anchor.  I let out 100' of chain in just 12' of water.  That's enough scope to hold us in a hurricane :-)  We make dinner, have a few beers, watch a movie or two, and chat the evening away.  I unfortunately don't sleep well as the wind kicks up in the middle of the night.  I'm up checking things out multiple times throughout the evening due to the anchor watch alarm sounding twice, the high wind alarm sounding, the vacuflush toilet suddenly pumping for no reason, the sound of the anchor dragging across the bottom as the wind shifted (the anchor chain noise is transmitted right into the bow of the boat because it travels up the chain).  When I do awake in the morning the first thing I do is make a pot of coffee; I NEED it!

After a lazy morning sitting around catching up on all of our lives we get the dinghy in the water to take a ride over to Paul Allen's "estate" to do some water-based sightseeing.  He has a LARGE complex on Lopez in a spectacular location.  There are several "no trespassing" signs along the beach and we have no intent of landing here, but we do see a door open in one of the buildings and someone steps out to let us know we are being watched.  No big deal, but it's clear that we are not invited to come any closer.

Just a portion of Paul Allen's waterfront estate.



Totem Pole.  I think it's saying "go away, trawler-trash!"

 After looking at several very large buildings, an unbelievable amount of waterfront for one person to own, a totem pole, a large dock and several mooring bouys, we decide to head over to a little beach at Lopez Pass where we can go ahsore.  We go for a little hike there and it starts to rain.  We continue our hike around the island and then head back to the dinghy and don our wet lifjackets and get into the wet dinghy.  Then we zip back to the boat as fast as we can in hopes of remaining dry.  It mostly works as we aren't really very wet when we get back.  The heat of the furnace feels nice though as it was a cold ride back in the rain.

Ron and Mike.  Hmm, what are they doing?

BBQing steaks;  Are they done yet? 

We spend the rest of our weekend on the boat due to cold, rain, and drizzle.  During that time we watch a few more movies, drink some beers, have a few great meals, and "hang out."  It's nice to get together a few times a year like this so we can spend time really getting caught up with what we've all been doing, how our families are, what we have planned for the future, and simply having fun away from the pressures of everyday life.  I'm looking forward to another trip in the spring.

November 7, 2010 - Hope Island

What a crazy week it's been; Halloween, a birthday party at Jungle Playland for a girl on Kevin's soccer team, half days at school most of the week, two parent-teacher conferences, Kevin's 6th birthday birthday and two nights of activity for that.  Kevin had a sleep over for his birthday party on Friday night which kept us from boating on Friday.

Kevin turns 6 years old.  Wow, time flies!

Kevin opens presents from his friends.  They all spent the night.

After the last child was picked up from our house Saturday morning we began loading the boat for an overnighter at Hope Island.  The wind forecast isn't great with a small craft warning for tonight.  But the predicted direction is from the south to southwest.  We plan to anchor on the north side of the island which usually provides plenty of protection.  At noon we are ready to go and head out.  The weather is good with overcast skies (but no rain) and no wind.  We anchor on the north side of Hope Island but we have trouble getting a good hook from the anchor.  It takes two attempts which is unusual for our Delta anchor.  But the second attempt looks good with no slippage as we back down on it for a few tests of the set.

Zappa watches Steve setting the anchor.

It's not really nice enough to head to the beach so we play games, break out the legos, watch some music videos, and Cindy works on a Spanish lesson via Rosetta Stone on the laptop.

Cindy takes a Spanish lesson on the laptop in Mom and Dad's bedroom.



Kevin plays with Legos while Steve watches a rock concert DVD.

After dinner the kids watch some of the movie "How to train a dragon" and then off to bed.  They were pretty tired from the sleepover (Cindy's friend Roxy came over to help and also slept over) and they went to bed early, and easily.  Kathy and I stay up for a while but also go to bed early.  The wind has kicked up a bit, but not bad yet.  Not long after retiring to our bed, the GPS anchor alarm sounds a warning that we have moved beyonds the boundary I have set.  I rush up to check out the situation and find that we have indeed moved;  we are now quite close to shore.  We will have to pull the anchor and move.  Kathy and I discuss the situation and decide the best plan is to pull anchor and head back to Shelter Bay.  The wind is not blowing in the forecasted direction, and it is much stronger than forecasted.  So, in our minds, the forecast isn't accurate and we just don't know how bad it might get.  This is the kind of scenario that leads to a very sleepless night while constantly watching the situation to make sure we are safe.

We pull our anchor and slowly motor back to our marina.  Obviously it is completely dark.  The moon is just a sliver and there is heavy cloud cover so there is virtually no light to help us along the way.  We have our driving lights, the battery powered handheld spotlight, and the remote controlled spotlight all turned on.  With that we can see well enough to avoid the several crab pots we observed on the way up to Hope Island.  The wind is really blowing, much more than the 25 knots that was forecast.

It's an exciting ride back to Shelter Bay.  The wind is so loud that Kathy and I can barely communicate to each other despite being only two feet apart.  There are white caps and rolling waves with spray being blown off the tops.  Spray is coming up over the boat and is illuminated in the spot lights, giving us time to duck under it if we can react quickly.  Kathy decides to ditch her salt-spray covered glasses and put in her contacts so she can see again.  There are no other boats out here.  We are hoping that the winds will be calmer in Shelter Bay, but as we turn the corner to navigate the narrow Shelter Bay fairway the wind is still very strong.  I'm concerned about getting into our slip in these conditions, in total darkness, while tired and stressed out, at midnight.  But, we get into the slip without incident.  Phew!  Our hearts are racing as we settle into the cabin after securing the boat to the dock.

We sleep well overnight tied safely in our slip.  We hear the wind whipping through the marina from time to time, and notice that the rain is intensely strong at times.  I'm glad we decided to come home.

After breakfast I set the clocks back an hour (daylight savings time this AM).  As I'm doing this on the weather stations we have onboard I decide to check the maximum winds they recorded last night.  Much to my surprise all three stations recorded a peak gust of 56 knots at 10:30PM.  That's 64.4mph!!!!!  For reference, category 1 hurricane strength winds are 65 to 83 knots, not much more than our 56 knot gust.  I knew it was stong, but I didn't think it was THAT strong.

It rains all morning and we hang out on the boat and have breakfast while watching a rainbow that ends on the Shelter Bay golf course.  The kids play with Legos and also spend some time learing more Spanish.

Kevin and Cindy work on their Spanish.

It was an unexpectedly short trip, filled with late night adventures on the "high-seas."  It's good practice to run around at night, and every time we do we discover issues that need improvement.  Our lighting still isn't what it should be, and the spotlight's remote control on the flybridge isn't working correclty.  Also, the handheld spotlight battery died about the time we got to Shelter Bay, rendering it useless.  I have just added more to my project list, but the next time we have to navigate at night we will be even better prepared.