We moved again.  Left Deer Harbor, Orcas Island this morning and motored (no wind/headwind) some 12 miles over to Sucia Island.

A peek of Deer Harbor with Charisma in the background at the fuel dock.

Mt. Baker provided a stunning backdrop for the trip over.

Sucia Island is largely a National Park so it’s pretty untouched.  In fact within minutes of picking up a mooring we witnessed a “dust-up” between two Bald Eagles and a gaggle of geese.  It being spring, there are a lot of baby goslings.  The parents are very protective, but the eagles seem to swoop down and well, you know….WE think the eagles should stick to a diet of fish!

Some of the parents have a dozen goslings and some are down to one or two. Nature is harsh.

So, our day, once we arrived at Sucia, was a nice 6 mile or so hike across the island.  We went north from Fossil bay to Shallow Bay at the top of the island.  Did a loop over the very northern tip, then back down the inside past Echo Bay and back.  About three or so hours.  Bonus: we were able to wear shorts!  It was actually warm!!

One thing about our hikes this time of year: wildflowers abound. So many and on Sucia we saw wild roses! So fun.

Circling back down Echo Bay, we saw this lovely Yawl highlighted by Mt. Baker in the background. Such a pretty view, we may slide over here tomorrow if conditions warrant.

...And back to Fossil Bay just in time for...Charisma time!! A beautiful spot made all the more interesting when we can watch Bald Eagles, a Golden Eagle and Great Blue Herons in the trees right above us.

The other bonus: as I write this we have lightning and thunder nearby and we don’t have to worry about being the only “tall thing” in the middle of the ocean like the last five years!  We can just enjoy the show!

A nice easy day today.  We left our lovely little spot at Victim Island and under a warm, blue sky motored around the end of Orcas Island over to Deer Harbor.  What a snug little spot.  They still had “winter rates” so we took a slip for the night – only $34 – and walked around a bit.  I’d say “around town”, but there is no town.  This is a pretty rural area, which makes it nice and peaceful, but not too much to do.  There is, however, one restaurant.  It’s at the Deer Harbor Inn which dates back to the 1920’s.  We decided to treat ourselves and we weren’t disappointed.  The Inn caters to locals as well as those like us lucky enough to stumble on it.  We again felt like we entered the “way back machine” as the dining room and guests seemed a bit more out of the past than the present.  And I mean that in a really fun way.  It was delightful, with nice, sincere, wonderful people and great food!  What a treat.

But the real treat of the night was the piano player in the dining room.  The opposite of our first impression.  When we walked in we saw an “older gentleman” playing a pretty uninspired tune on an electric piano and I think both of us thought at the same time; “lounge lizard!”  We couldn’t have been more wrong.  His next tune was more upbeat and at the end we (and another table) clapped and this seemed to get him going – well, he jazzed it up and the rest of night was one fabulous old jazzy standard after another.  And a great voice to boot.  At the break we got the biggest surprise of all.  He went around table to table and said hello to everyone.  We got to talking – told him about our voyage, etc – and we learned, surprise…he was a former military pilot who flew B-52’s most of his career.  Came up to Deer Harbor to retire.  What a juxtaposition!

Anyway, that’s our “serendipitous moment” for today.

Tomorrow we “head out”.  Sucia Island which is a national park with no services and then after hopefully a couple days of hiking and such, we go across the border into Canada.

Let the adventure begin.

OK, we dialed “1975” into Charisma’s instruments, slipped the anchor and headed over to the cove where I spent a summer as a camp counselor and sailing instructor over 40 years ago.  What a fun day.

Victim Island

We anchored off Victim Island which is literally about 100 yards offshore the camp.  A little tricky making sure we had room to “swing” in the tide and stay off the rocks, but – cross fingers – it looks like we put the anchor in the right place.  We’ve been as low as 13 feet, and as deep as 25, so hanging in there.

Anyway, after a nice lunch (thank you Ann!), we jumped in the dinghy and headed to camp.  I was astounded at how it had hardly changed in all these years.  It literally felt like yesterday that I was there.  They have done a fabulous job of keeping it in great shape, but exactly like it was all those years ago.  It was magical.  I won’t bore you with all the memories, but here’s a few pics of the trip down memory lane.

Ann found this write up in the camp newsletter from 1975 archive.

I always loved this poem...seems more true than ever after the last five years!

Charisma enjoyed the visit as well. She's never looked prettier!

So, a fun day!  Then Ann grabbed her kayak and paddled off around Victim Island and down the way while I…took a nap.

A good day.

We visited Orcas Island today.  I was a sailing instructor/camp counselor those years ago at Four Winds/Westward Ho summer camp on Orcas Island.  It was one of the most fun summers I ever had and way back then vowed I would come back someday and cruise the San Juan Islands.  Well, here we are.  And the good news is that Ann is loving it as much as I did those many years ago.

We’re currently still anchored in Blind Bay, Shaw Island, but just a short mile dinghy ride to Orcas Village brought me back to those years ago when I arrived via my trusty Karmann Ghia (look it up!) and departed the ferry up the steep drive into a magical summer experience.

It all came back today.  Serendipity played a part.  We were originally just going to go over and get some groceries, but once there while poking around a bit we discovered we could rent a car for a half day and drive the island.  So, without another thought, off we went in our time machine also known as a Ford Taurus.  We went to East Sound, bought some sandwiches and then drove to the top of the island; Mount Constitution – about 2000 feet or so – and got to see all the way from Vancouver, BC to, well, almost Seattle, Washington, and then some.  Tomorrow we’re going to move to West Sound and actually (hopefully) anchor by the camp.  If we can find a decent spot, it will be fun to jump in the kayaks and paddle around my old stomping grounds.  From the looks of it so far, things haven’t changed too much.

Speaking of which, that’s what Ann did today after we got back from our adventure up the mountain.  Once back on Charisma, we launched a kayak and she paddled half mile over to Blind Island for a look around.  She found eagle mania.  Check it out…

Hasn't changed much in the forty years since I first pulled in.

Some great views of Puget Sound.

Ann's conveyance, "Charismatini".

Don't know who was more surprised, Ann or these geese!

Today's EagleCam on Blind Island.

We’re now in Blind Bay on Shaw Island.  A much more laid back and quiet island, just a two hour ride from Friday Harbor, we anchored here in about 25 feet (at hight tide) about noon.

After lunch, we jumped in the dinghy and headed to the ferry dock where we had a nice three hour, almost six mile walk back across the island.  What a lovely place.

OK, and we saw more eagles.  A bunch of them.  Almost more eagles here than seagulls.  We’re sure to become nonchalant about them, but WOW, it’s so amazing to see five Bald Eagles soaring above the boat just before sunset.

Just in case you didn't read where we are.

No "pre-fab" signs on this island.

A beautiful, hand crafted kiosk selling local seeds. Amazing to find this just sitting out in the middle of nowhere.

A glimpse of our bay.

Shoreline at sunset.

Oh, and a couple of the eagles...

After a leisurely coffee this morning we got the dinghy in the water and headed in to explore Friday Harbor.  It’s a lovely little town although smaller than we thought it would be.  There are a great book store and Market as well as a lovely cheese shop that did a great lunch just off the main street.  All in all a really nice day just walking around and enjoying a little (very little) sunshine.  I just got done fixing the outboard – it wouldn’t idle slowly this morning and now we’re going to enjoy our new books.  I think we’ll head to Blind Bay on Shaw Island tomorrow.  Or not.   😉

Friday Harbor.

Lovely spot for a sit and a coffee.

And how could I not add a picture of this lovely boat in our little cove?

Position: 48 degrees, 32 minutes north; 123 degrees, 01 minutes west

Yup, dropped the dock lines and headed to our first stop – Friday Harbor on San Juan island.

At anchor, Friday Harbor

Th trip over here took about 4 hours under power. No wind. But it went pretty much as planned except a three knot ebb current (going with us) got us to the pass at Cattle Point early, so we had a two knot current against us going through.

Got to Frday Harbor right at low tide which meant we could pick a good spot. The bottom comes up really fast, so we set in 30 feet and with 140 feet of chain out stretched back into 13 feet. Since we’re at dead low tide, it won’t get any shallower than that and will in fact go up some 8-10 feet at high tide.

I’m going to have to get used to setting the anchor in the mud they have up here. We’ve been dropping in sand for the last five years which is easy to set, but the mud (I think) is going to take a bit of a different technique. Our CQR anchor dragged a while before digging in. We’ll see – it’s set hard now – may be a challenge to get out!

OK, we’re starting a new cruising season.  We’ve met some fabulous new people up here in Port Townsend, Washington.  Having a lot of fun.  What a wonderful place!

For now, we’ll just post a few pics – we’re doing some boat work, but not hauling out this year.  We’ve done so much work on Charisma over the past five years, we’re thinking we can “slip” for a year.  She’s looking good – varnish is still shiny, hull polish still looking good, etc.  Amazing how a northern climate (i.e. not in the tropics) is so much less harsh on things.

Puget Sound from Port Townsend (with Mt Ranier in the background)

Looking back at Port Townsend where Charisma has been all winter.

Anyway, one BIG issue we wanted to test is the radar.  There’s fog up here and while we try to avoid it, you never know when you might get “snuck  up on” by it.  Our radar went haywire after the long passage and multiple electrical storms.  I’ve been working on it and finally think I’ve come up with a fix.  It worked at the dock, but the key is to test it out on the water, with lots of turning to make sure the fix would “stick”.

So, today we fired the engine up and went out for a little cruise into the “Sound” to check if all was working.  Blessedly everything went well.  After turning left, right, backwards, forwards and all around the radar and the chart plotter remained in agreement.  I feel good that we’re in business.  Also nice to run the engine after being at the dock for six months.  (Thank you soooo much Jim Heumann (Sockdolager) for running Charisma’s engine almost every week at the dock to keep things running so well).

Speaking of boat work, Ann wore her fingers down today polishing the stainless steel on the starboard side.  Good thing because Brian Toss, who has a rigging shop here in town but is basically a legendary rigger, known throughout the world, dropped by on his way to a party on our neighbor’s boat and after being pigeonholed by Ann pronounced Charisma “ship shape”.  Whew!

So…we’re a couple weeks or less from throwing off the dock lines yet again to head out for a new voyage.  We’re not sure where we’re going other than “north”.

Serendipity – that’s our plan!