Two if by Sea…

Much anticipated fall trip turned out to cover a lot of, err, ground.

We started our trip sailing with our friends Doug and Amy and their two children, Bellingham locals for a long time and the ones responsible for getting us into / back into sailing (one day trip on Bellingham Bay with them 10 years ago was responsible for most everything else on this blog!). They are new owners of a beautiful Cape Dory 28 named Jaeger, and we got to do a lap around the islands with them which was great fun.

Cypress Spit
Brig and I left Bellingham and motored down to Cypress Spit, somewhere we hadn’t been since we stopped there on the chartered Baba 30 way back when. The spit was, well, pretty much as we’d left it! Quiet and calm in the north bay, we spent the night on a mooring ball and gave the “DDD” (dog delivery device) its first proper test. Surprisingly, the whole thing works quite well… setup is reasonably quick, Hobie understood it right away, and it is now MUCH less effort getting the big dog in and out of the dinghy when we’re not on a dock. Some time on shore to stretch everyone’s legs and then dinner and snugged into the warm dry boat, a good first day out.

James Island
Our plan was to meet Doug and Amy in Watmough Bay the next day, and our first thought was to head there and spend two nights. As we were motoring along (no wind, although overcast and a bit of spitting rain) we passed by James Island state park. James was another spot we visited in the Baba 30, on our last night heading back to Anacortes to return the boat… we hiked up a hillside, sat overlooking the east cove, and swore we’d be back someday, with our own boat. Well, no time like the present, so we changed plans and spent the night at James. The east cove, with just mooring balls, is exposed to wakes from the Rosario Strait, so we opted for the (supposedly) more protected west cove, which also has the benefit of having a dock, which even with the DDD now in play is still easier with Hobie. After a slightly dicey approach (the current can seriously rip through here) we were secure to the dock and spent the afternoon reading and walking with the hound dog. Our overnight was a little less peaceful… still not sure completely what caused it, but in the middle of the night we had about an hour of 1′-2′ waves in the cove… best guess is there were some strong winds (which we were mostly protected from) interacting with strong currents and creating some sort of swell into the anchorage. We had to get up and adjust some lines because the dock was dancing so hard, and since our dinghy kept going under the dock (which was trying to kill it) we eventually just hauled the dink up onto the dock and left it there overnight. Come the next morning completely calm… weird.

Watmough Bay
Short hop from James to Watmough (no wind, under power again) and we grabbed one of the three moorings in the bay. Man this is a gorgeous spot… lush and green, with a really cool rock wall to stare at, easy place to hang out and just look around. We did go to shore and hike with Hobie on some trails that surround the bay, although it was hunting season and they had orange vests at the trailheads to try to keep you from being confused for a deer… we certainly made sure the big dog wore one! Late afternoon Doug and Amy arrived on Jaeger and we had a little boat christening in the increasingly heavy rain, then called it an early evening for all (both Boundary and Jaeger’s residents were snugged in staying warm with their various Wallas heaters!).

Watmough panorama (59 secs):

(Use arrows in lower right corner to go full screen if you want)

Friday Harbor
Residual rain and clouds chased us around the bottom of Lopez under motor… too calm to try to sail, which was in some ways fine as the bottom of Lopez is exposed to the full fetch of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and that can be a little dicey. Nearing Cattle Pass (between Lopez and San Juan islands) we got a little wind and sailed a bit for the first time this trip, then headed up Cattle Pass with the wind dead behind us. With 5 knots of flood current we were zipping north, but that put the apparent wind to zero so we were basically just a log floating up the pass, not the best way to deal with the swirlies so back to the iron genny to head toward Friday Harbor. Nearer Friday, however, the sun cleared the clouds and a nice 10-12 knot breeze popped up and we enjoyed some excellent sailing the rest of the way to Friday Harbor. Taking guest slips, we walked the dogs and secured them onboard and had an excellent dinner at the Cask & Schooner pub.

Reid Harbor on Stuart Island
After a lazy departure from Friday Harbor (showers, pump out, waiting on the current, shopping at the fish market – which is one of the few in the islands, weirdly), we still zipped up to Reid quite quickly riding another flood. Quite a few boats in Reid for a late September Sunday, so we took one of the floating docks out in the middle of the bay. For two boats sailing together this is actually a very fun setup… easy on off for the dogs (and easy dock to dinghy transition when they need to go to shore) and easy stroll to visit the other boat, but still felt very private out on our own in the bay.

Sucia
Of course, no lap around the islands would be complete without a stop at Sucia. We both found dock space in Fossil Bay and spent a lovely evening having dinner together on the dock and watching a truly most ridiculous sunset. To top it off the kiddos got to spend even more time rowing around in the dinghy, even during the epic sunset… what a nice way for kids to be able to get out and play!

Sucia back to Bellingham
After Doug and Amy had to, unfortunately, head back to town, but Brig and Bass spent one more night chilling on the dock, reading and walking the dog.

The next morning we headed back into Bellingham ourselves, to take care of some business and get prepared for the second half of our trip… coming soon, “One if by Land”…