Anacortes and La Conner Cruise

Several months ago mom asked if we’d like to take her on San Juan Island Yacht Club’s first cruise of the year – The ‘Vice Commodore’s Cruise’.  Originally scheduled for Ganges, BC, the committee apparently favored Anacortes and La Conner as the destination of choice.

Thursday morning we made the now well-traveled trip up I-5 to Anacortes and took up station in lane 4 awaiting the 8:30 am boat.

By 10am we were at the boat unloading and Devin and Kayla had brought mom down from the house.   2 large dock carts full of what seemed to be a months provisioning were loaded into the boat.

The weekend’s forecast was generally good, but being Memorial Day weekend and still early in the year, it was going to change fast and sure enough while at Friday Harbor an angry cloud with rain displaced the sun in short order then moved on leaving us with a pretty good day.

We left Friday Harbor and motored for roughly 3 hours, sighting a large Sea Lion on a buoy just outside of Anacortes.

Even though the cruise formally began on Friday, there were several early arrivals.  Mom was on this committee, so she had some duties with the organizers and it was nice to have helping hands on the dock to take the lines.

Jodi and I gave Rex and Kuper a decent walk, then Bruce and Carol joined us for cocktail hour which gave way to dinner in the cockpit.   Jodi served up her signature dish, a ‘kitchen sink pasta’ which seems to change every time she prepares it.  It’s a hit and I can’t get enough of it.

Friday was the formal check in day and Mom’s task was to give new arrivals their ‘skippers packet’. 

Jodi and I took the opportunity to take the dogs for a quick hike up a hill overlooking the marina.  The top afforded a nice view.

The evening was supposed to be ‘hearty appetizers’ which we took for a substitute for dinner.  Jodi made a killer sausage dish which was gone in about 30 seconds.  The rest of the fare was fairly standard appetizers and not really a dinner substitute.  Oh well, live and learn.

Saturday dawned beautiful.  Not a cloud in the sky.  Mom made a very good breakfast and used some of Jodi’s sauce on the farm fresh eggs from the previous evenings hors d’oeuvres. A solid hit.   We hit the farmers market, walked through the “WT PRESTON” and found a few book stores.

The “WT PRESTON” was a ‘snag boat’, used for pulling stumps and debris from local rivers to keep them navigable early the last century.   Some historic society in Anacortes had her hauled to a location just outside the Marina and for $3 you can go through it.  And ring the bell.  It looks like an industrial riverboat of old which essentially it is.  It’s huge, but only draws 4 feet and was driven by a paddle wheel.  I remember seeing it in Lake Washington and I remembered how they anchored her.  She has two ‘spuds’ which were huge steel shafts.  Raised high they looked like stubby masts.  Lowered, they went through the hull and pierced the muddy bottom of any river or lake, and ‘anchored’ the WT PRESTON if the water was shallow enough.

Jodi got a kick out of the galley.  There was a cook on board who seemed to be a revered fellow.  He provisioned once a week and was in the habit of asking the crew what they fancied for food.  On one such occasion, the crew, to a person, said ‘we don’t care’.  The following week all they got were peanut butter and jelly sandwiches breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the whole week.  It was the last time they ‘didn’t care’

Just before dinner the club christened two boats.  Champagne was smashed on the bow in a traditional christening.

We also got to tour the ‘Teal’.  Built in 1927 she has been magnificently restored and captain Kit has done a fantastic job with her – especially the engine room.  The only way I could describe it is take a well organized world class chief.  Picture their ideal Kitchen – every conceivable utensil, all highly and efficiently organized.  Now translate that to the engine room.  You could eat in there.  Flawless. 

Dinner was at the ‘Majestic’.  There were 3 choices – I picked the steak, always a safe choice.  The pasta got fair to good reviews, but Mom and Jodi had the fish.  Swing and a miss.

SUNDAY

Early morning start.  Early for this cruise.  It pales in comparison to some of our 4am starts when we went around Vancouver Island, but for this civilized cruise, 8am was still an early departure. 

We headed out and in short order were in ‘the ditch’, the Swinomish Slough.  The slough creates ‘Fidalgo Island’, which is an Island in name only.  The slough is roughly 9 miles long and from the north, the small town of La Conner is about at the 6 mile mark.

The current was running a bit, but we docked without incident and set out to explore La Conner – which turned out to be a mild disappointment.

I remember La Conner as charming and quaint.  It still retains some of that feeling, but several of the shops were closed and of those that were open, only a few offered something really unique or special.  And every shop was geared for tourists.  La Conner is a tourist trap. 

For Anacortes, tourism is a plus – an added benefit to an otherwise nice little town.  Take away the tourists and Anacortes would soldier on.  La Conner wouldn’t last more than a season without tourists.

There are still some nice places and seemingly a few good restaurants, but taken as a whole my perception was La Conner had lost a few steps over time and was a tired reflection of what it was 20 or 30 years ago.

The club had a pleasant barbeque on the lawn behind the Marina and we all tumbled into our bunks somewhat early.

Monday morning was a bit drippy, so we decided to catch the later slack through deception pass.  The way back was a bit long, but all in all a successful cruise. 

Later that night a nice sunset!