JULY 5TH THROUGH 8TH

July 5.  We awoke early to get out to the house by 8.  Maren had the good thought that while we were all on the island it may be a good time to move Dad’s ashes to the urn that Clayton had made.  I didn’t take any pictures of the event, but Maren had found an urn that had a nautical theme and Clayton executed it to perfection with Hawaiian hardwoods.  It’s a thing of beauty and Dad would be pleased with the result.

We ended up taking the family on a short day cruise from Friday Harbor around Jones island and back to the house.  It was a beautiful day – a good one for an ad hoc cruise.  After we dropped them off, we went over to Jones and anchored.

Jones Island is a state park and was the destination of my first cruise.  I think I was 13 and a kid named Kurt Moncini and I took the speedboat over to Jones and camped.  The island seemed a lot bigger then.  Jodi and I hiked around it in pretty short order.  It’s a good hike, perhaps around a mile and a third or so.  The first part of the hike is through the center of the island, then we took a loop around the western side, facing the house on the opposing San Juan shore about 3 miles away. 

We even found some cactus on the island!

After stretching our legs a bit we hauled the anchor up and motored over to Deer Harbor.  We anchored not too far from the Adventuress.

Evening brought another slow bullfrog ride around the marinas.   There were several interesting boats – and skippers of boats.

We did see a Blanchard 33, just like the one Dad bought in the early 60’s.  This one had been Norm Blanchards own boat, but I don’t know who owns it now.

July 6^th.  We got off to a late start. The original plan was to hike up Mount Constitution, but the combinations of a late start, very poor cell service and taxi rates that can only be described as highway robbery changed the plan to a much more modest hike up to ships point.  It turned out to be the perfect choice.

The trailhead is about 3 miles from Deer Harbor and climbs to just under 1000 feet. The view is very, very nice.  On the way up you can see over to San Juan, south to the Olympics and near the top there’s a nice view of the valley between Turtleback and Mount Constitution. 

The only downside is walking on the road back to Deer Harbor,  The road is really too narrow to safely walk with the cars buzzing by.  Traffic was light, but all it takes is one….

After getting on the boat we toured West Sound and saw Camp Four Winds and Westward Ho!

We were going to Hunter Bay, but Bruce called and noted that a cold wind was still coming off the straits.  We wanted warmth and sun, so we jointly decided to anchor in Blind Bay, off Shaw Island.

We did try something new in Blind Bay.  We launched the bullfrog, then launched the double kayak.  With the Kayak tied next to the bullfrog, Rex jumped from the Cambria to the bullfrog, then with some coaxing, gingerly stepped into the kayak with Jodi and I.  We didn’t take any pictures of that first voyage, but we did paddle around the boat with Rex sitting in the middle.

Around 8:30 or so Bruce and Carol brought ‘Shearwater’ along side  and rafted.  Tom and Dana were aboard for the weekend, so we ducked into Shearwaters salon for a nice evening chat.

July 7^th. 

Anchoring in Blind Bay is both good and bad.  The good part is it’s a large anchorage and there’s always space.  It’s close to the Shaw Island ferry dock and the Orcas dock isn’t that far away.  The bad part is boats going through the channel kick up wakes.  The quiet evening gave way to occasional rollers early in the morning as early boaters passed by.  Beyond 6am, sleep was intermittent.

Craig and Miriam stopped by in a 15’ Bullfrog.  Their boat was moored in West Sound and they came by for a morning visit.  We all went to the Shaw Island dock where Craig renewed some old acquaintances with the general store owner and the rest of us took a bit of a walk down one of Shaws drowsy country roads.  Quirky place this Shaw Island.

Bruce wanted to race, so we rigged the boats for sailing and set out from Blind Channel under sail.  Shearwater is the faster boat.  Try as we might, we simply could not catch her (to add insult, she was towing a light dingy).  We had the chance to re-discover just how much work short tacking in a channel is. 

We then motored to Fishermans bay for an evening pot luck in Cambria’s cockpit.  Later, ‘the girls’ wanted to go dancing so we went to the Islander with their live (but only so so) band.

July 8^th.  What a morning!  Quiet, calm, beautiful.  An old ferry just came in and anchored.  It would make a great liveaboard or B and B. 

Well, that's the cruise.  Short and sweet, but fun.  We burned less than 10 gallons of diesel and perhaps 3 gallons of gas.  Anchored out the whole time, got some exercise and renewed acquaintance with some old friends.  Good trip.