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.

July 4th

The 4^th started out a bit rugged.  We awoke to no power for reasons unknown and in preparing the food for the trip, a full jar of sweet pickles jumped from Jodi’s hands spreading its sticky contents all over the floor.

The day improved from there.  We caught the mid day ferry and were in Friday Harbor by 1:30 or so.  We elected to stay at the dock and watch the fireworks, so we found ourselves with no particular agenda other than to relax.  Perfect.

Some interesting boats at the dock, including the Hawaiian  Chieftain from Grays Harbor.

Around 5 we launched the bullfrog for an entirely pleasant water tour of Friday Harbor.  After roaming through the marina we went to the South end of the Harbor.  Impressive boats and homes – including a nice boat called ‘Abracadabra’, rock legend Steve Millers boat.

After dinner we went out to Roche to watch colors.    Colors is quite the tradition, but colors on the 4^th is pretty special.   For our family, after 50 years of summers near Roche, it was made more special with Devin being part of the crew that did the ceremony.

Let me backtrack to just over 50 years ago.  Dad related the story of his first visit to Roche Harbor.  It would have been around 1960 or ’61 in his old Blanchard 33 sailboat.  He was coming around what are now the old guest docks and as he nosed in between the docks and the beach he saw an older gentleman jogging down the dock. 

This was in the pre-electronic days and the old wooden boat had no depth sounder.  Dad had one of his crew on the bow taking soundings with a lead line and as he did so, the older gentleman at the head of the dock slowed down to a comfortable walk.  By the time Dad docked the boat, the older gentleman arrived and commented that he was going to help Dad dock the boat, but when he saw the crew taking soundings he knew the skipper was experienced and would be just fine.  The older gentleman introduced himself as Rueben Tarte.  Rueben had bought Roche Harbor Lime and Cement company a few years earlier and was still in the process of turning it into a Marina.  By all accounts, Mr. Rueben Tarte was a classy visionary, creating a resort from a tired lime and cement company.

Fast forward to 2012   The colors ceremony.  Everyone knows what happens after the flags are down.  There’s a crowd.  Not only family, but a bunch of other folks as well.  It’s a tradition.  The color guard lines up, salutes, and jumps. 

The first two in the water?  Devin and one of his co-workers Rueben – the great grandson of Roche Harbor’s founder.

Fun evening topped off with Fireworks.

HIKING, er KAYAKING!

During the week our weekend plans slowly take place.  Most of our activities are outdoors, so  we watch the weather and let her vote count as plans develop.  As this weekend approached, the forecast called for a drippy Saturday and a considerably better Sunday.  

Jodi had been eyeing a highway 2 hike for some time – Lake Serene and wanted to do that hike.  Good weather on Sunday, a hike we hadn’t done, perfect combination!  So we planned the hike for Sunday.  We talked about it, got out  the maps, did our research and we were set.

At this point, pause for a moment and be thankful we live in Seattle.  Yes it’s cloudy and this ‘Junuary’ is going done in the books as one of the soggiest starts to the summer ever.  But as I type there’s a news story about a record heat wave on the east coast with massive power outages. I’ll take misty weather in the 60’s over sweltering heat every time.

Another thing that’s nice about Seattle is the diversity of what you can do on a weekend.

Take yesterday.  We went to an entirely pleasant wooden boat festival on Lake Union at the Center for Wooden boats.  Adventuress was there, the old Lotus, Betsy’s ‘Glory Be’, along with scores of other boats.   Wooden boats, big and small we strolled for over and hour and saw them all.  They even had a beer garden.  Wonders never cease.

So back to our hiking plans and the diversity in Seattle.  Last night after dinner we were outside in our courtyard talking about the day, and the plans for tomorrow.  After all the talk about going hiking, Jodi said, ‘why don’t we go kayaking instead.

Perfect!

So we waited until the morning mist gave way to a brighter afternoon, loaded up the kayaks, and headed for Lake Union.  There isn’t one, not two, but 44 different places to put kayaks in the water on Lake Union.  We chose the ‘Newton Street End’ just down from Eastlake. 

We toured houseboats for a bit (oh my, what a lifestyle!!) and then headed south to the Center for Wooden boats.  Along the way we passed ‘Circe’, a lovely wooden Seattle Classic, moored near her 1932 beginnings on Lake Union.

We paddled over to the Center for wooden boats where we watched the last of the Puget sound mosquito fleet,  the Virginia V, blow her whistle and take off on a short cruise.  We hopped out of the kayaks, again found ourselves in the beer garden, and participated in a nautical trivia competition where we tied for first place in one of the rounds.  Being a life long seattlelite,  I knew most of the answers, but Jodi caught me on one of the questions and corrected it. That correction proved to be the margin of winning, so we claimed our prize.   A very modest museum of history and industry shot glass. 

We took a tour of “Adventuress” and looked a few other boats.

We hopped back in the kayaks and paddled back to our entry point where we met a couple who lived on one of the houseboats.  They had a Bernese Mountain dog and had a family history of naming their dogs after pasta.  The Berner’s name?  Noodles.  Noodles was a very friendly Berner, leaning into whomever was petting her.

So that was the weekend.  Fun!