San Juan Islands - Part Three (August 10th - 18th)
Pictures from August 2006: http://www.ghostsailorphotos.com/August2006/
If you haven't read part one or two, please check it out in the archives on the right side of the page. For some reason it didn't post on the main page. Probably too long. Ok, back to our trip:
August 11th, Day 18 Friday Harbor
We got up really early in Echo Bay and headed to Friday Harbor. We had quite a bit to do for the day. Scott's brother and family were coming in on the 6:30 p.m. ferry. We had to clean the boat for an interview we were doing for Lats and Atts TV, reprovision, get the mail, and make sure Zak & Ellie weren't inviting themselves on everyone elses boat in the marina. Luckily when we pulled in and asked for a slip, they gave us the slip we used to have when we lived in Friday Harbor. It was a busy day, but we accomplished everything we needed to. Scott's brother and family got in and we made it a pretty early night.
The next morning, while I was checking email and paying bills up at a little coffee shop with wi-fi, Zak and Ellie were teaching their cousins, Mason & Maddie, how to catch shrimp on the docks. They had a blast. Zak has become a pro at catching shrimp:
We headed out around 10am, headed for Stuart Island and Reid Harbor again. There was supposed to be a bake sale at the little schoolhouse and we wanted to support them. It was a great sail all the way to Reid Harbor. We pulled in and tied up to the linear. We all headed ashore and started walking to the schoolhouse. On the way we ran into some neighbors from our dock here at Shilshole and then some friends from Lats and Atts. It's kind of nice running into people we know, and Scott's sister-in-law was a little suprised. We made it to the schoolhouse and really enjoyed the wonderful food and talking to the locals about the school. They tried talking us into moving there, so Zak & Ellie could go to school on the island. It probably wouldn't take much persuasion, as Scott and I have talked about it often. It was a great day.
On our way back to Friday Harbor the next day, we decided to fly our new (used) spinaker. It was beautiful:
After dropping Bill & Heidi off in Friday Harbor, we headed to Picnic Cove on the south side of Shaw Island. We had plans of meeting some friends the next day across channel on Lopez Island. We had a nice quiet evening. Zak caught some fish on his own and was in heaven. The next morning we took the dinghy across to see our friends. It was a great visit and the kids were excited to see some friends from home:
We spent the morning with them and caught a ride into Fisherman's Village to get some provisioning done. It was a great visit and a nice little campground they were at. We left around 2pm to ride the tide up to the northern islands. We arrived into Shallow Bay right before sunset and were excited to head over to Patos island the next morning. We have both read the book, A Light on the Island, about a little girl who's father was a lighthouse keeper on the island in the early 1900's. It talks about her day to day life on the island and it made us want to explore the island to find some of the things that she talked about in the book.
We woke up the next morning. I left in the kayak and Scott and the kids followed in the dinghy. It was a little hairy when we got closer to the island, but we all made it there in one piece. We pulled up onto a little beach that can only be reached by dinghy. It was fun to do some beach combing on our own little private beach. We ate lunch on the beach in Active Cove and then set off to do some hiking. The kids and I found some blackberry bushes by the lighthouse and enjoyed them very much.
It was a great hike! We all enjoyed it quite a bit.
After getting back to the boat we headed out to see if we could get a spot at another favorite island, Matia. Luckily there was a spot at the dock and we headed in. We decided to stay a couple days. It was wonderful. We did some fishing, beachcombing, hiking, and just plain being lazy. The water in the bay was warm and the kids had fun swimming. From there, we headed to Roche Harbor so we could head home the next day. Our trip was coming to an end. I think we were all a little sad about that. In Roche Harbor we saw Timber and Pam from Savarna, and KC and Elaine from Hawkwind. It was good seeing everyone, but we were planning a really early wake-up, so it was another early night.
The next morning we woke up around 530am and headed south. It was a long day, with fog in the straits, but we made good time and arrived home at 330pm. What a great month. Now it's time to recoup.
There will be a more detailed version of the trip in our logs in the next couple months. I just have to find the energy to update. Hope everyone is doing well and chat with you all soon.
