Tuesday, September 3, 2019

SJI Summer Days 60 & 61 - Whales!


This boat was anchored in Reid Harbor and left the same time we did. Another one of those vessels that make us say “wow.”

We were able to grab a mooring buoy in Reid Harbor, even though there were over 50 boats there already. (Plenty of room for more – it’s a fairly large harbor with good anchoring conditions throughout.) After kayaking to the beach, we hiked the trail and county road to the community of Prevost. Beautiful!

The next morning, we were low on power so we decided to motor again. We headed back to Jones Island.

On the way I kept noticing a few boats hovering in the distance. That usually means there are whales but they were too far away be able to tell what was going on. As we got closer to Jones, I finally saw the blows! I turned Europa in that direction, as we weren’t in any hurry and I hate to turn away from any potential of seeing whales. As we got closer, we could determine there were two humpbacks (although it looked like a lot more at times!) Taking photos on a phone, on a moving boat, from a distance, is very difficult but I turned the helm over to my co-captain and gave it my best. I caught a couple of blows, a couple of dorsal fins, and a couple of tail lobs.





The whales moved along so we continued to Jones Island, anchored, and stern tied. I soon spied a few whale watching boats out through the mouth of the harbor, and sure enough the two humpbacks were there! Only saw them briefly before they headed north and out of sight.

After a couple of hours (around 4pm), we realized we were out of water! That doesn’t happen to us much, as our tank holds 60 gallons and we typically have more than enough. We really don’t pay much attention to conserving water, so this time we just used more than normal. We had drinking water, because we carry that separately, but with no connectivity, no water for dishes and showers, and a bit low on power because of the short distance we traveled, we pulled the stern tie, raised the anchor, and headed back to Roche Harbor! This is not a time of day we usually travel. The water was calm and gorgeous.

This puts us here a couple of days early, but we got a great spot because we arrived in the window between the super busy Labor Day weekend and the arrival of all the Ranger/Cutwater boats on Wednesday and Thursday. They will let us stay in this berth the entire time. I have a ton of laundry to do, and we have major boat-cleaning chores to take care of, so the extra days will be good. We also hope to get a bike ride to Lime Kiln park in before the event activities kick in.

Technically, the Rendezvous is Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, with seminars, fun (for some!) games (I actually like the scavenger hunt), technical help, and dinners catered by the hotel. We plan to leave on Sunday with Coorie Doon to continue exploring.


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