SJI Summer Days 5 & 6 - Fisherman Bay (Lopez Island)

We arrived in Fisherman Bay (Lopez Island) on Monday after a calm and very pleasant cruise past Anacortes, across Rosario Straight and through Thatcher Pass. Weather: clear, sunny, and warm. It felt very good to arrive in the San Juan Islands, our home for the next couple of months.

Stay Awhile was already docked at the Islander Resort Marina; Europa continued into the bay to anchor.

It’s always fun to watch the seaplanes come and go in this bay…even if the planes are a bit close to the boat at times!

We grilled a steak and then watched the sun go down over Fisherman Bay Spit.

First thing Tuesday morning, we hauled anchor and pulled in next to Stay Awhile. We all got our bikes ready and took off to Shark Reef Sanctuary. This great seal-watching spot is about a ten-minute walk from the road, and a definite favorite. Not a lot of seals this time but plenty of other things to look at including enormous schools of fish, eagles, oyster catchers…and water ripping through Cattle Pass.

After a bit of a ride around to the other side of the island, we headed back to Lopez Village…and Bucky’s! Need I say more? Fish tacos for all…

There are usually plenty of interesting characters to watch, talk to, ponder…at marinas. Our treat this time is a young man with a cat. He’s got a very interesting sailboat…looks a bit pirate ship-like…and an even more interesting dinghy. His first mate is a Bengal cat. I had to look this up. It’s a cat breed with leopard spots. Very striking animal to look at but even more interesting was its dog-like behavior – standing on the bow of the dinghy and jumping on and off from dinghy to dock. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a good photo.

Off to Friday Harbor (San Juan Island)!

SJI Summer Day 4 - Swinomish Channel

All to ourselves

So many crab pots!

Even back in the “BB” (Before Boating) days I told anyone who would listen that I wanted to retire some day in La Conner. The Swinomish Channel is one of my very favorite places.

We basically had our own private dock – the first public dock from the south end is quite small, and half of it is private, so we really had it to ourselves, as whoever owns the other half was not around.

The crabbing industry here is gearing up – not a lot of action yet but they are getting their boats ready.

There are a couple of disadvantages, as stated in a previous post. The water comes ripping through the channel and there is often a lot of debris. As far as we know, we didn’t get bumped by any logs this time. Another challenge is the wake situation. Although posted as a no wake zone, hardly anyone abides by it. We had all kinds of boats, working and pleasure of all sizes, come by us – sometimes very close by us – at speeds that caused enough wake to set us rocking. (We had to keep a very close eye on the wine glasses last evening!)

Woke up to gorgeous sunny weather. We just navigated the passage north through the channel and will pass by Anacortes shortly. Lopez here we come!

SJI Summer Day 3 - The Plans They Are A-Changin'

Orca Whales

Norwegian JOY

Europa running shot

Stay Awhile running shot

Skagit Bay

We arrived in Langley…no room at the dock. So, as previously stated, we did a better job anchoring. After about ten minutes on the hook, with the boat rocking and rolling, we decided to move on. Based on our last experience, it just didn’t bode well. The anchorage at Langley is not protected, and even though it would mean a longer day on the water than we generally enjoy, we chose to go all the way to La Conner. We arrived just before 6pm and found a spot at the first public dock. (We could see Stay Awhile a bit further along the channel at the marina.) After about 9 hours on the water, we called it an early night after dinner…okay, and after a quick walk for an ice-cream cone.

Skagit Bay was absolutely calm and beautiful.

Weather is a little misty this morning. We enjoyed a short walk to visit with Steve and Tracey, and to The Scone Lady. We plan to stay here another night, then move on to Fisherman Bay (Lopez Island). Unless plans change. 😉

SJI Summer Day 2 - Auspicious Beginnings!

(Still working on getting photos - I'll include them later!)

We were lucky enough to watch about 5 Orca whales go by just north of Seattle. Stay Awhile was motoring ahead of Europa and sent word there were a few whales nearby.  Sure enough, we saw them and then cut power to watch for about 15 minutes. Very beautiful, and very fortunate for us to cross paths with this small group on our first full day of the trip!

I got up this morning to make coffee and was surprised to see a huge wall of boat next to us. We didn’t know that the Bell Harbor breakwater is actually a cruise ship dock! And we certainly didn’t hear or see the behemoth pull in sometime in the night. It was interesting to watch the people and equipment move a massive amount of luggage, food, fuel, and waste in preparation for the next sailing of Norwegian Joy.

Last evening, we Ubered (our first time!) to Casca Antiguo with Steve and Tracey to have dinner with Tracey’s other son, and girlfriend. Delicious, and really good margaritas!

Got a couple of good running shots of each other this morning after leaving Bell Harbor.

Oh, and we’ve already changed our plans. To better pace ourselves for the trip north, we’re going to Langley instead of Oak Harbor – we’ll have to save that visit for another time. Hopefully there is room at the dock. If not, we’ll anchor again…but we’ll do a much better job. As of now, we remember Langley as one of our worst sleepless nights ever on Europa, as we anchored too close to shore and got pounded by surf all night.

SJI Summer Day 1 - Retired and on the Water!

7.5.2019

It’s been awhile – I hope to blog regularly now that we are retired (as of last week – yay!) and beginning our summer in the San Juan Islands aboard Europa. We’ve been waiting for this day for a long time and it’s a bit hard to believe it has arrived!

I’ve got a lot of catching up to do…and I want to keep each post to a reasonable length. So, here are the basics, with more to come in subsequent posts.

We (Janine and Nick) both retired (from Tacoma Community College and Department of Ecology, respectively) just last week. We’re on to the next stage of our lives, looking forward to a lot of fun boating, excellent adventures, and time with friends and family. And, importantly, the arrival of our first grandchild at the end of September.

We are currently headed north – just topped off the diesel at Des Moines Marina – to meet up with Stay Awhile (our dear friends and neighbors, Tracey and Steve on their Ranger 23) at Bell Harbor Marina in Seattle. Saturday, Europa will continue to Oak Harbor, a first visit for us, then to La Conner. Stay Awhile will head to Bellingham to visit one of Tracey’s sons. We’ll meet again in Fisherman Bay (Lopez Island). Other ports of call in the plans for our first couple of weeks are Rosario (Orcas Island), Friday Harbor (San Juan Island), Cliff Island, Roche Harbor (San Juan Island), and maybe on to Sucia Island.

After Stay Awhile heads home, Europa will mosey around until heading to Neil Bay (San Juan Island) to meet up with the Mott family for our annual week of fun in the SJI’s on July 20.

I hope to include some decent photos next time. After finding that Blogger won’t work on my phone any more, changing email addresses, handing in our work-owned devices, buying new devices and getting them set up, my head is about to explode with technology-related nonsense! (So… haven’t figured out how to attached photos in this new environment…yet.)

More later…

Trouble posting

Blog posts over the weekend were unsuccessful, so trying again.

We made a quick overnight to Gig Harbor. The weather wasn't quite as nice as expected but the sun made an appearance a couple of times.

Two pieces of news:

Nick and I will both retire on June 27 this year. Guess what we'll do on June 28? (It involves a boat, water, and the San Juan Islands!)

Oh, and our first grandchild is due in September!

Fun day on the water!

We unexpectedly went boating today...just not on our boat. We were invited to take a ride on Stay Awhile, our neighbor's new RT 23. We'd been aboard a couple of times to take a look and welcome her to the Foss, but we hadn't actually been out on the water.

What fun! For those of you who may not know, this boat has a 200hp outboard, where Europa has a diesel inboard. We cruised at a comfortable 25 mph, getting up to about 35 at times. Our boat can do a bit over 20, but we typically cruise at 7. So...just a different experience.

Added attraction: We knew Caleb and Leslie were fishing off Point Defiance in Caleb's Starcraft, so we cruised by to say hello. No fish on but they looked like they were quite content...Caleb was mooching and Leslie was reading a book. Seems like a good way to spend a Saturday to me!

We headed to the Narrows Marina for lunch at Boathouse 19. We had no other plans so the next thing we know....we're in Oro Bay! (Usually a couple hour cruise for us.) It was fun to show the Dockwassers one of our favorite places. Can't wait to go back...with both boats...in summer weather.

Another wonderful day on the water.