1030 hrs. Montague Harbour. Tick…

 
OK, it was actually 1035 but for five minutes, I rounded back. The important part of this message is that our formulae worked again…. Yahoo! No less than 13 vacant mooring balls awaited us upon our 'timed' arrival in Montague Harbour. Our theory (that continues to work) is that those boats planning on leaving Montague do so after breakfast and before lunch; hence our arrival at 1030 hrs. has never failed to provide a mooring buoy for us… even on this Friday morning. We've come to Montague for the last two evenings of our summer cruise. Needing a mooring buoy, as opposed to anchoring, was one of our considerations; but there are other attributes that drew us here. There are beaches for Maddie to frolic on, trails to walk, a general store and fuel if needed and pretty nice scenery to relax with and enjoy. The weather forecast is favourable with light and variable winds and we're just going to rest up and enjoy these days as they unfold. We expect to head home on Sunday. Bye for now. CJ




The hero or the goat…

Tuesday, July 11th:  My Dad always said “When you’re the skipper, and you have to make decisions, you usually end up as the hero or the goat” and he was right. It was my turn to take that chance today. As you may know, we’ve been somewhat battered by moderate to strong SE and SW winds pretty much since we got down here and yesterday was no exception. We couldn’t have left our dock yesterday if we had wanted to; too much wind and opposing current.  So, after two fun days in Deer Harbor and knowing we really wanted to get away today and that the wind was supposed to drop a bit overnight, I had to make one of those decisions. For us to take advantage of lower winds while backing out of our narrow slip, we needed to leave early; very early.  I’m usually not very popular when I suggest leaving early but everyone sucked it up and I set my alarm for 0500 hrs. 

I checked at 0445 and there was absolutely no wind. Phew… I reset the alarm for 0600 (and then lay awake waiting for the time to pass). Ha!!  I felt the faint shudder as a gust of wind tickled our rigging… and then another, and another. “ UP “ I called, “it’s time to go!”  Bless their hearts, all crew members responded without complaint. Maddie was delighted we were all up early. Kathy not so much but certainly up and at it quickly without complaint.  While K and M went for the obligatory morning ‘walk’ I made coffee and readied the deck. The next few hours looked like this… 0520 up, dressed, dog walked, coffee made. 0600 engine on, power cord disengaged and stowed, dock lines retrieved and a slow but steady backing out of slip against a building breeze. Luckily Kathy was able to hold SSpirit away from the pointy corner at the end of our slip and still get back on the boat before we left her behind.  0820 having motored out of Deer Harbor, through Spring Passage, past Jones Island and north towards Canada… we arrived in Prevost Harbor on Stuart Island. This was our plan. We wanted to arrive in this SE protected anchorage early enough to be hovering in the vicinity of the 7 mooring balls reported to exist.  We did; they did; and after only 30 minutes of 

polite hovering a boat kindly let go and vacated one of the mooring balls. Voila!!

We are secured to a lovely mooring ball, in a lovely protected harbor, and we’ll stay for a couple days of walking and exploring. Then it will be time to head back into the Gulf Islands and slowly home. We may be home a day early…after all we have a windlass to repair… sigh.   Hope your winds are gentle and your day is peaceful.  CJ

Mooring balls and marinas…

Deer Harbor Marina docks

When last I left you we had arrived at a small island called Jones Island. This is a beautiful spot with three mooring balls (all full when we arrived). We anchored in the bay with the hopes someone would vacate a mooring the next morning and we were lucky We managed to snag mooring ball B3 right after breakfast :-) We spent two days enjoying the trails, meeting other sailors and generally relaxing. It was marvellous and we enjoyed every minute.  BUT… we did have a bit of challenge develop.

There’s nothing like resounding ‘silence’ (when there should have been the grinding noise of the windlass winding in your anchor chain) to get your undivided attention; and it certainly did. Unfortunately our windlass has gone on vacation and we must now replan our cruising route keeping that in mind as well as the currents and strong south winds. Neither of us are particularly happy about physically hauling in heavy anchor chain and, of course, it’s even more dangerous in the dark and/or if the wind has kicked up or the anchor has dragged. I expect you can see my point. Our planning is now focused on locations with more than 1 or 2 mooring balls and a marina dock as back up AND also keeping in mind the moderate SE and SW winds we are experiencing and that appear to be here for several more days.

After Jones Island we took ourselves to Deer Harbor Marina in (you guessed it) Deer Harbor, Orcas Island. It’s a smallish marina but very nice. There are some walking trails and a great Pizza restaurant right across the street. We are here for two days and head out tomorrow (Tuesday the 11th) to head to, likely, Prevost Harbor on Stuart Island.  This location has both mooring balls and protection from the S winds.  From there, once we’re ready to leave, we can hop across the 49th and wind our way slowly home.  We have decided to leave Rosario and Sucia Island for our next foray into the San Juans.  We will be back.  Guess that’s it for now….  Hope all is well with you.. Best, CJ

The view from our mooring ball at Jones Island

Relaxing on the foredeck

Lovely flower boxes at Deer Harbor Marina 

Thursday July 5th - Roche Harbor



Wow!  A sea plane just went by us whilst taking off.  His wing tip wasn’t more than 20’ from us.  Even Maddie was stunned into silence :-) We are anchored in quiet (not!) Roche Harbour…. OMG there goes another one; this time through a field of large yachts at anchor. I’m sure they were ‘impressed’ 

We slipped from Port Sidney Marina yesterday morning at 1030 hrs and arrived in Roche Harbor yesterday early afternoon. The trip was a new experience for us. I had no idea Haro Strait could conjure up so much current. It was quite amazing. At one point we were motoring at 2700 RPM (working the engine somewhat harder than usual) and making only 1.2 knots (kts)over ground. There were even whirlpools to be avoided! 

Needless to say, we will pay more attention to the current tables next time and for the rest of this adventure.  Yes, we consider this an adventure… not just because we are about to visit some unique historic San Juan Island communities and anchor in several somewhat uninhabited, natural wilderness bays; but because we’ve never been here before and it’s all new to us. 

OK, here we go…

Roche Harbor: It is a large harbour and has, at this moment (the day after their enthusiastic 4th of July celebrations), literally hundreds of boats (big and small) on moorings, at anchor or tied up at the Marina docks.  This is definitely not one of the uninhabited locations I just referred to :-) We anchored a fair distance from the Marina, not wanting to get caught up in the comings and goings of Marina guests and tenders to the boats at anchor.  That being said, the traffic out here (where we anchored) is fairly steady anyway (and this morning’s sea plane taxi-by was rather unique as well :-). Lots of people, all having fun on the water; Dads teaching young sons how to run the outboard, couples visiting back and forth, dinghy races in and about the anchorage. This is a place where people come to have fun.   

The Marina itself is situated on shore and in connection with a myriad of small shops, cafes and an ice cream stand 😃.  There’s also a small grocery store (good thing, as we had to empty our larder before crossing the 49th).  Anyway, the sidewalks and walkways are filled with folks, kids and dogs… all enjoying the festive ambiance.  There’s even the sound of pickle ball courts in the distance. The harbour is ringed by beautiful homes and personal docks (all private property) so doggie shore leave requires a dinghy trip to the marina dinghy dock. We’re lucky Maddie has a pretty good holding tank!  One down side (for us) was the very (and understandably) popular, Roche Harbor Resort “Lowering of the Colors” sunset ceremony.  Last night involved a short speech and ceremonial lowering of flags of Great Britain, Canada and the United States, while each national anthem was played.  That part was fine. What we hadn’t realized would occur following the ceremony was the firing of an extremely loud cannon at least five times and the blowing of boat horns and whistles throughout the harbour. Maddie was absolutely terrified and nothing we could do would sooth her. It took some time to calm her down, while we held her until she stopped shaking. 

While there is so much more for us to explore around historic Roche Harbor and San Juan Island,  we will have to leave that for another time . We’ve  decided we must change our itinerary (or at least the timing of it) to ensure we are not here for this evening’s sunset ceremony.  We have a plan which involves leaving here about 1330 hrs this afternoon. This time is set by reviewing the current tables and determining when the least amount of tide will be running against us as we head to our next destination. It turns out that if we had left at 11:00 as first planned, we would have been left standing still with 5 kts of current against us!   First choice for tonight’s anchorage is Jones Island, north cove. If it’s full we’ll try for Deer Harbour Marina and if they’re full we’ll continue on to Rosario, where we expect to spend a few days.

That’s all I know for now.  We are blessed with good weather and a windlass motor that is responding (for now) to firmly delivered hammer taps when it sticks (now on the list of servicing required :-) and, we’re looking forward to our next ‘port of call’.  Including one photo of the boats in the harbour and we’ll post a few more later to show you some of the sights around Roche .   Hope all is well and you are enjoying each day.  CJ

1530:hrs.  Same day…

Jones Island: yup, we’re here.  Hoisted anchor at 1330 hrs (again, having consulted with the Gods of currents).  We lucked out.  Turns out there are only three mooring balls in the north cove and all were taken. However…😃 no one had claimed the centre of the cove… so we did 👍.  Hook is down,  beach looks great, we are quite protected from the SW winds forecast for the next several days AND… we have groceries and grog on board!! 🎉🎊🎉. Bye for now.

Not done yet...

 Nosiree, this summer cruise is not over yet!  Dentist says I'm going to live :-) Turns out my cracked tooth is an abscessed crown. I'm on meds for the abscess and the root canal is scheduled for early August... so off we go!  The plan (loose and in sand) is to head for Sidney today and then cross the 49th with the hopes of checking in 'on line' tomorrow morning.  Here's where the IF comes in.  IF we're allowed to check in on line and not required to go all the way around  to Friday Harbor to go through the process on land... we'll continue on with that part of the plan (Roche Harbor, Jones Island, Rosario, Suchia and then back north of the 49th).  IF the US authorities decide they need us to go all the way to Friday Harbor (Roche is no longer a check in point) then we'll return to Canadian waters and enjoy our own, beautiful southern Gulf Islands.  How good can it get? I mean really!  The 'plan' is lovely no matter which way it goes.. and THAT is out of our hands. But, at least we have a plan and a backup. Now, if only the weather holds...  We'll keep you 'posted' as time allows... you know how busy it can get 'sailing around'  :-)   We are happy, even wee Maddie is finally adjusting to the engine noise (with the help of her 'hoodie') and we're all looking forward to some good walks and beaches.  Hope all is well with each of you. Checking out, for now; CJ.