September 4, 2013 ~ La Conner to Lake Union

Early this morning there was quite a bit of fog – I think we could make out the other side of the channel, but we definitely could not see as far as the marina just north of town.  We could definitely tell it was September.

Erin had picked up some different flavored scones from a bakery yesterday, and divided them up for breakfast.  Let’s see; there was coconut, lemon, raspberry, and something else.  We each got to sample a strip of each flavor.  The lady who makes them has a secret recipe she won’t even share with her family, and they definitely were better than most scones I’ve sampled.

For best current utilization, we were planning on leaving around 10 o’clock.  If the fog persisted, we’d stop at Everett and forego crossing ferry routes and shipping lanes in the fog.  If it was clear the plan was to continue all the way to Shilshole and the locks.

We did indeed pull away from the dock right at 10 o’clock, and with the current all it took was an idle to head out of town at a pretty good clip.  The tide was falling, and

within a foot or so of the low for the day.  Coming out the channel south of town at low tide sure makes you realize why no one can be taking any shortcuts from the channel.  We often see boats aground where they have cut the corner on the way out, but I think the only boats we’d see aground today would be in the center of the channel.  The Army Corps of Engineers is tasked with dredging this channel, but with budget constraints and requirements for a certain volume of commercial shipping to qualify for dredging now, this channel has not been dredged recently.  I passed over a couple spots near the exit that, even though we were dead on mid channel by the range markers, were less than 5 feet deep.  That’s where you lift your feet up and hope you

clear.  We did.  I hope La Conner and the Army can get something worked out – I sure wouldn’t stop by for a visit at low or a minus tide.

We saw a few boats heading north, but by far most were headed south.  We had four boats in front of us as we turned south out of the channel and towards Camano Island, and another three or four behind us – all spaced out pretty evenly, at least a first.

This must be a good time for catching fish, as there were at least 8 or 9 purse seiners

 

working the shore of Camano.  We cruised close to shore, keeping them to the seaward side of us.  Some were working right up to the shelf where it gets shallow, though.  We watched several do their “sets” with the net circled around and hoisted back aboard the boat – we passed one just as the bottom of the net full of fish was brought on board.

It turned out to be a beautiful cruising day, with calm water and sunshine most of the way.  The sky was clear as we passed Everett and continued on towards Shilshole.

As we approached the locks we noticed a few boats heading out, as well as a tug boat and a large yacht waiting.  By the time we were at the railroad bridge, the light was green for entering the large lock.  We were directed to tie to the large yacht, which was directly behind the tugboat.  Behind us was one other boat, and then the gate closed.  It was also high tide, making this one of the quickest lockings through the large lock we’ve ever had – and we didn’t even have to work the wall.

We are now home, although we have some more unloading to do from the boat, and acclimating to civilization and home too.  Erin and I both agree that this was our best vacation ever, and we’ve had some really good vacations to set the bar high.  We’re looking forward to sorting through our thousands of photos and video clips to make a palatable length DVD show.  Thanks for coming along with us via the blog – hope you enjoyed it!

September 3, 2013 ~ La Conner

We had some rain during the middle of the night, and then some more this morning.  Every so often it would like clearing up, but then more rain would come.  Erin wanted to do some more browsing of the local shops, and it wasn’t a hard decision to just stick around for another day.

After a breakfast of bear claws Erin picked up from the local bakery yesterday, along with eggs for Ray and me, we all went out on an excursion into town.  With our stay extended for a day, I started the generator to build up our amps while we were out and about.  We strolled along the promenade that is under construction, and watched as a welder hanging in a basket from a crane added some length to one of the new steel pilings that are being pounded in along the shoreline.  It’ll be a nice addition to the town when it’s finished.

Erin and Mary headed off to some foo foo shops, while Ray and I paid a visit to Nasty Jack’s, an antique store with some neat stuff scattered throughout.  We had fun browsing through ancient Life magazines, brothel tokens from various ranches in Nevada, old kitchen appliances, jukeboxes, old toys and other items of interest.  We weren’t big time spenders, but Ray did acquire some magnets, four for a dollar.  After a brief visit to the Wood Store at the other end of town, where we perused some fine woodworking, we headed back to the boat and a rendezvous with the ladies.  It was lunchtime, and we all headed to the La Conner Tavern to sample their fares.  Thanks, Ray, for treating!!  While dining on fish and chips, French dip and a burrito, we saw the Willow-B-Gee cruise by.  That’s one of our neighbor boats at our moorage in Lake Union, a 1928 bridge deck cruiser.  They were on their way north, no doubt to enjoy the relative solitude that happens after Labor Day when school is in session and most boating families have returned home.

We had a few more rain showers in the afternoon, but for the most part the day cleared up very nicely and at 6:00pm now it’s sunny and warm, around 68 degrees outside.

We enjoyed a pleasant evening, finishing off a game of dominoes that we had started several days ago.  I think that tomorrow we’ll definitely be going for a cruise.

La Conner is one of my favorite places to spend a day to browse, and sometimes pick up non essential fun stuff, so I enjoyed spending an entire day to walk around the stores with mom.  What I enjoy about the stores are that most if not all are locally owned, and the owners are usually working and enjoy spending time chatting with you without pressuring you to buy.  During the recession we saw several of the stores close, it’s good to see that some of the stores fronts are now occupied with new owners.  Mom and I enjoyed one of the new stores, Maison de Kristine (www.maisondekristine.com).  We really enjoyed getting to know the proprietor Kristine Hasslinger, and one of the local artist who brings in some paintings which she sells in the store.  Kristine and her husband are boaters.  They’ve never gone further north than the Gulf islands, so after sharing some of our current and past travels she’s interested in learning more about it, so I now have another reason for coming back to La Conner sooner rather than later!          

It’s hard to think that our summer adventure is ending, but now I’m looking forward to going through the several thousand pictures (4,000+) to find the best for some paintings; I know there are a several that I want to do.  While I brought my paints with me I only played with them a few times.       

September 2, 2013 ~ Blind Bay to La Conner

Yesterday the barometer was predicting rain again, and this time it was right.  Around 5 o’clock this morning it began to rain.  It wasn’t anywhere near the deluge we had in Ganges, though, and it soon cleared up a bit, with just a couple passing showers later in the morning.

Ray regaled us with some songs of old this morning while cooking his now signature potatoes, along with bacon and eggs.  We enjoyed both the breakfast and the entertainment.

We set our course for La Conner and got underway around 11:00 o’clock.  As we left Blind Bay and entered Harney Channel it seemed like a multi-lane freeway, with a lot of boats heading both directions – no doubt on their way home or somewhere at the end of this Labor Day Weekend.  Fortunately we didn’t also have to contend with ferry traffic between Orcas and Shaw.  We ended up beside a sailboat that was matching our speed, but he wanted to head off to starboard while we wanted to go to port.  I bumped our speed up a knot or two until we were a few boat lengths ahead of him where we could switch positions.

It’s been quite a few years since we’ve taken the main route south towards Thatcher Pass to cross Rosario Strait over to Anacortes.  Instead, we headed east towards Obstruction Pass.  After crossing the mouth of East Sound, we took the northern route around Obstruction Island out into Rosario Strait.  The skies had mostly cleared and the water was calm – perfect weather for cruising out towards the northern end of Cypress Island.  We saw a few boats at anchor or on mooring buoys at Pelican Beach on the northeast shore of Cypress – I think it’s a state park there.  We continued on towards Guemes Island, and followed its eastern shore down towards Saddlebag Island, Anacortes and the entrance to the Swinomish Channel.  The current was in our favor through the channel most of the way.

With the holiday weekend going on and all the boats on the move today we wondered a bit if there would be moorage available at La Conner, but as we approached the town we could see first that there was plenty of space at the north basin, and then also at the south basin.  Our plan was to cruise down into town to see if one of the city docks was available.  If so, we’d be right in town for walkabouts.  We don’t need any hookups from the marinas, so that would suit us fine.  A spot indeed was open, right in front of what was formerly Palmer’s Restaurant – it has been closed for quite a few years.  As we were on our final approach, a small runabout came from the opposite direction and tied to the dock – but they signaled they were moving ahead to the adjacent smaller dock as soon as the boat there left, which it was doing at the moment.  By then the current had changed and was flowing north.  We were already configured for a starboard tie, so we did a 180 turn and I angled the stern more towards the dock, applying occasional shots of reverse to keep us abreast of the dock while the current pushed us in. 

Once we were tied down securely, without hesitation Erin and Mary took off into town to make sure they could visit the shops before closing time.  They were back about an hour and a half later, carrying huge waffle ice cream cones for everyone.  Licorice is a

favorite flavor for Ray and Erin, and they both had double scoops, while I received a raspberry and maple walnut cone.  Mary opted for a single scoop after seeing how huge the scoops being dished out were.  None of us were very hungry for dinner after that.  Speaking of dinner, we had some chicken thighs that had been marinating for a couple days and needed to be cooked.  I set up the barbecue later in the evening and cooked them while Erin and Mary played a game of canasta. 

Erin and I went for a walk after dusk, and found that they’re building a walkway or promenade along the waterfront.  A section has been completed to the north of us, and there are new steel pilings in front of the vacant restaurant.  To the north is another building that was formerly a restaurant, then a vegetable market, and now we see there’s an application to convert it back to a restaurant.  The fore sale sign had a “pending” banner, most likely awaiting some sort of city approval of the buyer’s plan.  Hopefully they’ll be successful – La Conner could use some new business along the “strip”.

We’re getting awfully close to home – it’d be a one day cruise from here, although of a longer duration than we’ve been doing.  We’ll break it up by cruising down to Everett tomorrow and on to home on Wednesday.

September 1, 2013 ~ Port Browning to Blind Bay

Sunrise was spectacular looking out over Plumper Sound at Saturna Island.  Sunrise and sunset are getting a few minutes closer together every day and it’s becoming

noticeable.  But there are still plenty of daylight hours with which to enjoy the sights.

Once again Ray made breakfast for all of us, and we spent the morning admiring our surroundings or with our noses in books.

We stayed at anchor in Port Browning until early in the afternoon, when a rising tide would make the transit of the Pender Canal a bit more feasible.  Actually, I think we could probably pass through even at a zero tide, although I would be skeptical of trusting the 4 foot depth shown on the chart.  We went through with no problems, sounding our air horns a couple of times for effect.  I like hearing them.

From there we cruised past Bedwell Harbour, where we had cleared Canadian customs about 7 weeks ago, and into Boundary Pass towards Stuart Island.  We passed through Johns Pass, between Stuart and Johns Island, clearing the reef before turning towards Spieden Island and on to Roche Harbor, where we’d report in to U.S. Customs.  As we entered the harbor we saw some well known examples of the old and new technologies of boating.  Anchored next to each other were the Adventuress, a large

two-masted schooner that is a century or so old, and the Evviva, the mega yacht we recently saw at Ganges with its satellite antennas and the helicopter on the flight deck.  We’re in the middle of Labor Day Weekend, and Roche Harbor was slammed with

a sea of white plastic, both at anchor and at the docks.  We had no plans to stay there, but if we had there might be trouble getting moorage.

We wended our way through the anchored boats towards the customs dock, and were surprised to see that there was not a group of boats waiting.  We had one of the smoothest and quickest Customs experiences ever.  Although there were two or three open spots at the dock, none were quite our length but we only had to wait about 5 minutes for a spot.  As we pulled up to the dock a young agent came out to greet us, asking for our passports to compare our faces to speed things along.  She then directed me into the Customs building while checking with Erin about what vegetables we had on board.  We ended up having to surrender nothing, although we are supposed to peel our potatoes this evening.  Inside, the longest procedure was filling out the application for the customs sticker, which all boats longer than 30 feet need to re-enter the country.  Once that was done, and some compliments were given about our nice classic boat, we were given our clearance number and sent on our way.

Since the tide was still rising we headed out the east side of Pearl Island to reenter Spieden Channel, crossing over the shallow spots with about 8 feet to spare.  From there we passed Jones Island as we headed towards Orcas Island and Pole Pass. We are anchored this evening in Blind Bay on Shaw Island, a well protected but large bay that can hold many boats.  In fact, I counted 46 boats earlier this evening and I’m sure more have arrived since then.

Dinner this evening consisted of cleaning out various leftovers from the fridge.  Erin and Mary are playing Canasta while Ray and I have our noses in a book – except for now when I have my nose in this computer documenting the day’s events.