A Cruise to Sucia and Stuart Islands

This past weekend we finally untied the docklines and headed off to cruise in the San Juan Islands. Our original plan was to venture off with 5 other boats of friends from the Friday Harbor Sailing Club and transit the fearsome Deception Pass with its terrifiying tidal whirlpools and then seek gray whales that spend time in the spring east of Whidbey Island.

Even the weather tried to keep us homebound. Here is the scene outside our window on Haro Strait on Wednesday last week with our cruise to start Thursday morning. Click on the image of a short moving movie.

As Bobby Burns so aptly said:

The best-laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men
Gang aft agley,
An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,
For promis’d joy!

So it was to be for our fine friends with engine problems and jobs and health and Covid all winnowing our group down and down. In the end, it was decided to go off to Sucia island with one other boat. We would not die in whirlpools or of Covid caught in restaurants and shops and the weather gods gave us a first hint of coming summer with light winds and bright sun.

Leslie and Val, on Cat’s Cradle, were joined at Sucia Island by Stefan and Georgia in Talpa here shown in reflecting glory at anchor in Fossil Bay.

We had some lovely walks and group dinners outside.

And enjoyed calm nights.

Here was an oddity. Val tightened up the line attaching to two bows of our catamaran to the mooring buoy so the buoy wouldn’t bang into the boat in the light winds. Late in the day, as the tide was rising, the boat started making occasional loud complaining noises. After a hunt, we discovered that the State Park mooring buoy was way down underwater and trying to take Cat’s Cradle with it. We loosened the lines and went to sleep. In the morning, as the tide was dropping, the mooring buoy came up for air, so to speak.

Then we motored (still no wind) off to Stuart Island where we ran into Sam and Sandy and Natalie sailing on Salmon Sandy II, their 42 foot Westsail with its motor now working.

We all had a nice walk through the woods up to the one room schoolhouse and on to where we did not see the yaks. Have they escaped?