August 8-9 - Eagle Harbor

Girls only sailing weekend.

Everything went perfect!

We were the last into the large locks leaving, went right in and waited only 5 min for the small locks on return.
We sailed 3 hours in light wind Saturday and only got 1/2 way there, then motored the rest. There was amazingly no one at the public dock, so we went right in there at Eagle Harbor.
There was a light mist of rain in the morning, then by the time we were out on the water around noon, it was blue sky, but calm. It was pretty warm, so I convinced Michelle and Tiffany to jump off the boat into the water. They dove in a few times and then we motored back across.
Docking back at the marina was perfect! Why didn't I do this sooner?

-Diana

July 6 - Kingston to home

Motored 2 hours to lock in 35 knots S. wind. Yuck. At least no rain, just lots of pounding spray. We waited ~45 minutes to get into the small locks. Quite a long time to hover inside the bridge outside the locks on a Monday morning! Back at the dock, somebody was wrongly moored in our slip and so we had to go in another slip and sort it out later.

Highlights of the trip:
Blue skies EVERYDAY!
No disasters
Saw porpoises most every day
Lots of bald eagles
Cute Pigeon Guillemots
Sea otters at Stuart Island, formerly almost extinct
Tanned faces (and other body parts)
Good sailing with screaming reaches
Sucia was fantastic! More hiking to be done next time on the South side.

More photos from our trip can be seen on our Flickr page.

July 5 - Roache Harbor to Kingston

We took off just after noon since we needed to sleep in a bit. The weather report also convinced us it was time to call the vacation to an end. We motored out via Mosquito Pass until the current no longer was on so strong and out to the Strait of Juan de Fuca. We had great sailing for 3+ hours. We decided to keep going istead of stopping in Pt. Townsend. We knew the wind was going to come strong in the Puget Sound inland waters. We sailed great with NW winds, then NE winds until Point no Point where the wind entirely shifted to a strong southerly and the rough weather was on for the evening. We took everything down quickly and motored toward Kingston. After a few hours, we got there around 11:30PM. We anchored outside the marina. It was a VERY rolly spot, but it held all night. The tide was very low when we got up, but we didn't check the depth, we just left straight away.

July 4 - Stewart Island to Roache Harbor

We started the day with a ride in Rubber Ducky to see a floating gallery Met a guy who anchors his gallery there in the summer, a custom floating "house" on an old set of catamaran pontoons. He lives on a sailboat docked alongside and even has a sauna on gallery boat.Jesper was inspired. The guy even sails all winter to get his photos that he sells in the summer of the islands.
We took a hike ashore and ate leftover pizza on the beach, walked up to the island schoolhouse.
Not enough wind to sail south to Roache Harbor, but we tried anyway We got into the harbor and anchored in a tight spot, had a yummy steak dinner. We decided to move to another spot, and it was closer to shore as well. We went ashore and had delicious ice cream visited the motor yacht dock scene. The fireworks were fun. We tested out a flare gun and a hand held flare and although expired by about 4 years, they proved good.
Around 3AM we had to pull anchor. We were thumping against the nearby, vacant powerboat. Not good! We found a new spot in the less crowded deeper water for the rest of the night.

July 3 - Friday Harbor to Stewart Island

Jesper took a shower on shore and Diana got the outboard spark plugs and yarn. Pumped out, saw a "tame" (not shy) Harbor Seal getting fat from the seafood store on the dock. It was cute. We bough smoked salmon which was delicious. We sailed all day, until 3:30PM when the wind ran out. Tacked up the channel. Wind was off and on 4-15 knots.
At Stewart Island, we anchored just inside the opening of the bay by a couple tiny islands. Jesper took rubber duckie to one of the islands and read on nearly got a sunburn in the setting sun. Diana made homemade pizza. No blowing winds this night, very calm and got a solid nights sleep!

July 2 - Jones Island to Friday Harbor

Woke up at 7AM. Rolling, very uncomfortably. We left 30 minutes later and sailed down to Friday harbor after some confusion in Jesper's head as to where we were going. We came really close to a "top 11" reef where boats run aground in the San Juans. Depth from 150-50 in seconds. At Friday Harbor we stocked up on everything, and picked up a PNW "girl froggy" as an ornament for inside the boat.
In Friday Harbor there was a "loosely" anchored sailboat drifting all over the bay causing us to feel like it was our anchor dragging. Later on the Port of F.H. came and towed it away as it came super close to many boats.

July 1 - Echo bay to Jones Island

Good sailing! (After a calm start!) We anchored at S. Bay of Jones Island which is an excellent state park. Large open field with an apple orchard. many camp sites. We visited the North Bat and deemed it unsafe for NW winds. They do have a dock, but it still would be uncomfortable. We chatted wit a man on an old school sailboat on the Northside, but then we got distracted by his cell phone.