Summer adventure - Alaska and San Juan's

BRAZO · Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2014 10:21 pm Post subject:

Now in Ketchikan until Sunday when I go out on the ferry to Prince Rupert. I have to admit that it is temporarily nice to be in a tourist trap after driving the Alaska Hwy and touring Alaska for the last 5 weeks. Loved the entire trip and nothing better than being able to boondocks where ever you stop and having mountains, waterfalls, etch surrounding you.

Now back to the people watching for another day...

Pat Anderson · Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2014 9:36 pm Post subject:

Patty and I had a nice - if brief - visit with Bob and Gaye on the guest dock at Blaine Marina this morning! Passed on some of our favorite spots in the San Juans for anchoring, we'll be waiting for their reports of their time here!

BRAZO · Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2014 1:01 am Post subject:

After spending part of the day on Wednesday in Vancouver we pulled the CD22 out of storage and launched in Blaine. Had the pleasure of visiting with Patty and Pat at the harbor - just as nice and kind as I had expected from the years reading their posts!

Decided to try and make it to the San Juan's before the forecasted small craft warning this evening. Put our nose out into the Strait of Georgia and found the water to be just lumpy. They are forecasting windy days for the weekend so we decided to head directly to Friday Harbor. A little lumpy but no big deal. Boat ran great and two hours later we had a slip in Friday Harbor. We met Don on Notty C and enjoyed talking with him.

Tomorrow we'll explore Friday Harbor...

BRAZO · Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2014 11:59 pm Post subject:

After a couple days in Friday Harbor we cruised around the San Juan's just enjoying the day and avoiding the bigger waves. Now anchored in Parks Bay for the evening. Purchased our crab cage and licenses yesterday and this evening enjoyed 6 very good red rock crab!

Beautiful evening with a dozen sailboats anchored around us.

Pat Anderson · Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2014 11:15 pm Post subject:

Red rocks aren't dungies, but they are better than no crab! Keep us posted on your location!

BRAZO · Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2014 12:44 am Post subject:

Spent the day cruising slowly (5kts) from Parks Bay to Matia Island going on the east side of Orcas Island. Now on a mooring ball in Rolfe Cove. Great little hike on the island through old growth trees.

Caught 4 more crabs for dinner!

Great to be on the water.

Here is our path via Inreach SE: https://spotwalla.com/tripViewer.php?id=9f0e5387d332ee5f8

BRAZO · Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2014 12:29 am Post subject:

Spent the night on Monday in Stuart harbor after trawler cruising the area looking for whales and going for the hike to the one room school house on the island.

This morning we again trawler cruised looking for whales. Saw many many porpoises and seals, but no whales - yet. We are now in Roche Harbor where we got our run in, hiked to mausoleum, and enjoyed the day.

Today was again sunny and nice. Tomorrow our plan is to figure it out on the fly. When you cruise a trawler speeds you have plenty of time to figure it out.

Great time!

Pat Anderson · Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2014 9:15 pm Post subject:

Did you make it to the Turn Point LIghthouse?

BRAZO · Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2014 10:04 pm Post subject:

BRAZO · Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2014 10:15 pm Post subject:

Raining foggy day but a great day to look for whales. Nice and calm on Haro Straits this morning. Slowly cruised down the outside of San Juan island looking for whales. Saw a few whale watching boats cruise by but decided not to follow as they may be headed just about anywhere. We made our way down to the bottom tip and saw where all the whale boats had gone. Sat out amongst the whale boats watching a pod of Orcas. Thankfully we have the wallas because it was quite cold out there. We needed the windows opened to see the whales and I needed my Wisconsin winter gear on. Currently at the dock in Friday Harbor with the wallas stove keeping us warm.

Pizza and ice cream to end the day. Another great day as they always are away from 'home'...

colbysmith · Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2014 10:31 pm Post subject:

Sounds like it's the same temps we had late last month. Smile

And also sounds like the Orcas are staying in pretty much the same place. Wish we had the wallas stove when we were there. Ended up buying a nice small portable electric unit at the local hardware store. The hike to Turnpoint Light Station was nice, but when we were there we couldn't see inside, and the time we spent hiking there might have been better spent elsewhere. Although then my wife would never had seen that privvy that she was so excited about! ( Smile

BTW, enjoying your postings here. Fun to compare your travels with ours in the Islands there. Colby

BRAZO · Posted: Thu Jul 24, 2014 7:28 pm Post subject:

One of many reasons to have a small boat. On the way into Friday Harbor last night heard the 'you are #4 on waitlist' to another boater. We radioed in -22' do you need power? Nope, just a spot to tie - no wait list for us and $24 later we were good to go.

Today quite windy, but we are anchored in 4ft water right behind Guss Island in Garrison Bay. Everyone else is anchored in the wind as we float around.

Just another couple of examples why buying the smallest boat you can afford is very true!

BRAZO · Posted: Fri Jul 25, 2014 10:01 pm Post subject:

Cruised the west side on San Juan island today looking out for whales. None were seen but the water was basically flat. Ate our 4 crabs on the way to Anacortes where we are docked for the evening.

Saw the largest West Marine ever in Anacortes- had just about everything. Tomorrow we'll stay for the farmers market in the morning and to 'tour' the large "antique " marine store - looked like a lot of fun from what we could see thru the windows. Sunny nice day.

We have gotten fuel 3 times over the 10 days and each time took on 22 gallons. We have cruised approximately 45hrs.

Also, the other day I loaded Opencpn on my Acer W700 Windows Pro tablet. I've used Nobeltec in the past and was not happy overall. Opencpn is awesome. Very customizable setup was easy and it allowed me to load the free ENC charts. Plus it was FREE...

Pat Anderson · Posted: Sat Jul 26, 2014 12:40 am Post subject:

OpenCPN does not run worth crap on my MacBook Pro under OSX. Guess it works better on Windoze, but since I have Coastal Explorer on the Windoze boot side of my Mac, which is really incredible, no need. Still looking for something that works well on the Mac side...

JamesTXSD · Posted: Sat Jul 26, 2014 9:01 am Post subject:

We saw your boat while you were in Friday Harbor (Joan commented about your bimini - nice!), but no one was around the boat. Sorry we missed meeting you. Sounds like you had a good time in the San Juans. Very Happy

Jim B.