Looking at Boats...
I'm sure you'd all be shocked to learn that a considerable part of the conversation over the week that Les and Rose were with us involved boats. How surprising is that? 😁
Les and Rose are really interested in re-joining the Selene Family after a hiatus of about 15 years. We're just as anxious to get them back in the family! Trouble is, they're looking for a well-cared-for Selene 59/60, and they are relatively hard to come by.
By the end of the Rendezvous weekend, Les and Rose had made an appointment to go see a Selene 60 that's for sale in Anacortes. It has a few differences from the typical Selene 60 that gave them a little pause, but, in the end, they decided that they could work with/in/around those differences. So, we asked Les and Rose if they would welcome hitching a ride with us back to Anacortes and going to see the boat together. They said Yes! How could I turn down another opportunity to look at boats?
So we left Roche Harbor relatively early--about 7:15 am--Sunday morning to retrace most of our steps through the San Juan islands to Anacortes. They had an appointment at 11:30 to go aboard and inspect the boat. We waved goodbye to the many other owners on the dock and started our way to the east side of the Island group and the town of Anacortes. This route does not require another transit through Deception Pass (see the previous blog post about Deception Pass), so timing wasn't as critical. However, the current in Guemes channel going into Anacortes can be very strong. We knew we'd be bucking quite a bit of current for the last few miles into Cap Sante marina.
We got tied up and met Brian Taylor, the broker, who opened the boat for us. We spent the next couple of hours walking through the boat and asking questions. The boat is owned by some good friends of ours and has been meticulously maintained. It showed. I'll leave the results of this to another post in the future if and when Les and Rose rejoin the Selene family!
Les and Rose caught a shuttle bus that afternoon back to the Seattle airport, where they would fly back to Wisconsin.
Anacortes to Sucia
After Les and Rose left, Roseanne and I had a really nice simple dinner (clam chowder and salad) at the Anthony's restaurant that's right at the head of the dock. We watched a movie together that evening and went to bed.
The plan was to get out to Sucia the next day. I love Sucia. It has miles of wonderful trails and there's a dock in one of the coves that makes accessing the trails easy. However, I had a bit different agenda for our time there. There were two small nearby islands I wanted to explore. One of them is Matia Island, just a couple of miles east of Sucia.
Exploring Matia Island
The afternoon we got to Sucia, I lowered the dinghy and ran over to Matia Island. It only take about 10-15 minutes in the dinghy. There's s small state park dock there and a couple of mooring buoys. It would be a bit tight to anchor Koinonia in there without interfering with the mooring buoys (we're too big/heavy to hang on the state park mooring buoys).
There's a wonderful loop trail through the forrest on Matia that loops by several other small coves on the island. It's just a wonderful day hike of about 1 mile through lush forrest. I highly recommend a day trip to Matia Island.
This was also our first *real* test of the new Lithium house batteries as we sat at anchor on Sucia for a couple of days. These lithium batteries are a true "game changer". Why? Because we have so much more capacity now that we can just stop worrying about conserving power and when we will have to run the generator next. We had some relatively sunny skies that also helped with the solar. But even without solar, the capacity difference is truly amazing. Roseanne is thrilled because the "amp nazi" (her name for me when I'm always bugging her about conserving power) has retired!
Exploring Patos Island
I grew up the son of a US Coast Guard engineering officer. I remember my Dad talking about going out to Patos Island to service the two "semi-diesel" generators that powered the light on Patos Island.
Semi-diesels were similar to modern diesel engines like we have now in that they had no spark plugs or ignition system. However, They didn't have the very high compression that modern diesel engines use to ignite the diesel fuel/air mixture. Instead, they relied on a "hot bulb" -- essentially a way to get the cylinder head hot enough that the air-fuel mixture would explode when the piston compressed the mixture up against the hot head. They were much simpler than modern diesels, but the only way to start a semi-diesel was to get the "hot bulb" very hot. I remember my Dad talking about using a blow torch to heat the hot bulb so that they could start the engine. One of the two engines was running at all times to power the light.
We've been by Patos Island several times, but never pulled in with Koinonia. There's a fairly small cove on the west end of Patos called "Active Cove". As you might infer by the name, and it's western exposure, you probably wouldn't want to anchor in here in any significant west wind. There are a couple of state park mooring buoys, but again, we're too big for the buoys.
I decided to run over to Patos from our anchorage in Echo Bay on Sucia Island. Patos is just west of Sucia, almost on the border with Canada. It's a little bit longer than the run to Matia Island, but the other complication is that the current runs very fast around the eastern tip of Patos Island and it generates some fairly substantial (at least for a dinghy) rolling waves from the current. I suspect if you timed it right, you could run over near slack current and get a faster, smoother ride.
I arrived as the tide was starting to fall fairly rapidly, so I ran the dinghy up on the fine gravel beach at the head of Active Cove. I would have loved to walk out to the lighthouse and explore Patos more, but that will have to wait for another visit. I walked just a few yards up to a beautiful picnic area above Active Cove, ate a sandwich Roseanne had packed for me, and then walked back down to the dinghy. I probably wasn't up there more than 15 minutes, but even in that time, I had to shove the dinghy back out into deeper water to get her fully floating again. Another 15 minutes and I might well have been stuck there through a tide cycle!
As I left Active Cove to head back to Sucia, I found a colony of Stellar Sea Lions on the rocky outcropping that forms one side of Active Cove. There was a huge male on the rock obviously guarding the rest of the herd (his harem?). As I approached in the dinghy, he made it very clear that I was not welcome--with deep growling grunts and even a few snorts that blew a cloud from his nostrils (glad I wasn't close enough to experience that!). There was also another big male swimming just off the point and he held his ground and provided a "no trespassing" line! I don't know how much these guys weighed, but a direct confrontation was clearly unwise!
We will definitely come back to Patos for more exploration. There was the ruins of some kind of concrete mooring just a little ways inside the cove, with large mooring bits and the remnants of some other structure--maybe even a floating dock or ramp? I suspect that this is where my Dad's Coast Guard ship tied up when he came out to service the Patos light. The mooring is in a particularly deep part of the shoreline, so it would probably be possible to tie up a dinghy to it and scramble ashore without the concern for the dinghy getting left high and dry (or 100 yards offshore) with the rising and falling tides.
Jones Island Marine State Park
After a couple of days at anchor in Sucia, we decided to move on. I really wanted to explore a couple of the smaller places we've generally passed up in other summers.
One of the joys of cruising in the "shoulder" season--before Memorial Day or after Labor Day is that the crowds haven't arrived yet. There's a small Island on the western side of the San Juans group that we've always passed up because the anchorage space is fairly limited. Jones Island has a cove with reasonable protection on the North side of the island and a broader, less protected cove on the south side. Both have a few mooring buoys, but the cove on the north side has state park dock that's about 120 feet long. The chances of getting on this dock in the summer time are nearly zero, but this time, the dock was almost empty. There was one other smaller sailboat on one side and the opposite side of the dock was completely open. A couple of other smaller boats came in and tied to the mooring buoys.
Jones Island is a treasure! It's a state marine park, accessible only by boat. There are some campsites, and even a couple of camp shelters used primarily by kayakers. There's a beautiful well maintained trail between the north and south coves that is flat and easy. There's a slightly more challenging trail that follows the shoreline around the eastern and western ends of the island--rejoining the main center trail near the north and south coves. I hiked the trail through the center and then around the western perimeter of the island. What a fabulous spot! Again, I highly recommend Jones Island (though you may find it difficult to anchor or tie up here in the summer).
An unexpected delight in the Canadian Gulf Islands
After just one day at Jones Island, we decided to cross into Canada and start making our way up toward Ladysmith--just south of the larger town of Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. As usual, clearing customs in to Canada was a completely painless experience. Canadian customs often seems more polite and friendly than our own customs and border patrol.
We were headed about half way up to Ladysmith, with a plan to stop in Maple Bay for the night. There's a wonderful Canadian Selene Owner who has a place that is on a point just outside Maple Bay, so I sent him a text to see if he was around and perhaps we could get together for dinner or drinks or something that evening.
To my surprise, Andrew said that another Selene 53, named "Reel Adventure" was already tied up at his private dock and he said there would still be room for us. Wow! We've been by his place before and he indicated he had a private dock, but the dock is behind a floating breakwater, so it's a bit hard to see as you pass by at Octopus Point. Andrew insisted that there would be room for us and that he and Doug, the owner of Reel Adventure had made a spot for us.
What a delight Andrew's place is! He owned a construction company that built primarily bridges in Canada and his stunning timber-framed home is built entirely of wood that he salvaged and milled himself from a old bridge that his company demolished. The bridge was built in the early 1900's so it had massive timbers with almost no knots that would be impossible to replace today! The house is amazing!
We had a delightful dinner at Andrew's home along with the Doug and Dana Owens. Doug owns a meat packing business, so he brought some excellent steaks and we had an incredible feast! Doug and Andrew had already been out setting prawn traps for a few days and had collected a couple hundred prawns to contribute to the upcoming Prawndezvous feast. As it turns out, they already had more than enough!
The next morning, Andrew gave me a tour of his absolutely beautiful property, including a huge shop, sawmill, and other buildings. What a place! Andrew's hospitality was amazing!
After a wonderful morning, we cast off and headed just a couple of hours up to Ladysmith BC, where the "Prawndezvous" was to be held.
Ladysmith and the Prawndezvous
Ladysmith is only about 15 miles from Andrew's place and Maple Bay, so we didn't leave until close to noon. The first (of maybe an annual event?) "Prawndezvous" is being held at a marina that was formerly called "Manana Marina and Resort". The marina was recently purchased by one of the Canadian Selene Owners and is being completely rebuilt. It wasn't really even complete and open yet when we arrived. The new docks were in place, but shore power was still in process. No problem.....another test of our fancy new Lithium batteries!
The Selenes were all tied up on both sides of a long side-tie transient dock kind of in the middle of the marina. In the end, 12 Selenes showed up and we had a fabulous time with informal socializing, dock walks, and a giant prawn feed on Saturday evening!
The food was great--and essentially unlimited! Everyone contributed some side dishes in a potluck style and we had enough prawns to feed at least twice as many people. Fresh prawns may be my favorite seafood of all! Our Selene Family really knows how to party (and eat!). I'm so proud of our community!
The Return Voyage
We left Ladysmith about 9:30 Sunday morning because our goal was to get back to the state park dock just inside Deception Pass, which meant we needed to arrive at Deception at the 6:30 pm slack. It was fairly long day, but we got through the slack at Deception and tied up to the State Park dock for a nice quiet evening. Dan and Marsha Gallacher--fellow Gig Harbor Selene Owners--were with us aboard their Selene 53 "Turnagain".
We are in the thick of getting ready for a big family reunion at our house in July, so we headed home Monday to get going on the long project list! We probably won't do much other than short outings this summer until after the family reunion. We hope to get out in August and get up at least into Canada. Stay tuned....
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