Sailing Tuesday: Sucia Island to Stuart Island

Day 3 of Sailing the San Juans

Our second full day on the Woodwind began early after about as much sleep as I had the night before, 3 hours. Two consecutive nights of limited sleep is no way to exist on vacation, but sadly, from all the years in the restaurant business, I am used to pushing through nights of little to no sleep. I can report that it became light before 0400 and I forgot my sleep mask. Doh!

Between 0400 and 0430, we took a good bit of swell, enough to bang an unsecured cabinet door. I thought it was coming from another cabin, but finally, I got up, bracing carefully against the swell, and found that it was the cabinet door in our head that was banging. Securing it, I crawled back into the rack, but sleep would not come even though swell usually rocks me to sleep.

While moored in Shallow Bay, Jon really had to keep an eye on the tides to keep the keel off the bottom especially given the unusually high and low tides that we were facing during our week sailing. I was out of the cabin early and up in the cockpit where I could see the tide dropping rapidly, about a foot every ten minutes according to the depth sounder.

At 0720, we hauled anchor and were away, motoring against the tide into Roche Harbor on San Juan Island. While underway, delicious smells wafted up from the galley and even though I do not usually eat breakfast, the aromas of freshly baking scones was enough to convince me that I needed to eat breakfast on this particular day. I could get used to fresh scones in the morning.

As we pulled into the Roche Harbor in search of a temporary mooring spot, we watched several sea planes come and go from the seaplane base there. It never really occurred to me that you either have to boat, fly, or take the ferry to reach the San Juan Islands. We lucked out in that a large motor yacht that passed us on entering the harbor had just vacated a spot on the public pier long enough for the Woodwind. Roche Harbor offers the opportunity for groceries, water, showers, and so forth.

One of Many Seaplanes at Roche Harbor

Tied up at Guest Dock at Roche Harbor

Roche Harbor Chapel, Our Lady of Good Voyage

Haro Hotel

Castle House, Roche Harbor Resort

Streets Lined in Catmint and Lavender

After tying up, Ann and I headed off on an explore of Roche Harbor, climbing the hill above town to visit the San Juan Islands Sculpture Park, a 20-acre public art installation. We spent as long as we could bear in the broiling sun before heading back down to the water and cooler temperatures.

Small Obelisk at Entry to Sculpture Garden

Welcoming Archway

Orca Fin Sculpted from Ponderosa Pine

White-crowned Sparrow Kept Me Company in the Shade

How Cute are These Fuzzy Sheep?

Common Horsetail, Equisetum arvense 

Large Marge

Ann Must Ring Gong

No Surprise to Find Many Lorquin's Admirals
They Love to Feed on the Ubiquitous Ocean Spray

The plan was to leave for Stuart Island at noon, so around 1100 after time in the broiling sun at the sculpture garden, Ann and I started heading back to the harbor, taking a few minutes to explore the town. We stumbled upon CFO Geni tied up outside the grocery store and she went nuts when she saw me. Jette was inside shopping. Because we wanted a bottle of wine for dinner, we peeked in to see their selection of wine which was limited and standard grocery store schlock. Life is too short to drink crappy wine.

Fortunately, earlier I had spied the Wine Party store run by the Roche Harbor Resort next to the grocery store, so we popped in. The guy behind the counter was super knowledgeable and had a fantastically curated selection of top-quality wines. After going through dozens of awesome selections, we finally decided on a brilliant rosé, Domaine de Fondrèche from the Ventoux in the Rhône. We would have this wine with its bright blood orange acidity with oysters later. The wine and the wine shop were delicious finds.

One of Many Swallowtails Feeding on Multi-Tier Hanging Baskets

Roche Harbor Known Historically for Limestone Quarrying

McMillan's Dining Room

Done with what we wanted to do on land, we arrived back at the boat by 1130. With no wind predicted until later in the afternoon and no pressure to vacate the public dock, we delayed our departure until 1300 and ate turkey sandwiches for lunch. Jette used some of the extra time to slip off and get a dozen oysters for Ann and me, the other guests not up for that particular briny treat. We truly appreciate her effort in catering to us.

Retracing our path out of the harbor, we started pushing north with Vancouver Island to our west along the border between the US and Canada. The hazy skies rendered this and all the other islands abnormally blue and indistinct, a condition that most of us who live in the West recognize: wildfire smoke. We never did determine the source of the smoke but it is likely from fires in BC.

As we sailed north, a large vessel was catching up with us from behind, a Canadian research vessel with an enormous bridge superstructure. While waiting for this ship to pass us on the east/starboard side, my GPS indicated that we had pushed north into Canadian waters before we were able to tack back to starboard and American waters for our approach into Prevost Harbor at Stuart Island.

Still Life with Sheets

Double-crested Cormorants on Entering Prevost Harbor

Pigeon Guillemot Swam Right By

Once we had settled in right in the middle of the harbor in the deepest water tucked in between Stuart and Satellite Islands, we took the dinghy to the public dock to take a walk to the lighthouse we passed on coming in. Unlike Sucia Island that is primarily public property, Stuart Island is primarily private property, and the beaches are private, meaning that we had to tie up at the crowded little dock or abandon our hike. The only open spot was for the mail boat serving Prevost WA 98250. After a lot of maneuvering, we managed to macgyver a spot to tie up that seemed safe for the dinghy in the face of a flooding tide.

Having tied up, we started walking along a dirt road that bisects the island east to west to reach public property at the unmanned Turn Point Light Station on Haro Strait/Boundary Pass separating the U.S. and Canada. Turn Point is where ships and the border turn from WSW to SSE when headed southbound or the opposite course if headed northbound.

Prevost Dock

Interesting Looking Golden Jellyfish at Dock

Invasive, Horribly Thorny, Beautiful, Delicious
Himalayan Blackberries, Rubus armeniacus

Also Non-Native, But Gorgeous
Common Foxglove, Digitalis purpurea

New to me: Western Thatching Ants and Their Mound
Mound is About 24 Inches High

As we neared the lighthouse, we walked out to look over the Haro Strait which was visibly ripping from high above. Massive whirlpools swirled in the water as the tide flooded in and at one point, a whale watching boat got visibly tossed about by the current. I believe that the captain, in the absence of whales to watch, was showing his guests the intense power of the whirlpools.

At the edges of the cliffs stood several pines that I know as Lodgepole Pines, but which are usually called Shore Pines near the ocean. The Latin name, Pinus contorta, derives from the contorted wind-blown shapes that these normally tall, skinny pines take on, both on the coast and on mountain summits. As I watched the water boil below, many Common Nighthawks plied the sky above the cliffs, hunting for insects and issuing their ringing calls.

Contorted Lodgepole Pile
Whale Watching Boat Battling Giant Whirpool

Turn Point Lighthouse Keeper's House

Turn Point Lighthouse

While we were at the point, we saw and heard several eagles plying the water just off the cliffs. A young eagle alighted near us and I was able to get a few photographs in the very low light. I wish they were sharper, but in the dusky, overcast, and smoky light, this was as good as I can do with my slow travel lens.

Juvenile Bald Eagle

We reversed our course back to the dock where the tide had risen several feet and recovered the dinghy without too much ado. Back on the Woodwind, Jette was busy (too busy it seemed) with dinner, so I grabbed my oyster knife (Boy Scout motto: "Be prepared") and the oysters and took them to the stern to shuck. Since she got the oysters for Ann and me, I figured the least I could do was shuck them. I pitched the top shells back into the water, and later, the bottom shells too. I always return the shells to the water when possible because oyster spat like to attach themselves to the shells.

Exhausted from her Long Hike

Oysters and Delicious Rosé

I failed to get pictures of the delicious seafood stew that Jette made, shrimp, halibut, and salmon in a coconut milk base. It was a great reminder that I need to make a moqueca and soon. With the smoky overcast sky, there was no sunset to watch and we turned in quickly after dinner. I needed way more than the six hours of sleep I have had over the past two days.