Day 3 - Poet's Cove, Pender Island B.C.

Poet's Cove Resort

Today we headed into Canada with the StFYC crew and docked at Poet’s Cover resort. We left in the morning and made the short treck into Canada. Upon arrival to the resort, we had to clear customs. When clearing customs only the captain of the vessel is allowed to leave the boat. I stayed aboard while Jason went into the customs office. He was honest about the amount of alcohol we had on board (which was still over the limit even with our efforts from the night before), and we cleared without having to pay any duty. The progressive hangover Jason was nursing wasn’t needed after all, but A for effort! J The day was pretty gloomy and a little rainy. We kayaked a little bit in the cove and found some purple starfish, which I have never seen before. I treated myself to a massage and immediately regretted not booking it for a longer time. I did learn that in order to become a masseuse in Canada you have to go through 3 years of training and pretty much are considered a physical therapist. I think it was one of the best massages I have ever had! I might be going back to Canada sooner than later! The Commodore of  StFYC hosted a cocktail party aboard his classic yacht, Far Niente, prior to dinner, which we joined. The yacht is very elegant, was built in 1939 and is 85 ft in length. We joined the group for dinner in the banquet hall and enjoyed the company of our friends. We also received a shout out from the Commodore and won the award for the best ‘hit and run.’ Jason and I popped in and popped out quickly throughout the StFYC Commodore’s Cruise. It was a nice recognition. After dinner, we had a cocktail in the upstairs bar and then relaxed in the hot tub and called it a night. All in all, a good day!  

Customes Office

Purple Starfish



Me heading to get my massage

Ended up to have a beautiful sunset

J once again happy as a clam to be in the engine room

Day 2 - Friday Harbor, San Juan Island

Watching the sunset after a great dinner

I awoke this morning to Jason popping out of bed before 7am.  Keep in mind this has NEVER happened by his own free will.  He was so excited to start our journey!  We were underway by 7:30am for our 60 mile treck and made pretty good time.  We were cruising at 18 knots most of the way, getting a good push from the ebb, through the straits.  You could see the tide changing in front of us, which was crazy to see. The weather was overcast, but by the time we arrived in Friday Harbor, it was becoming a gorgeous day.  We arrived at the SYC outstation, just outside of the main marina in Friday Harbor in less than 4 hours.  We got settled and cleaned up, dropped our crab pot and joined our friends from the St. Francis Yacht Club.  We took our dinghy over to the main marina and had cocktails on our friend chartered 42’ Grand Banks, walked around town, got some ice cream, and popped into some shops.  We headed back to retrieve our crab pot and had some success! We had 2 keepers in a pot full of babies and ladies.  Needless to say they were our dinner.  Later on that evening, we realized we were over our alcohol allotment heading in Canada and we needed to do something about that.  Luckily, we had friends who were there to help!  

Strait of Juan De Fuca

View of the outstation



Ferry coming into Friday Harbor



Our catch!

Me cooking the crab!

A little heavy going into Canada

and this is how the night went down

Day 1 - Port Madison, Bainbridge Island

Jason and I left on our journey to the San Juan and Gulf Islands on Friday, July 20th.  We got a bit of a late start because I wanted to shop the Nordstrom Anniversary sale and Jason was waiting for a package.  In the package was our monogrammed shirts, jackets, welcome mat, and fender covers. Yes, we are becoming those people who wear matching clothing.  We left the slip, gased up at the fuel dock, and $550 later, we were off!  We got through the locks with ease and headed right to Port Madison, an SYC outstation on Bainbridge Island.  We were one of a handful of boats there for the night. We cooked dinner on the stove in the galley for the first time, walked the grounds, and Jason happily put the new fender covers on the fenders.  All in all, a quiet evening gearing up for the long ride the next morning.

San Juan and Gulf Islands

200 nm (nautical miles)
20 hours of running time
9 days
8 stops
$1300 in fuel

Amazing memories we’ll never forget…..

Pictures and updates to come!

Preparation

Changing the impellar

In preparation for our 10 day tour of the San Juan and Gulf Islands, J has been doing a lot of work on the boat. He has changed the oil and the impellers in both engines. I have no idea what an impeller does, but apparently it’s important and needed to be replaced. He has also purchased new chairs for the fly bridge. He has a new Captain’s Chair and I have a new First Mate’s Chair J I can finally sit next to him while he drives instead of sitting behind him or down in the salon. He has also created a safety line for the anchor so incase that the windlass breaks, we won’t lose the anchor. We leave in less than a week! Count down has begun!

the safety line for the anchor

J happy as a clam to hang out in the engine room

the new seats on the flybridge

Cozy Cove

Cozy Cove

This weekend Jason I and ventured out of Lake Union and into Lake Washington to enjoy the amazing weather we have been having in Seattle! It has been 70+ degrees every day and bright blue skies. Summer has arrived! The running joke in Seattle is that summer doesn’t start until July 5^th. However, it did arrive a day early this year on July 4^th. We took Wayfare thru the Montlake Cut and into Lake Washington and checked out a couple of coves to anchor, enjoy the evening, and cook dinner. We attempted to anchor in Yarrow Bay, which wasn’t very protected but took our chances anyways. Well, it was a bad idea. There is not a no wake zone, so we endured ski boats circling us, towing water skiers, and tubers. It made for a rocky boat. We decided to pull up anchor and find a better spot. When we pulled up the anchor using the windlass a bunch of seaweed came up with it as well as some clumps of dirt. We had to get the boat hook to pull the seaweed off, which made for a messy bow. We ended up anchoring again in the cove just over from Yarrow Bay called Cozy Cove, and cozy it was! It was much calmer and more protected and surrounded by million dollar homes. We anchored again, still endured some boats making waves, but it was much more relaxing. J BBQ’d some halibut and asparagus and I used the gas stove for the first time in the galley. It worked really well! We were happy about that. All in all, it was another wonderful evening spent on Wayfare!

Dinner!

Montlake Bridge on our way back home through the cut

4th of July

J and I on the flybridge of Wayfare

We celebrated the 4th of July on Wayfare anchored on Lake Union with friends. It was an amazing day – blue skies and not a cloud in sight!  The 4th is the one day out of the year that you can anchor on the lake.  I believe the reason you can’t anchor on the lake is that it’s an active runway for float planes. The lake was filled with boats like I have never seen before.  We played around in the kayaks, ate too much, watched the ‘show’ of heavy party goers, and also inexperienced boaters.  It was entertaining to say the least.  Seattle put on a great fireworks show that starts after 10pm. We expected it to be pretty chaotic after the show and anticipated getting out of dodge to be a hassle, but all in all, it was pretty easy.  I’d do it all over again!

Hope everyone had a happy 4th!

Look at all the boats!

Blake Island

Jason heading out to drop the first pot!

This weekend we took little Wayfare to Blake Island, through the locks and into the Puget Sound.  The Island is located about 7 miles from Seattle and nestled between Bainbridge and Vashon Island.  We were able to get a mooring buoy on the west side of the island, which is very peaceful and quiet.  We kayaked, went ashore, cooked dinner and had a relaxing time.  The water was so clear you could see the bottom.  We kept saying that we don’t get this in the bay!  The tide was quite low the next morning and we saw a sailboat up on its keel and at the moment were glad we weren’t sailors!  We made coffee in the French press for the first time and it was quite good!  We also went crabbing for the first time, since it was opening day of crab season.  I had no idea what to expect.  Jason took the collapsible crab pot out a few hundred yards on the dinghy and we set the pot for about 90 min.  In our first pot we caught a starfish, a rock crab, and a rusty bungee cord – not what we were going for.  The rock crab was less than 6” in length, so we had to throw him back.  We decided to try it again and went to the other side of the island, dropped the pot and went ashore to the Tillicum Village to kill some time.  We went to retrieve the pot once again and it was a bigger challenge than we expected.  The water was rough and I had to grab the pot with the boat hook while Jason drove the boat.  It took a few tries and finally we got it. Unfortunately, there were no crabs.  After feeling defeated for the second time that day, we decided to head home.  While on the way, Jason’s friend and co-worker called us. He was catching them by the handful.  We headed his way and hoped the 3^rd time would be a charm.  We set our pot once again and caught 2 – one male and one female.  You are required to throw the females back, so we lost one and the male didn’t measure up.  Jason’s friend was kind enough to give us some of his catch so at least we had something to come home with.  After a long day, we headed for the locks and waited about 2 hours to go through them.  It’s not a hard process to go through them, but can be timely. We did see the Wizard, one of the boats from The Deadliest Catch.  That was pretty cool to see and I found out the captains daughter goes to school with my little cousin.  Talk about 6 degrees of separation!  Jason was braver than me and killed our ‘catch’ and we had a wonderful dinner of fresh crab!  Hopefully during our big trip, we’ll have better luck and more patience.

clear, clear water

Me and J!

Our first catch - look closely and you can see the bungee cord in the upper left.

The Wizard Deadliest Catch boat in Ballard

Sailboat on its keel in low tide

Dinner!