On Friday morning we finished up on Eastsound, got back in the dingy…

Jackson and Lindsey pulled up anchor, and we started making our way to Sucia island.

I think out of all the places we’re going to stay on this trip, Sucia is going to be the longest. (3 nights.)

It took 5 hours to get here from Eastsound, and we motored almost the whole way to accomplish two things.

1. To get there in a reasonable time frame.
2. To charge the batteries. (Motoring helps bring back up the voltage.)

The view of Mt. Baker was awesome again.

Jackson was on lookout with the binoculars.

Here’s where we went and where we are now.

We were hoping to stay in Shallow Bay (the sunsets there are awesome and they have a cool little beach there) but two things prevented us from doing so.

1. All the buoys were taken, and there wasn’t much room to anchor either due to other people already anchored. (It’s a small shallow bay as the name suggests.)
2. The weather report for the Straight of Georgia (where Sucia is right next to) had a strong wind advisory saying that it could blow 25 knots from the northwest, and Shallow Bay is exposed to that direction of wind.

So we moved to the next cove down, Fox Cove, which surprisingly had the deepest buoy available. Although their deepest buoy was still a little scarily shallow. After checking the tide tables and comparing them to the charts it looked like we should be good, but barely. So we went on shore and paid our mooring fees.

Jackson wanted to stay on the beach so we let him until he realized we were gone and ran to catch up with us.

Back on the boat we were greeted with a flock of geese, and we had fun feeding them.

However, looking at the depth finder, it showed that when the tide was down, and we were being blown to the east we had only 7 feet of water. And this boat goes down 7 feet below the waterline.

So that was a little unnerving.

If the wind was going to blow us even more to the east during low tide, it looked like we would be potentially scraping bottom. I didn’t really like that idea. So I got out the map and looked for other possibilities. It’s a busy weekend for Sucia because of the nice weather, and it’s a weekend not a week day. So the spots were limited. And if we left our buoy in search of another, we may lose our spot, and not even find another.

In a search for ideas, I thought it might be fun to go explore in the dinghy and find another spot. So Jackson, Lucky and I went on an adventure out on the outside of Sucia and trolled around in the dinghy.

Lindsey and Clover cast us off.

And we were on our own.

Soon, I realized how far the other coves are on Sucia when trying to travel with a 2 horsepower engine on a small dinghy.

The scenery was incredible, and it was a ton of fun.

But it also got a little scary when the waves started to get bigger, and Jackson wanted to start exploring the dinghy and playing with the engine.

And some boats weirdly wanted to get super close to the dinghy

Incredibly close.

And Lucky was trying to go up on the sides of the boat to get a better view.

One rogue wave and he could have flown overboard.

Combine that with the strong wind warning, and I thought that if we winds did pick up sooner than expected, we might have a very stressful trip back. So after about half an hour I turned around. It was still fun, but we didn’t find another deeper spot that was more protected from the wind.

My alternate plan was to try and verify the depth that we got from the depth finder. Sometimes if there’s kelp or other seaweed stuff on the bottom the depth finder will bounce off that and give an inaccurate reading.

So, after looking around for something to drop down to the bottom, I decided on a can of soda, filled with rocks, tied to a string.

After a few attempts, it worked. And while the depth finder said 7 feet, the string-and-soda test said it was closer to 11 feet. That’s plenty of room, 4 feet to spare between the bottom of the boat and the bottom, at low tide.

We’ve been pretty lazy on Sucia, just taking the short trip on the dinghy to the beach right by us, hanging around in the water, and Jackson playing with bugs. Or “ah-mommys” as Jackson calls them. (For some reason he’s always called bugs “ah-mommys” not sure where he picked that up, but he’s a huge fan of ah-mommys.)

The ah-mommy even came back to the boat with us.

We played on the beach.

In the water.

Saw an otter.

Threw rocks.

And some awesome sunsets.

And Jackson’s getting pretty awesome at getting from the dingy to the boat all on his own.

So far, our menu has been pretty uncomplicated. Just more hot dogs, and grilled cheese for lunch.

Lucky is Jackson’s best friend when he’s eating hot dogs.

Jackson is a fan of the grilled cheese.

Breakfast has been oatmeal and eggs.

Eating oatmeal and eggs on a boat in your Superman and Cookie Monster pajamas is pretty awesome.

Jackson likes to feed me cookies.

Recently they found the fossil remains of a T-Rex right next to where we’re floating right now. So after it stops raining (yea it’s raining right now, the weather has been really weird, super sunny, windy, and now cloudy and rainy.) I’m going to see if I can find some cool fossils of my own… maybe 🙂

And tomorrow we’re headed to Patos island. That’s the plan.

See ya!

The last couple days have been fairly lazy. But in an attempt to keep updating this blog and “web log” this adventure, I’m going to post about it anyhow.

I don’t have a ton of pictures, as last night I messed up and formatted my card before I downloaded the pictures into my laptop.

Whoops!

I got the videos but not the pictures. Oh well…

Worse things could happen right?

Like your anchor not working… we’ll get to that in a minute.

But first, we’re in Eastsound on Orcas Island right now. We stayed an extra night in Spencer Spit on Lopez Island before this.

BTW, I’m going to try animated gifs instead of pictures, because I have video but not many photos due to my formatting blunder.

We didn’t plan on saying 2 nights in Spencer Spit, but we didn’t plan on anything really. It was overcast and rainy the second day at Spencer Spit so we just decided it was a good day to do pretty much nothing.

I went on shore with Jackson, but just for about an hour.

He had fun though.

Jackson paid for the mooring buoy.

Then we climbed on the driftwood.

He found the dinghy.

And tried to start it.

And to sponge out the bottom of the boat.

He’s a good helper.

Then we went back, made dinner (a potato hash with soft boiled eggs, but I cooked them a little too long.)

Watched another movie, and went to bed.

In the morning I made us some breakfast burritos, (beans, chillies, bell peppers, onions, cheese, eggs, salsa, sour cream and tortillas.)

Then we set sail and sailed away from our buoy without even turning on the motor. That was kinda fun.

But it didn’t last long because soon the wind died down completely, and we did want to make it to Eastsound on Orcas Island before the end of the day, so we turned on the motor and kept the main sail up to speed us up and keep us more stable.

The views of Mt. Baker were awesome.

Once we got to Eastsound, we knew we had to anchor, as there’s no docks or buoys. So Lindsey and I were doing our best to avoid the rocks the cruising guide mentioned, and maneuvering to find a spot to anchor between boats. And right when we thought we had it figured out, Lindsey went to the bow of the boat to drop anchor, hit the down button, and… Nothing…

You have to anchor around here, so without that option, we were adrift.

We cut power and decided to see if there was anything we could do to fix it.

None of the normal stuff worked. We worked as the wind and tide carried us away.

I called my dad, maybe he could help. We tried everything we could think of. I was sweaty and frazzled from being upside down in cramped dark spots with a flashlight trying to troubleshoot electrical wiring.

No dice.

The shore got further and further away.

I called the marine service center. They had their main guy and their electrician walking me through everything. Fuses, connections, controllers, power on, off, engine revved, engine off.

Drifting away.

They couldn’t figure it out.

In a last ditch effort my dad suggested opening up a front panel I didn’t even know existed. I was hoping to find a blown fuse. But nope, all the fuses were good.

And right before I was about to close it up and walk away two little tiny ends of an exposed black wire caught my eye.

I twisted them together and yelled to Lindsey to try again.

Baam! Like magic it worked.

Once we finally calmed down from the anchor incident, and successfully anchored, we headed into town.

We had an awesome chocolate muffin and an almond filled seasonal fruit topped cookie thing.

Then Jackson ran around town until he passed out in the grass.

Afterwards we had dinner (burgers).

And Jackson licked his shadow for desert.

We went back to the boat and Lucky was super excited (as always) to see Jackson. He almost always climbs the ladder and jumps up against the glass to greet him.

The next morning (this morning) we went into town for breakfast and got some baked goods goodness and coffee (I got a mocha) at an incredible little shop there.

We also needed ice for the freezer, and some odds and ends. I thought there was a gas station in town to refill our dinghy gas tank reserve, but there wasn’t. The closest one was about a mile away.

I almost decided to skip the gas, but last minute thought it’d be fun for Jackson and me to go on a run. (I haven’t gone on a run in a long time.)

So I told Lindsey we’d be back in about 25 minutes, and we took off running. At first it felt great. Then about 200 yards in I was like,

“Wow! Why do people run again? This sucks!”

I pushed through and got a little second wind, and we were off running along the water. It was fun, although very hilly, and hot. I was super sweaty.

The guy at the gas station that I paid looked at me dumbfounded when I said, “OK, time to run back to Eastsound.” He was like, “What?! Run? Why?” Then he gave Jackson a little red vine licorice stick thing and we were off.

We loaded up with groceries when I came back and walked back to the dinghy. Once on the sailboat, we pulled up anchor and now we’re headed to Sucia island for a few days.

Sucia is awesome. (BTW They recently found a T-Rex bone on the island, the only dinosaur remains ever found in Washington state.)

Until next time!

This morning I woke up before Lindsey and Jackson so I could write this out to you.

It’s not really a big deal, normally wake up earlier. Or at least try to 🙂

Right now I’m writing curled up in a sleeping bag in the living room area. Even if the weather is nice, it can get cold on the boat in the morning.

The sun is out and it’s blasting full force through a port hole and hitting me like a laser beam in my left eyeball. I kinda like it.

We’re on a mooring buoy at Spencer Spit on Lopez Island right now, and it’s Wednesday. I have to type fast, cause my laptop is running low on batteries and now that we’re not connected to shore power we have limited electricity.

On Monday afternoon we went to get groceries for when we’re in more remote locations away from easy access to stores, or restaurants. Spencer Spit is one of those.

But at the grocery store we got about $200 worth of food and other odds and ends that should last us around 1.5 weeks or so.

Here’s a basic summary of what we got. (In no particular order.)

• Potatoes
• Grape tomatoes
• Leeks
• Onions
• Spices (salt, and a all purpose seasoning grinder mix thing.)
• Oatmeal
• Pancake mix
• Blackberry preserves
• Butter
• Cheese (extra sharp cheddar)
• Hot dogs (the not-so-processed kind)
• Sausages (Pre-cooked chicken sausages with fairly low fat)
• “Bunny pasta” Macaroni and cheese mix.
• Normal pasta
• Couscous
• Cilantro
• Celery
• Bell peppers
• Milk
• Orange juice
• Sparking water
• Soda
• Sourdough bread
• Sourdough buns
• Tomato soup
• Olive oil
• Yogurt (Greek and “regular)
• 2 big blocks of ice for refrigeration without power
• And probably some stuff I’m forgetting…

We already had 2 dozen eggs from our awesome new neighbor, Carrie, who has her own chickens so they’re super fresh.

And we had lots of snack stuff we brought up before we went shopping in Anacortes.

But bottom line, shopping for this boat trip is kind of like just shopping normally, just a little more focused on easier to make foods and more dry foods, and not really any frozen foods.

After we went shopping, we were tired, so we got Teryaki and brought it back to the boat, and ate that. Then went to bed.

Even if you’re in the heart of town with fairly easy access to supplies, without a car, you end up walking a ton more. We’ve walked a ton in these past few days, which is nice. Especially in the current weather. However Lindsey is pregnant, in her third trimester, so she’s starting to feel that more and more. So we have to be a little careful about the activity level.

When we woke up in the morning at Anacortes, we cleaned up a few odds and ends, like took the trash out to the trash bins at the marina… We decided to get going.

So Lindsey undid the lines from the dock and threw them on the boat. And she just about jumped on board when a sudden shrill whistle came from behind.

It was another boat coming up fast behind us.

Good thing the guy on board had an awesomely loud whistle…

Or else we may have had a not-so-fun incident there.

So Lindsey stood still, I shouted, “Thanks!” To the super-whistling boat dude.

Then Lindsey noticed our boat drifted a little too far away from her, and she had to stretch really far, and pull at an awkward angle to get the boat back to her so she could jump on.

Luckily she somehow pregnant-ninja-skilled her way on deck, otherwise Jackson myself, and the dogs would have been trying to find a way to re-dock and get her back on board.

But Lindsey is awesome like that. So it somehow magically worked out.

We motored the boat out of the marina, and around the big rock-hill that protects it. Went a little ways longer, and then decided to cut the engines and set sail.

It was pretty light wind, we were only moving about 3 knots (around 3.5 miles an hour.) But we didn’t have too far to go. We were headed to Spencer Spit on Lopez Island, where we are now.

The wind kept cutting in and out. Eventually it completely died down. Normally, I’d fire up the engine, like most people, and pick up some speed while the wind isn’t cooperating.

Not this time. This time, I just rolled with it. Just sat around, not moving. In the peaceful San Juan waters. It was weirdly relaxing, and we could do it, because we didn’t really have a hard deadline on when we needed to be at Spencer Spit.

Since Jackson was napping, Lindsey thought it would be a good time to also take a nap. So it was just me out on the water, with just little wisps of wind, trying to make it to our destination.

It was fun, and I even turned off the GPS and just navigated the short distance by the paper charts, and written cruising guide. It took awhile, but we made it under sail to our destination. I only turned on the engines once we took down the sails and were within sight of the buoy we were going to tie to.

Once connected to the buoy, we made some simple food. Hot dogs. (I haven’t had hot dogs in probably a year or more. They were pretty awesome.)

After eating we got Jackson all ready, I prepared the dinghy to go to shore (pumping out a bunch of water that accumulated in the bottom, connecting the motor, and filling it with gas.) And then we let the dogs on board.

They like to jump from the boat to the dinghy, so we let them. Lucky jumped first and made it. Clover jumped second, and bounced off the side, then grabbed the pontoon with her two front claws and did a Cliff-Hanger move half submerged in water.

Then a wave hit, and she was down. Completely in the water, swimming.

I went in to grab her by the collar and lift her out, but she wasn’t coming up. Something was holding her down. Or pulling her down. Into the water.

Her leg was wrapped in a knot around the dinghy line that went from the sailboat to the dinghy.

And she was in between the two. Suddenly, bigger waves hit, and I was doing my best to keep her above water, while trying to untangle her leg, and minimize the impact of her being smashed in between the dinghy and the sailboat on each wave that went by.

Eventually I was able to get her leg unraveled from the line, and her up onto the dinghy.

She shook it off like it was no big deal and went to the back.

I think she was just trying to act tough. But she is really beat up right now, dinghy tangle incident not included. She has a bad allergy episode with patches of hair missing, and she chewed at her back left foot so much that it got infected and she can’t even stand on it, so she’s limping.

We’re trying hard to “fix” her, but from past experience, it’s tough to turn her around from these attacks, however possible. (We gave her a sulfur and coal tar bath after she got back.)

On shore, we pulled the dinghy up from the sand and tied it to a heavy piece of driftwood, and then we were off exploring.

Jackson was an intense fan of the little crabs crawling everywhere, and was not phased by them trying (and successfully) biting him.

He would just pick them up and collect them in his hands. Crab by crab.

At one point he had 8 little crabs in his fists. He wasn’t too happy when he had to let them to back. But he got over it pretty quick.

We went on shore, we waded in the water, we walked around through little rivers that form in the low-marsh there. And on a trail that connects to the pay station a deer jumped out from the woods and ran at lightning speed away from us, and back into the woods. That was pretty exciting. Because it was so fast, and loud, and close.

I could feel the vibration from the hooves impacting on the floor through my knees.

After exploring the low tide crab waters, and paying the $15 for our buoy we walked the other way around Spencer Spit so we could do a full circle. The other side of the spit has less crab activity and lots more driftwood. And a little log cabin thing at the end.

We did the full lap back to the dinghy, pushed off, and headed back to the sailboat.

For dinner we made couscous with little chunks of extra sharp cheddar, grape tomatoes, little slices of celery for crunch, and cilantro.

Jackson insisted we have milk and cookies afterwards.

Then Lindsey gave Jackson, and the dogs a bath. (Not at the same time.)

And Jackson ate a nectarine in the bath.

Then we all watched The Jungle Book again. And went to bed.

Now I’m writing this.

Time to make some breakfast. Catch ya later!