Cruising!

Erik and I just got back from a two week cruising trip in our backyard, the San Juan Islands. We were preparing S/V Callooh! Callay! for our departure, when two Washington State Fish and Game Officers came up to our boat carrying a large basket full of spot prawns. They apparently seized them that day from illegal harvesting and were looking for people to give them to. Erik and I were very much willing to help! We pigged out on delicious, fresh spot prawns that evening, then cooked up a big mess of them while at anchor at Saddlebag Island with our friends Mike and Sheryl. Yum. Big thanks to Washington State Fish and Game.

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We departed Saddlebag Island and headed upwind for a full day of sailing to Sucia Island. On our trip, we were delighted to have a whale breach about 60 feet from our boat. What a treat! Erik spotted the spouts and tail in the distance and we were lucky to have it breach when it was near us. Unfortunately, we were too slow for pictures, but we believe it was either a humpback or a grey whale. This was not the end of the cool wildlife sightings. It is currently seal pupping season. While at anchor one morning at Sucia, we heard several strange noises and discovered a seal pup swimming around our boat. He spent several hours swimming around and under the boat and dinghy, and resting on the swim ladder. Check out this cool video:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/40hz0kpir7eovgt/Video%20Jun%2021%2C%209%2058%2019%20AM.mov?dl=0

Sucia also has amazing hiking. We took the dinghy into shore and hiked for over three hours. We packed a picnic lunch to eat at a scenic bluff and found some cool small caves to climb into.

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The scenery in this area really belongs on a postcard.

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We headed to Friday Harbor for one night to re-provision and meet up with our friend Terry who works for the Washington State Ferries and was temporarily assigned to a ferry based out of Friday Harbor for the summer as opposed to Anacortes. Then off the next day to Roche Harbor to meet up with Troy and Adrianne. We rafted up for two nights and had a blast. Lots of good food and fun. We took the dinghies in and watched the flag ceremony at the Roche Harbor Marina. This involved the dock staff marching at dusk and taking down the Canadian, British, Washington State and American flags along with a cannon blast.

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I got a kick out of the Phecal Phreak, which is the marina’s mobile pump out service.

The next day we went on a walk and checked out the sculpture garden.

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We bid goodbye to our friends and headed next to Garrison Bay to raft up with our friend Shirley. Garrison Bay is the site of English Camp, which is where British troops occupied San Juan Island while the American’s occupied a site on the southern part of the island back in the 1800’s. There was a border dispute that was eventually resolved peacefully. The park has hiking and historical sites.

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After a few nights at Garrison Bay, Shirley on S/V Morada and Erik and I on S/V Callooh! Callay! ventured north to Prevost Harbor on Stuart Island. There we met up with friends Mike and Sheryl. It was hot out for our standards, i.e. it got up to 90 degrees. We went on a hike to the lighthouse and had a picnic lunch on the lighthouse keeper’s porch, looking out to Canada which is still closed due to COVID.

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The vault toilet at the lighthouse was quite luxurious. Anyone who has used vault toilets in parks would really appreciate this one!

It was hot, so Erik and I decided to jump in for a swim. Ok, swim is probably an exaggeration given that the water is in the 50’s. It was more of a dunk and scramble to get out as fast as possible.

We had a fun time hanging out on the bow of Morada, sipping bourbon in the cool evenings with our friend Shirley.

While hiking at Stuart, we encountered a farm with Himalayan Yaks. They seemed friendly and curious.

We headed back to Anacortes via Blind Bay and made it back to our slip in time for the 4th of July weekend. The wildlife sightings continued at our marina when we observed a seal demolishing a salmon in the slip across from us and had a visit from a Great Blue Heron.

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