Different day - same forecast

Wow - more rain. 

 

Nice dry drive today but drove past a airplane runway that was fully under water with ducks a swimming.  Many very full rivers and very high surf on the coast.  News reports of water-soaked hillsides sliding in the Portland area closing roads and crushing cars.  Another 3 inches of rain is forecast for this weekend. 

 

We're heading south into California in the next week.  Now we hear of flooding in northern California.  We are hoping that we'll be able to make our way without many detours.

 

Sitting here just south of Newport through New Year's Day.  Winds to 70mph forecast for tonight.  Think our campsite is safe...now!....a tree fell across the site LAST week!

 

Passed many lookouts along our drive with signs "Whale Watching Spoken Here" and volunteers with binoculars.  We (actually I (Dean was supposed to be driving)) scanned the horizon but didn't see any whales or whale poofs.  Understand the whale migration to the Baja is a couple weeks earlier than normal.

 

Eating our CURDS and Making our WAY

Hey, we missed rain while traveling south thru Tillamook. A short stop at Tillamook Cheese Factory for a few package of curds! Yumm!

Got hooked up at our Pacific City campground in the sunshine(!) and with enough time to walk the beach to Cape Kiwanda. The beach was fairly barren of flotsam and jetsam except I found a 1900 dime at the base of the sand dune. I choose to believe that the current storms have moved enough sand to uncover this coin that may have been buried for 100 years!

This area of the coast is inundated by bunnies. They don't look like wild rabbits (maybe somebody's drop-offs a long time ago?). They are really tame and all around the campground. As we drove around the local community a it wasn't unusual to have 10-20 rabbits in view at all time. Noticed the few gardens in the area are surrounded by fences to protect them.

Dean has enjoyed treating the bunnies, the squirrels and lots of birds. Many are so tame. The chickadees don't wait for him to refill the feeders. They just swarm around him trying to get the seed perching on the feeder as he was filling it. The bunnies like to get his attention by standing on his foot. "Hey, look here. We like seed, too!"

We "free-wheeled" to explore the Sandlake and Cape Lookout areas. We had camped at Cape Lookout State Park many years ago in a campsite that had mostly filled in by sand that had been thrown by winter storms. Now they have taken out all the oceanfront sites and put in a tall manmade dune and covered it with dune grass. At Sand Lake, which seems to be tidal, we found several public campgrounds including a national forest campground with over 100 sites and built to encourage folks to play on the sanddunes in ATV's. Not many folks around there at this time of the year.

Winter in the Northwest

Still raining....

Several storm systems have rolled in since we've been here in Seaside bringing a couple of inches of rain. But we are very comfortable! Last night we had 60 plus mph winds. Weather service came up with the high wind warning after the nightly news. Hit about 1am. The fellow in front of us had his awning out with the auxiliary room. It's not up today. Hmm! Something sure could have come apart!

Yesterday, a surfer got gnawed on by a great white shark near here. Egads, we REALLY didn't know we had great white sharks around here! Of course, we aren't intending to go out in the water anyhow. He beat off the shark by punching it in the nose! Good for him. All the other surfers called it a day. Ha!

We managed a walk around the campground between showers and saw a salmon spawning up the stream running through thte campground. Always marvel on how far these fish need to go and how they find their way back.

Heading south tomorrow. Maybe 70 miles. Plan to get wet.

Warm and stormy in Seaside

We've been out on the road almost a week. 

 

Spent 4 days in Puyallup visiting with family and friends.  Then a stop in Kelso before getting here in Seaside, Oregon where we will stay 5 days and enjoy Christmas.  It's so relaxing here in this quiet little town.  Weather has warmed up to mid-50's.  After we had temps in the 20's in Puyallup, this is really nice.  Of course the trade-off is rain (lots of it) and high winds escorting the winter storm in.  We are cozy.

 

We've got our RV-sized Christmas trim up.  Miniature lighted Christmas trees, garland and lights.  Christmas cards festooned along the slide-out.  Santa hung over the driver's seat waving to those outside.  Red and green cloths on the tables.  And mini ornaments "glued" down on any flat surface.  We enjoy the quiet time of Christmas.  Time to reflect on our lives, family, and friends and feel good that all is well. 

 

Tomorrow is field-trip day.  Breakfast at Pig and Pancake, then off to the Lewis & Clark National Park to check out on the fort rebuild progress, then to Astoria to check out downtown stores for Christmas gifts for each other.  Oh, yes, Dean won't let us get home without picking up a prime rib roast (his choice for Christmas dinner).   Fun!

 

 

Heading out - Roll 'em

Well, the tall guy has good vision in both eyes now and dr gave him the ok to head south!  Hooray!

 

We've been putting house things away, finishing up projects, and packing everything (including the kitchen sink) onto the RV.  Now that it sits a bit lower (!) we are ready to waddle on down the road.

 

Bloggers, watch this spot as we slowly make our way south.  First all the way to Puyallup for a few days and then head for the coast and follow 101 to California.

Oro Bay

Last stop Oro Bay. An outstation for Bremerton Yacht Club. Nice quiet bay with bunnies and deer and seals. Places to dinghy, roads to walk, and a "club" car to take to the store if we have a need.

The yacht club has an annual requirement for "hard labor" hours to do maintenance on club's property. Dean prefers working here at the outstation. It's such a pleasant and laid-back location to work. He spread bark, filled holes, cleaned gutters, painted the dock fire hydrants, chopped and stacked wood, and, of course, had lots of fires. Laurie's contribution was to work on pulling blackberry vines that are taking over. Nasty vines - many red scratches on both arms.

Pretty exciting the other night when the local fire department with 18 of their firefighters came after dark to check out the dock hydrants. Flashing lights and 3 trucks (water truck, pump truck, and hose truck). They connected the 3 trucks together and sent down 300 pounds of water pressure and blew apart one of the connections. Nice to have the system checked out before it was needed. Because the yacht club lets the island fireboat sit at the dock, the fire department is going to fix the pipe! That's great.

South Sound

We had some wonderful sunny days while cruising in South Sound. We used the rest of summer up. (The rains came 3 days after we got home.)

We stopped overnight stop at the city dock in Gig Harbor. Wanted to see the damage from the marina which burned at the end of August. Nothing left. The environmental cleanup folks were cleaning their ecology booms and ready to leave the area. Could see a few inflatable boats at the neighboring marina that had blown up their tubes from the heat.

As we headed further south, we timed it under the Narrows Bridge having a 4.5 knot current helping us along. Almost like free gas.

Much progress being made on the new bridge.

WE DON'T WANT TO GO HOME!

We headed south and had a beautiful day for a 6 hour run to Blake Island.
Sunshine and smooth seas.

And room at the dock when we got there. Again less crowded.

Deer were chomping the grass and were more visible.
And the raccoons were still checking out the boats at night as we could tell by the dirty tracks on deck.

So we'd made a loop. Blake Island was our first stop from home.
But we weren't ready to go home yet.
So we headed south for a week or two.

Westcott Bay

Westcott Bay is just around the corner from the very popular Garrison Bay located on San Juan Island. Garrison Bay is the site of the English Camp which was occupied in the 1800's by the British during the locally infamous "Pig War".

We like Westcott because it is less crowded, more protected, and we've never dragged our anchor there. (We've dragged anchor in Garrison Bay twice. How the heck can we do that in only 10 feet of water!? One time we caught a bucket across the anchor flukes. No wonder!

This was a great place to hide out over Labor Day weekend when all the marinas and marine parks were full. We were short on crab bait so Dean dug some clams on shore and used them. This was very popular bait and we got 5 oversized male crab in one set.

Enjoyed some great crab cocktails.

We hiked up Mt Young behind English Camp for some beautiful vistas of the islands in the area. Some maps show this as Young Hill but it certainly felt like a mountain while we were climbing up.

Back to the US

Just before heading into Roche Harbor, we were in the path of a pod (family group) of Orcas (Killer Whales) traveling north. We are required to stop forward movement when the whales get close. But we would have anyhow. It's a great treat to see them up close. Looked like the pod had about 20 whales. Could see the little fins of a couple young'ens.

Customs Agent Bubba

Oh, no! Please not that, Mr. Customs Agent Bubba.
We knew with all this Homeland Security tightening of the border that it might take a little time to get processed. Ah, little did we know.
We were processed by Mr. Customs Agent Bubba.

He walked with a swagger, his round stomach hanging over his belt, kept one hand on his service revolver, a toothpick hanging out of the side of his mouth, and had an "attitude".

Was he worried that we were bringing in arms for terrorists? No.
Assisting the drug trade? No.
Illegal aliens? No.
He was worried about us bringing in MAD COW diseased beef.

He ordered us off our boat and spent 10 minutes going through our refrig/freezer coming off with all unlabeled meat. All our repackaged to meal-size Costco meats: hamburger, steaks, sausages, bacon. If it wasn't in the original package, it must be MAD COW suspect! Yes, sausage is normally pork but he said if I couldn't prove it, I couldn't keep it.....Hope he enjoyed his dinners and breakfasts.

(Have since found out that the Customs is on a lookout for individuals bringing back meat. If we had had unlabeled spaghetti sauce or meatloaf, he could have taken that too. Do think the Customs folks need to give their agents better PR training.)

Cowichan Bay

We explored Cowichan Bay on our last night in Canada. Funky and friendly town. Known as Cow Bay (no cows about).

More of the "dogpatch" yachting community off the government marina. Various flakes. We ate at the locally famous Rock Cod Cafe for fish and chips on a platter.

Were impressed with the maritime museum. Exclusively wood boats and they had a bunch. Plus history of Cow Bay, early outboard motor display, and many highly detailed ship models of historic ships like the Nina, Pinta, and the Santa Maria, the Endeavour, and the HMS Victory.

Dean got a thrill seeing these old outboards. Ours is old but not that much. His mom used to talk about boating when she was a girl with th Elto outboard. And here it is. This motor was designed by Ole Evenrude in 1924.

Chemanius

From Telegraph Harbor, we hiked up the road and across the island to the ferry dock to take us to Chemainus, about five miles across a channel.
"The Little Town That Did", Chemainus was a lumber town until the mill shut down 20 years ago. The merchants came up with an idea to have murals painted around town in hopes they would attract folks to visit their town. This was a great success.

They have commissioned 37 murals so far, and tour busses and individual tourists flock to the town. Over 40,000 last year, according to the visitor's bureau. And the lumber mill has reopened. So the town of 4500 is looking pretty prosperous. We searched out the murals that had been painted since our last visit and listened to a fellow playing SW indian music using Andean instruments. Haunting flutes. Laurie likes this kind of music. We had to get his CD.

Then a rain shower started and we took time out for lunch. Still raining when we were done and as we walked down to catch the next ferry. Little did we know that 130 kids on their way to a church camp would be walking onto this little 25-car ferry with us. Just a bit snug.

Telegraph Harbor / Thetis Island & Kuper Island

Thetis Island almost joins Kuper Island, separated only by a narrow "boat passage" which goes dry at low tide. Rocks and more rocks. Gulf Island rocky.

We've never been been to Telegraph Harbor marinas in the summer time. Lots of activities and cruising groups traveling through.

While we were there a group from Del Mar Yacht Club of Los Angeles were there with about 8 ocean-going motor cruisers.

The store at this marina is known for their ice cream cones and banana splits (which we managed to resist.)

As we came close to Thetis, paying attention to rocks and reefs, we saw an airplane on the shore.

A big airplane. Actually, an intact Boeing 737 that is being stripped and readied to be sunk in October as an artifical reef for divers off the town of Chemainus.

Ladysmith

Ladysmith is a town that is trying.

Originally set up as a coal transport town, in recent years it's industry has been log sorting and lumber. The town has been around for over 100 years and much of it's downtown has been in use for all of those years with buildings maintained as originally built. Due to this fact, it has been used in 1900 period movies.

We found moorage at a marina that is run by the Ladysmith Maritime Historical Society. They have restored several old wood boats and offer tours of the harbor on a restored lifeboat. We took a harbor tour and we learned a lot from "Mr. Ladysmith" (Pamela Anderson of "BayWatch" fame was born and raised here). What a town booster! Ladysmith has about 7500 folks.

Lots of parks in town and improved trails along the waterfront and up in the hills above town. Repeat: Hills! The whole area is hanging on the edge of some pretty tall hills -- or short mountains.

Oh, did we mention there were hills in Ladysmith? We counted 115 stairs on our trek uptown. This did not include the very steep slopes of the streets uptown. We made several trips uptown. At least one up to the bakery known for it's cinnamon rolls. Yum. They had pina colada, peanut butter, blueberry, and glazed almond cinnamon rolls. And, no, we didn't have one of each.

Canada hasn't yet seen the need to treat their sewage in many waterfront communities (including Victoria). Same with Ladysmith. Ladysmith has a lot of oyster farming in the bay. But because of the tainted water, they gather the oysters then soak them in "good" water for two weeks before sellng them to the public.

Didn't like oysters anyhow!

Really enjoyed watching the cormorant rookery. We counted 24 nests with babies about 75% grown. The stick nests were pretty crowded. Mom had to hang out on the edge. Lots of "krauk" noises with the babies wanting to get fed.

Nanaimo

Arrived in Nanaimo in time to get a spot at the Nanaimo Yacht Club. Their location is a great place from which to explore Nanaimo, which is a great walking town. Nanaimo has developed its waterfront with parks, a lagoon with swimming beach and a wide path (separate lanes for "wheels" and "feet") for about 3 miles. The yacht club is located right on the path, and we were able to hike in both directions and check out the waterfront and pick the ripe blackberries.

Groceries and the commercial wharf were a mile away but with a paved path it was easy to bring our purchases back with our folding cart. We could have taken the dinghy, or even the big boat, to the city dock near the business district and got three hours "free parking" while shopping.

The local folks spend a lot of time in the water. Many of these boats, we call dragon boats, ply the channel each day. Great team effort and exercise. In this boatload are breast cancer survivors.

We toured the town museum and learned how extensive the coal mine tunnels were.

There were hundreds of mine tunnels under the town, Newcastle Island, the waters between, and for miles out from the island. Some were over 1000 feet deep. (Wouldn't they leak?)

The museum also had a great display on a local fellow who developed the melodic steam whistle that is used on locomotives and the BC ferries and as fog signals. We hadn't realized they had different tones.

Also there was a nice display of local native artifacts that were taken at the time their indian potlatches were banned in the early part of the 19th century.

Across the narrow channel from the yacht club is Newcastle Island which is a provincial park.

Lots of hiking trails there, with remains of the quarrying and coaling industries.

These pictures are remnants from the pulpstone industry on the island. These were used to grind up wood in paper mills.

To cut the stone a cylindrical cutter rotated for 3 hours until a depth of about 5 feet. Then a small blast of gunpowder broke the stone loose. (Can you imagine how many times it didn't come out round?)

Once a derrick lifted out the rough pulpstone, they were then smoothed on a lathe before being sent to the paper mills.

One of the unique features of the park is the blond raccoons which cannot reproduce the black color. Not albino, just tan. Caught just a glimpse of one on the beach.

This same narrow channel across from the yacht club has a rock in the center of it with some confusing markers that play havoc with visiting boaters if the captain is not paying close attention.

Gone A'Rock
You really, really need to read your charts carefully in the Gulf Islands!

This boat's mishap made the front page of the local paper for two days.

It was mostly sunk by the time the rescue workers could tow it to the nearby shipyard. It is a wooden boat and one side was almost completely caved in.

4 other boats also hit the rock that week!

Oregon Rock is it's name ---- looks like it should be named Millionaire Rock (as the shipyard is making million$

Silva Bay

What a beautiful bay. We sure enjoyed our stay here.

Lots of wildlife. There were many seals and river otters swimming around. The great blue herons walking the docks came within 3 feet of us. We saw many bald eagles and a family of raccoons. The otters would swim along with their heads up. Then dip their heads down about every 4 or 5 feet. Then back up again. If they saw something interesting, they would dive down and we'd see them disappear with the flip of their tails. We watched 3 of them play. Almost doing synchronized swimming.

Silva Bay is behind a circle of about 4 small islands, called the Flat Tops, which border a big body of water known as the Strait of Georgia. This little pocket bay had about 24 boats on anchor each of the two nights we were there and there was room at least a dozen more.

From the marina where we stayed we were able to hike to a provincial park with a great lookout across the strait and the convoluted seaway to the bay. Hiking the other direction we found a pub to eat lunch at and a small grocery which had a little of everything.

There are many rocks close to the surface here. We were here on a very low tide and took a dinghy ride in and around the islands and shallows surrounding this bay trying to scope out possible anchorages and the various accesses. Even after scoping it out we still didn't have a comfortable feeling about two of the entries. One wrong turn and we'd go a-rock.

One of these small accesses was behind where we were moored and 5 times a day seaplanes would fly their way through the shallow and narrow passage coming close by us and through the anchorage just high enough to get over the masts

Montague Harbor Provincial Park

This is our 3rd visit to Montague Harbour Provincial Park but the first time we've had a chance to explore.

Montague Harbour is spacious and when we got in there there were probably several hundred boats. Not quite wall-to-wall. We were able to get one of the 25 buoys the park has in the bay. This provincial park has a campground and room for big RV's.

We liked the curly waves of sandstone at the waters edge.

We hiked an around-the-park trail out and around an attached peninsula. The peninsula is surrounded by stratified reefs heading out like spokes which we'll have to make sure we avoid when we head out of here with the big boat.

The beaches are crushed shell not sand. This was the site for many eons used by natives in the summer. They must have had LOTS of clams! The uplands here are dirt with shells mixed in heavily. These are known as middens (native garbage dumps).

On the other side of the park is a tall, bare and very steep rock hillside. As we walked along the road at the base, we saw many garage-sized rocks strewn on both sides. We wondered if they came loose on an annual or centennial basis and hoped this wasn't one of those days!

We'd heard for many years about getting your kicks on the Hummingbird Pub Bus, and for once our schedule allowed us to get a ride. We were picked up from the park and taken 4 miles to the pub. The bus was a medium-sized school bus and very underpowered. The bus was filled to standing-room and we almost had to get out and push to help it up the hill. But, man could it fly fly going downhill! Just a few squeals!

The Hummingbird Pub was themed with plenty of hummers everywhere though we didn't see a live one on this trip. The food was great. Dean had halibut and chips that he thought were on par with the best he's ever had. I had tiger prawns with a wild rice and spinach mix. Yummy.

Glenthorne Passage - Prevost Island

Not too far from Saltspring Island and the active community of Ganges is Prevost Island. No ferry, few folks, lots of sheep and deer.

My history book says a fellow bought the island and developed a farm 80 some years ago. His family still farms there. Most of the island is private with no shore access to explore or dog walk.

Prevost has 7 deep bays. One that was recommended to us this year was Glenthorne Passage. It is the smallest bay but still had plenty of depth and room for a good number of boats. When we came into the bay we lucked out to find an anchorage most the way in. Out of the range of wind, wakes through the entry isles, and boat traffic.

At the end of this bay is the "major" dock (private) for the island. Room for about 6 little runabouts. Easy for the island residents to leave from there and go shopping in Ganges.

We had lots of fun dinghying around. Water was even calm enough to go out in the big channel and enjoy it. The Gulf Islands are very rocky and we got to check out a few of them closely and carefully!

Glenthorne is called a passage because there are a grouping of 3 rocks near the bay end and between two of them is access to the big water. The channel is deep enough for sailboats even but only a boat length wide. Apparently, a fun place to impress your friends with "local knowledge" as you headed through the rocks!

Ah, one problem with Glenthorne was the amount of kelp on the bottom. We watched many sailors drag their anchors; then bring them up covered with kelp so we knew what to expect when Dean pulled the anchor. A small bouquet rode up on the Danforth anchor but it's flukes were covered in mud which to us means that the anchor slid across the kelp and finally was able to cut through the kelp and bury itself into the "solid" bottom.

Saltspring Island

Saltspring Island is about 17 miles long. Looks like in a few million years it may be 3 islands as there are two distinct low and narrow spots in the island.

Did find out that Saltspring is named after some salty springs that the early settlers found. They immediately did their best to get rid of them as it wasn't good for cattle or crops.

The island has about 10,500 folks. I'm not sure how many are permanent as this is a great summer cabin area. It surprises me that they have 3 ferry landings on the island all going in opposite directions (Sidney, Vancouver, and closer to Naniamo).

Rumor has it that Barbra Streisand has a home on the island.

Fulford Harbour

We explored Fulford Harbour first.

A ferry landing and a few little shops.

This area has a lot of free souls. The shops sold aromatherapy and hemp clothing. At the park down the way was a whole tent city on the beach. Dredlocks. Apparently some feel the lack of a pub: at dinner, a fellow came and ordered 3 half-carafes of wine in rapid succession. He didn't eat much of his meal.

Ganges

Last time we were here was in the winter many moons ago. The docks had been destroyed in a storm and it was very quiet.

Much more happening now. Ganges is where the artists hang out. Lots of galleries and even 2 groceries, 2 banks, a hardware store, restaurants - a real town.

Finally got to explore the town thoroughly. Especially Mouats. Which has been in business over a century and sells these boots.

Loved their decorated rain boots.

Sidney, BC

Sophisticated Sydney The marina bills itself as a "sophisticated oasis". Each slip is surrounded by at least 4 huge flowering baskets. This area of Vancouver Island is noted for their beautiful hanging baskets. There are a pair of swans floating up and down the waterways. They hang around especially to get the fresh water dripping from hoses. The docks are wide enough for tables and chairs that they set up along the walkways. There are many any boats from far away. Farther than the American Pacific Coast. Nova Scotia. England. And then some from Las Vegas, NV?? and Santa Fe, NM?? Many of the boats were 100' or more. The marina is big. It is a full half-mile from our slip to the ramp to shore.

The town of Sidney, that we described as sleepy the last time we were here, is now catering to tourism and bills itself as Sidney-by-the-Sea. A nice downtown with plenty of sidewalk cafes, galleries, and bookstores. And for us boaters, the grocery and marine stores are close by. In the last 10 years, Sidney has been growing as a booklover's paradise. There are 16 bookstores in town. Many of them themed (nautical, childrens, animals, haunted) and some with used and collectible books. Where some towns attract tourists to antiques, second-hand stores, or art galleries. Sidney is Booktown. There are only 4 "Booktowns" in North America. We thought it interesting that the majority of restaurants there are Greek which may describe the population. Some were Greek/Italian. Unique combo.

Sticker shock: Found out the price of fuel when we next fuel up. It takes a bit of calculation to figure out just how bad it is: 1 US gallon = 3.785 liters. Boat fuel is $1.079 per liter Canadian. The Canadian exchange is $1 Canadian to 81 cents US. Therefore, $4.08/gal CDN or $3.30/gal US. Egads!

Sidney Spit

Sidney Spit has always been one of lower BC's most popular Provincial parks. When the tide comes up, most of the spit disappears and we can watch the freighters heading north along Haro Strait (the border between the US and Canada) toward Vancouver. Sidney and the Victoria airport on one side and Mt Baker and the spit on the other. There are big beaches on the spit especially at low tide and there is a foot ferry that brings city sunbathers over all day. Lots of tanning going on.

Dean rowed us to shore. At the information kiosk we found out that this park and 8 other provincial marine parks have recently been taken over as part of the Gulf Islands National Park Reserve. That includes land on 15 islands and 30 islets or reefs also.

We hiked on the Loop trail down to the hike-in campground and through an area which was formerly a brickworks in the early 1900's. We learned that much wildlife on this island was imported in. Some African deer from Africa originally swam across from a neighboring island and are having to be controlled (think that means hunted?). Also, chipmunks, pheasants, peacocks. It is not unusual in our travels to find that animals have been brought to an island. For cattle, it is cheaper than fencing. For mink and fox, easier than cages.

San Juan Stopovers

Sucia Marine Park

Sucia is the most popular state marine park in the system. The rangers brag that they sometimes have 700 people visit the island on a weekend in the summer. Crab season this year has been broken up to only 3 months only 4 days a week and only 5 crab a day. We didn't catch any here. Do you think anything could live in this green crud?

Jones Island Marine Park

Lots of deer wandering around Jones. Isn't this fellow a bit weird looking with one antler up and one antler down?

We spent the night on a bouy and learned firsthand how a north gale in the Strait of Georgia will upset this harbor. No wind. Just heavy seas

Reid Harbor - Stuart Island Marine Park

Treasures at Stuart Island

Trekked up to the school house and the Treasure Chest on Stuart Island.

At the Teacherage is the island museum and in the old school house is the library for the school and island.

The Treasure Chest is the reason for the trek up the hill this year. We were lucky to finally meet the owner's of the Treasure Chest.

In order to keep the school running a family has created silk-screened T-shirts. Selling them and using some of the profits for school activities. They have been doing this for 10 years and all of these years they have done this with an honor box asking folks taking T's to send in payment when they get home. This has been very successful and this year in commemoration they are awarding their customers with "gold" coins with the inscription "In Honesty We Trust". Warm fuzzies for our honest boating community

No Crab

Dean, our hunter/gatherer, kind of flunked the course. With 11 sets of two crab pots over the last 5 day sport opening and using all the bait we had, we ended up with only 2 legal crab. The same place last year we bagged 27 crab! Guess we got them all last year. Guess we can feel good that we are helping the little ones grow to bigger. Maybe next season.

Stuart Island wildlife

These boxes atop the piling belong to Purple Martins. The Pacific Northwest Purple Martins nest not in communities or condos like in the eastern US but in rotted pilings or boxes placed over the water. There are only about 300 nesting pairs in the NW but these boxes are quite successful. Found out in our research that Purple Martins are of the swallow family.

One of the most exciting sights this visit was while out dinghying one evening. We saw what looked like the top of a round brown bull kelp moving. That happens in the current sometimes. Then we noticed something red next to it. Closer we came. As the "kelp" moved faster we realized we were looking at a small river otter with a red rock crab in his mouth. He scrambled to the beach and up the bank hurrying away to keep us from taking his find! What a treat to see!

Heading North

Edmonds

We had a great visit with Edmonds friends.

Hiked Edmond's mile-long waterfront path watching boats and divers and construction then strolled up to Edmond's funky downtown. Edmonds is really into summer flowers with sponsorships and competitions. So there are many beautiful streetside plantings and hanging baskets. Brought back to the boat a big bouquet of flowers from their farmer's market

Cornet Bay - Deception Pass State Park

Almost to the San Juan Archipelago. Stop over at another marine park: Cornet Bay. Just inside Deception Pass. Lots of good dinghy-exploring here