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Chuckanut Bay and Back to Bellingham

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As I said on the last page, we got up early so we could get a head start on the day. Who knows what difficulties and delays we would face as we made our way back to the U.S., passed through customs, refueled and found a suitable place to stay that night. I wanted to leave lots of extra time to deal with any problems that we might encounter. It was cold this morning. It was probably just a little low pressure are moving through however with my mood, the cooler weather seemed like a harbinger of Fall. Dismal...

After going through the morning routines, we raised the anchor and edged out of the anchorage with the engine at idle. It was very interesting to see our surroundings in the daylight. Sometime in the night, I had gone up on deck to sit. I watched the twinkling lights of Sidney By The Sea and in the darkness was able to observe the various flashing light patterns of the nearby aids to navigation. Now that it was daylight, there were only a couple that I recognized from the night before. A very distinct and nearby light was the red one that marked the end of the spit. As we passed it, and were in deep water, I felt that it was okay to power the engine up to cruising speed to head for Roche Harbor in the U.S. and yes... leave Canada.

Our stay in Canada was a delight. I love Canada. Sometimes these folks feel more like "my people" than my fellow United States'ers. There is an openess and maybe even something of an innocence about them. Also, in a lot of cases there is something of a European feel about the country that I find absolutely delightful. I just wish that it wasn't so damn cold in the Fall, Winter and Spring... I am a Californian afterall.

To get to Roche Harbor we had to cross Haro Strait. This is a shipping channel so we had to keep a watchful eye. Other than that, it was a mostly uneventful crossing. Not long into the trip we saw the ferry from Anacourtes approaching. It's a very different ferry from the ones in BC. It's more traditional I guess, with an open deck for cars under the passenger decks. The BC ferries have an elaborate system of parking cars on more than one deck inside the vessel. The BC ferries were newer. Again I took way too many pictures of the ferry as it approached, passed and then receded in the distance. Can't get enough of those ferries I guess.

Soon we were approaching Roche... let's see... isn't there something that I'm supposed to be careful of in this harbor? Couldn't remember what it was... Ahhhh yes... there's an island at the entrance and no matter how much of a sweet short cut it would be... always leave the island to port when entering the harbor. That wasn't that hard to remember once we got close cuz it gets shallow pretty fast. After the crossing of Haro where there is something like 800 feet of depth under the keel all the way, it's spooky to suddenly only have say 20 feet of depth. Of course that's more than enough but it's still spooky.

We tied up in front of the Customs office and I prepared for my session with Homeland Security by gathering all the boat papers, birth certificates, passports and other assorted documentation that we expected them to want. After instructing everyone to stay on the boat, I gathered up my courage and went into the office. Through work, I had a lot of experience with going through U.S. customs when returning from Mexico. Most of the time the customs inspectors were callous and grumpy. That's understandable in El Paso where it's hot and dusty and you have to endure automobile exhaust hour after hour, day after day, not to mention the shear volume of people that you have to deal with. However, this customs office was on a dock in Roche Harbor. There are people who go on vacation to worse places than this. I just couldn't understand how anyone could be grumpy with these working conditions. And I have to give it to these guys... they did a pretty good job of keeping a straight face and be all official and stuff. But the facade was very thin. I could tell that they were laughing at us and secretly thinking that they worked in Roche Harbor... and we didn't. Soon we would be back in the rat race of our normal lives while they, would still be here in this northwest island paradise tormenting returning U.S. citizens for a living. I got through my office session with the customs officer okay. Only had to go back to the boat once for additional paperwork. They prepare you VERY well at San Juan Sailing for transits through customs. Then it was time for the customs officer to come out to the boat. He needed to see everyone. That went well. But I have to admit to a certain degree of sadistic pleasure at seeing my motley crew (family) assembled in the cockpit enduring the scrutiny of the calloused customs officer. But then he returned everyone's ID and said, "Welcome Home". I don't know why that made me feel so good to hear him say that. I really like Canada and all. But I guess it may be because, even with all the issues that we have here in the U.S. that trouble me, the United States is our home and it felt good, if even for just that instant, to be home again. I thanked the officer and he turned and went back into his office. We passed... Now it was time to decide what to do next.

After a small debate (consensus building) we decided not to terry in Roche. So we threw off the mooring lines, flipped a U-turn and headed out of the harbor again. Then after taking a right into Spieden Channel began trudging back towards Bellingham. One thing that was really beginning to jump out at me was just how many boats there were here in the San Juan Islands. In the past I had never really thought of it being especially crowded and had said that to many people. However, it just seemed like there were boats everywhere. Had I been giving people bad input all this time? I really had to keep my eyes open. No setting the autopilot and going below to fix a sandwich anymore. It was eyes out of the boat all the time. I think that this perception was made all the more acute by our being up north in country where there just wasn't much traffic at all. Many times we would see a boat off in the distance and it would be a comfort to know that you had a little company. Here it was almost mayhem, or at least felt that way. I guess perception is everything because this was certainly no San Francisco Bay (which is my home sailing grounds) so I guess I should try to keep things in perspective. But it was much more crowded than I remembered. AND... the vast majority of the traffic was power boats with their wakes and frequent rude and dismissive behavior. This had the unfortunate effect of reinforcing my growing annoyance with the power boating community. I just don't remember powerboaters as being so troublesome here in San Francisco Bay. I tried to comfort myself with the notion that this may be just a Pacific Northwest phenomenon. Anyway... we had to pay attention to where we were going.

As mentioned before I started rambling, we took a right down Spieden Channel, then another right turn into San Juan Channel keeping Jones Island to port. After passing Jones, we went left through some islands to pass between Crane Island (to port... left) and Shaw Island (to starboard... right). After that, it was a straight (and long) shot to Blakely Marina where we intended to refuel. It was gorgeous and but even though I tried desperately, it was difficult to forget that this was our last full day in the islands.

Soon we were approaching the Blakely Island Marina. Last year, we had a little trouble with some wind gusts here but this year it looked a lot better. We parked and fueled then went up to the store to pay for gas and shop for souvenirs. We bought this stylised chart of Vancouver Island that I now had to carry unwrinkled from Blakely Island to Bellingham on the boat, then to Seattle by car and then back to San Francisco by plane, then back home in the van. I took this on as a challenge. And in the end succeeded. We ultimately paid way too much money to have it framed and now it hangs in a prominent location in our house. But I am very happy to have it as a memento of our vacation.

From Blakely Marina, we planned to cross Rosario Strait to Cypress Island where we intended to try once again to hang on bouy for the night and do some last day hiking on shore. There is a kayak camp there which is at the base of a trail that I have always wanted to check out. I have heard that you climb to the top to reach an overlook where you have an incredible view of the San Juan Islands. So that was where we were going to try to go.

We enjoyed a screaming reach across Rosario Strait (which was long overdue). However when we got to the four mooring bouys at Pelican Beach on Cypress Island, all were taken. Normally I would have just dropped the hook and gone ashore anyway however all the books said the same thing... that with all the current and wind off of Rosario Strait and the fact that the bottom dropped away rather quickly, this was a very sketchy anchorage. So if there were no bouys available... MOVE ON. We circled for a little while in hopes that a bouy would come open but it was no go. After awhile, I gave up and we moved on. But where do we go now? We eventually decided to play it safe and just go to Inati Cove like we did last year.

The wind now had picked up in a big way and I was enjoying finally having some power in the sails (although it was starting to get a bit worrisome). I even think that we were going faster with the sails up than under power which is unusual for this class of boat. It was a southerly and Inati is a north pointing harbor opening. What that meant was that we could expect to be protected from all this wind so Inati seemed like the ideal place to go. Unfortunately, everyone else was thinking the same thing because when we got there, the place was packed. I just didn't feel like dealing with trying to anchor in those conditions (lots of wind and crowded anchorage) with such a large audience in attendance, so again... we moved on. Let's try Chuckanut Bay I said,... a woman that we met at Blakely Island Marina said that Chuckanut was very nice. And it had the added benefit that it was close to Bellingham so our trip in the morning would be short. So that's where we went. We ended up anchoring in the southern part of the bay tucked right in close to shore to get out of the wind. There were a number of boats that had the same idea but it wasn't nearly as bad to get situated as Inati. We dropped the hook and settled in.

That night we played our last game of Spades. Again it was difficult for me to keep the sadness at bay. I simply did not want this vacation to end... But it would be ending... tomorrow.

During the night the wind kept up. I found myself going up on deck frequently to check my lineups on shore and make sure that we weren't dragging the anchor. All was secure but it was nerve wracking.

The next morning, it was still windy but not nearly as bad. We cleaned the boat from front to back and then headed to Bellingham. Coming back into Bellingham is always a bit of a drag because it's not a very pretty approach. It's kind of odd that Bellingham is the gateway to this absolutely fabulous cruising wonderland. But the approach to Bellingham itself is a bit dreary. Even though Bellingham is a college town, it has a very industrial feeling... especially from the water. It's times like this when you wish you were in a powerboat and could just turn on the afterburners and be done with it. But we were in a sailboat and just had to tough it out.

Docking was troublesome... As usual it was very tight quarters. That by itself wasn't much of a problem. However right in the water in front of the dock in which we were to tie up Sail La Vie, was a dinghy that was loosly tied to the back of a recently returned charterer. Oy! So in the process of missing the dinghy, I came into the dock a little out of skew. Not so bad normally however Rick Sales, the charter dude at San Juan Sailing was right there to greet us and bear terrible witness to my ineptitude. He helped us secure the boat and then said those fateful words, "Shut'er down skipper, yer done". The trip was over... sigh...

We then hauled all our stuff off the boat, finished cleaning it up and went through all the usual check-ins. After awhile, Donna slipped off to the airport to pick up our rental for the trip to Seattle that afternoon. We were land people again.

Looking back at Sydney Spit as we were leaving		Sydney By the Sea off in the distance on Vancouver Island
The marker at the end of spit with the Olympic mountains in the background		Jack and Spencer reading in the cockpit
Here comes the Anacortes Ferry		As you can see it's pretty different from the BC ferries
And there it goes on it's way to Sydney By the Sea		The customs dock at Roche Harbor. The customs office is that small building exactly in the middle of the picture
In the middle of the picture right under Mt. Baker is Blakely Marina where we planned to fuel up.		Jack and Spence playing cards in the cockpit
The fuel dock at Blakely Marina. The boat already tied up was another charter from San Juan Sailing on a "Learn'n'cruise". The boat was a Beneteau 35. We chatted with the crew and gave each other tours of our boats.		Sail La Vie tied up at the fuel dock
Jack with a very knotted up line (can't remember which line that was)		More Game Boy action... this time Spencer was connected to Jack from his berth through the cockpit port
Jack and Spencer exploring our little part of Chuckanut Bay in the dinghy
I was secretly relieved when they returned because there was a bit of wind blowing around		Spencer soloing
A sunset that we couldn't see because the land was in the way		Spades
The Jack and Spencer show		The view from my side of our berth
Jack asleep on our last morning		The chart table
When we returned to California, we had to have the Game Boy surgically removed from Spencer's hands		Leaving our happy little cove in Chuckanut Bay
Traffic coming out of Bellingham
The famous Spencer in the fore hatch picture... we took almost the same picture last year		It's getting to be a tradition
There was a bit of wind... I think that we're looking at 15 - 18 here. Didn't know for sure because I never could get the wind meter to work		This picture once again is exercising the tradition mentioned on day one of taking a picture of the camera mounted on top of this building. It is through this camera that I get to see the Bellingham Harbor entrance throughout most of the year on the Bellingham Cold Storage Cam site.
Sail La Vie finally at rest as I walked away after check-in. Not for long though. I understand that she would be going out again the next morning.

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