San Juan Island Trip 2004

This Summer (2004) we tried a little something new in the way of vacations for our family. We charted a boat for a week in the San Juan Islands in Washington. Our charter was the Catalina 320 Antares. This was a wonderful boat. It's very comfortable but still fast and nimble.

On July 15th, we flew (and drove) up to Bellingham, WA. We stayed in a hotel for a night then after some shopping and sightseeing went on to pickup Antares. While this was old hat for Larry, it was a totally new experience for everyone else. There was lots of exploring that had to be done. We spent the first night on the boat in the yacht basin then at the very crack of dawn on Saturday, left the harbor. Larry wanted to leave early so if he made any mistakes, there would be fewer witnesses. Once clearing the harbor jetty, what awaited us was the majesty and wonder of the San Juan Islands.

We first visited the Sucia Islands where Larry taught the boys how to use the dinghy and Donna taught Larry the correct pronounciation of the word Sucia. That's also where we tried to figure out this whole crabbing thing (that turned out to be as easy as everyone said it would be - phew!... Spencer became an addict). Jack, Donna and Larry went on to hike across the island while Spencer amused himself with the dinghy.

The next day we made our way to Stuart Island where we tied up in Reid Harbor. This was gorgeous and one of Larry's favorite places. We crabbed some more, and did some exploring on that island.

Early the next morning, we dashed across the channel to Roche Harbor to shower, gas up, do some grocery shopping and some more sightseeing. Our time was limited because we wanted to catch a favorable current down the West side of San Juan Island so we could put ourselves in a position to see Orcas if we were lucky. If we missed the tide, it would be very difficult to make it to San Juan Channel to catch another favorable current which would take us to our planned overnight anchorage. However we finished in time (but had to hurry through the sculpture garden... this was a wonderful thing to see and we hope to go back sometime when we can afford to dilly dally a little.).

With the favorable tide, we blasted down the length of San Juan Island. Towards the end, Donna spotted some commotion. We turned the boat to investigate and as we got closer, we could see what she was looking at was the pod of Orcas that we were looking for. Good eyes Donna! We drifted with them for awhile furiously taking pictures and trying to stay out of their way. They got pretty close. One even went under our boat and surfaced on the other side. After awhile, the whales moved out to deeper water. But not before we saw a couple of them breaching. From then on it was back to sailing. We went up the San Juan Channel with an incredibly fast current. Antares was powering along at six knots throught the water but the GPS said we were doing 13 over the ground. It was wild. Jack drove while Larry cowered below decks.

When the tide was high enough, we entered Fisherman's Bay for the night. That's a lovely little bay on Lopez island but it has a shallow entrance. The seaplanes take off and land within the sheltered waters. The next day, we crabbed and played cards until the tide was high enough to leave. Then we crossed the San Juan Channel again to go to Friday Harbor where we met Bob, Brenda and their son, Trent Stevens as they were getting off the ferry. This was a planned rendezvous that none of us thought was actually going to be successful. Trent is one of Spencer's friends from school, soccer and baseball. Bob was Spencer's baseball coach. And Bob and Brenda have become our friends. It was wonderful getting together with them. That evening we kicked around Friday Harbor then went back to the boat to polish off a bottle of Bailey's as we chatted in the cockpit. It was a gorgeous evening.

The next day, the Stevens joined us on Antares so we could take them on a tour of the San Juans. Actually it was a short tour. We only circumnavigated Shaw Island under power (no wind). We took a lunch stop at Deer Harbor. It was very pleasant. That evening, we went out to dine at an Italian resturant in Friday Harbor. Then we had the pleasure of Trent's company for a sleepover with Spencer on Antares.

The next day, Trent left with the Stevens for Anacourtes and we left Friday Harbor for what would be the last ancourage of our trip. We hoped to be at Inati Bay that night. It was a sad sojourn to Inati Bay. We were all a little troubled that our time on Antares was almost over.

That night at the ancourage was fun though. We had some more crabbing adventures (lotsa crabs but no keepers), cleaned up the boat and tried to eat as much of the food as we could. The night was a little long for Larry because he wasn't real comfortable with how much water we had under us and kept getting up to check the depth as the tide was dropping. But all was well by morning and we sadly went about getting ready to head back to Bellingham.

Once in Bellingham, the boat check-in was uneventful. Then we rented a car and headed to Anacourtes for another rendezvous with the Bradfields. The Bradfields are old friends of Larry's (see Bradfield's). He went to college with Eric and they have been friends ever since. Their daughters were participating in a huge soccer tournament and we were taking this precious opportunity to spend some time with them. We wish we could have spent longer. It was hot and we all met at our hotel because we had a pool. It was a very pleasant (but warm) evening. The next day we went off to watch Erin's team play then we all went for a picnic by a river. Unfortunately, we had to get off to the airport and so sadly left the Bradfields and dashed back to Seattle. Our vacation was over. It was now time to get back home and see if the cats had left anything remaining of our house.

Our overall impression of the trip was that it was just wonderful, but entirely too short. It seemed like we were just getting into the rhythms of cruising when it was time for it all to end. We're beginning to save our money now so next year we can go for two weeks.

Enjoy the pictures....

See spec sheet