Fisherman’s Bay

 11/10/10

Blue Bossa in Fisherman's Bay

About 3 weeks ago, I was motoring from Park’s Bay on Shaw Island to Fisherman’s Bay on Lopez Island.  I wasn’t paying a lot of attention to the tides, except checking to make sure that the current was going with me. I had a really hard time figuring out where the entrance was, as it is kind of hidden; plus it was really low tide, so I couldn’t help but notice that I was starting to play around in 5-7 feet of depth and could see the bottom really clearly.  My boat draws 4.8 feet, so, after taking a hard look at the entrance, I backed out and went on to Friday Harbor (had to go back because I got a call that I had a gig that night)…but I promised myself to visit Fisherman’s as soon as possible.

Last week, the tides were nice and high, so I sailed (a bit of NW wind) to the entrance, rolled up the sails, and proceeded to motor in.  The channel was well marked, but twisted around until it opened up to a very quiet and really enclosed bay.  There were a couple of nice marinas, but I opted to anchor out.  I had to do a lot of searching amongst all of the buoys to find a clear spot to put my anchor. 

Marinas and Yacht Storage - Lopez Village to the Left

One of the problems that I’m seeing is that the San Juan Islands have a lot of buoys in the popular coves, probably for summer traffic.  During the wintertime, they keep them out, but I don’t trust them and would rather rely on my anchor.  The problem is, there’s not a lot of room to do that.

Anyway, I anchored and sat back to enjoy the quiet splendor of the bay.  It was relatively active around the marina…there were men pulling out boats for winter storage with a small lift.  I launched my dinghy to go to the dock to hike around, eventually ending up at Lopez Village, which was a quaint town about a half a mile from the docks.  It is much more spread out than Friday Harbor, with little shops and some restaurants, and a BIG supermarket (bigger than Friday Harbor).  I should, next time, dock at one of the marinas, and pull out my fold-able bike as the roads there are nice and flat for cycling.

Westside isthmus

Separating the west side of the bay to the San Juan channel is a narrow sandy isthmus that opens up to a larger peninsula forming the other side of Fisherman’s Bay entrance and where there are some beautiful houses.  The low terrain allowed some really nice sunsets.

Before I took the dinghy back to BB (Blue Bossa), I stopped at a docked fishing boat selling fish.  I purchased a nice big fillet of salmon, cooked all of it, but only ate about a third.  The other 2/3rds I decided to make a salmon stew for the next couple of days.  Chopping up a ton of vegetables along with a quart of Trader Joe’s pepper and tomato soup, beans, some herbs etc., I enjoyed another two dinner’s worth of yummy stew.  I love that stuff for winter times.  Perhaps, in my solitary wanderings,  I may become a better cook.