Deer Harbor/Stuart Island/Roche Harbor

2/7/11

Glad I'm not doing this again!  Going south from Bend.

I can always tell if my boat has been docked too long in one place by how hard it is to undo the dock lines from the cleats.  The 5/8” braided lines were stiff and slightly worn and there was no doubt that it took a bit of extra time and effort to untie Blue Bossa from her Friday Harbor berth to take off on my next cruise.  I was anxious to try out my new anchoring system as well as get away from the relative noise and bustle of Friday Harbor (relative in the aspect that Friday Harbor is a veritable graveyard compared to Lake Union in Seattle).

Deer Harbor

Since the time was 4pm, I just zipped right across the channel to stay at Parks Bay, which was, as usual, calm and glassy.  I was delighted to see how quickly the anchor dropped without any help from the windlass, and after a very quiet but cold night at anchor, the windlass pulled the anchor back up and the chain stacked nice and neatly in the big 12” drainage pipe that I installed.

My first port of call was to be at Deer Harbor, on Orcas Island, which is a quaint resort with a nice marina.  I opted to take a slip.  I had a nice hike down the road, not seeing any great landmarks, but passing some quaint farms. 

Blue Bossa in Deer Harbor

Fancy business in Deer Harbor

When I was registering the boat at the marina, I wrote in my name Howard Wright; everyone in the store looked at each other with a funny look and just laughed. There is a Howard Wright, who owns a huge commercial construction company in Seattle, who is super rich, and has a huge estate on Orcas Island…ha ha! 

Amazing place to visit

While I was there, I talked to a guy who is a builder/re-modeler/finish carpenter (he was really into talking) – he said that the San Juan Islands are crawling with ex-movie stars, musicians, and other celebrities that he has met.  For example, Gene Hackman had apparently owned one of the islands just offshore from Deer Harbor, Al Gore was a visitor for awhile, as well as some old guitar player for the Rolling Stones.  The guy had a ton of stories!  I had to use a crowbar to pry myself away from talking to him all day.

Provost Harbor in Stuart Island

Provost Harbor from Farm

A could southerly with a bit of rain greeted the next day and I decided to go up to Stuart Island for a couple of days.  Instead of going to Reid Harbor as I did last time, I went to Provost Harbor on the other side of the island.  It is an almost completely protected natural bay.  I picked what I considered a good spot in the bay anchoring at 25 feet.  Satellite Island would protect me from any easterly winds, and Stuart from south and west winds.  As it turns out, it didn’t blow as hard as I thought, but it did rain hard that night.

Stuart Island

In the morning (Friday), it still blew out of the south with rain, so I spent the morning catching up with updating filing and expenses, cleaning the study out a bit and generally neatening up the boat.  Towards noon, it cleared and started blowing out of the west pretty hard.  Not very far to leeward were some nasty reefs, so I opted to up-anchor and move towards the NW end of Provost Harbor, where I re-anchored.  It was a breeze with my 12” diameter tube …the anchor and chain pays out really quickly and there have been no snags.  That is a great relief for me as a single handed sailor, not having to flake the chain by hand in the locker.

Turn Pt w/Lighthouse and "Mansion"

The next morning it was overcast, no wind, and cold.  After listening to the weather report, I decided that this would be a good time to finally visit Roche Harbor, a totally enclosed natural bay NW of San Juan Island.  So at about 8:30, we (Blue Bossa and I) left Provost Harbor, heading northwest to get around Turn Pt, which had a beautiful lighthouse with a nice mansion in the back…they must have treated their lighthouse people really well.  Then we headed southwest along the coast of Stuart Island to Roche Harbor.

Olympic Mountains behind Vancouver

It was a high overcast, but clear; so while we were going across the 5 mile channel to San Juan Island, to my right I could clearly see Vancouver Island, and even further, jutting a above cloud cover, I could see the snow covered Olympic Mountains.  All the while, there was not a breath of wind.

Once in Roche Harbor, I found a slip and tied up.  Wouldn’t you know it, Roche Harbor was sponsoring a salmon derby there!  Hey, didn’t I already have one in November at Friday Harbor?  But everyone there was very pleasant, and I didn’t see one camouflaged outfit!

Spike Africa next to Blue Bossa

Much to my surprise, Blue Bossa was tied up next to Spike Africa, a beautifully classic schooner built in the early ‘70’s in San Francisco Bay.  I remember Latitude 38 (a San Francisco sailing rag) doing some big write-ups about this boat.  Currently, it’s in the middle of replacing some deck planking and had a tent over the front third of the boat.  Apparently it does a lot of chartering in these waters.

I had a chance to cruise around there in my little inflatable, checking out these really nice and enclosed anchorages south of Roche Harbor – West Cott Bay and Garrison Bay.  I liked Garrison the best and I think I’ll stop there overnight before registering with Sydney when I enter Canada for my trip north in March.

NW San Juan Island w/Roche Hrbr

I’m back now in Friday Harbor, paying bills and setting up appointments for me with my late February visit to Santa Cruz…last one for awhile as I’m planning on taking off to Alaska come March.

That’s it for now.  More later.