May 27, 2013

Hello!  Welcome to my 2013 cruising blog.  On this date in 2011 or 2012 we would have been in Alaska, cruising in our 42’ Nordic Tug and making plans to spend the summer exploring Southeast Alaska.  We’re doing something different this year…doing shorter cruises in the San Juans and Canada.  Our daughter, Jill, and her husband, Bob, presented us with our first grandchild in February.  Lauren Elizabeth is (of course) a precious little girl and we need to see her every month or so! 

            We got back to our boat in La Conner, WA on April 18 and, of course, found NW Washington a lot colder and rainier than the weather we had left in central California!  The last few days at the ranch we had temps in the 80’s and lots of sunshine with lots of lovely wild flowers blooming.  The first week we were back in WA, it rained and I don’t think ever got above 55!  Yikes!!  We could have delayed our arrival a bit, but we wanted to return to see the fields of blooming tulips.  Skagit (rhymes with gadget) Valley is famous for producing daffodil and tulip bulbs.  We missed the daffodils but the tulips were amazing!  In Jerry’s photo you can see the top of snow-capped Mount Baker in the background.

            The weekend after we returned, we went to a workshop on Mount Baker.  That’s the volcano in the Cascades that is about 50 miles east of us, in Jerry’s tulip photo.  The presenter basically talked about what would happen to us if it “blew”.  Fortunately, he said not much would happen to us.  The ash cloud would go east and the mudflow wouldn’t reach us.  It last erupted about 10,000 years ago and still has an active vent from which a steam plume could be seen.

            The workshop also included a discussion of Orca whales in the San Juans.  We’ve seen the “resident pod”, called J pod, several times but there’s always more to learn!  The oldest whale they believe is 100 years old!  She’s the matriarch of the pod and her pod consists of her offspring.

           Jill and Doug Princehouse, on “Passages”, boater friends that we had met in Alaska two years ago, moored in La Conner on their way north.  We met them for breakfast on Wednesday, 5/1, and swapped boating stories most of the morning.  They’ve been boating for a long time and have been to Alaska on their boat for almost 30 years.  We mentioned to Jill and Doug that we had planned to take the boat for a little test run down Swinomish Channel that afternoon, grab a mooring buoy, and spend the night but they invited us to cruise with them north to Roche Harbor.  Why not!!  Away we went.

        We had beautiful, sunny weather and were excited to get out on the water.  We had little wind so the water was reasonably calm.  We saw lots of eagles along Swinomish Channel.  The eagles, gulls, and cormorants have a feast at low tide on the mudflats.  We can always count on seeing eagles along here.   Check out these two adults and a juvenile.  It looks like two parents having a “timeout” conversation with their off spring!

            We had been to Roche Harbor several times before but had always tied up to their guest dock.  Jill and Doug said they always anchored just outside the marina, so we did too.  It was lovely!  Since it was early in the boating season the harbor offered lots of places to anchor and we had a chance to dust off our skills.  I’ve pointed an arrow at us…we’re rather hard to spot in this shot!

            Roche Harbor’s spring is even a little behind La Conner’s, so their trees were just blooming and the tulips were in full bloom.  As you can see we walked through a little “art park” in front of the marina.  I even convinced these good-looking boaters to pose for me…Jill, Doug, and Jerry, of course.  Dinner at the Roche Harbor restaurant was wonderful!  Jill and Doug are vegans and the chef created spectacular plates for them with artichokes and greens…beautiful.  We carnivores enjoyed delicious halibut.

            We were back in La Conner by 2:30 on Thursday and thought our shakedown cruise had been quite successful.  Although this jaunt was rather short, it certainly whetted our appetites for bigger and better things.

            Stay tuned…more summer cruising to come!