Another lovely weekend out, June 25-27

We took off for Lopez Island on Friday afternoon and decided to south through the dreaded "Deception Pass".  This narrow channel splits Fidalgo and Whidbey Islands.  We've driven over the bridge and even stopped at the park in previous visits.  We peered down to the water, hundreds of feet below, wondering how anyone could possibly pilot their boat through this narrow channel.  

So, about 4 PM Friday afternoon, here we are, approaching Deception Pass!  We  checked the tide tables to be sure we would go through at just after high tide on an ebbing tide and planned to literally get "flushed" out into Rosario Strait.  


Sure enough! It worked!  It really wasn't even much of a challenge...not much "crazy water" at all!  

Just about to go under the bridge!


Captain Jerry kept his "cool" and piloted us right through.  Yippee!  From there we head across Rosario Strait to Lopez Island.  Had we done a little more research, we might have done things differently.  The westerlies coming across Rosario Strait in the afternoon turned out to provide us with 3-4 foot swells coming with uncomfortable frequency!  I found out which dishes were well placed in the little kitchen and which ones weren't!  Happily all the wine glasses survived  :-)

Hunter Bay on the east side of Lopez Island was our destination and it turned out to be the perfect spot to drop the anchor and spend the night.  Quiet, pretty, only a couple of other boats, and well-sheltered.  As you can see from the photo, it was a sunny, pretty afternoon and we enjoyed sitting on the stern and watching the birds and the seals.

On Saturday we decided to go to Fisherman's Bay on the west side of Lopez Island.  We had been there with the Munch's when we rented "Mariah" and knew that the channel into the bay was shallow and required an approach on high tide.  We read our tide tables, calculated our distance and, once again, made a successful entry into the bay.  We anchored successfully (I think we've got this down!) and unloaded the dinghy for a trip to the marina.  From there we walked into Lopez Village, about a mile from the marina.  We found an Episcopal church to go to the next morning and calculated our boating and walking time so we'd be sure to make it to church a little before 1030.  It sounds so simple, but when going to church involves 2 modes of transportation, it's a serious calculation!


Sunday morning we were on schedule and even survived a cranky dinghy motor start-up.  The Episcopal church service was lovely and everyone was so friendly! We were glad we had made the effort.  As we walked down the hill through town, we decided to stop and the Lopez Village Museum and learned a good deal about the history of the island.  We should have returned to the dinghy a little sooner, because when we got back to the marina, here's what we found:

Our poor little dinghy was sitting in the mud!  Had to wait an hour for the tide to return so that we could float it off and get back to the boat!  Hmmm, such rookies!


All in all, though, it was another great weekend out on our lovely boat and the longest we'd been out by ourselves.


We returned to La Conner on Monday to get ready for a b ig week and a half of boating.  We've got a fourth of July invitation from Nancy and Gerald Schneider (I worked with Nancy at COS) who have a house near Gig Harbor.  Then, on July 5, we'll pick up our good friend Beth Bream in Gig Harbor and go crusing with her for a little over a week!


What fun!!!!