Good morning Roche Harbor Marina! After a restful night with all of our gadgets plugged in, I awoke hours after Shane had already left to paddle. He had a few islands left to paddle around northern San Juan Island. Spieden Island, Centinel Island, Centinel Rock, Pearl Island, Barren Island and Cactus Islands were crossed off his list that morning.
Shane circumnavigates each island, giving him in-depth knowledge of the shores and waterways of where he paddles. He started to focus on paddling around all of the islands in the Puget Sound at the end of 2020. Limited on time, that was a challenge for him living in the Snoqualmie Valley. Today, we travel to the area he wants to paddle on our boat. Shane wakes up early, has some cold coffee, removes his board from the side of our boat and is off!
The boys and I were awake, I was writing my blog and they were playing video games while the power was on, when Shane returned.
From there the day got busy quickly. Kelly went off on his own, playing bocce ball and walking the grounds. Wyatt and I tidied up and walked over to the pool.
The boat was ready to head off, but we waited until lunch to leave. The plan was to move the boat a short ways over to Garrison or Westcott Bay. Due to our limited travel window, we were leaving at low tide. Mosquito Pass was fun to float through. Like with Johns Pass, this small waterway also felt like we were tubing down a river, but on our sailboat.
Once we reached our intended anchorage we found that the depths we were expecting based on charts and the tide, were in reality much shallower. Reversing at the entrance of Westcott Bay when the depths hit five feet, we motored over to Garrison Bay, not expecting anything better. It was in fact just as shallow at low tide. So, we retreated back to the pass, deciding to go back to anchor at Roche Harbor. We had tried to get away from the hustle and bustle of the 4th of July weekend, but it wasn’t going to work out for us this time.
We weren’t the only sailboat going in to check out the bays only to turn around. There was a line behind us doing the same thing. For a Thursday afternoon it was a busy one out there.
The kids weren’t upset. Once the anchor was secure the boards came out and they started exploring the water around them. Lots of sunblock was applied too! With no wind or clouds we started to get hot in no time. Thankfully Shane’s experience on his boat when he was younger taught him how nice fans were and installed them before we left Shilshole.
After five o’clock, Shane began assembling the rowing dinghy to take him and the kids ashore for some play on land. I was going to wash the dishes from our late lunch and get some things done on the computer.
A couple hours later they rowed back with chips and salsa. Shane read to the boys as I made dinner. We had a late dinner while watching the sea planes and boats around us. At nine o’clock we heard the music playing and the cannon go off from the marina’s colors ceremony.
The night’s activity was watching the newest episode of Ms. Marvel. We’re really enjoying this series. In this episode the main character travels to Pakistan. They’ve incorporated the culture and history of the area in such an entertaining and thoughtful way. Speaking of history of an area, we’re looking forward to celebrating the history of our country this weekend. I hope you all have fun plans for the long weekend!