After a calm afternoon and anchor in East Sound, the wind did actually pick up during the night and made it feel more like the cruising books said it would. Nothing threatening, but enough for the waves to make some noise slapping against the hull of the boat as we were trying to sleep. In the morning, Kristine got up before me and reported that the whole bay was fogged in – she couldn’t even see the shore. The wind was still blowing, too, somewhat of an oddity since wind and fog don’t usually go together. By the time I got up, the fog was lifting although still visible around the edges.
We ate and went back into town. Our trip today would not be a long one, and we knew the library opened at 10:00 so we could go there, check email and update yesterday’s blog, head back to the boat and leave around noon or so. We hoped the fog would be gone by then. We wandered around some more, talking with a guy working at one of the parks who was a transplant 25 years ago from San Luis Obispo, California. He really likes island life. He treaded on thin ice a little with me when he tried to tell us how boring it had been in California, with the temperature about 70 degrees three hundred and some days a year, but I was in a charitable mood and forgave him.
The fog lifted, we finished our errands, and went back to the boat where we ate some lunch, pulled the anchor, and started heading south down East Sound. On the marine radio, we heard some people in another part of the San Juans talking about the heavy fog they were still experiencing. I gathered that one of the boats was lost and couldn’t navigate, but someone else was nearby and offered to get to them and let them follow close behind to get to where they were going. Most of the time, boaters are nice like that. It was odd to listen to, though, because where we were was clear and sunny.
We got to the end of East Sound, turned right into Harney Channel, and made the short hop to Blind Bay on Shaw Island. It’s funny – we’ve been here many times, and yet each time is different enough that it can be difficult to tell where you are. All the islands and waterways look pretty much alike. We have charts out at all times, and yet today Kristine and I disagreed on our exact location and which direction we should be heading. As other boating couples know, the best bet is to slow down until you both agree. After checking things out, she was right (no surprise), and we followed her course to head in the correct direction.
We pulled into Blind Bay, on the north side of Shaw Island, about 2:00 and dropped the anchor. As I mentioned yesterday, this was where we had really good luck crabbing last year and wanted to come back for the opening day of crabbing season this year. We set our trap (along with about 50 other people in our “secret hot spot”) and went ashore to take a little walk.
Shaw Island is one of the smaller islands, but it’s right in the center of the group. It’s very rural – there is ferry access and a number of people live here, but the only commercial establishment is a very small grocery store at the ferry terminal. You would have to be pretty much of a hermit to live here. It’s very scenic, though, as you can see from these pictures of the road we walked down and the view of Mt. Baker.
We ate and went back into town. Our trip today would not be a long one, and we knew the library opened at 10:00 so we could go there, check email and update yesterday’s blog, head back to the boat and leave around noon or so. We hoped the fog would be gone by then. We wandered around some more, talking with a guy working at one of the parks who was a transplant 25 years ago from San Luis Obispo, California. He really likes island life. He treaded on thin ice a little with me when he tried to tell us how boring it had been in California, with the temperature about 70 degrees three hundred and some days a year, but I was in a charitable mood and forgave him.
The fog lifted, we finished our errands, and went back to the boat where we ate some lunch, pulled the anchor, and started heading south down East Sound. On the marine radio, we heard some people in another part of the San Juans talking about the heavy fog they were still experiencing. I gathered that one of the boats was lost and couldn’t navigate, but someone else was nearby and offered to get to them and let them follow close behind to get to where they were going. Most of the time, boaters are nice like that. It was odd to listen to, though, because where we were was clear and sunny.
We got to the end of East Sound, turned right into Harney Channel, and made the short hop to Blind Bay on Shaw Island. It’s funny – we’ve been here many times, and yet each time is different enough that it can be difficult to tell where you are. All the islands and waterways look pretty much alike. We have charts out at all times, and yet today Kristine and I disagreed on our exact location and which direction we should be heading. As other boating couples know, the best bet is to slow down until you both agree. After checking things out, she was right (no surprise), and we followed her course to head in the correct direction.
We pulled into Blind Bay, on the north side of Shaw Island, about 2:00 and dropped the anchor. As I mentioned yesterday, this was where we had really good luck crabbing last year and wanted to come back for the opening day of crabbing season this year. We set our trap (along with about 50 other people in our “secret hot spot”) and went ashore to take a little walk.
Shaw Island is one of the smaller islands, but it’s right in the center of the group. It’s very rural – there is ferry access and a number of people live here, but the only commercial establishment is a very small grocery store at the ferry terminal. You would have to be pretty much of a hermit to live here. It’s very scenic, though, as you can see from these pictures of the road we walked down and the view of Mt. Baker.
Later in the day, as we were hanging out and reading on the boat, we saw this great sight: the inter-island ferry was landing with a small, Homeland Security boat following it in and back out again. You can see the boat in this photo, but what you can’t see is that it is loaded with big rifles, just in case a terrorist decides to carry out an attack against our country.
Memo to Homeland Security Director: If you’re looking to save some money, it’s highly unlikely that a terrorist is going to plot a hostile action on an island that only has one grocery store and probably more livestock that people. Perhaps these guards could be deployed in a slightly more risky location.
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