Cypress Island – Riveted

Sunset and Sunrise on Cypress Island

Laura Domela — Fri, 08 Dec 2017 18:31:12 +0000

More reasons to cruise the San Juan Islands in the winter:

Sunset from Eagle Harbor

Sunrise from Eagle Harbor

We met up with friends Carol and Park on Akeeva (the Nordhavn 50 that went to Alaska with us this past summer) and had a nice visit last night.

Loving this weather!

Last Night at Cypress Head (I made shakshuka!)

Laura Domela — Sat, 15 Apr 2017 17:20:06 +0000

Yesterday afternoon after a bunch of work on the boat (both “work work” and “boat work”) we dinghied over to Eagle Harbor and went on another hike before dinner.

The weather yesterday could not have been better. We even had a cocktail on the top deck!

For dinner, I made a version of Shakshuka that I mashed up from a couple different recipes online. I added spinach and a little leftover pulled pork to our version, and it was amazing! Definitely a keeper! I should have taken a photo, but I didn’t. Here’s a recipe with a photo though…it looked kinda like that.

I sauteed some shallots and garlic in olive oil, then added cayenne, cumin, paprika, and red chili flakes to that. Then, some fresh diced tomato as well as a big can of organic crushed tomatoes, salt and pepper, and a couple big handfuls of spinach. I let that bubble a while on the stovetop, and when the bread was almost ready (crusty sourdough garlic bread) I cracked four eggs into the bubbling tomato mixture and let them poach on the stovetop. When eggs were soft-poached, I sprinkled a handful of shaved parmesan over the top, and then pulled out a big spoonful for each of us…served in a bowl with a side of crusty bread for dunking. Heavenly! Will definitely make this again. (Well, and I’m about to use the leftovers for breakfast. Great for any time of day, really.)

Here’s the breakfast version, as the eggs are poaching (we’re doing without the bread this morning):

More Cypress Island

Laura Domela — Fri, 14 Apr 2017 18:07:36 +0000

We were going to head back to Portland today, but instead, we decided to spend another night out at Cypress. We have a few more organizational projects to do, and it’s nice out here, and we still have enough food and wine and it’s Friday, and well, you know how it is.

This morning after breakfast we took the dinghy out for some noodling around (breaking in the new outboard) and then hiked around on Cypress Head for a bit.

The mosses are growing like crazy out here. Love these colors!

Cypress Island has some great boat-in campsites out on Cypress Head. Not a bad view from here:

Oh yeah, I forgot to post these yesterday. While working on Airship in Anacortes yesterday, a huge heron landed on the top side of the dinghy. It was a more colorful one than usual, with browns and blues and grays and whites. I moved very slowly and picked up the camera. I took one quick shot and then inched closer to see if I could get a more unobstructed one….

…but apparently I wasn’t stealthy enough. You can kinda see the (blurry) brown on his wing/shoulders….oh well.

Getting Ready for Alaska!

Laura Domela — Wed, 04 May 2016 15:32:02 +0000

I haven't posted in a few days (okay, over a week) because we've just been doing a bunch of relatively boring stuff as we get ready to head north to SE Alaska next week. We were at home for a couple weeks, where I squeezed in about eight photo shoots (!!!) Kevin had a business trip, and we did the pre-Alaska Costco run. We're at the boat now, finishing up a few projects we wanted to have done before it's time to leave. Our days have been filled with regular work-work, mixed in with lots of boat stuff, and then maybe a beer and some fish tacos up at Anthony's Cabana. Not a bad way to end a work day.

Yesterday was my birthday so we did not work on any boat projects. We went out to breakfast, hung out a little, and then headed to Cypress Island for the night. I colored with the new watercolor pencils in the cool coloring book my mom got me while Kevin wrote an article:

This is a pretty chill way to spend an hour or two! Thanks Mom!!

We're back at the marina now and just doing some work.

Our AIS quit a couple weeks ago, so that's been fixed and will be reinstalled today. Frank finished doing the rest of the Amtico in the stateroom (no more carpet!) and it looks amazing. Kevin upgraded the 12 volt wiring from 2 gauge to 00 between the new lithium batteries and the inverter charger to handle the higher current that the new lithium batteries can deliver. He also upgraded from a 200 amp breaker to a 400 amp fuse. This allows us, among other things, to run the water heater off of the inverter (so now we can have hot water all the time, rather than having to run the engine, or the generator, or plug into shore power to get hot water). Woohoo!

I managed to find a place for almost all of the provisions we brought with us. Barely.

(That brownie mix makes for a fantastic "thank you" plate of brownies in exchange for things like secret fishing spot coordinates, fresh fish, etc. It's a "must" to bring with us!)

This cabinet was formerly known as the wine cellar, but since we can only take two bottles each across the border into Canada, it's been repurposed:

My workspace, below. (That's a Grovemade laptop stand. I love it, and I got it here. I had a different one before, but it was a little wobbly for my 17-inch MacBook Pro.)

Next project: Washing the boat!

Sunday Sunrise behind Cypress Head

Laura Domela — Sun, 17 Apr 2016 12:34:42 +0000

That is all.

Another Night at Cypress Island

Laura Domela — Sat, 16 Apr 2016 22:06:09 +0000

Yesterday afternoon we went out on a sea trial of the new Nordic Tug 40, and this morning we went to the factory to check out another new Nordic Tug 44. We'll blog about this separately I think, but both new boats look fantastic. This afternoon we decided to pop over to Cypress Island for the night. We stopped at our favorite local seafood spot, Black Rock Seafood, and picked up some fresh local halibut, a few local spot prawns, some Shigoku and extra small Pacific oysters, and one container each of salmon pâté and smoked albacore pâté from Seabolts Smokehouse. (They are almost always sold out of these pâtés…they're so good!)

We got over to Cypress and did a few boat projects before heading to shore for a short hike.

We took the dinghy around Cypress Head and beached it on the other side of the sandy bar that connects it to the rest of the island:

There are two other boats here, and one empty mooring ball.

Tons of tiny, dead, brightly colored crabs on shore.

Curvy tree:

The hike around Cypress head is really only about a mile, but the other option from here goes straight up and we just weren't in the mood for that today.

Here's the track of our dinghy ride back to Airship from the other cove. There was about a 2kt current against us and a nice rip around the north edge of Cypress Head, but the Torqeedo handled it just fine!

Around the south end of Cypress Head:

Here's my office view right now (and if you look closely at my monitor, you'll get a sneak peak of the new NT40. I got some killer shots today of it as we were on our way out of Guemes Channel today, nicely lit with Mt. Baker in the background):

Dinner tonight will start with some oysters on the half shell, and then I think we'll grill this fresh halibut and I'll make a caesar salad (with my new homemade caesar dressing technology). Happy Saturday everyone!

Cypress and Sucia

Laura Domela — Thu, 14 Apr 2016 13:41:14 +0000

Yesterday morning, Cypress Island:

We spent Tuesday night at Cypress Head with Sam. Sam now has a drone too and got a nice shot of our two Nordic Tugs tucked away in the cove:

Here's Sam on his bow, in his robe, bringing in the drone:

We left Cypress and were headed to Griffin Bay on San Juan Island, but Sam heard on the radio that there were some K dubs (killer whales, orcas) out near Sucia Island, so we changed our plans and headed out to Sucia. We never saw any orcas though.

We moored in Shallow Bay on the west side of Sucia Island. Before we headed to shore for some hiking, Sam took the drone up again and got some great shots of us in the bay, with the rest of Sucia Island and Mount Baker in the background. So cool!

Dinghy on shore, Nordic Tugs (and a sailboat) in the background:

Kevin and Sam on a makeshift teeter-totter in Echo Bay:

Dinner on Airship last night was grilled chicken, zucchini and risotto.

This morning is calm and gray. Kevin's working, and I'm making breakfast tacos for us before we head out.

We don't know where our next stop is yet because…that's how we roll.

Spencer Spit and Cypress Head

Laura Domela — Mon, 11 Apr 2016 13:26:28 +0000

We spent a few days in Anacortes working on some projects, and then took Airship out for some island time. We spent Saturday night at Spencer Spit State Park on Lopez Island. We left Cap Sante late and arrived at Spencer Spit by about 6:30pm.

Saturday all day it was clear and gorgeous out, but Sunday morning the clouds had rolled in:

On Sunday we popped back over to Cap Sante to pick up a few things and then went over to Cypress Island for the night.

We normally stay at Eagle Harbor on Cypress, but this time we tried the NE cove at Cypress Head and it is lovely!

Looking toward Fidalgo Island, across the little bit of beach that joins Cypress Head to Cypress Island:

We went ashore and hiked around Cypress Head for a while. There are some primo campsites here:

After our hike we went for a little dinghy exploration. Lots of seals and bald eagles around here. We saw a bunch of porpoises yesterday on our way from Lopez Island to Cypress Island, too.

Sunset last night was beautiful and it was so calm in here overnight that it was hard to tell we were on a mooring ball and not in the marina.

This morning we're heading back into Anacortes. The carpet replacement in the stateroom and on the landing outside the head is almost finished…the stairs should be done today and all the trim pieces installed. It's looking SO GOOD! (You can see the last bit of carpet in the upper left corner. I won't be sad to see that go.

Back to Cypress Island for Some Hiking

Laura Domela — Mon, 30 Nov 2015 00:19:00 +0000

Another sunrise. (Yawn. Literally. I just popped out of bed quickly for this one and then climbed right back in! Brrrrr.)

Ewing Cove on Sucia Island:

We left Ewing Cove this morning and headed back over to Eagle Harbor at Cypress Island. We really wanted to do the hike up to Eagle Cliff on Cypress Island (the one we didn't do last week when we were here because we were too busy socializing with friends…that one!)

Nice view of Mt. Baker from our new spot in Eagle Cove:

We dinghied to shore and set off up the hill.

More fungus along the trail!

We have done the hike up to Duck Lake and the Duck Lake loop, and done the up-up-up trail to Reed Lake, but hadn't done the Eagle Cliff trail. This trail came highly recommended by a Riveted reader, so we really wanted to do it before the trail closes in February. (Thanks Glen! Good tip!)

Here's a trail map:

We started at Eagle Harbor (sea level) and hiked up to Eagle Cliff. The hike was beautiful, but nothing super out of the ordinary, as far as hikes go….

…until you get to the end, where the really steep part gets a little steeper. But you know there's gonna be a big payoff, because someone hauled all this wood up here to build this little staircase to help you get to the top….

And pretty soon, this…an almost 360 degree view. Spectacular.

This hike was 4.3 miles round trip from Eagle Harbor, with a 752 feet elevation gain.

And it was frosty up there!

We enjoyed the view for a few minutes, and then trucked back down the hill. It was also frosty down on the beach! This is a piece of driftwood in the shade, covered with frost:

We caught a few Dungeness crabs at Sucia this morning, so we headed back to Airship to clean and cook them up for dinner.

Mount Baker, looking a little more pink after our hike:

Dinner tonight will be crab cakes and a salad. We're heading back to Anacortes tomorrow for a few projects and meetings, and then doing a fun surprise thing for Kevin's birthday this week.

Chilly Days in the San Juan Islands

Laura Domela — Sun, 22 Nov 2015 14:38:07 +0000

We left Portland on Thursday afternoon RIGHT at the perfect time to put us in near Seattle at rush hour. Smart! We arrived at the marina in Anacortes right around 7pm and spent the rest of the night putting stuff away, organizing, and making dinner (steak frites with sauteed spinach). In the morning we got up early and headed back into Seattle for an 11am photo shoot. The boat and the docks were frosty, and the temperature was around 33 degrees Farenheit when we left right around 8am. Brrrrr.

The weather was perfect and the photo shoot went well (so well, we even shot some outside!). We returned to Airship by 3pm and were out of our slip in no time! We had a plan to meet some friends (two other Nordic Tugs!) over in Eagle Harbor at Cypress Island for the night.

Low light on the way to Cypress Island:

Friday night on Mount Baker:

Dan and Eileen (Nordic Tug 32 "Fortunate"), Sam (NT 37 "Safe Harbour), and Kevin and I all hung out on Sam's boat for the evening (it's the biggest) and had a great time catching up. Dan and Eileen went to Alaska this past summer in the second Waggoner flotilla, led by Sam. Dan cooked dinner for everyone (a delicious curry), and in the morning I made some breakfast tacos and we had coffee and more laughs on our boat before we all took off around noon.

Dan and Eileen heading for Jones Island:

We decided to cruise over to Matia Island (where there were previously two mooring buoys, but now there's only one…same at Patos Island the last time we were there….what's happening to these mooring buoys??). Here's our previous post about Matia, before we left for Alaska.

We dinghied to shore and did a nice hike around the island while we still had daylight.

And there we are again!

Back at Airship, Kevin worked on a little revamp of the entertainment system (that now includes our Xbox One from home), while I cooked up some pad thai noodles for dinner.

Check out this morning's sunrise sky:

Today we'll probably do a bit more hiking before leaving Matia Island (after perhaps a little Xbox and some work). We're going back to Anacortes for the night, because tomorrow morning we're visiting the Nordic Tug factory to look at a couple of new models — the 40 and the 44, but we'll probably take the long way home.

Happy Sunday!