Deception Pass – Riveted

Decatur Island, Hope Island, and Deception Pass at Max Ebb

Laura Domela — Mon, 09 Jan 2017 23:44:56 +0000

We left Jones Island early on Saturday morning so we could pick up Anna (Sam’s girlfriend) in Friday Harbor. She was flying in from Seattle by float plane, but her flight left an hour late from Seattle so we went out to breakfast and shopped for some more groceries to kill the time. Gorgeous light on our cruise from Jones Island to Friday Harbor:

We left Friday Harbor and headed for Decatur Island. Decatur Island is a private community and only homeowners and their guests are allowed to use the mooring balls. Sam’s family has a cabin there, and we were the guests!

We moored in Sylvan Cove and then did some work before going to shore with Sam and Anna to check out the frozen lake. The big chunks of ice floating in the foreground are about an inch thick, and we had some fun picking them out and throwing them onto the frozen part of the lake. Makes a great sound as the shards slide across the ice!

Icicles on the rocks:

Airship and Safe Harbour, in Sylvan Cove:

We cooked dinner on Safe Harbour…I made this Mexican beef recipe in the Instant Pot, and we made tacos and black beans and zucchini for dinner. In the morning, we dinghied to shore and took advantage of the community hot tub and had a nice long soak before breakfast. Not a bad way to start a Sunday.

Early morning light:

On Sunday we cruised down to Hope Island, just inside Deception Pass. Nice view of the mountains:

We knew we were going to arrive at Deception Pass right around max ebb, and that it would likely be 5-6kts of current against us, but Sam’s been through before at max and wasn’t worried. Here’s where the semi-displacement hulls come in handy! We increased power to about 64% and were mostly making about 4kts over land (with 6-7kts against us). Deception Pass has fairly even laminar flow, so it wasn’t much drama. Kevin took the helm and was a good “pass pilot” while I took video and photos:

We rafted with Safe Harbour on the north side of Hope Island and recorded two more of our “Gates of the Inside Passage” series of videos we’re doing for Slowboat. (See, it’s not all fun and games…we’re actually working out here!)

Dinner on Safe Harbour: salmon that Anna brought back from Alaska this summer, gnocchi with a homemade alfredo sauce (this was so good Anna!), garlic bread, and caesar salad.

This morning, Sam and Anna took off for Seattle, and we moved to a mooring ball and slept in a little bit more. After breakfast we headed for Swinomish Channel and then on to Anacortes.

LaConner, looking charming as ever:

Our original plan was to stop for the night in LaConner, but starting tonight it’s supposed to get super windy (30-40kts) so we thought it might be nicer to be in a protected slip, so we carried on.

We saw quite a few eagles today! (We also saw a tree on Goat Island with maybe a dozen herons in it!!)

We’re going to hang here in Anacortes for a couple days (since Portland appears to be iced over at the moment) and get the boat all cleaned up (Well, if the water ever gets turned back on! Enough with these cold temps and no water at the marinas!)

Deception Pass

Laura Domela — Sun, 14 Feb 2016 23:40:12 +0000

On Thursday we left Port Townsend and headed north toward Deception Pass, where we planned to meet our friends Sam & Anna in Sam's Nordic Tug 37 for the night.

Morning view from Point Hudson Marina at Port Townsend:

The day was pretty gray, but the water was nice and calm. Our ETA at Deception Pass was right near slack tide. (The current that day peaked at about 7kts).

The bridge over the pass:

You can see the water was still pretty swirly about a half an hour after slack (the current was going with us):

Looking back toward the bridge:

We anchored in Cornet Bay and about 30 minutes later Sam and Anna arrived and anchored nearby. We took Sam's dinghy (with the 15HP motor, not our dinghy with the electric Torqueedo) and we beached over on North Beach and then did a little walk … after slamming through the current in Canoe Pass (the narrower pass on the other side of Pass Island in Deception Pass). It was super fun skirting the whirlpools…and don't try this in a Torqueedo!

Walking along North Beach at Deception Pass State Park:

We all had dinner together on Sam's boat and spent the evening just gabbing and gabbing and laughing (and drinking wine). It was a great time.

On Friday morning Sam and Anna came over to Airship and I made breakfast for us all. It poured most of the morning. Fishermen on shore in the rain:

After a late breakfast the clouds went away and blue sky and sun took over and it turned into a gorgeous day. Sam and Anna took off to hang in the islands for another night, and we went back to Cap Sante to pick up our new solar panels and accessories so we could start our installation. (More in a separate post.)

Sam and Anna heading back through Deception Pass:

Thursday's route from Port Townsend to Deception Pass (about 21 nautical miles):

Today we finished up the solar installation, then went for happy hour at Anthony's for a little Valentine's Day celebration, and we're just about to have dinner on Airship (chicken mole, forbidden rice, and caesar salad). We'll head home tomorrow, but be back soon, because we have more upgrades to do!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Foggy Ferry to Whidbey

Laura Domela — Wed, 09 Jul 2014 21:25:46 +0000

We packed up this morning and left our fabulous spot at Point Hudson Marina and headed over to catch the 12:30pm ferry from Port Townsend to Coupeville on Whidbey Island. We arrived at 11:45am and it was so uncrowded that we actually made the 11:45 ferry. Sweet! It was super foggy this morning and we had about 20 feet of visibility the whole ride to Whidbey.

Disappearing Port Townsend:

On the ferry:

We got to pull right onto the ferry taking up two lanes since we were almost the last ones on, and there was plenty of room (they told us to, we didn't just hog the space on our own). It was a nice change from the last ferry ride, smushed up against the wall with the mirrors all pulled in.

We went up to the top deck for the ride and watched for dolphins and orcas, but all we saw was fog and a few jellyfish…

…and this cool misty rainbow/halo thing around/over our heads off the side of the boat:

Deception Pass:

Here's a link to our last visit to Deception Pass (with lots more photos). It's so beautiful up here!

We stopped at a pullout at Pass Lake and had some lunch and did a bit of work in the Airstream. It's nice to always have an office/kitchen/coffee cart/restroom with us!

Once in Bellingham, I navigated us to a car wash I'd found online that sounded promising, called Sunset Car Wash, just off the freeway about 5 miles south of our destination. By "promising" how do the words "large RV bay with catwalk on both sides" sound? This place totally delivered. For $12 bucks we soaked, rinsed, foamed, waxed, wheel washed, and spot-proofed the Airstream (and then hand dried the whole thing ourselves). I love having a clean Airstream!

We're camped out in Bellingham for a few days with Leigh & Brian. Fun! Next stop: Vancouver Island!

Deception Pass and Fidalgo Island/Bowman Bay

Laura Domela — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 01:47:12 +0000

Late this afternoon (after we finished a TON of work) we headed north to check out Deception Pass State Park. Again today, the weather was perfect. This is a lovely state park. Campsites are wooded and large. There's a lake (Cranberry Lake, good for kayaking and fishing, no motorized boats — electric okay) and nearby access to West Beach:

This is Cranberry Lake (totally mellow lake):

We headed back to the main road and crossed the bridge at Deception Pass, parked, and got out and wandered around a bit. Gorgeous.

We were down on this beach (North Beach) collecting more rocks to stick in the rock polisher when we're home next. (View from the Deception Pass Bridge):

View of the Deception Pass bridge from North Beach:

I loved this rock, but it was too big for the rock polisher (At least Kevin said it was — I wasn't totally certain). I opted just to take a photo of it and then threw it back. But now, as I'm posting this, I'm wishing I still had that dang rock. Call me Lucy. It's fine. Just look how cool those lines are…how they meet up and then don't meet up, interrupted by some dramatic geological event. Why didn't I keep that rock??

Okay so anyway…see this little island in the photo below? That's Strawberry Island. It's just past the bridge as you're coming in from Puget Sound. To the right of that island is Ben Ure Island. Well, I've got a story to tell you about ol' Ben Ure.

According to Wikipedia:

In the waters of Deception Pass, just east of the present-day Deception Pass Bridge, is a small island known as Ben Ure Island. The island became infamous for its activity of smuggling illegal Chinese immigrants for local labor. Ure and his partner Lawrence "Pirate" Kelly were quite profitable at their smuggling business and played hide-and-seek with the United States Customs Department for years. Ure's own operation at Deception Pass in the late 1880s consisted of Ure and his Native-American wife. Local tradition has it that his wife would camp on the nearby Strawberry Island (which was visible from the open sea) and signal him with a fire on the island's summit to alert him to whether or not it was safe to bring his illegal cargo ashore. For transport, Ure would tie the illegal immigrants up in burlap bags so that if customs agents were to approach then he could easily toss the bags overboard. The tidal currents would carry the discarded immigrants' bodies to San Juan Island to the north and west of the pass and many ended up in what became known as Dead Man's Bay.

Not a cool guy. At all. And interesting that they chose the term "illegal Chinese immigrants" as a euphamism for "slaves."

Seaweed in the current, taken from the bridge:

Deception Island and Puget Sound, from the bridge:

Under the bridge:

We kept on heading north for a little bit thinking we'd turn around when it was convenient. I looked at the map and noted there was a bay pretty close called Bowman Bay and thought we could check it out and then turn around and head back. We thought we might take the Hobie out at Oak Harbor and sail around there and Penn Cove this evening on the way home. But when we got to Bowman Bay, it was so pretty and it looked like there was a little wind picking up so we opted to sail here.

Here's what we did:

It was gorgeous. We saw a handful of harbor seals, a dozen or so Dall's porpoises, a huge bald eagle, and several tufted puffins!!! So cool.

We stopped and picked up a few more mussels and some clams for dinner tonight. I cooked 'em the same way I did the mussels the other night, and served with a salad of fresh greens and halved sun gold tomatoes from Red Dog Farm.

Tomorrow we're headed back down to Langley (with the Airstream this time) to visit some friends (friends with chickens!!) before we head back to Lake Pleasant/Seattle for the weekend. I've got a shoot on Sunday, and we'll be heading home on Monday morning.