Patos Island – Riveted

K-dubs and the Po-Po

Laura Domela — Fri, 15 Apr 2016 22:50:14 +0000

This morning when I picked up my iPhone, I saw that I had a text from a friend and concerned blog reader, after yesterday's post. If you aren't caught up, read that post here first, and then come back.

She agreed to let me share our text conversation here, keeping her anonymous…I offered, she didn't ask.

Her: Hey. You could have some company this morning.

Me: What, who? Where are you?

Her: Well….I called the San Juan Sheriff's office and let them know they may want to check out that little hideaway.

Me: I think they already are checking out this little hideaway. That's what I think these guys are doing…monitoring this cove.

Her: So you think they are good guys?

Me: No judgment on good or bad, but I do think they are probably law enforcement, stationed in the lighthouse, watching the cove for suspicious activity.

Her: Well…the sheriff didn't seem to know about it if they are…but they did ask for your blog.

Me: Oh good. Now the sheriff is going to read my post.

Her: He did read the post. While I was on the phone with him.

Me: Awesome. What did he say?

Her: Thanked me for calling…took all my contact info…asked for the name of your boat…and said he would phone it into the marine unit.

Me: Well if this is all legit they're gonna think I'm a total troublemaker.

Her: That's why I gave you the heads up….

Me: Um, thanks?

Her: BTW, I don't think the popo are going to think you're a troublemaker. What if you just broke up an international trafficking ring???

Her: You're going to be a hero…

Me: It certainly makes for a weird state park experience here.

Her: …you'll prob get an award or something…

Her: …get on 60 minutes…

Her: …maybe even meet the President…

Me: You're such a dork.

Me: Remember, the San Juan Sheriff AND the Coast Guard were sitting in boats RIGHT in front of the lighthouse watching us as we arrived. The guys at the lighthouse have to be part of the whole thing. This is a very small island.

We left our mooring ball in Active Cove right in here somewhere, opting not to go hike back out to the lighthouse before leaving. Here are some sleepy sleepy seals on Little Patos as we exited the cove:

Meanwhile, the text conversation continued.

Her: I had my whole team [at work] read about it this morning.

Me: What did they say?

Her: They all think u are wise to get out before gunfire erupts. They can't believe you stayed there overnight.

Me: There was another boat. And it's a state park. (And we were surrounded by law enforcement who watched us come in and didn't tell us to leave or anything. If there was something dangerous going on, you'd think they'd have sent us away.)

As we continued on, we spotted some black dots in the water about a mile away. We got out the binocs and learned it was the group of 10 kayakers we'd seen arrive in Shallow Cove the morning we left. They were headed toward Patos Island.

Me: There are 10 kayaks headed to Patos now from Sucia. Kayak campers.

Her: Or…drug runners disguised as kayak campers.

Me: Right. Or that. At least they know how to dress the part…unlike the lighthouse cops.

As we made our way closer to Orcas Island, I was certain we'd be intercepted, but we weren't. We only saw one other boat and it was a police boat, but they never came toward us. At first I was a little freaked out that the San Juan Sheriff's Department read my post and might be passing it along to other law enforcement agencies, etc., but now I figure if they're trying to discourage illegal activity near the border, then having some blogger with 45,000 followers writing about how the place is teeming with all flavors of law enforcement would be a total bonus for them. (You're welcome, guys!)

p.s. We looked for more orcas today on the cruise. Nothin. Party's over folks.

Carhartt Guys: the Plot Thickens

Laura Domela — Fri, 15 Apr 2016 01:32:30 +0000

Alright. Here we go. If you follow along you’ll remember the last time we were here at Patos Island. By ourselves. The only boat on the one mooring buoy here. We hiked around the island and never saw another boat. But then, on our way from the lighthouse back to the beach where our dinghy was, we passed two guys heading toward the lighthouse wearing Carhartts and knit caps, the guy in front carrying a handheld radio. They said “hey.” We said “hey.” We expected to see their boat when we got back to the cove, but no boat. No kayaks. No nothing. It was curious to say the least. (It’s at this point the “making up stories’ engine roars into overdrive.) We never saw them leave. No boat came to pick them up. We were the only boat here. It was super odd.

So, fast forward one month.

Today was a weird day, for sure. Federal, state, and county law enforcement were out in full force here between Sucia Island and Patos Island and the Canadian border. (This is an area that’s usually pretty uninhabited. Most of the time we’re at Patos Island, we’re the only humans for miles around). Our friend Sam was pulled over by the San Juan County Sheriff and boarded after he left our moorage at Sucia. We were pulled over shortly after leaving Sucia by the Washington Department of Fish & Game (who had zero questions for us about any fishing, hunting, or game). They looked all S.W.A.T. team…and they said nothing about why they pulled us over and copied our driver’s licenses, either. There were sheriffs, fish and game guys, and coast guard boats ALL OVER today. All. Over.

So, we moored here in Active Cove on Patos Island, and after finishing up some work, we took the dinghy ashore for a little hike out to the lighthouse.

About 3/4 of the way out to the lighthouse, a voice calls out from a dead end branch of the path, off to our left. “Hey, do you know if there’s a restroom….?” indicating back the way we’d come from. It was a bit startling, for sure, to see this guy…this guy wearing Carhartts and a ball cap (with an American flag on the front)…coming FROM the direction of the lighthouse, where no boat could beach or anchor. We’re pretty sure this was one of the same two Carhartt guys from a month ago. And obviously, he KNOWS where the restroom is on this tiny island. I said “yep, just back there a little ways.” He says “thanks” and we move on. Shortly, we pass the other Carhartt guy walking the same “away from the lighthouse” direction, only this one is now wearing a mustard-Carhartt-colored “suit” of kind of rain pants and rain jacket…and it looks like he’s packing a firearm. He fumbles with his chest zipper a bit and says hello as he passes us. We keep walking, a little weirded out at the duplicate experience. We hang out at the lighthouse a bit, noticing that there are double the solar panels they had the last time we were here. There’s also a new microwave antenna, and some surveillance cameras we don’t think were there before. Well…this makes some sense. Maybe the Carhartt guys are doing a little border surveillance or something. Of course today’s experiences are informing this guess, but what else could it be?

Here’s an older photo of the lighthouse, sans microwave antenna, surveillance cams, and half the solar:

From the lighthouse we saw another San Juan County Sheriff’s boat whizzing past the opening of Active Cove, where we are moored, and I thought “Maybe they’re coming to pick up the Carhartt guys!” We headed back toward the beach, but then we passed the two guys again! They were heading back to the lighthouse. (They SO knew where the bathroom was already. I mean, come on!)

Wildflowers along our path:

They said “hello again” and we said hello (and I tried really hard to take a photo of them, my camera hanging down at my side, but all I got was this):

So, as we said before: if you never hear from us again: two men, early 30s…maybe 40s, Carhartts, knit caps (might be packin’), not too chatty. (And they totally DO know where the restroom is!)

Oh, and here are some photos from the gorgeous sunset tonight here in Active Cove:

Orcas near Patos (and a whole lotta law enforcement)

Laura Domela — Thu, 14 Apr 2016 23:42:02 +0000

Wow, today on the water was weird! Cool, but also weird. Sam left Shallow Cove on Sucia Island about an hour before we did. As we were leaving, he texted us and said he'd been boarded by the San Juan Sheriff. They inspected all his safety gear and documentation and stuff (he passed) and then they were on their way. We joked back and forth that maybe they'd be on the lookout for us next!

We headed off toward the west side of San Juan Island to look for orcas, but pretty soon we noticed five or so boats over near the Canadian border.

Where there's this, there are probably whales. I looked on my Marine Traffic app and one of them was definitely a whale watching boat, and after binoc'ing them, we confirmed: whale watching boats. So off we went. A few minutes later a Department of Fish & Wildlife patrol boat came zooming toward us. Hey! It must be the day to be boarded in the San Juan Islands! We slowed down and then idled as they came up on our port side and asked for our identification. We handed over our IDs as they asked us where we were going, if this was our boat, where we kept it, whether we lived on it, and if we were going to Canada. We told them we had been planning to go look for orcas on the west side of San Juan Island, but that we spotted all those whale watching boats over there so we thought we'd go see if we could see some whales. We were just out cruising around. No we weren't going to Canada, yes this is our boat, etc. They copied our IDs and let us carry on our way.

The whole time that was going on, there was also a sheriff's boat stopped not too far away, watching us:

As soon as we got back underway, it seemed like the sheriff's boat was heading to intercept us, but then it didn't. We continued toward the orcas, and spent a half an hour or so with them from a pretty good distance. There were a couple of large adults, and quite a few young feisty ones. Pretty sweet!

The whole time we were watching whales (just across the border in Canadian waters), the sheriff's boat was parked at the border, watching. Maybe they wanted to make sure we came back, but it was a little weird.

The orcas were heading north, and we thought we'd gotten a pretty good show, so we turned to head back and decided to go over to Patos. The sheriff picked up speed and looked like they were coming to intercept us. They parked right at the entrance to Active Cove on Patos. We slowed up, assuming they were going to want to chat, since that seems to be the kind of day it is up here, but they just sat and watched us as we went into the cove and grabbed the mooring buoy. Just past the sheriff's boat, there was also a Coast Guard boat, sitting on the other side of the point where the lighthouse is. Also this morning, a Coast Guard helicopter flew really low over the cove we were anchored in. All in all, the vibe out here is certainly as if something is UP. I was hoping the sheriff would follow us into the cove here so we could ask him what the heck was going on, but he didn't.

Maybe this has something to do with those two guys with no boat we saw the last time we were here on Patos!!!

So, the orcas, the San Juan Sheriff, the Department of Fish & Wildlife, and the Coast Guard. They're all here. Where's the party?

New Things, Old Islands

Laura Domela — Tue, 15 Mar 2016 23:26:30 +0000

It's pretty cool when you go back to a place you've been a whole bunch of times before and you learn new stuff about it!

We left Blind Bay yesterday around noon and made a quick stop in Deer Harbor to grab some TP (we forgot to put it on the shopping list while we were in Anacortes, dur). We also picked up what looked like a delicious bottle of Smoked Jalapeno Barbeque sauce from Local-Goods on Orcas Island, made right there in Deer Harbor. (Update: it's fantastic! I think I'm going to put it on my eggs in the morning.)

Airship at the guest dock in Deer Harbor:

The weather forecast for the whole week is pretty calm, so we originally thought we'd go out to Sucia to do some hiking, but as we were en route, I thought we should first see if the mooring ball (there's only one now) on Patos was available. If so, we could do the trail we haven't taken yet (we always get suckered to go out to the lighthouse, but there's a trail that goes the other way too). We got to Patos and the mooring ball was empty, and therefore ours. The cool thing about a rocky, uninhabited island with one mooring ball and no good place to anchor is that if you have it, you're pretty likely the only ones on that island.

Patos Island Lighthouse (I know, you've seen it plenty by now if you've been reading this blog for any length of time):

View toward shore from our mooring ball:

We fought a pretty good current on the way here. This is looking back past the entrance to the cove where we're moored. The water is churning and the birds are feeding like crazy out there:

We dinghied to shore and headed for the untaken hiking trail…the one that goes counterclockwise.

The cut between Patos Island and Little Patos Island:

Looking back out at Airship in the cove:

The counterclockwise trail meandered along the rocky shore for a while:

And then somewhere down the way a bit it turned inland and crossed the center of the island over to the north side. The trail was super lush, with ferns and mushrooms and moss:

There were definitely many signs of last week's windstorm, and as we got maybe three quarters of the way around the island (let's just say we climbed over a whole lotta trees in our path), our trail was completely blocked by a giant piney tree that had fallen across. Unfortunately, there was no way around it because the brush and bushes flanking the trail were tall and brambly, so we backtracked until we found a way to get down to the rocky shore. (I tried to take a photo of the blockage, but it just looked like a wall of green.)

Luckily, it was low tide, so we had a lot of land to work with (and not too much further to go to get to the lighthouse and to the trail back to the beach where our dinghy was). The lighthouse is just up there a ways:

Bonus: tide pools with starfish, crabs, and tiny fishes!

Oh, someone had a bad thing happen to their engine (this is a crankcase, the bottom part of an engine block):

Hey look! The lighthouse! And the tide hasn't come in yet. We won't perish on the island after all.

A pack of seals, following us to make sure we made it okay (or maybe just that we didn't linger too long in their hood):

I like this shot of Kevin heading up the hill to less slippery ground:

We watched a few big ships go by in Boundary Pass and then headed back via the paved trail from the lighthouse to the beach. Remember how I mentioned there is just one mooring ball here now, and we were the ones on it? And, there's nowhere to anchor near the island? And, it's miles from any other land? Well, about a minute from the lighthouse on the trail, we passed two guys going the opposite direction. Whoa! Where'd THEY come from? We say hey, and they said hey, and then that was it. They were youngish (late 20s/early 30s) wearing Carhartts and knit caps. The guy in front had a radio, but other than that they weren't carrying anything and didn't look like tourists or kayakers. Once we could see the cove and the beach, we noticed there were no boats there. So, how did they get here? No kayaks on the shore, and they had no camping gear (this island is a Washington State Marine Park with a bunch of amazing campsites). State Park employees? Coast Guard guys? Checking on the lighthouse? We got back to the beach and there were no other footprints besides our own. Ghosts???

We're waiting for the boat that's coming to pick them up.

So far: no boat. But the sky is super pretty and dusky and we counted 18 eagles (all or most of 'em juveniles) in the trees on the left, next to Airship:

Oh! Also, we learned a neat thing about this island we didn't know before! A woman named Helene Glidden wrote a book called The Light on the Island. It's her story of growing up on Patos Island with her twelve brothers and sisters while her father served as the Patos Island lighthouse keeper from 1905-1913. She died in January 1989 (survived by her husband and four children), and apparently her ashes are spread here on Patos Island. I think we should read that book!

And if you never hear from us again: two men, late 20s early 30s, Carhartts, knit caps, not too chatty.

Hanging with Friends in the San Juan Islands

Laura Domela — Mon, 19 Oct 2015 14:28:41 +0000

Part Two

We said goodbye to Sissy and Bob on Thursday morning in Anacortes and spent the day working and doing a few errands. Our friends Becki and Stephen drove up from Portland and met up with us on Thursday night. On Friday morning we headed out for Sucia Island where we'd again meet up with our friend Sam in Fossil Bay.

Anacortes to Fossil Bay on Sucia Island (21 nautical miles, 3 hours 15 minutes):

Hiking around on Sucia Island:

Shallow Cove:

Echo Bay panorama:

Saturday morning sunrise at Fossil Bay:

After a late breakfast we headed over to Patos Island for a little hike out to the lighthouse. I took no photos of the lighthouse this time, but you can click here or here if you need a refresher.

Dinghy on shore in Active Cove (where there used to be two mooring balls, but now there's only one):

The paved part of the trail to the lighthouse:

Looking out toward Orcas Island:

After we'd hiked around and watched the seals for a while, we headed back to Airship and continued over to Roche Harbor on San Juan Island.

Sucia Island to Patos Island to Roche Harbor on San Juan Island (21.5 nautical miles, 3 hours):

Roche Harbor Resort:

We walked up to the sculpture garden, which is kind of neat overall, but this was definitely NOT my favorite sculpture there. At all. (Apologies to whoever made this…but for some reason it feels more like a nightmare than the happy childhood moment I think it's supposed to represent.) Eeek.

Okay I can't look at it anymore.

Chapel on the hill:

We had a delicious dinner at McMillin's Dining Room on Saturday night, and on Sunday morning after breakfast we hiked up to show Becki & Stephen the trippy mausoleum in the forest:

Here's a link to a past post about Roche Harbor and the mausoleum, if you want more info.

The weather was a bit foggy and gray on Sunday morning as we left Roche Harbor and headed back to Anacortes.

Chapel reflection:

We saw lots of porpoises, many seals, all kinds of birds, but no orcas or humpbacks.

Roche Harbor back to Anacortes (27.4 nautical miles, 3 hours 53 minutes):

We said goodbye to Becki and Stephen, washed off the boat, and then decided that since we still had a few hours of daylight, we'd head over to Eagle Harbor on Cypress Island for the night (or maybe two) before heading back to Portland.

Anacortes to Eagle Harbor on Cypress Island (8 nautical miles, 1 hour 9 minutes):

It was so quiet here last night, and there's only one other boat moored on the other side of the bay. Today it's foggy and gray and a little drizzly, but it's a perfect day for getting a lot of work done (and maybe putting out a couple crab traps).

Happy Monday!

Patos to Sucia to San Juan

Laura Domela — Wed, 13 May 2015 02:42:27 +0000

This morning we left Patos Island and headed over to Sucia Island to do another short hike with Kevin's mom. I think Sucia is my favorite of the San Juan Islands. We stopped at the main dock and hiked out to Fox Point.

Gnarled tree up on the bluffs:

Kevin, showing his mom the way:

Trail:

Tree texture:

Viewpoint:

Sad (dead) octopus, being dined on by a lucky seagull:

And here's my arty series of tiny rocks with barnacles growing on them:

That last rock there is about 1 inch x 1 inch. Tiny!

We had dinner tonight at McMillin's at Roche Harbor (delicious!) and I took this fun photo from our table, with the reflection of the ceiling lamp behind us:

Back at Airship's slip, the little chapel on the hill was looking particularly photogenic:

Tomorrow's plan is to cruise the west side of San Juan Island, around the bottom of Lopez Island and to Watmough Bay for the night.

Here's today's cruise:

Patos Island

Laura Domela — Tue, 12 May 2015 21:45:08 +0000

Kevin's mom flew in this week to hang out with us for a few days before we leave for Alaska, so we thought we'd show her the boat and some of our favorite spots in the San Juan Islands. Yesterday morning we headed for Patos Island (that's Patos there in the distance):

Nice light on the lighthouse:

We grabbed a mooring ball and headed out to the lighthouse to stretch our legs a bit. Airship from the trail:

The dinghy back on the beach:

More baby geese:

Cool plant on the trail:

Airship silhouette:

After our walk out to the the lighthouse we took the dinghy for a little spin. A huge bald eagle landed out on the lighthouse as we were rounding the point:

Bird ruckus on the water:

Looking back into Active Cove at Airship:

Once back at the boat we had a little decktop happy hour and then we grilled up some zucchini and fresh halibut topped with a dill creme fraiche. Delicious. The sunset wasn't bad either:

More Around Patos Island

Laura Domela — Tue, 02 Dec 2014 21:06:37 +0000

We took the quadcopter and hiked out to the lighthouse on Alden Point for some more fun aerial footage.

Oh hey seals!

In this photo, there's one seal looking straight up at the copter. You might have to click for an enlargement, but it's pretty cute.

Another cove-side campsite (Patos Island is a Washington State Park):

The remains of an old car or truck, beside the trail out to the lighthouse:

Kind of funny to have a car on a very small island where there are most definitely no roads.

Hey! The new mooring buoys match the boat's paint job:

Earlier today Kevin did his first from-the-boat launch and it went great! Can't wait to see the footage he got out here!

Taking off from Airship's top deck:

Smooth, successful top-deck landing:

Sunset looking out of the cove:

How to Replace a Mooring Buoy

Laura Domela — Tue, 02 Dec 2014 17:19:36 +0000

This morning as we were working and having coffee, I noticed out the back window what looked like a pretty big boat heading toward the cove. This is a pretty small cove (only two mooring buoys), and this boat seemed, um, large. It showed up on AIS as a vessel called Thunderbird, and it was designated a pleasure craft. I don't think so. Pretty soon the bow of the boat dropped, drawbridge-style, and we could see that it was filled with mooring buoys.

Ah! Time to replace the mooring buoys in Active Cove.

A couple of guys were soon suiting up in what looked like wetsuits and then drysuits (because, you know, it's like 30something degrees out there). They got in the water and went down and hooked the crane line onto the concrete block on the bottom.

Divers in the water:

Succesfully hooked the line, divers back on deck:

Pulling up the old buoy (and a bunch of kelp):

And here's the new (larger) concrete weight heading down to the bottom. They have some other corkscrew anchoring things, but they said they don't work in all this rock out here, so they use big concrete blocks to anchor the buoys:

And there ya go! Shiny new mooring buoy:

It was our turn next, so we moved over to the new buoy for a little bit while we watched them replace ours. Pretty cool to see the whole operation!

Thunderbird (not a pleasure craft, unless you REALLY like replacing mooring buoys):

See ya later guys. Thanks for the morning entertainment:

Roche Harbor to Patos Island

Laura Domela — Mon, 01 Dec 2014 22:39:29 +0000

Roche Harbor this morning was frosty cold and sunny! We went up to the Lime Kiln Cafe for a little breakfast, and then filled up the water tank on Airship before heading out.

Frost on the Flemish Flake (look mom, just like grandpa taught me!):

We decided to go to Patos Island, via President Channel (the back side of Orcas Island) again, in hopes of catching the humpbacks. No whales this time, but a gorgeous day with smooth water and no wind. This is such a fantastic area for boating!

At the Eastern end of Spieden Island there were a whole bunch of sea lions lolling about on the shore and in the water, fins flapping around while I assume they were eating a late breakfast:

We decided to prolong our cruise and go around Sucia Island before settling in at Patos. Here's our track:

I'd done most of my work for today last night and early this morning, so I piloted (or, autopiloted as the case may be) while Kevin worked on an article. Not a bad office view, eh?

Bird on a log, with mountains:

Layers:

The lighthouse, as we approached Active Cove on Patos Island:

Once at Patos we grabbed one of the two empty mooring buoys and then took the dinghy to shore with the quadcopter to get some low sun/sunset footage.

This island is so beautiful. This is quickly becoming my favorite spot in the San Juans. There we are on the right, in Active Cove:

Shoreline in warm light (that picnic table on the grass…that's a campsite with a fire ring):

Kevin with the quadcopter:

Man, wait til you see the footage he got!

Airship, moored in Active Cove:

Sunset:

Dinner tonight: chicken with a honey dijon rosemary sauce and roasted brussels sprouts with bacon and maple syrup.