Bonus Night

Laura Domela — Mon, 30 Mar 2015 01:24:13 +0000

We were all set to go back to Portland yesterday (Saturday), but during dinner out with our friend Steve on Friday night in Anacortes, he convinced us to stay another night and join him and Sam out at Orcas on Saturday. We caved.

We left Anacortes around 11:30am yesterday and headed over to West Sound on Orcas Island. We were not too far behind Steve and Sam in Sam's Nordic Tug 37, and we both anchored on the west side of West Sound, near Victim Island. We quickly loaded up into the dinghies and headed out to find the trailhead for a hike that Steve found online: 3 miles up Turtleback Mountain (elevation gain about 900ft).

Steve and Sam getting Steve's dog Bella into the dinghy:

We docked the dinghies at a dock that didn't have any "private" signs, but we think it may have been private. There was no house attached to it and it was the closest place we could find to the trailhead, so we thought it might be okay, just this once:

Starting up:

The views just got better and better:

Bella and I played a tiring (for her) game of "stick' at the top:

And now, down:

This was a gorgeous hike, and definitely one to do again. Here's our route map and elevation graph (including a tiny bit of the dinghy ride back, oops):

Dinghies out at the definitely private dock (shhh):

Bella doing well getting in and out of the dinghy:

Sam has a fast dinghy. We need a faster dinghy.

We met back up over at Sam's boat and had cocktails and dinner and wine and tons of fun conversation, and Steve played/sang a song for us with his guitar, and we played Cards Against Humanity until about 1:30am. Such a fun night!

Here the track from Anacortes to West Sound (19.22 nautical miles):

This morning we slept in a bit (on account of cocktails, wine, 1:30am) and then headed back to Anacortes. We cleaned up Airship, unpacked, and made the drive back to Portland.

Next stop: North Carolina!! We get to go visit Tiffani and Deke!!

Skull Island, in Massacre Bay

Laura Domela — Wed, 29 Oct 2014 22:53:41 +0000

In honor of the upcoming spooky holiday (and due to the fact that the weather cleared up substantially) we decided we'd head to Skull Island for the night. Skull Island is a small island in Massacre Bay (I know!!) in the west sound of Orcas Island. It's a state park…no mooring buoys or docks here so we anchored for the first time on our own. Seems to have worked! (Also, there are tons of little white jellyfish here!)

Skull Island got its name (as did Massacre Bay, and nearby Victim Island) from the 1858 massacre wherein a band of Native American Lummi were attacked (while fishing from Skull Island and Victim Island–probably not known by those names yet) and killed by some Haida natives from Southeast Alaska. The victims' skulls and bones were found on Skull Island, hence the name.

Ferry passing us on the way over:

Coming into West Sound:

And this is the view from where I'm prepping dinner right now:

Pretty nice! We've got Drag Queen set up to monitor our position relative to the anchor, as well as our visual landmarks we'll keep watching until it gets dark, but I think we're good.

I think I'll make us a Manhattan to sip while the sun goes down and we make dinner. On the menu tonight: tenderloins, rosemary roasted fingerling potatoes, and a salad. So old school!

Massacre Bay view from the top deck of Airship, with Manhattan (and some pickled herring):

And here's our track from this afternoon (click image to enlarge):

Victim Island – Riveted

Bonus Night

Skull Island, in Massacre Bay