Eagle Harbor – 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!

Port Townsend to Eagle Harbor

Laura Domela — Sun, 29 Jan 2017 04:27:38 +0000

On Thursday we drove from Portland to Anacortes, and then on Friday morning we cruised from Anacortes to Port Townsend. It was nice chill cruise down Rosario Strait and across the Strait of Juan de Fuca to Port Townsend. So calm and boring that I didn’t take one single photo. We arrived in Port Townsend and went for a walk around town for a bit, stopping in the little shop I like called “Getables” and picked up some Eaglemount Rhubarb Cider. We made dinner aboard, then in the morning Kevin attempted to diagnose the float switch/gray water pump/float switch issue we’ve been having (pump runs and pumps out the gray water, but then keeps running after it’s empty so you have to go turn off the breaker to it to get it to stop). We eventually left Point Hudson Marina and stopped briefly at Boat Haven so we could walk up to West Marine and get yet ANOTHER float switch. The brand new one we put in (to solve the same problem) a few months ago appears to have been bad. (Learned after taking apart the cabinetry in the head to remove and then test the gray water pump itself…which was fine).

The marina at Boat Haven has temporary dockage just past the fuel dock, and it’s an easy walk to West Marine — if you ever need to stop in.

We got what we needed and Kevin finished the float switch replacement while we were underway. Gorgeous cruise today…down through the Port Townsend Canal (with about 3 kts of current with us, woohoo) and into the sound. The light was soft and silvery and the water was mostly calm.

Barge loaded with crushed cars looked pretty cool chuggin’ along in the VTS lanes just north of Seattle:

We thought we might go down to Blake Island today, but since we got such a late start from Port Townsend (~11am) we instead opted for Eagle Harbor on Bainbridge Island. No room in the marinas on a Saturday night, so we tied up for the night on the City Dock and walked down to the Harbour Public House for dinner and a beer. Dinner was just okay. I had fish tacos (pretty good, nothing fancy, fish definitely the highlight) and Kevin got a boar burger. The yam fries with the burger were cold (they brought another order) and the burger was just so-so. We’ve always gotten fish & chips here…maybe that’s the secret!

Tomorrow morning we’ll head across Elliott Bay and into Seattle for some Seattle Boat Show festivities. Should be a fun and busy week!

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.

Eagle Harbor on Cypress Island

Laura Domela — Tue, 20 Oct 2015 13:08:39 +0000

This morning's office view:

We've been at Eagle Harbor on Cypress Island for the past two days. It's quiet, there's good cell signal (and therefore, good internet), there are plenty of hiking trails, and it's only an hour cruise from Anacortes. It's easy to be super productive in an environment like this, and nice to be able to dinghy to shore and get a good hike in each day. Yesterday we hiked up to Reed Lake (and I do mean UP)…a little over three miles round trip with some serious elevation gain in the first half.

Reed Lake:

Prior to our hike we put out a couple of crab traps, but as of 5pm yesterday we'd only gotten a couple of too small Dungeness and a couple of too small Red Rock crabs. We'll pull 'em in this morning before we head back to Anacortes and see if we got any luckier overnight.

Hey guess what? The next outing is going to be in the Airstream!!

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!

This Morning in Blakely Harbor

Laura Domela — Wed, 21 Jan 2015 20:45:10 +0000

This morning was soft and pink and quiet in Blakely Harbor, with a beautiful view of downtown Seattle:

We worked there until just after noon and then pulled up anchor and headed up to Winslow (Eagle Harbor, one harbor north of Blakely) for some fish & chips at the Harbor Public House, a stop at the market, and now, more work. The fish & chips were very good, but not as good as the Bandon Fish House's fish & chips. We had a pint of Sound Poundage Porter from the Sound Brewery in Poulsbo, which was fabulous!

It was only a half hour cruise up the east coast of Bainbridge Island. Here is our route, on a larger map, so you can see where we are in relation to Seattle:

Tomorrow: Seattle … Elliott Bay!