Sucia Islands: We Moved to Ewing Cove

Laura Domela — Sat, 28 Nov 2015 20:15:44 +0000

Sunrise in Fox Cove on Sucia Island. (And lest you think, based on the past couple days of sunrise photos, that I'm up at sunrise every morning, let me tell you how this happens. In the stateroom up front there are two portholes…one on port and one on starboard. I can lift my head–or not–and see the light and landscape reflected in the chrome sides of the porthole and usually tell if it's good enough to get out of bed for. This one was.)

After breakfast we did a little work and then decided to give ourselves a slight change of scenery and go around to the other side of Sucia Island. We took the long way around (and by long way, I mean a loop around Patos Island…the next island over). Here's our map (8.6 nautical miles from Fox Cove, around Patos, to Ewing Cove). We're the hard-to-see orange line:

The Patos Island light house with a pretty good rip tide happening out front:

Here we are moored in Ewing Cove (tiny dot behind the sailboat):

There are three mooring buoys in Ewing Cove, and great beach access to the trailhead. We hiked the same trail we hiked yesterday…we just started at the other end today.

Hey look! We CAN get a bigger boat and still use the state park mooring buoys!

We had a great hike, and now there's only one more cove on Sucia where we haven't stayed: Snoring Cove! Love this island!

The weather is gorgeous (still) and for dinner tonight I think I'll make us something real "autumny": pan roasted chicken breasts with a shallot pan sauce, and maple roasted brussels sprouts with bacon and apple. Last night we cooked up some carne asada and served it with tortillas, lime, cilantro, and avocado.

San Juan and Sucia Islands

Laura Domela — Fri, 27 Nov 2015 21:58:46 +0000

Sunrise at Friday Harbor this morning:

We left Indian Cove at Shaw Island yesterday morning and did a little sightseeing and whale watching searching. Sights were beautiful, but no whales. We arrived at Friday Harbor on San Juan Island right around 1pm. We had a Thanksgiving dinner reservation for 3pm at the Coho Restaurant. Last week when we figured out we'd be up here in the islands, I called to see if they had any availability for Thanksgiving. They said they had a waiting list, but that they did have one last table available and it was a table for two at 3pm. We took it, and our 3pm Thanksgiving dinner was delicious! I started out taking photos, but only got as far as the amuse bouche (meaning, I took one photo of the very first thing and then spaced on all the rest…oh well). That first thing was really good though: a deviled egg with smoked salmon on top. Delicious!

The next courses were a sweet potato ravioli with brown butter and sage sauce, and a crab cake with a pomegranate and citrus chutney (they were both great), then a soup and salad (the soup was the winner: a truffled celeriac soup with bacon…delicious), and the entrees were turkey (white and dark meat, perfectly tender and juicy) and pan-seared trout, with sides of cornbread stuffing, mashed potatoes, and brussels sprouts. (There were two options for each course, so we ordered one of each and tried everything.) Desserts were many, and we chose apple pie and bourbon chocolate pecan pie (the winner). The wine pairings were great and it was a very nice meal.

We got back to the boat and after a while noticed an email from some folks who follow our blog, Chuck and Connie (in Friday Harbor from Bellingham with their Grand Banks). Turns out they were up at the Coho Restaurant for dinner also (with friends Bob and Jill, also from Bellingham and also with a Grand Banks), and were wondering if we were still there at the restaurant. We told them we had done the early shift and were already back at Airship, and invited them to come by the boat after they finished dinner if they wanted. They did, and it was super fun! New boating friends!

The docks were frosty as we headed up to the market this morning for some groceries before heading out:

Bob and Jill and Chuck and Connie had invited us to stay for a second Thanksgiving today (Friday) consisting of Bob's deep fried turkey on the dock, and as seriously tempting as that was, we opted to head over to Sucia today. We were really itching to be out on the water (because it's just so gorgeous out still) and also wanted to get in some hiking. We all exchanged info though so we'll plan another meet up, for sure!

We moored in Fox Cove on Sucia this time, between Sucia Island and Little Sucia Island. We've never moored here before, and figured we could get the sunset and the view through to Fossil Bay from here. It's gorgeous. We put out some crab traps (cuz, you never know) and then dinghied around to Shallow Bay, where we beached the dinghy and then hiked out around Echo Bay.

I know, I've posted many photos of this place in the past, but man it's gorgeous!

There were no boats at all moored in Echo Bay when we started our hike (around 2:30pm).

As we were finishing our hike (around 4) there were two boats. That's it. On a holiday weekend. Where are all the boats, people??

As we came around a bend, I noticed a large blue heron sitting in a tree. I took a quick shot, and then moved quietly along the path to see how close I could get to him before he took off (and made that loud cranky sound they make):

Dinghy ride back to Airship as the sun sets:

Sunset from Fox Cove:

We hope everyone is having a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend, wherever you are!

Fox Cove – Riveted

Sucia Islands: We Moved to Ewing Cove

San Juan and Sucia Islands