Morning in Griffin Bay

Laura Domela — Mon, 08 Dec 2014 17:46:09 +0000

This was the sunrise yesterday morning from our anchorage in Griffin Bay (off of San Juan Island):

I know, I was awake for another sunrise. It's not that weird though, since sunrise was at 7:54am yesterday. Right behind us, the moon was slowly setting. Seriously, these were taken within minutes of each other:

We had some coffee and waited for it to get a little lighter out before taking the dinghy ashore to explore some before heading back to Anacortes.

Airship, anchored:

This end of San Juan Island is made up mostly of San Juan National Historic Park, so we did some hiking around in the park, made our way up Mt. Finlayson, and had this incredible view. Looking north(ish) into Haro Strait:

Looking south toward the Cattle Point lighthouse, Lopez Island, Whale Mummy Rocks (!!!) and to the right, the Straight of Juan de Fuca:

The trees up here show evidence of some rough weather, don't they?

This is called Third Lagoon, and you can't see it very well, but the teeny tiny white dot way off in the distance on the right side of the photo is Airship, anchored in the bay:

Back at the boat:

We pulled up our anchor and headed out past Cattle Point and around the bottom of Lopez Island on our way back to Anacortes.

Cattle Point Lighthouse, from the water:

Two big bald eagles on a rock:

Sea lions and sea birds:

Anacortes with Mount Baker backdrop:

Sunday turned out to be a gorgeous day for a cruise!

Here's our route:

Shaw Island in the Morning, Griffin Bay Tonight

Laura Domela — Sat, 06 Dec 2014 23:14:23 +0000

This morning it was rainy rainy rainy at our moorage in Blind Bay. It had not been a super calm night, so we ended up sleeping until about 10am to make up for the other non-sleeping hours…the ones when we were out on the bow in the dark with headlamps, trying to reposition our mooring lines so the buoy quit bumping up against the bow (aka, our headboard). Anyway.

After breakfast we took the dinghy over to Blind Island to explore a little.

Blind Island is part of the Cascadia Marine Trail and a Washington State Marine Park. There are four campsites on the island (along with a ton of goose poop, and this tiny spine part):

The campsites are all gorgeous though, with beautiful views toward Shaw Island and Harney Channel. Each one has a fire ring and a picnic table, and plenty of soft grassy mossy stuff for tent-pitching.

Next we headed over toward the Shaw Island ferry landing to check out the highly rated Shaw General Store, but when I looked up the hours and it said open on Saturdays, I didn't realize that they close up completely from October until sometime in the spring. Oh well. Here it is (next to the post office):

We spent a few minutes checking out the community bulletin board across the street. (Tiffani! Property's cheap on Shaw!)

The little marina next to the ferry landing:

Mirror self portrait in the garden art:

We weren't sure we wanted to stay another night there in Blind Bay, since there was not much to do, and it was a little rough. The wind is supposed to die down by tonight, but we also wanted to explore a bit more, so we headed toward either (1) Friday Harbor on San Juan (2) Fisherman Bay on Lopez, or (3) Griffin Bay at the south end of San Juan. We opted for somewhere we hadn't been before and are now anchored in Griffin Bay. We have to head home early though so I don't think we'll have time to really explore all that's here to see, so we'll need to come back. Always good to get more anchoring practice, though!

Here are some shots from the cruise over here:

It turned out to be such a beautiful day:

Mist in the hills above where we're anchored:

We're sipping a martini and snacking on some pickled herring, and I'm going to make dinner pretty soon here (zucchini noodles tossed with kale and basil pesto, with fresh garlic sauteed prawns).

And here's a quick shot I just got of the moon rising (not much detail in the moon…sorry 'bout that):

Also, tonight is our 45th night on the boat since we bought it at the end of September!!

Oh yeah, and here's today's track:

Griffin Bay – Riveted

Morning in Griffin Bay

Shaw Island in the Morning, Griffin Bay Tonight