Lopez Island – Riveted

What a Difference a Day Makes!

Laura Domela — Fri, 16 Dec 2016 02:23:00 +0000

Lopez Island was sunny and bright, and SO calm on Tuesday morning!We dinghied over to Sam’s boat and had breakfast with him and Anna, and then headed back to Anacortes. The wind picked up a little and Rosario Strait was, um…fun? Yeah. It actually was kinda fun. Wind was NE 25-30kts gusting to 38kts (we only saw that once), with a fairly strong flood current.

We got back to the marina all salty and…awww….the water is turned off. Hope it rains soon!

In the morning we left Airship and headed back to Portland. We knew there was more snow coming and news/weather was saying 4pm. Our ETA in Portland (according to Google and Waze) was 3pm, so we were feeling okay about it all. The further south we went, the grayer it got, and eventually we had snow on I-5:Portland: Not looking too bad, but the closer we got to our house, the slower we went. Our ETA pretty quickly went from 3pm to 5pm as the snow fell and people left work to try to get home. We spent about 3 hours right IN town just trying to move toward home.After inching along until about 6pm, I called and made a reservation at The Benson hotel downtown. It still took us a while to get there, but at least we were waiting in a line of 85 cars to do so:Ahhhhh.View:The folks at the Benson were awesome. They gave us a discounted rate, then upgraded us to a suite and threw in free valet parking. It was lovely. We put our few things in the room and walked across the street to have dinner (and a cocktail) at Imperial. Also fabulous. The service, the food…all spot on. And this cocktail was amazing:New Money…with smoked vermouth and a giant, super-clear ice cube. Delicious. (We’re suckers for smokey bourbon drinks.)

In the morning, Kevin took the hotel’s airport shuttle to PDX for a quick business trip, and I did some work in the room before heading downstairs for some breakfast.

Morning view:Breakfast view: This is a gorgeous old hotel and the rooms are very nice. My waiter at breakfast was named Bobby and he has been working at The Benson for 36 years. He was fantastic, and so was my breakfast/brunch.

After food, I got the car (we were driving the Toyota Camry Hybrid…not the truck) and headed for Les Schwab to procure some chains. I figured the main road our house was likely plowed and sanded by now, but at almost 1000ft, our steep driveway was definitely going to be an issue.

Heading west on Burnside: The smaller streets were still not awesome, but not terrible:Les Schwab (on NW 19th) put my chains on while I went next door to Pro Photo to look at the new Fuji X-T2 (mistake).

Okay, chains on, and I’m ready to head up the hill!! People out retrieving the cars they abandoned last night: Big tree break at the base of our driveway: Awww, the oldest and gnarliest rhododendron that hung out over the driveway eventually gave out from the weight of the ice and snow and snapped: On the back patio, another casualty. This one was leaning onto our roof, but luckily caused no damage that I could see.

I got out there with the chainsaw and made a huge mess, but there are no longer tree branches leaning on the house. The temperature is supposed to stay below freezing until Sunday, so the driveway will probably be chains-only until then! Always an adventure!

To Fisherman Bay, Lopez Island

Laura Domela — Sun, 11 Dec 2016 23:25:27 +0000

We left Jones Island this morning and cruised back over to Friday Harbor for some grocery-getting and some lunch.

Airship, middle of the below photo:

The forecast for tomorrow looks a little rough, so we chose to head across to Fisherman Bay on Lopez Island and stay put until Tuesday.

Tonight
E wind 5 to 15 kt…becoming NE 25 to 35 kt after midnight. Wind waves 2 ft or less…building to 4 to 6 ft after midnight. Rain or snow showers likely.
Mon
N wind 25 to 35 kt…easing to 20 to 30 kt in the afternoon. Wind waves 4 to 6 ft. A chance of snow showers in the morning…then a slight chance of snow showers in the afternoon.
Mon Night
NE wind 15 to 25 kt. Wind waves 2 to 4 ft.

Gorgeous winter day for a cruise. Fisherman Bay is only 3-4nm from Friday Harbor. We were wishing we had further to go, so we slowed down a bit to make it last a little longer.

The sandbar at the entrance to Fisherman Bay is littered with boat bones:

Entering Fisherman Bay is shallow and winding but not difficult as long as you pay attention to the markers, your chart, your depths, and the plethora of crab traps as you wind your way in.

Safe Harbour and Airship are tucked in and anchored in the bay now, and we’ll probably have dinner together again and then make an early night of it, and with less wine (unlike last night). Tomorrow we’ll get some more Slowboat work done here with Sam and Anna before heading back to Anacortes on Tuesday.

Watmough Bay, Lopez Island

Laura Domela — Sun, 20 Mar 2016 14:19:24 +0000

We had a beautiful calm, silvery cruise from Turn Island out around the bottom of Lopez Island and over to Watmough Bay.

View from our new moorage:

Once we were settled (takes about 2 minutes) Kevin decided to take the dinghy and the Torqeedo out for some exploring, while I kicked back and read a book. Ahhh, Saturday!

Today it's gray and raining a little bit, but still calm and our cruise back to Anacortes this afternoon should be calm and uneventful.

Watmough Bay to Rosario Resort

Laura Domela — Fri, 15 May 2015 00:29:54 +0000

Yesterday at Watmough Bay Kevin and I took the dinghy into shore and did a little hike to stretch our legs.

Sideways tree:

Airship on its mooring ball:

Kevin grilled some delicious tenderloins for dinner, and I made a side of zucchini and cous cous and a spinach salad. It was mostly calm in Watmough last night except for the occasional mild ship wake coming into the bay.

This morning we got up and I made us some little black forest ham, egg, spinach, and gruyere frittata cups, with a side of berries:

After breakfast we cruised over to Rosario Resort on Orcas Island for our last night with Kevin's mom. We thought a little spa time would be a nice way to end a few days cruising around the islands with us.

The day morphed from gray drizzle and fog to sunny blue sky gorgeousness:

We got our slip at the Rosario marina and then walked up to the mansion to explore a bit. After that, we spent some quality time in the hot tub and the indoor saltwater pool.

We really lucked out with the weather this week!

We returned to Airship and had a little snack on the top deck and almost fell asleep in the sun. GORGEOUS OUT TODAY I tell ya!

We worked all day in between all of this, and then worked some more this evening. Kevin and I also installed a dimmer for the LED lights in the stateroom, but we had a little roadblock during the install of the dimmer on the salon/galley lights so we'll save that for another day.

Dinner tonight will be barbecued brisket and pulled pork (some of it made into tacos) with a side salad and a couple slices of zucchini. Tomorrow: back to Anacortes. Saturday we have a few last minute things to do/get before Alaska, and then at 5pm we meet up with our flotilla buddies for a happy hour potluck. And then, bright and early Sunday morning we take off for Southeast Alaska. I think we're ready!

Here's today's track: Watmough Bay to Rosario Resort, Orcas Island: 14.48 nautical miles

K-Dubs and HBs

Laura Domela — Wed, 13 May 2015 21:10:44 +0000

We left Roche Harbor this morning and headed out to find some whales. It was a good day for 'em! Just as we were coming around Henry Island at the north end of San Juan Island we heard one of the whale watching boats nearby talking about K-dubs (radio code for killer whales) on the radio. We could see this boat (and the orcas) with the new Fuji binoculars (wow, was THAT ever a useful addition to Airship's accessories…will show you in another post), so we headed over toward the growing group of whale watching boats.

After watching the orcas from a distance for a while, we heard another nearby boat talking about some HBs (secret code for humpbacks) a little to the north, so we headed up there (with all the other boats).

It's quite a bit more fun when you just happen to come across whales as you're going about your cruise, but this was still pretty cool. The boats mostly stay a good distance from the whales (I know it doesn't look like it in this long lens/compressed distance shot above), but it definitely has a different feel when there are 10 boats covered in people watching with you.

It WAS pretty adorable when the new boat that showed up right before we left saw the humpback's tail for the first time and the whole boat cheered and screamed in glee.

There were two humpbacks traveling together, but only one would show its tail as it surfaced.

We continued down the west side of San Juan Island but didn't see anything else besides porpoises and seals.

We are now at Watmough Bay at the south end of Lopez Island. Here's our track from today (37.98 nautical miles):

Flying Around Watmough Bay

Laura Domela — Fri, 27 Feb 2015 14:22:17 +0000

Here's a short quadcopter video Kevin made yesterday while we were moored in Watmough Bay on Lopez Island:

Pretty spot, isn't it?

Good Morning from Watmough Bay

Laura Domela — Thu, 26 Feb 2015 18:01:21 +0000

It was a little bumpy overnight last night, and the wind/current/tide/wave combination made it so occasionally as we swung, the plastic mooring ball would bump the hull of the bow (aka the bedroom wall). It might have been a bit quieter on anchor.

We grilled some king salmon for dinner, and it turned out great! I made a glaze of maple syrup (3Tbsp), Dijon mustard (1Tbsp) and lemon zest from half a lemon, and brushed it onto the salmon filet, then topped the salmon with some partially cooked bacon (so we wouldn't overcook the fish while trying to crisp the bacon), and then brushed more glaze on top of the bacon…delicious (with a side of asparagus). It's a keeper!

View of the cliffs filling the galley window:

This morning after breakfast and a bunch of work (and a quick copter flight for some Watmough Bay aerials, coming soon), we took the dinghy to shore for a little hike.

From the trailhead you can actually hike up to the top of the cliffs on the north side of the bay, but we only had a bit of time to play around since Kevin had a call he needed to be on at noon. Before going back to the boat, we took the dinghy out for a quick loop around Boulder Island. We've been thinking about what we might ideally want for a new dinghy someday, and we've been entertaining two ideas:

(1) Versatile and quiet, like the Portland Pudgy with add-on sail kit (that telescopes and stores inside the boat!), and a Torquedo rechargeable electric motor:

(2) Fast and Comfortable, like the Apex Eurosport dinghy with bigger motor we saw at the Seattle Boat Show last month:

We're leaning toward fast and comfy. The Apex 11 Eurosport in this black and white color looked so sharp (and wouldn't show nearly as much of the diesel exhaust that our white Zodiac does), has built-in LED nav lights (and a step!) at the bow, seats 5, has a nice comfy for-2 driver's seat with storage underneath and a built-in gas can storage compartment. It's pretty dang sweet.

I think we'll head up to Garrison Bay today (on San Juan Island, near Roche Harbor). We haven't been there before and it's a known quiet anchorage with much to do nearby. We may stay a few days, even, since the wind/waves are supposed to pick up a bit soon.

Birthday Cruise

Laura Domela — Wed, 03 Dec 2014 22:08:13 +0000

Today is Kevin's birthday! We left Active Cove this morning and headed for Friday Harbor, where we thought we'd have some lunch, and pick up some seafood for dinner tonight at the little fish market down on the dock. Active Cove lived up to its name last night, and was pretty dang active. Our first night there was nice and calm, but last night the north wind caused the swells to come straight into the bay and we rocked and rolled all night. Kinda crazy, and we did not get much sleep. But I did get to snap this shot of the moon as it was setting…sometime around 4am:

It's super grainy becaused I cranked the ISO on my camera as high as it would go, but it still gives a pretty good representation of how it felt. In real life of course it was much clearer and a little softer.

We picked up some clams at the fish market and a few items at the grocery store in Friday Harbor for tonight's dinner: linguine with clams, and asparagus.

It was another gorgeous day in the islands, and we decided to moor at Spencer Spit State Park tonight on a buoy (but not one of those nice new ones…they still have the old style buoys here that we haven't seen since…um…yesterday).

View from our buoy (looking toward Frost Island):

Looking toward Spencer Spit:

Kevin's working on his quadcopter video from Patos Island and should have it uploaded either later tonight or tomorrow. I can't wait!

One more shot of the moon over Frost Island:

And here's our route from today:

Fisherman Bay to Spencer Spit

Laura Domela — Sun, 28 Sep 2014 21:15:22 +0000

This morning it was quite foggy in Fisherman Bay, so we decided to walk up the road 10 minutes or so to grab some breakfast at the Galley Restaurant while we waited for the fog to burn off. We finished breakfast and walked the ten minutes back to Airship and the fog was even thicker!

We cleaned up some stuff on the boat and Kevin did some fine tuning on the dinghy's outboard motor while we waited and listened to the radio and weather. Pretty soon quite a few boats began readying to head out and we figured we'd join 'em! See you later, Fisherman Bay!

We cruised around the north end of Lopez Island and decided we'd check out the mooring buoys at Spencer Spit.

Spencer Spit is a Washington State Park just south of Swift Bay on the east side of Lopez. There are 10 mooring buoys, 7 on the north side of the spit, and 3 on the south side. Apparently the south side is preferable (probably a tiny bit more protected) but all three of those buoys were occupied, so we headed back around and grabbed ourselves the far one on the north side. We nailed it on the first try, too…we've got this mooring buoy thing down. (You take a line back to the stern, where it's low to the water, and whoever's driving the boat comes up alongside or backs toward the buoy. There's a ring on top you need to get the line through, and once you have it, you walk the line back up to the bow of the boat and tie it onto the cleat on either side of the bow. Done.)

We put the chairs up on the top deck and had some lunch before launching the dinghy and heading to shore.

The fee to stay overnight here is $12 (not to exceed 72 hours) and you pay at the pay station on the beach, pretty much like in a campground. They have trash and recycling and water up there, as well as some campsites and hiking trails (but out here in the bay, there's just a buoy of course).

Looking back at Airship, from the far end of the spit. (See it, we're the tiny white dot on the far right of the image):

The south side of Spencer Spit:

Before heading back to the boat we took the dinghy out for a spin around Flower Island. There's a little outcropping of rocks just past the island where a bunch of harbor seals were enjoying the sun:

Here's today's route, if you want to follow along:

Tonight's dinner will be leftover burgers (made from grass fed beef and chorizo, which probably cancels each other out, I know) on lettuce buns with tomato, avocado, and Sriracha mayo, and some sauteed zucchini. We'll do some work in the morning before heading back into Anacortes so that the service department (back in town after a motorcycle trip in Eastern Oregon) can start on the couple of upgrades we're doing.

LOVE the boat. LOVE.

Circling San Juan Island

Laura Domela — Sat, 27 Sep 2014 22:33:04 +0000

Friday Harbor was fogged in pretty good this morning, but it had mostly burned off by about 10:00am. Our plan for today was to circle San Juan Island, look for some Orcas, and then find ourselves a new place to stay tonight. Before we left Friday Harbor we headed up the dock to the seafood market to see if they had anything we might want for dinner tonight.

We picked up a dozen Shigoku oysters and a pound of fresh Sockeye (and an oyster knife for the boat, because…yay oysters!)

As we left the seafood market I heard a splash right next to me and looked down and here was this cute little harbor seal trying to get our attention. She'd slap her right fin on top of the water, in the hope (I assume) that perhaps you picked up a spare something-or-other from the market to share with her.

Inside the market — a cool collection of barnacled bottles:

Back at the boat we untied our lines and headed out. It looked like the currents favored a counter-clockwise route. We waited for this sea plane to depart and then off we went around the island.

We mostly hugged around the edge of San Juan Island, but the fog was back until after we got clear around the north end. We probably had a 1/4 to 1/2 a mile visibility but it was great practice for us. We know to be cautious, and we carefully watched radar and scanned the radio and were always aware of the other vessels even before we could see 'em.

And just like that, it cleared up!

Lime Kiln Lighthouse:

We got down around the south west end of San Juan Island and started hearing orca reports on the radio from the whale watching boats. We continued on around and got to see a whole bunch of orcas! (All I have with me is my Fuji, so these are cropped in quite a bit. Next time: long lens!)

Even the Victoria Clipper slowed down for a bit to watch whales:

We just hung out there for a while watching the whales, and then decided to head to Fisherman Bay on Lopez Island for the evening. I called ahead and they gave us a slip assignment while we were still about an hour out.

Fisherman Bay has a shallow and winding entrance that could be a bummer if you weren't paying attention because there are some very shallow mud flats. All you have to do is follow the channel markings (we also took advantage of the "Mariner's Eye" view on our Garmin — very helpful!)

Here we are at our new spot for tonight:

The mooring here at Islands Marine Center was 45 bucks ($9 more than Friday Harbor), and comes with electricity, water, and fast Wi-Fi. We're gonna need to get good at the whole anchoring and mooring buoy thing! Once we have our solar panels, inverter, and new mobile Wi-Fi router installed, we'll be less dependent on services. It's nice to have 'em for now though as we're learning how it all works.

All-in-all we cruised for 6 hours today and we loved every minute of it! Here's our route:

And here's the Lopez Island sunset from the top deck of the boat: