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Day Three: Port Townsend to Lopez Island |
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Leaving Port Townsend around 8:00am, we headed out to the Admiralty Inlet and the Strait of Juan de Fuca. We would be facing our biggest exposure of this leg of the journey on this day.
Clear as it was heading out of PT, we hit fog less than a mile off shore. We would be cutting across the shipping lanes multiple times this day and the air horn was used frequently to acknowledge our location to any passing freighters, ferries, or other pleasure boaters.
We followed the west coast of Whidbey Island after crossing the Inlet. We experienced several pockets of clear skies, but never truly escaped the fog until we made our final westward crossing to Lopez Island and our first glimpse of the San Juans. |
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Late summer is prime-time fog season in the Northern Pacific Northwest. The prevailing winds coming from the open Pacific through the Strait will push the fog up against the shore as you can see in this picture of the West coast of Whidbey Island.
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Below: Map of Day 3 Course (roughly). A big thanks to Google Earth. (You need to check it out, it rocks!)
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Here is a shot looking out from the cliffs to the north of our first anchoring at Watmough Bay on the Southern tip of Lopez Island. You're looking almost due east back at Whidbey Island. Gata Luna is in the foreground and Watmough Head is in the distance. There was a cool kelp bed between the jut of land you see and the head. We ended up exploring that by kayak as you'll see later.
Scott originally wanted to anchor further North - concerned about what was incorrectly documented as a poor bottom for anchoring. After anchoring and inflating the kayaks, we headed off to shore and scaled the cliffs just checking things out. After a couple hours we headed back to the kayaks and onto the kelp bed.
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Below: The magnolia trees throughout the region were in full shedding mode. Here you see a close-up from the hike.
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Kelp is a strange entity. Perfectly adapted to it's environment - truly Darwinian in its existence. Large, slick fronds for soaking up UV rays; anchored to the ocean floor with a very small holdfast. The leaves float on or below the surface, held suspended by a bulbous float. Quite often on the trip we ran into kelp that had been dislodged due to currents or wind.
We were hoping to spot any of the numerous critters that live in the kelp beds, but only observed the typical sea gull here and there and an occasional bald eagle.
These inflatable kayaks were nice - although there is no way to keep your nether-region dry. |
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| Next: Day Four, Lopez Island to Orcas Island/Doe Bay |
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| Return to Main San Juan Page |
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Return to Main Ford Page |
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