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July 2005 - Part 2
Glenthorne Passage, Provost Island, British Columbia, CANADA!
What a change from when we wrote the last log! Wand'rin Star is currently anchored in a  protected bay surrounded by steep rocky hills covered with evergreens and arbutus trees. At sunrise we were sharing the anchorage with 13 other boat, now there is only one other boat left. This seems to be the pattern; anchorages fill up in the late afternoon and most folks leave by noon. One of the real blessings of living on our boat and having "all the time in the world" is that we can stay in one place for several days and really get the "feel" of it. A quick example - at Twin Rocks on Orcas Island, WA we enjoyed watching the tidal changes on the rock islets and how the different animals & birds utilized the changing water level to feed and relax.
So where have we been since the July-Part I Log was posted? That log was written while we were at Cap Sante Marina in Anacortes, WA - what a great little town that is! Everything one  needs is within walking distance of the Marina...grocery store, a delightful French Bakery - La Vie en Rose , outstanding restaurants, a yarn shop, marine services and the local Enterprise Rental office. Anacortes is on our short list of where we may spend part of winter. We were able to get the problem of not being able to pump out the holding tank remedied and also solved the quandary of the small oil leaks from the engine. It was cheaper to pay for a week's moorage than for the 4 days we had planned and that gave us the opportunity to do some land exploring too with our Weekend Special from Enterprise. Saturday we drove to Deception Pass, Oak Harbor and LaConner (another wintering possibility). It really is a beautiful area. On Sunday we make a great discovery in the little village of Edison on our way to Bellingham. As we rounded a sharp curve in the road, out popped this cute little bakery/restaurant called Farm to Market Bakery that just shouted for us to stop. Gary had a HUGE piece of boysenberry pie that he claims is the best he's ever had as we enjoyed our mid-day treat sitting with locals in the sunshine. We explored Bellingham and picked up some fresh wild Alaska salmon on our way home....it tasted great grilled!
The following are "Snapshots" of our recent travels in the month of July.
Inati Bay, Lummi Island, WA - Lovely tree-shrouded bay that we had mostly to ourselves  except for the weekend. The first night there, some crabbers were in the bay & they sold us fresh crab for dinner...delicious! Gary got a little antsy as more & more boats poured in on Friday, but most folks were aware of  swinging room and it was fine. A sassy little yellow sailboat pulling a yellow kayak caught our eye on Saturday and Gary got some great pictures of her. It was really HOT so we rigged up the beach umbrella for some shade in the cockpit. Our blood has thickened as we've moved north, so 80's feel HOT. Sunday we got to meet Kelley, owner of the yellow boat - Hot Ruddered Bum and she shared some local boating knowledge with us. Our dink, Nomad (which as my son-in-law, Damon noted is his name backward so we also refer to the dink as Damon) went into the water here and we've been towing it behind as we move from anchorage to anchorage. It's wonderful just being able to hop in it to go exploring along the shoreline & to shore.
Twin Rocks, Orcas Island, WA - a little "one boat" anchorage between shore and two large  rocky islets. We liked being alone at anchor even though there was some boat traffic through East Sound heading toward Rosario & the Village of East Sound. As it was full moon the tides were more extreme and we put out a stern anchor to keep us from swinging into shallower water at low tide, unfortunately the stern anchor dragged as the winds increased. We decided to move to Fishing Bay by the Village of East Sound and even though the winds were up near 20 knots all went well & we relocated.
Fishing Bay, Orcas Island, WA - The winds were still blowing over 20 knots so we decided to delay our trip ashore in the dink until Friday. It was calm when we went ashore, but the seas had increased by the time we returned to the boat & I had to overcome my still-present trepidation of getting from the dinghy to the boat when the water isn't really calm. (See the August 2004 log for the whole story on my fears!) But, I did get from Nomad onto Wand'rin Star without bursting into tears! The next day was Saturday & that meant another Farmer's Market! The seas were calm so no fears to deal as we took the dinghy into the Public Wharf.
Friday Harbor, San Juan Island, WA - We had been on the hook for 13 days and were ready to do some reprovisioning and laundry, so we headed to Friday Harbor Marina for what we thought would be just 2 days.  Friday Harbor is another great boating town with most things convenient to the harbor. Barbara Marrett, who was one of the instructors on my Hawaii-San Francisco OCC trip, lives here and we had the opportunity to have dinner with her and show her Wand'rin Star. I'm very grateful for all she helped me learn and was glad to be able to convey my (and Gary's) thanks. There is a West Marine here and we finally decided to buy a crab ring and license so we could try our hand at "crabbin." The weather has been great all month and it continued. Unfortunately Gary became ill and we weren't able to leave the harbor as planned, so he recuperated and I explored. Luckily he was healthy enough by Saturday to go to the local Farmers' Market with me...it saves us money if we both go - we did get some great bread & baked goods from the Kneadful Bakery without breaking this month's budget, as well as fresh produce. It's pricey to stay in marinas up here during peak season ($1.30/foot of overall boat length plus $4.00 for electricity/day & showers are $1.25 for 4 minutes!) so we were glad when Gary was well enough to throw off the dock lines and head to deeper water to anchor (free!). Another negative to the marina was dealing with the wake from the Washington State Ferries that arrive throughout the day & night. Sometimes the wake would cause the boat to roll more than 15 degrees from port to  starboard! It was interesting to watch the sailboats in the slips start rolling as the wake reached them. Power vessels weren't affected as much due to not having deep keels.
We spent the next two nights anchored just outside the breakwater in Friday Harbor and enjoyed lazy days reading, knitting and just generally relaxing. July ended on a pleasant note just being on the hook watching a small part of the world pass by.
Quotes for the Month
With warm thoughts,
Dorothy, Gary & Murray the Cat
Last updated on
August 31, 2005
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