I'm sorry I haven't posted any pictures. I'm still trying to figure out how to get photos from our phone or the iPad on to this blog, plus I admit to being terrible at remembering to take pictures when I really ought to!
At any rate, it was the most amazing time. I wish I had done this whole post while we were still out so I could describe it all better. The San Juan Islands are spectacular, but it was surprising to me how many boats and people were out in the middle of the week this time of year. Since it's still only April, I think Joe and I were expecting to have more places--well, if not to ourselves, than at least fewer boats. For example, when we left Friday Harbor, we cruised across San Juan Channel to Parks Bay on Shaw Island. Beautiful anchorage, by the way! We were disappointed to read that the University of Washington owns all the land around the bay and has proclaimed it off-limits to go ashore. Anyway, we arrived late afternoon and we were one of seven boats to spend the night there. There is plenty of room, and being a catamaran, we can sneak a little closer to shore and all the pilings there than a monohull, but I still felt somehow like we were packed in.
We gave our neighbors a bit of a show that evening! While in Friday Harbor, we stopped at Ace Hardware and picked up a garden sprayer, along with an extra hose with a shower spray nozzle attachment. Joe had been wanting to make a deck shower set up and after the hot day, it seemed a perfect time to try it out. He boiled a kettle of water and poured the contents in the spray bottle, then filled it up with cold water from the tank. The next thing I knew, Joe was in his swim suit, standing out on the back deck, taking a shower! Even better, there was enough water left when he was done that Rachael and I both donned our suits and showered. How much water did this take? Two gallons. That was it. We got funny looks from our neighbors and felt refreshed after a hot day. Doesn't get much better!
Basketball on Stuart Island
Group selfie hiking on Stuart Island
One more stop I have to mention, simply because we didn't expect to enjoy it as much as we did. Roche Harbor is lovely! We read it was a resort town, so we were skeptical about visiting it. Joe read an article about there being a lot of big--and I mean BIG--yachts there and frankly, we were a little afraid of it being a rather snooty place, if you know what I mean. Thankfully, we were wrong. Oh, not about the yachts. There was a Selene Owners' Rendezvous going on when we arrived and there were some huge boats there! At 37 feet, I don't consider Kyrie super small, but these yachts made me feel like we were on some teeny tiny puddle skimmer! There was one super yacht whose dinghy was bigger than our old sailboat, I think.
Roche Harbor has a fascinating story to a history buff like me. It used to be a company town with lime kilns. Two of them are still visible. Two places to check out the town's story are here and here.
Now, we're back at Semiahmoo, still glowing over our excellent adventure. It definitely helped to have good weather nearly the entire time, but I think we all enjoyed our taste of the cruising life. Hopefully, we'll be able to do it again soon. I have a feeling we will. More on that later...
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