September 2004

The Gateway to the San Juan Islands is Anacortes Washington

With the help of our Son, Glen, we towed the Regal Jug to Anacortes and launched at Cap Sante.

Week of August 1 through 6 has been spent in the San Juan Islands of Washington State. We camped on the sail boat, and our Son, Glen and his family joined us in their tent on land nearby. We spent the week day sailing to local destinations like Friday Harbor, Roach Harbor and Sucia Island.

Week of August 7 through August 10 we have just been sailing and enjoying the San Juan Islands. The weather is sunny and warm, but wow, the winds have been super and we are having the time of our life just sailing around. We got to watch the Lady Washington come into Friday Harbor this afternoon. It is quite an operation with a ship this size.

Week of August 14 through 21: For this stretch we have been having more problems with fog. That keeps us anchored until around noon. We have still been able to get some sailing in most days. Judy’s sister Sonja came up for a three day stay, and we were only able to ghost along for a few minutes. Her time was a bust for winds. We stayed in Provost Harbor on Stewart Island. We dropped Sonja off at the Shaw Island ferry docks, and then raced back to Friday Harbor to meet Adrienne and Dave Shilling. They joined us for the next three days. This time the winds were favorable, and we bounded from wave to wave for all three days of their stay. This time we hung out in Reid Harbor, also on Stewart Island. We did lots of hiking and made it all the way to Turn Point light on the end of Stewart Island. There we were able to watch and photograph the Lady Washington motor around Turn Point and head down Harro Straits. We dropped Dave and Adrienne off at the Orcas Island ferry docks. From there we sailed our way around Lopez Island. This is where we had the most delays from fog. We heard a forecast for rain for the weekend, so we holed up in Fisherman Bay on Lopez for a couple of days to let it blow through.

Here are a couple new pictures that show some of the classics at the Classic fly-in at roach Harbor over the August 27, to August 29th weekend.

September 2 to September 10, 2004. Gary and Judy were joined by Renee and Neil Tice, our daughter and her husband. Also our friends from many, many years of enjoying the San Juan Islands, Phil and Sue Owen joined us in Anacortes. We set out on Friday, September 3, for the Islands again. We stayed in some of the same harbors, Hunter Bay, Jones Island, Garrison Bay and Parker Bay over the Labor Day weekend. Tuesday morning we saw Renee and Neil off on the ferry in Friday Harbor. The Owen’s and Dinsmore’s continued on our saga. We stayed in Prevost Bay on Stewart Island and after visiting Matia Island for a few hours we continued to Doe Island just off Orcas Island. Each of these days we had fantastic sailing. On Thursday, September 9th we returned to Anacortes and pulled the boats. Phil and Sue helped us by jockeying the trailer around so we could load the boat and then we stored it back on the Port of Anacortes parking lot.

We have now returned to Scappoose as of Friday, September 10th. This marks the end of our first and second adventures. Stand by as we pick up our motor home and start our third adventure next week.

This map now shows the current extent of our sailing route:

Here are a couple of our best digital photos from the San Juan Islands: