NW Cruise Day 3

It started to rain gently during the night and most of the morning was rainy with a 10 kt wind from the SE. At 11.30 AM we weighed anchor and sailed toward the northern end of Griffin Bay on a beam reach with jib only. It was great while it lasted but half way across the bay the wind dropped and we were forced to start the engine and roll in the jib. At the junction of the San Juan and Upright channels with Shaw Island ahead, Lopez Island to our starboard, and San Juan Island to our port we rounded the small Turn Island, leaving it to port, and made our way to the northern entrance of Friday Harbor, leaving Brown Island to our port.

Friday Harbor is a very busy place. I tried to speak with the harbor master on Ch 66A but the poor guy was dealing with one call after another. A ferry crossed ahead of us from Upright Channel into Friday Harbor, and as we approached the entrance another ferry crossed our stern traveling south along San Juan Channel. There seemed to be pleasure craft everywhere. As we approached the entrance to Friday Harbor we saw a sea plane taxiing on the water toward us. Trying to obey the rules of the road I started to turn to starboard to leave him to port and then he gunned his engine and took off right across our bow. It seems that the entrance to Friday Harbor is also the town's runway, with frequent takeoffs and landings. There is nothing on the chart to suggest an area of restriction for float planes.

We reached the northern mooring area at 1 PM and we took Pachuca amongst the anchored boats looking for space and shallow enough depth for my 38 meters of chain. The best that we could do was 14 meters of water (now 15, with the tide), and I laid out 30 meters of chain. That is not much scope - 2:1 ratio - but it is good holding ground, gentle wind, and there isn't much swinging room available.

After lunch and a short nap we launched the Zodiac and motored to the marina. We got information on showers, fuel dock, and the location of the Customs office, which I had a pretty strong desire to visit for some reason. We visited the Customs office (which warrants its own blog entry) then the fuel dock, which is staffed and easily accessible on a first-come first-served basis. Then we went into a book store where Brenda purchased a book on the local fauna & flora and after that we got a couple of ice cream cones.

Friday Harbor is a very colorful and busy tourist town. It is the only incorporated city in the San Juan islands. We visited a real estate office to look at the prices on the window and I found them to be at about what I expected. Even with adjusting for the higher value of the American dollar we found some of the prices to be lower than those in Perth. San Juan Island is still within reach, whether you have $2m or $165,000 (US). We saw a historic farm with a nice house and out buildings for just over $600k.

I found myself closer to a small sail boat than I would have preferred, but I got fooled by the fact that he had been facing one way with his chain going the other. Fortunately we found that we could swing in front of him with 10 meters to spare. This anchorage seems to defy the laws of anchor physics. At any one time boats can be pointing in totally different directions. I attributed this to weak wind and currents.

We had showers and returned to the boat in a gentle rain for another evening in the boat.

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