NW Cruise Day 6

We motored out of Parks Bay at about 9 AM and traveled north along San Juan Channel to the northern side of Jones Island where there is a small bay with good protection from all points but the N and NE. It was an attractive destination because the island is a marine state park and supports black tailed deer and raccoons. However, the cruising guide stated that it is a crowded anchorage in the summer time and when we looked it over we could see that it was tiny and that even if we managed to find an anchoring spot the bay would have been too crowded for our liking.

We proceeded with Plan B, the wide expanse of Cowlitz Bay at the southern end of Waldron Island. As we nudged our way closer to the shore we could see that we had the bay to ourselves other than the boats at the settlement at the eastern end of the bay. We dropped anchor in less than 9 meters of water, about 200 meters from shore (48N41.6,123W03.1). Then, honoring our predilection for doing things in reverse order we checked the weather reports and learned that southerly winds of 10-20 knots were expected that evening, leaving us on a lee shore. I fretted about this and talked about circling the island after lunch to anchor at Mail Bay but after discussion of the 30-35 knots that we had survived at anchor in Australia we decided to stay for a while and see how things developed.

After lunch we landed on the beach and walked much of the bay toward the settlement, which was not quite accessible by foot because of the steep terrain. Soon after we began walking I saw with great pleasure that the wind had shifted to NNW, giving us the protection of the shore. It would be the boats at the northern end of Jones Island who would be somewhat exposed to the wind. During the walk we saw a bald eagle some kildeer (shorebirds not real deer).

The day was cloudy with short episodes of very light rain.

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