I tried my hand at fishing with a nice piece of prime steak as bait. In the morning I found that I had hooked a large piece of seaweed and the lump of meat was still on the hook.
We weighed anchor at 10 AM and had a pleasant motor along President Channel to Sucia Island. The boat moved very comfortably at over 5 kt with the engine running at 1000 rpm. We had decided to try towing the Zodiac with with the outboard motor and although this was successful, with the nose of the Zodiac out of the water and only the stern pontoons carrying the load, we decided that in future we would tow the Zodiac without the outboard motor to put less strain on the Zodiac's towing ring. At 12 noon we were in Echo Bay, found plenty of anchoring choices, and elected to stay somewhat away from the pack and dropped anchor in less than 9 m of water just off the northern tip of S. Finger Island, at 48N45.6, 122W54.1. There was one boat farther out from us, a cabin cruiser named Chesapeake. We were less than 5 nm from the Canadian border.
After lunch and a nap we took the Zodiac ashore for what turned out to be a four-hour walk around part of the island. Chris Boscole had described Sucia as the "jewel in the crown" of the San Juans and I must say that we were not disappointed. There are well defined walking tracks around the island through thick forest. We visited Shallow Bay, Fox Cove, and Fossil Bay, from where we could see Waldron Island where we had spent the previous night.
At Fox Cove Brenda and Betty recognized each other. We had shared a bench with Betty and her friend Liz? at the bakery in Friday Harbor where we enjoyed some of the yummy pastry. We met her husband Pat and their friend Jay. They had spent two nights in their boats at the bay in Jones Island and were now anchored in Fossil Bay. After a pleasant and informative chat we moved on marvelling at what a small world it really is. It was at Fox Cove that Brenda saw her first Belted Kingfisher. Earlier she had seen her first Brown Creeper (a bird) working its way up a tree.
The State of Washington has gone to great effort to make Sucia Island a pleasant experience for boaters, campers, and Kayakers. We found many camp sites, fresh water taps, and "vault" public toilets. I agree with Chris that if you visit the San Juans you must visit Sucia Island.
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