Alaskan Sea-Duction: Chapter 5 Friday Harbor to Sucia Island

Friday, May 13, 2016

Chapter 5 Friday Harbor to Sucia Island

With the generator fixed, Kay and I were itching to get outta town. 5 days total at Friday harbor. The ride to Sucia was 27 miles. There was a slight north breeze. I saw a few dolphins running on top. What is striking about the San Juan Islands is how dry it is. All the grass is brown. Our goal was to tie up what they call a lateral mooring. Basically it is 3 buoys all connected by a large rope with round floats and in between the floats there are tie up rings. As the prediction for the next few days is wind 10-25kts, I feel a little safer on these and not a regular mooring buoy.

Once we got all tied up, I got the dingy in the water, the first time for this season. We went to shore on an out going tide. I know what you all thought! Dingy high and dry when we got back a few hours later. Nope I secured the anchor in the logs and I had 75 feet of line, so I pushed the dink back in the water. When we got back, it was sitting on the edge of the water. Some folks would have to drag their dink at least 50 yards back to the water.

Kay and I took a hike to Fossil Bay. This is were the island ranger lives and there are two docks. Problem with the docks on a "zero" low tide there is less than 3 feet at the END of the dock! I draft 3.6 feet, but like being in water a little deeper than that. Fossil Bay was packed! On the dock there was some spots 3 boats deep. All mooring buoys were taken and anchoring space none. The hike to this bay just about killed us. It had steep hills and Kay and I figured out real fast we were not in good shape. I told her by the end of this trip we will lean and fit. Ready for a moose hunt.....

We will be here for the next few days, then off to Roche Harbor, weather depending. We will see how the winds are.