sailing in the san juan islands!

Hello everyone!

I had a fantastic weekend sailing in the San Juan Islands with Sara & Jeremy. We left Bellingham Bay on Jeremy’s 26 foot sailboat, Pegasus, on Friday evening. The light was fading fast so we got a wonderful view of the sunset as we made our way over to Chuckanut Bay to anchor for the night. Jeremy and I went out in the little dinghy to explore the bay before it was completely dark. He took the boat right up to the beautiful sandstone cliffs that line the bay. The water and wind has carved the soft rock into bizarre shapes and caves dot the waterline. The caves were supposedly used by rum runners back in the day. We then went back and forth underneath a railroad bridge. We talked about how often the train comes and he told me a story about kids having to jump into the bay with their fishing poles and in order to escape an approaching train. Just a few moments after we had gone under the bridge a train came by. Jeremy stopped the dinghy and we watched the train barrel past us. It’s so exhilarating to be so near such a massive machine moving so fast.

Back on the boat we drank beers and talked and gazed at the Milky Way and the zillions of stars above us. I peed standing up for the first time, off the side of the boat nonetheless. Jeremy had paper cones called Urinelles which allow girl to pee while standing up. Crazy! Even crazier…in the water at night we could see bioluminescence! Anything that disturbance made the water light up and sparkle. I was not expecting this at all and was completely amazed. We stayed up not too terribly late knowing that Saturday would really get us out into the islands. My first night of sleeping on the boat wasn’t so great. It was pretty small quarters for me to sleep, c’mon it’s boat…what do you expect. I kept waking up to strange noises (being that I was below the waterline) and I continually reminded myself, “You’re on a boat. Go back to sleep.”

Saturday morning I woke up to sunshine streaming into the cabin. I climbed up and saw Jeremy putting around the bay on the dinghy. I boiled some coffee on the camp stove we were using on the deck and soaked up the sun. Unfortunately the clouds continued to pile up and would stay that way for most of the day. We packed up everything below to withstand the rocking and rolling we’d encounter out on the big water and anytime we were sailing rather than motoring.

We were followed by a curious sea lion for a while. We sailed through some big water and motored when the wind or the current wasn’t cooperating. It was so great to be out in the islands that I’ve never seen before. Cypress Island was huge and so intriguing looking. There are zillions of islands: Eliza, Lummi, Sinclair, Cypress, Orcas, Lopez, Decatur, Cone, Center, Blakely, Flower, Forest, Obstruction, Sucia, Matia, Willow and on and on and on. I was amazed by how fast the Washington State Ferries are. They are massive ships that somehow create very little wake. We anchored in Mud Bay on the southern end of Lopez Island. We fired up the bbq and I put the chicken and squash on the grill while Jeremy took our crappy crab pot out into deeper water with the dinghy. The crab pot was the worst that any of us had ever seen so we were happy to get one male Dungeness crab that was large enough to keep. We kept him in a bucket and decided to sail up to a more protected area with less wind. Night was definitely taking over as we anchored in Sylvan Cove along Decatur Island.

The bioluminescence was really getting going so Jeremy took both Sara & I out in the dinghy for rides to get closer to the water. The engine from the dinghy sent out huge swirls of yellow and green lights. I was freaking out! I put my hand in the water (despite it’s cold temperature) and watched the sparks shoot off my fingers underwater. It was like Fantasia, these magical underwater fireflies. There’s a variety of sea life that create bioluminescence but I thought I’d have to go to Fiji to see them. Just go to Bellingham in the summer! Jeremy checked on the crab pot to see if we got another crab to add to our bucket. It was empty but watching him pull it up was incredible. The whole rope was glowing and as the pyramid shaped crab pot came near the surface it was a beautiful glowing pyramid rising up in the water. It was absolutely amazing!

We filled a big pot with sea water and got it to a rolling boil. We threw the crab in quickly though he didn’t want to go in. Sara prepared some melted butter and garlic as the crab cooked up in just a few minutes. We let it cool off then began cracking him open. We thanked the crab then dug in. The crab meat was so delicious and we ate every last little bit. It began sprinkling late in the night so they pulled out the bimini which covers part of the deck and entrance to the cabin. Every little rain drop caused a little sparkle on the water. I will never forget it.

I had just gone done to sleep when Jeremy woke me up to tell me he could hear whales out on the water. It was a very calm, quiet night and we could hear people partying in the boat way across the water on the opposite bay. He had heard them blowing out water through their blowholes, sucking in big breaths and slapping their massive tails on the water. I sat up in the dark and listened for about 20 minutes but heard nothing. I went below deck only to have Jeremy call again, “Whales! Whales!” I popped my head up but they were silent. I went to bed and slept like a rock.

When I awoke Sunday morning and it was raining. Jeremy had gotten up early to get us going as we had a lot of distance to cover by that evening. I climbed up on the deck and got some water boiling for coffee. I was looking out at the misty islands, some shrouded in clouds, when suddenly I saw several whales in the water. They were Orcas (aka killer whales) and there were several pods of them. They were many young whales in the group and they would jump out of the water and dive back in in unison. I yelled down in the cabin to Sara who was sleeping, “Orcas! Orcas! Orcas!” She roused herself and joined us on deck to watch them swimming quickly. We noticed a few more pods of whales around us. I grinned and couldn’t believe my good luck. We had originally planned to go camping this weekend. I had given away my camping reservations since Sara & Jeremy had access to the boat for the weekend. I’ve been camping a lot and sailing very little. They asked me where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do in the San Juans. I said, “Just take me to islands I haven’t seen yet and if we can go somewhere where I might see whales I would love love love it.” So I got both my wishes along with some fresh crab and the absolute wonder of bioluminescence.

I was so happy after seeing those whales. I drank my coffee and was so content. The rain tapered off and the clouds began breaking. Blue sky! We sailed past a rocky island full of huge fat seals that stared at us just like we stared at them. As the sky got bluer the water turned bluer too until it was the perfect cobalt. The San Juans are the perfect place to get your blue fix. It got warmer and warmer as the sun got stronger and we each removed layers of clothing and basked in the sunshine. We saw another whale near Orcas Island (named for a Spanish explorer actually, not the whales). This one was spraying water up into the air. So fantastic! We sailed all the way around Lummi Island before entering into Bellingham Bay. We had to bust through some waves so I got that wonderful sea spray sitting on the side of the boat. I just love that! Of course it was the sunniest and warmest all weekend right when I had to get off the boat and drive back to Portland. We pulled into the slip in the marina and Sara and Jeremy helped me unload my stuff. I packed up my car, gave big hugs all around and hit the long road back to home. I cannot wait until I go back up in early September for an even longer sailing trip with Sara & Jeremy. We’ll go into the Canadian Gulf Islands (same group of islands as the San Juans just on the other side of the border). We have four days so we should be able to eat lots of crab, see more islands that are new to my eyes, hopefully some whales and the bioluminescence will be even stronger with the warmer water of the end of summer. I am so very lucky!

So that was my weekend! Please let me know what you’ve been up to and how you are!

Xoxox,
carolyn