Duchess in the San Juan Islands - September 2010

Well, here we are starting out for the last trip to the San Juan islands for 2010. The video is of us traveling across the Straits of Juan de Fuca from Port Angeles, Washington. Fortunately this is one of the nice times on the straits. This body of water lies between the United States and Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. It is considered open ocean by the Coast Guard and during the winter can get high wind and wave action. It takes about 3 hours at 8 knots to cross and gain access to the islands.

Charting the Way




Here is looking back at Port Angeles and the Olympic mountains about half way across the Straits of Juan de Fuca - about 10 miles out



Haro Strait

Haro Strait is the body of water that separates Vancouver Island, B.C from San Juan Island, Washington. We are being over-taken by a 900 foot freighter. If you look behind the freighter you'll see the Olympic Mountains in the distance. Port Angeles is there somewhere. The land mass that is further to the right is Vancouver Island. Haro Strait is one of the main areas to find Orca whale; unfortunately we did not see any this trip.

Our initial anchorage for the evening was at Reid Harbor on Stuart island about 40 to 45 miles from Port Angeles. How is this for peaceful. What we didn't know is our friends that we were trying to catch up to were anchored just over the ridge to the right in Prevost Harbor. We were to meet the next day at Ganges Marina in British Columbia. But first a check in with Canadian customs; this we accomplished at Bedwell Harbor.

 This is Bedwell Harbor at the Customs dock. The office is is the building on the pilings at the head of the ramp. We arrived just at lunch time and there were no agents available for check-in so we used the white phones to the left of the office.

We finally caught up to Dan and Dianne here at Ganges Harbor. Here is Dan walking Mackenzie. We stayed in the marina for 2 days and reprovisioned at the local stores. It is nice and mostly quiet with the exception of a float plane once in awhile. As it turned out we were directly in the flight path. These aircraft perform scheduled and unscheduled stops at probably any island you wish to travel, so you will see them virtually everywhere. 



Ganges Marina





Float Plane Making a Landing



The next stop was Montague Harbor which was about 7 miles away on Galiano Island, BC.

Here we are on Duchess coming to tie along side of Dan & Dianne's boat "Yesterday's Dream".

The wind came up a bit later (25 knots) and we had to cut ties and drop our own anchor since the two boats together were dragging his anchor.

  

If you ran out of provisions here is an interesting option. It is a floating food store 

Dan put his dingy in the water and we went for a ride to shore and a little hike around the area. There was a bay on the opposite side of a small jetty. 

Here we are looking North into the opposite bay.Wise and Charles Islands in the distance.

This was a nice beach to walk on. Sandy and warm.



"What did I say about float planes"

I don't think his wing tip was but 20 feet from the bow of Duchess.



A nice evening on Montague Bay after the wind calmed down



After a day on Montague Bay we were to meet with some more friends at Sidney for a couple of days. I unfortunately sometimes forget the camera since I am enjoying myself too much and do not have any pictures of this occasion. After 2 days in Sidney we left for the U.S. to check in at Roche Harbor.

My U.S.Customs Story:

After leaving Sidney we checked back in with U.S.Customs at Roche Harbor on the North end of San Juan Island. It was interesting watching the people on the dock helping the customs agents to keep tabs on the boat queue and make certain of who actually was next in-line. If some jumped ahead they were politely (?) told to remove themselves from the dock and wait their turn. As our turn came we made it to the dock and were aided by dock personnel in getting Duchess secured. I then made my way to the customs office at the end of the dock and waited for one of the agents to complete what ever task they were involved in. I stopped at the end of a long counter with about 6 computer terminals sitting there blinking away as if they were doing something all by themselves. Within a few minutes one of the agents asked if he could help me. I said yes I was here to check back in from a 5 day stay in Canada. Where upon he began the 20 question series. The first of which was "What is the registration number of your vessel?". To that I replied that it was Coast Guard documented vessel and showed him the papers that we carry in a large 3 ring binder where every scrap of information is kept on Duchess that we can... just in case. As he typed in the number he began with more questions as if at this time he did not know who we were. NO, I don't mean that I am so important that he should know just who I am, but when we check into Canadian Customs they instantly know the boat and who should be on board. So after a few more questions I told him I was puzzled by all this and mentioned the Canadian Customs ability of already knowing who you are supposed to be with this particular boat. His reply was "SIR, They have Windows and we have DOS". He said this with such a straight face I wasn't sure if he was joking or not but it was all I could do to keep from falling on the floor laughing. Seeing that I was failing at an attempt to stifle my laugh he said, " SIR, This is not a laughing matter". To which I attempted to brace up a bit but all that did was to make it worse. At this point I broke. My reply was, "I am not laughing at you, I am laughing with you". His reply was, "SIR, I am not laughing". I said, "yes I see that but she is" as I pointed to another agent at the far end of the counter. After which he completed his information gathering and data input to the DOS system then raised from his chair for the actual boat inspection. At this point  I was glad that I did not ruffle his feathers too much since he looked like he should have been a line backer for Green Bay. He definitely made two of me. But all was well and we finally got checked in just fine. He was very nice and cordial. I still don't know if he even chuckeled a bit.

After the check in we made our way off the dock and found an anchorage for the night there in the harbor. So here is looking down the harbor away from the docks. Finally it is relaxing time to an interesting sunset.

The next day we made our way down through San Juan Channel and across the top of Shaw Island to Blind Bay, another anchorage. Bob fished from his sailboat most of the trip, but didn't get a nibble.

Here we are on Blind Bay . Silver Cloud, Bob and Ann's boat is anchored in the distance. We stayed for 2 days here and put in our own inflatable to do a little putting around to see the sites.

 Ah yes, the Washington State Ferry as seen from blind bay. There are many of these behemoths that travel at 20 kts that need steering clear of at all times.

We were up by 5 AM the next morning to make certain that we could get back across the Straits of Juan de Fuca before any winds set in. We decided upon this early running since the marine weather reported 50 knot winds in the afternoon.



Ghosting out of Blind Bay at 6 AM

  

Video of the early morning run



Leaving the San Juan Islands in our Wake





YUP.. We are on course





Karen standing watch





Port Angeles only a few miles  now