We always enjoy stopping in Sarasota for a few nights.

Sarasota is vibrant and provides a nice break for two salty tugnuts. For our first two nights, we choose the mooring ball option, just outside the harbor, instead of docking at Marina Jacks like we usually do. It was calm enough and just a short dinghy ride to the marina offers us access to town and the ability to get our daily exercise while visiting the Farmer’s Market or stocking up at the grocery store. Sarasota is a very walkable city, there is always something interesting going on, and we never tire of making this stop.

On the third night, however, Jim had heard of a Hyatt Hotel nearby that also had a little marina, we decided to check it out and were glad we did, it seemed like a little vacation from our winter cruising activities with its resort atmosphere, large pool, laundry facilities (right next to the pool, so I could do laundry and swim at the same time).

Farmer’s Markets have the best pickles for sale, homegrown and homemade. We sampled a bunch and made our selection.

Our bounty from the Farmer’s Market. The pickles were “Hot!”

As you can see, we did not suffer from moving to this marina at the Hyatt. In fact, we enjoyed the amenities immensely, especially the laundry room which is located right next to the pool. It made the day’s main chore a pleasure as I could attend to laundry in-between pool activities. The pool was a relaxing retreat with a waterfall at one end. The hotel also had a nature trail adjacent to the hotel, a nice perk for walkers like us.

Fog rolled into the harbor the next morning. A beautiful sight. We could have stayed here longer, but as is usually the case, all good things come to an end.

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What’s nice about Spencer Spit is that one can choose which side of the spit to anchor or catch a mooring ball on.

Spencer Spit, situated on the eastern side of Lopez Island in the San Juan Island chain, is a Washington State Marine Park, which means the area has mooring buoys, beach campsites, and hiking. We’ve never anchored or moored here, so we choose this spot as our days’ end destination after we departed our yacht club friends at Garrison Bay. What’s nice about Spencer Spit is that one can choose which side of the spit to anchor or catch a mooring ball on, depending on the expected wind direction. We had no concerns about the wind that day and spent a calm night on the hook, we never got off of the boat. The next morning it was extremely foggy, but I figured with the aid of our radar, and only eight miles to travel that, it would not be a problem. Boy, was I wrong!

The next morning, I got up a little earlier than usual, while Lisa was still sleeping, pulled anchor, and headed towards Thatcher Pass, where I noticed one of the large island ferries off to my port side. I looked away momentarily at the chart plotter and looked back up, the ferry had disappeared into the blanket of fog – scary, as it was not that far away from us. I decided to return to the anchorage and drop the anchor back down. After waiting a couple of hours the fog finally lifted, and we could see our way through Thatcher Pass and Rosario Strait making for an uneventful and smooth cruise over to Anacortes, WA, where we would attend the Ranger Tugs 2013 Summer Rendezvous.

In an almost surreal moment, amidst the lifting fog, we came upon this little sailboat (below) making its way boldly through Thatcher Pass.

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First Time Mooring at Sucia Island

Leaving Friday Harbor behind us we cruised to Sucia Island, a Washington State Park sitting in the San Juan Islands at the base of the Strait of Georgia, only 3.5 miles from the Canadian border. Our 16-mile ride, from Friday Harbor, was short and uneventful, however during the last few miles we had no leeward protection from the southeast and the open waters of Rosario Strait, so it was a little lumpy. Taking it slow and steady we made it into the well-protected cove of Shallow Bay, where we happily found a mooring ball available; our plan was to spend a couple of nights in the cove. We left Friday Harbor rather late in the morning and we took our time going the distance, so after settling into the cove we just sat back and enjoyed the late afternoon’s stormy-looking skies as they glided over us as the wind finally started to settle down a little.

Anxious to see what we’d missed in our previous trips to the San Juan’s, we got up early the next morning packed lunch, and dinghied to shore. Hiking first to Echo Bay, we found a wide-open bay where maybe 30 boats were at anchor.

We think these are Lion’s Mane jellyfish.

These beautiful Pacific madrona trees (arbutus menziesli – also known as bearberry or refrigerator tree) stood out amongst the other greenery on the island, the thin red peeling bark reveals a silvery smooth greenish wood below.

We didn’t see much in the way of wildlife during our hike on the island but we did spot this beautifully colored slug (above).

Our walk continued down to Fox Cove and Fossil Bay where we stopped for lunch and found a couple of park docks, more anchorage possibilities, and many campers using picturesque sites scattered around the park.

We wound up our walk by walking on the bluff overlooking Shallow Bay, we walked right above some of the sandstone sculptures Mother Nature has worked on over the years. After getting back into the dinghy, we rode over to the caves further down the shoreline to get a waterside view.

The island’s history is rich with settlers, smugglers (prohibition), and a tourist boat business. The Wiggins family were the first settlers on Sucia Island in the late 1800s, they lived in a cabin near the salt marsh with their large family; they were followed by the Hamden family around 1920.

The name Sucia means “dirty” or “foul” in Spanish, it refers to the many submerged rocks that line the shore creating a hazard for sailing vessels. The island is made of sandstone, which time, along with wind and salt crystal erosion, has transformed into many caves and naturally sculpted formations. Sucia has several bays and coves for anchoring or mooring; a small dock at the marine park in Fossil Bay; on-shore campsites; a few rustic cabins; and seven walking trails. Members of local yacht clubs volunteer to maintain and work on improvement projects. The island (Shallow Bay in particular) is one of the best spots in the San Juans to watch the sunset.

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Montague Harbour, on Galliano Island, is part of the Gulf Islands.

When we left Sidney, we had one more day to explore before we met up with the Ranger Tug group (sixty-some Ranger Tugs and Cutwater boats) to begin our cruise to Desolation Sound. So we left Sidney for Montague Harbour on Galliano Island part of the Gulf Islands. There is a Provincial Park in Montague Harbour which offers campsites, a dinghy dock, hiking trails, a bakery on the shore, and mooring balls – we picked up one of the thirty-odd mooring balls available in the harbor.

We’d heard from a friend of ours that the thing to do when mooring in  Montague Harbor is to take the bus up to the Hummingbird Pub on Galliano Island. Because the pub is up a ways from the harbor they have a bus that will pick up boaters from the harbor to get to the pub. What they hadn’t told us was that, although the restaurant has good service and very good food, the real treat was not necessarily the restaurant itself, it turned out the bus ride was the thing we must do.

As we entered the bus we had not the slightest clue what was in store for us. A few minutes after we were seated and the bus was slowly winding up the slope of the island. We thought it was just another folksy bus ride with a little local commentary from the bus driver until Tommy Transit (a retired Vancouver bus driver) turned on the music, a Van Morrison song, Bright Side of the Road, and started handing out instruments to the passengers, a tambourine got passed over our heads along with a few other percussion instruments, Tommy himself held drumsticks which he used on the steering wheel and two symbols that were attached above his seat above the window. Before long we were all singing, playing instruments, clapping, and having a merry good time. It was good, unexpected fun….the kind we love to stumble into.

We had to take this shot of the boaters’ designated garbage area, located on the shore, for our friend Herb who recently told us of a run-in he had with a local who admonished him for putting his dog’s poop in a garbage can on shore, so he took it back a little confused because he thought he was doing the right thing. Apparently, several people had the same run in and someone has now put a special garbage can in that spot just for dog poop. However now garbage itself is not allowed. We thought the signs were interesting and it looks like someone had a good sense of humor when they left a bag of garbage hanging on the sign that clearly states that NOT ANY GARBAGE is to be left here.

We didn’t know about the bakery (below) that sits at the shore’s entrance to the harbor until we were returning from the restaurant.

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