It’s a Small World

Sometimes the romantic notion of sun twinkled seas, gorgeous green mountains, porpoises and seals, and unlimited relaxation with friends on a sailboat actually IS reality. We had chartered the Escape, a 36’ Bavarian Sailboat from Anacortes Yacht Charters and were off to explore the San Juan Islands. Gabe’s kids were holding the fort at home, so we were just the four of us, drinking in the beauty.

I won’t lie, it was pretty cold out there, and we were happy for all our layers. Also, boats seem to have a slightly toilety smell, but that was a mere trifle. Jenn kept the kitchen busy, sending up hot tea and warm homemade sourdough bread to the chilly captains outside. The winds were fairly light, but we managed to fill the sails for a while as we meandered our way past the islands, crossed big shipping channels and eventually ended up on the tiny, northernmost island called Patos.

We dropped anchor in a little cove and prepared for a land foray. Several seals were lolling in the water and birds were singing, but beyond that it was very quiet. It was here we discovered our dinghy motor didn’t work. Not for lack of attempts by the guys! My word, I have rarely seen such a display of determination. But they lost in the end and had to submit to using the paddles. We dragged the dinghy high onto the beach and explored the island, visiting the abandoned lighthouse out on the point. Some by-gone keeper had planted rosebushes and they were a riot of color.

We all crawled into our bunks after a hot supper, and listened to the waves gently lap on the boat. The blankets were big and fluffy, so no need to shiver. Every now and then, bigger waves would slap, slap, from a ship passing in the northern channel. Jenn wanted to sleep with the door hatch open, so I spent a little bit of time wondering if seals would hop into the boat. She promised she would extract them if they did, so I decided not to worry. Well, I was a little worried I would miss the show if it DID happen. Apparently seals can cause real havoc on boats but are deterred by French radio stations. We didn’t need to test that theory.

Tides and Currents in the San Juans are not to be ignored. The tidal range is about 10 ft, and currents can keep you treading water for two ages. When that sea empties, it empties with a vengeance. The water swirls around the islands, creating funny little eddies and some fairly choppy rapids. Canada has a terrific book printed where it shows exactly how the currents will be running at any given time, on every day of the year. It was our valuable companion! We tried to plan our route to use the currents instead of fight them, but it seemed we were frequently running into choppy little whirlpools or fighting 4 kt currents, causing our forward speed to be reduced to 2 kts even tho we showed 6. It was tremendous practice for us, as we hadn’t dealt with anything like it before.

I woke in the night to water slowly plonking on my head. The early morning sun showed heavy condensation on the walls and ceiling, but a quick toweling took care of that. Jenn slept in while the rest of us hauled anchor and struck out to continue exploring.