Day 18: Tuesday We planned to get up late, have a leisurely breakfast then make our way to Sucia Island. At five oclock in the morning, however, our plans changed. Four hours before when I was up for a nature call the wind was calm, the cove was glass smooth and all seemed right with the world. Now in the pre-dawn twilight things didnt look quite right. Virginia was bobbing up and down in waves on the verge of turning to white caps. Most alarming though, the rock wall on the west side of the cove seemed ominously close. I flipped the navigation switch on and checked the depth. We were bouncing between eight and ten feet of water. I roused the skipper for a consultation. We tried to convince ourselves that the buoy had not moved overnight and the perceived closeness to the rocks was the usual illusion that all objects look closer when on the water. The depth gauge, however, was telling another story. With an average reading of nine feet, a draft of almost six feet and a tide that was still going out for several more hours we decided the prudent thing to do was move on. We hated to admit it but in our haste to grab the buoy yesterday we failed to double check our depth and the consequences of the outgoing tide.
      By seven oclock we were at Sucia Island. As we motored into Echo Bay we counted at lease thirty-five boats either on individual buoys or at anchor. Near the head of Echo Bay we spotted two bright-as-the-yellow-sun linear mooring buoys. Only three boats were tied to the "linears" which could have accommodated at least a dozen more boats. We wondered if people avoided using them. Taking space on a linear buoy, we waited for an individual buoy. We didnt wait long.
      After lunch everyone but the Skipper headed for shore to do some hiking. First we walked across Sucia Island to Fossil Bay and Fox Cove. Being smaller and with fewer boats we found these two anchorages much more appealing than Echo Bay. Even from the shore the area just seemed to have a cozy, less crowded feeling to it.
      Returning to Echo Bay we continued an additional two miles around Echo Bay to Ewing Cove. This was a most enjoyable walk alternately going through the woods and along cliffs above the shores of Echo Bay.

Day 19: Wednesday After four days on the water it was again time to find a marina where we could buy ice, get water, and most importantly take showers. The Deer Harbor Marina on Orcas Island became our destination.
      We hadnt been off Virginia more than twenty minutes when I had a sense that this moorage was somehow different. It took awhile to put my finger on it but I soon realized that Deer Harbor has a small-town, you-dont-have-to-move-so-fast atmosphere. There was a certain casualness in the air. Dogs were sleeping on finger piers next to their boats, several people were busy working on bright work, various people near the store were sitting around tables eating ice cream cones and drinking beer, and a group of children were playing on the sandy beach throwing sticks into the water for their dogs to retrieve. Deer Harbor is a comfortable, enjoyable place to visit.

Day 20: Thursday Today was a day of changing plans. The destination as suggested last night was Spencer Spit on Lopez Island. As we were leaving Deer Harbor I suggested that since we were so close to Jones Island we should go there to see the deer. Even though we had gone ashore everyday and spent many hours hiking the wooded trails, five days is a long time for teenagers to be confined to the relatively small space of a sailboat. Interacting with the deer might be a unique enough experience to keep Beccas and Travis enthusiasm up for a few more days. But the nautical gods were not with us. Nobody in either the South or the North cove was leaving their mooring buoy. We reactivated the Spencer Spit plan.
      After going through Wasp Passage I remembered the enjoyable time we had two weeks ago at Blind Island and suggested we spend the night there. That was agreed to and as fate would have it we got the last of four mooring buoys. Im not sure how or when the subject came up but somebody put two and two together and suggested that from Blind Island it was only a short dinghy ride to either the Orcas or the Shaw Ferry Landing and from there another short ferry ride to "civilization." The short story is that Rob dinghied to the Shaw Ferry Landing where Becca and Travis caught the next ferry back to Anacortes and their awaiting dad.

Day 21: Friday Its a quick one-hour "motor" from Blind Island to Spencer Spit Marine State Park. Upon arrival we assumed that the nautical gods would provide us another mooring buoy; and it was so one buoy left.
      After relaxing for a couple hours we dinghied ashore to register at the pay station and walk along the beach. Walking along Spencer Spit with its mounds of driftwood made me realize the unique character that driftwood (especially the small pieces) adds to a beach. I recalled with some dismay the small pieces of driftwood we were allowed to burn at other marine state parks for the pleasure of cooking hot dogs and roasting marshmallows and thinking how plain those beaches looked without the variety in sizes of driftwood. It may not be a popular idea but I would consider a ban on burning any driftwood so the beaches could retain their full natural beauty.

Day 22: Saturday We awoke to fog so thick you could not see Spencer Spit from the boat. I asked Rob if we were going to wait out the fog. Without hesitation he said the waypoints had already been programmed into the GPS for our passage to Port Townsend and all that was left to do was connect the radar. On our trip to Barkley Sound on Vancouver Island last year we had become familiar with using the radar and GPS and felt comfortable using it today. The fog just meant that our trip would continue with extreme caution.
      Our initial concern was sharing Thatcher Pass in the fog with the ferryboats. As luck (the nautical gods?) would have it, the fog lifted as we motored through Thatcher Pass. Once through the pass the fog closed in again all the way to the Point Wilson Lighthouse just north of Port Townsend.
      During this passage we were able to visually sight two of the boats we tracked on radar. Approaching nearly head-on, we saw them about a hundred yards abeam. The other boats we tracked remained comfortable distances away. As we approached Point Wilson we could hear its fog horn in the distance. It is quite satisfying cruising "blind" relying totally on your electronics to get where you want to go; like playing a real-life video game.
      After passing the Point Wilson Lighthouse we broke out of the fog. Instantly we emerged from the damp, gray gloom of the fog into the sunny, warm blue skies around Port Townsend.
      Our port of call today is the Port Hudson Resort & Marina. We have stayed at Port Hudson before and find it a pleasant moorage as well as conveniently located near downtown. After tying up we used the shower facilities then headed into town for some Mexican food.
      Day 23: Sunday We left the Port Hudson Marina one hour before the -1.0 tide. As we slowly passed between the pilings defining the entrance to Port Hudson we could clearly see the sandy bottom eight feet below us! The trip back to Seattle was long, boring, and filled with the constant droning of the diesel engine. There was no wind to sail on and only the incoming tide helped speed our journey home.
      After twenty-three days on the water we arrived back at Shilshole Marina with mixed feelings. It was a wonderful trip with great guests, great friends, great scenery, great weather, and even some great sailing. We now had to get our land-legs back into shape and rejoin the real world. It was time to start thinking about next years adventure.

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