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by Jo Bailey and Carl Nyberg
Haven’t headed out on your cruise yet? No worries. The best times are just ahead. Good weather, usually gentle breezes, crowds thinning out as families head home to get the kids ready for school. All this means more room at the docks and more good anchorages available. It’s a wonderful time for a cruise. We hear the dock talk: “We just want to get to the San Juans.” “We don’t care where we go, we just want to be in the islands.” There’s a lot of joy in such a spontaneous trip because we seriously believe in the old adage, “When you’re on your sailboat you’re where you’re going.” On the other hand, it can’t hurt to do a bit of planning before you leave, always subject to change, of course. We’ll give you some suggestions for five days of cruising, some of our favorite anchorages and why we like these places. You don’t have to visit all of them—you may decide you want to stay longer in one bay or skip another—this is not a required itinerary. All we want is for you—and your family—to truly enjoy your island time. We start our island idyll from Friday Harbor with its huge port and many facilities, a major destination, supply and shopping stop and a jumping off point for cruising. There is a simply delightful cove and great anchorage just a couple of miles northeast of Friday Harbor, Parks Bay on Shaw Island. It’s peaceful, secure, quiet and perfect—except for one thing. You can’t go ashore, anywhere. You can row all around the tree-lined bay, but if you plan a little beach stroll after dinner, or a walk for the kids and dog, forget it. All the land around the bay is owned by the U.W. as a biological preserve and is posted off-limits to visitors. You’re better off to sail past Parks Bay and continue north on up San Juan Channel to Jones Island. On the way you’ll cruise past delightful Yellow Island, named for the glorious yellow buttercups covering the meadows in wild disarray at the peak of their spring blooming. Now owned by The Nature Conservancy, the formerly private island is open to the public on a limited basis. You can anchor off and go ashore, but stay on trails as the fragile island shows every footprint. Picnicking, camping or collecting plants is not allowed, and take no pets. Nevertheless, this is a true wonderland and worth a visit. Permission is required for six or more visitors at one time. Jones Island About five miles north of Friday Harbor is enchanting Jones Island. The whole island is a marine park and wildlife refuge. Delighted children call it the “Island of Bambis” as they stand eye to eye with the friendly animals. The deer gather each evening in the old orchard on the south side begging for goodies from your hand, but you need to resist as feeding them is against park rules. We like the south cove beach best where there are tidal pools for the kids to explore. If the three state park mooring buoys are taken you can opt to anchor or cruise around to the popular north cove where there are four buoys and a dock with a float. Anchoring in either cove is wind and weather dependent; be aware of occasional strong currents eddying through the anchorages. The northeast bluff above north cove is rocky and forested and has camping and picnic areas. The well-marked rock off the north bluff has many of our cod jigs on it, but as we caught a fair number of cod we’re about even. The northwest bluff of the cove is a steep cliff rising to 185 feet with a signed slide area. A trail crosses a sandy, eroding cliff and often disappears underfoot. Flailing hikers attempting mini-Everest ascents are sometimes “rescued” by boaters who climb above them and lower their extra boat lines to the stranded souls for a safe descent. It’s an easy and pleasant walk across the island between the coves as Jones is criss-crossed by many trails. Remnants of more than 1,000 fir trees which blew down in a huge northeast wind storm in 1990 are visible along the way. On the southeast side of the island, up a hill east of the clearing, you may find a trail leading to a charming tiny outdoor chapel built by Lopez Island Boy Scouts in the early 1970s. We also found remains of an old chapel on the west side of the island. Jones seems to inspire outdoor chapels. Jones is a Cascadia Marine Trail site and has 19 primitive campsites. That’s our first overnight anchorage. Four more to go. Stuart Island :: Because the currents often seem to hint at where to go next, we sometimes end up at Stuart Island’s Reid Harbor, a state marine park, a wonderfully protected anchorage, a great gunkhole, and another of our favorite spots.Actually, our favorite spot in the San Juans is usually where we are at any given moment. On the way to Stuart from Jones you’ll pass unusual looking Spieden Island with its barren south shore and forested north side. In the 1970s it was home to a large assortment of exotic animals, part of a private game reserve owned by Seattle taxidermists. They changed the name to “Safari Island” and wealthy trophy hunters drove around the island in Jeeps, sipping martinis and shooting imported sheep and deer. By 1973 the enterprise closed down, thanks to an outcry from enraged San Juan Islanders; some of the animals escaped and some stayed. Offspring of these early inhabitants are often seen on the barren south side of the island. Spieden has changed hands several times, but is still private and there is no place to anchor. Stuart Island has 148 acres of state land, split into two marine parks, beautiful Prevost Harbor opening to the north with seven mooring buoys and a float, and elongated Reid Harbor opening to the southeast. The park has water, campsites, trails, a pumpout and toilets, the only amenities on the island. The rest of Stuart is private, home to a goodly number of residents. Reid’s mile long bay has great anchoring nearly anywhere in 2 to 5 fathoms of water, with a sand and mud bottom. Fifteen mooring buoys dot the harbor and over 600 feet of mooring space is available at several floats and at a linear moorage. It’s a very secure anchorage. The water near the head of the bay is really quite warm for swimming (says Jo) and there’s a good beach. Walk the short isthmus between the harbors and visit with boaters in Prevost Harbor, or stroll along the bluffs high above Reid. Pack a picnic lunch, including water, and dinghy to the head of Reid for one of our favorite island walks. Hike the road leading to the schoolhouse, where you may find some “treasures,” plus an adjacent library and museum. It’s about one mile uphill from the beach, but seems a lot longer going up, and much shorter going back down. It’s a brief walk from the school to the island’s fascinating pioneer cemetery, where you’ll find a veritable “Who’s Who” of islanders, including Littlewolf, an island legend. Maria Cook was the first person buried in this peaceful plot over 100 years ago in 1904. From the cemetery it’s about two miles more to Turn Point along the dusty county road, uphill and down, through the forest primeval to Turn Point Lighthouse, and a spectacular 300 degree view across Haro Strait and Boundary Pass into British Columbia. It’s well worth the walk. The now automated lighthouse, built in 1893, is on a steep rocky bluff 44 feet above the swirling currents and gigantic back eddies. Sloping grass amid large rocks and giant trees surround the now vacant, two-story, red-roofed white house, once home to various lighthouse keepers and their families who lived on this remote headland. As you sit in the shade and eat your lunch huge container ships and other large vessels pass by in an almost continuous parade about a half mile from the point. You may even see whales swimming or small boats fighting currents near the point. Back to the harbor for a quiet, secure evening. We’d like to tell you more of the stories of Stuart Islanders Littlewolf and Gladys, but there is limited space in the magazine. That’s our second overnight anchorage—three to go. “Outer Islands:” Patos, Sucia, Matia :: These are such fascinating isles, so far from the populated ferry-served islands, yet so close, seemingly floating at the edge of the Strait of Georgia. They were home to Native Americans long ago, then settled by pioneers and now are state marine parks, and the most popular—and crowded—of all the parks. We love to go here, especially in the off-season when we really do feel remote as most of the other boaters have left. Patos is the most isolated, farther north than the others, more exposed to strong currents and vagaries of uncertain winds. We like Patos, but it is definitely the favorite of 48°N Editor Rich Hazelton and his family who visit nearly every summer. Active Cove is the main anchorage on Patos, with two buoys and strong enough currents running through that the rangers advise those boaters who stay overnight to take a buoy if at all possible. For the adventurous, there is a 2 fathom cove just inside of the tip of Toe Point at the east end of Patos, which can be a good anchorage in calm weather as it is reasonably sheltered and has good holding ground. However, like hundreds of thousands of other boaters, we love Sucia Island and find something new about it each time we return, it’s like going home. Sucia is beautiful with its nearly 15 miles of beaches, more than 10 miles of trails, sculptured sandstone bluffs, fascinating history, many bays and family fun. There’s plenty to do, camp, swim, fish, dig clams, scuba dive, beachcomb, birdwatch, gunkhole about in the dinghy, just relax and enjoy. Sucia was purchased in May 1960 for the amazingly low price of only $25,000, paid in part by the recreational boaters of Puget Sound who gave it to Washington State Parks to be used by visiting boaters in perpetuity. Fossil Bay on the south shore is the busiest of all the bays, with 16 mooring buoys and 778 feet of space on the moorage floats. If we feel like being with lots of people, this is the spot. Jo and her kids found small fossils when sifting through the sand and gravel on the beach at Fossil Bay in the 1960s. Well-marked trails and roads spread over much of the island from Fossil Bay. Wander through deep forests and along spectacular cliffs out to Ev Henry Finger, Johnson Point, Echo Bay, Shallow Bay, Lawson Bluff and Ewing Cove. The park rangers’ boat moors at Fossil Bay and the rangers live nearby. Like many of the marine parks there are campsites, picnic tables, water and toilets, but no pumpout. Echo Bay is the largest bay and is exposed to southeasters which often seem to spring up suddenly even in summer. There’s a 25 mile fetch and wind and waves can be pretty impressive. It’s fairly common to drag in here. The chart shows a mud bottom but we’re not sure of that given the way our anchor has skidded across it a couple of times. Echo Bay has 14 mooring buoys and a linear moorage system. A narrow isthmus connects Echo Bay and Shallow Bay. Jo has a fond memory of Echo Bay from back in the 1960s or so when her family with five kids cruised in the 29’ Sea Witch for a month or more each summer. “As happens each August, I have a birthday. We were anchored in Echo Bay when I was eased somewhat unceremoniously off the boat by my kids and told in no uncertain terms to go swim or walk or just, “Do something, mother, just get off the boat!” I took the hint, rowed ashore, swam and walked about on Sucia. “Hours later, I was allowed back on board. Toilet paper festooned the deck beams and looped about the small main cabin. Several newspaper-wrapped gifts lay on the table. But the piece de resistance was on the counter in the tiny galley. A steaming, freshly made pineapple upside-down cake had just finished ‘baking’ in the cast-iron fry pan on top of the small wood stove. “It was a hot, painstaking effort of many hands and much love, and couldn’t have tasted better if it had been baked by the world’s greatest chef. After I blew out the candles and been thoroughly sung to, we gorged on this delicious masterpiece. Maybe that’s why I count Echo Bay as one of those very special places in my life.” Echo Bay is our third anchorage. The next is easy, it’s Shallow Bay, just around the corner on the northwest side of Sucia. Shallow Bay is an exquisite dream of a place. Good anchorage, check your depth, buoys well protected with a narrow entrance, beautiful views to the northwest, gorgeous sunsets, incredible sandstone rocks extending along the beaches and back into the forest, and a fascinating history. Even the seasonal thick fog banks that hang over the bay are okay, they’re part of the ambience. We counted nearly 100 boats stuck in Shallow Bay for two nights during a horrendous fog one Labor Day weekend not too long ago. Trails spread out from Shallow Bay’s beaches around much of the island, and campgroundsmake the bay a popular stop for camping kayakers and kids who want to camp ashore on their own instead of staying on their parents’ boats. Enormous China Rock looms against the northeastern shore, an eroded sandstone giant. Shadows engulf the huge rock that spreads back into the forest. A dragon-like sandstone sculpture guards the rock as if it were the entrance of an ancient Chinese temple. It sits on the edge of the beach with ledges and caves and grottos that snake all through the rock. Nearby tangled trees sometimes make the shallow caves difficult to see in the dim light—an ideal place to hide contraband. One theory for the name is that smuggled Asian laborers, who paid over $100 each to reach the U.S. in the late 1800s, were hidden in the caves to escape detection from the customs and immigration authorities. It makes for fascinating fantasies as you survey this gigantic sandstone. Possibly there is some semblance of truth. How else did this labyrinthine rock get its name? Jo claims swimming is good in the bay, the warmest spot in the islands, so she says. She also had her first sailboard lesson at Shallow Bay, and falling in a half-dozen times wasn’t all that bad. When she and her family cruised the islands in the 1960s and 1970s, each afternoon after anchoring everyone dived from the boat into the water for the daily “bath.” She became intimately acquainted with water temperatures around the northwest years ago—and they haven’t really changed. Shallow Bay was our fourth anchorage. The fifth is captain’s choice, and we’ll give you several options as you look for—possibly—your last night in the islands. A lot will depend on where you have to be headed home the next day. Option 1: Matia Island southeast of Sucia has a delightful tiny bay just west of Rolfe Cove and its two state park buoys. This tiny bay, inside Eagle Point, is variously called Honeymoon Cove and Birthday Bay by those who’ve anchored there. There’s room for one boat with a stern tie. Option 2: Doe Island Marine State Park is off the southeast shore of Orcas, a delightful place to visit with picture perfect scenery in every direction, and a loop trail around the six acre island. It is magical, with its tall evergreens, madronas, unspoiled beaches and a romantic quality in the peace and quiet of its forests and shores. If there’s room at the dock with about 32’ of moorage space on each side, nab it, as anchoring is not recommended in the bay north of the island, except for a short time, by those with real local knowledge, the rangers and islanders. The bay is exposed to northeasterlies and easterlies, strong currents flow through the 2 fathom channel between Doe and Orcas, kelp, eelgrass and old cables crowd the bottom, left over from early logging days. An alternative possible anchorage is a charted 2 fathom bay off Orcas west of Doe. Option 3: Watmough Bay on the southeast shore of Lopez is another choice. This is a spectacular spot with the towering cliffs of470 foot high Chadwick Hill on the north shore. It’s a sometimes good anchorage depending on wind and weather; a haven in westerly winds or for those who’ve had a lumpy crossing of Rosario Strait or the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Anchor carefully as Watmough is known for its rocky bottom. If the anchor isn’t well set it can skid across the bottom and you might find yourself halfway across Rosario. We like it here because there is a lovely public beach at the head of the bay with some walking trails, and we didn’t drag. Option 4: Shaw Island has a couple of neat anchorages we enjoy. There’s Blind Bay on the north shore with three acre Blind Island State Park and its four buoys, part of the Cascadia Marine Trail. Or there’s good anchoring most anywhere in the bay. The Shaw Ferry Landing is on the northeast side of the bay and you can dinghy over to the Shaw General Store, formerly the Little Portion Store. Be aware of a charted, marked rock off the east side of Blind Island. Shaw Islanders Terry and Steve Mason bought the store about a year ago from longtime owners, the Franciscan sisters. You’ll enjoy meeting these friendly islanders who have expanded the merchandise in this charming store—visit, sip a latte and buy groceries, books, wine, boat stuff, etc. Option 5: Our last suggestion for the fifth night is Indian Cove, the delightful half-mile long, crescent-shaped cove on the south shore of Shaw, the site of Shaw Island County Park. This 64 acre park is a favorite spot for islanders and visitors alike, covering the western half of the cove and continuing around the forested peninsula. The park’s sandy beach is one of the best in the islands, with a long tide run-out that can produce reasonably warm swimming on hot, sunny day. Drift logs tossed on the beach at the high-tide line make it great for beachcombing and fort building for kids of any age. Onshore are campsites, water, toilets, launch ramp and some hiking trails. This is an excellent anchorage with considerable space for boats, no moorage buoys. It offers good protection from all but strong southerlies. It’s a great spot and we haven’t dragged anchor here either. Option 6: Literally hundreds of other wonderful places all through the islands. PAGE TWO :: COMMON SENSE CRUISING NOTES ...back to 48° North title page.
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