Oct 2 – We are in Echo Bay on Sucia Island. We decided to take a ride over to Patos and see if that mooring ball is free. We headed out, once out of the harbor it was way too rolly, raining, and foggy. Nope not going to Patos. We got pretty close to Matia to see if that mooring ball was open. That was more favorable to the wind direction. Nope, it’s occupied. We turned around and went back. It was rolly even in the bay. Pea soup fog rolled in. We napped, read, showered, played some games, had a fantastic dinner, watched a little YouTube and went to bed early.
Oct 3 – It is a nice sunny day today. We headed out and SUCCESS at Patos! We grabbed the only mooring ball. The burn ban was just lifted, so we went to shore, had a fire, and soaked in the sunshine. We saw the most colorful ducks we ever saw in our life. I googled them and an article came up. I didn’t read it very well. I honed in on the fact that these people saw puffins. I very excitedly told everyone that we saw PUFFINS!! The next day I got to thinking that these really don’t look like any puffins that I have ever seen, so I reread the article. AFTER they saw the puffins they saw harlequin ducks! So had to retract my puffin story. We took a hike around the island. We are the only ones on this island. It is so magical. We are going to stay for 3 nights.
- Patos Island Lighthouse 2) Harlequin duck 3) Sunset was epic 4) Miss Marlie from the beach 5) Our first fire for the season, fire ban is lifted!
Oct 4 – Sadly, the weather is not going to cooperate and the wind is going to come from a direction that will make this anchorage miserable. So, we left reluctantly. We decided to head back to Anacortes. We checked Matia to see if that was free yet. Nope. We got to the end of Orcas Island and there was a wall of fog in Rosario Strait. That is a shipping lane with big ships. No way are we going in that – we don’t have AIS (so ships can see us on radar). We turned around and went back and since it was so rolly at Sucia we decided to head to Jones Island. We were a little tense as we had been traveling all day and what if there was no availability at Jones. We got the last mooring ball on the south side. We were sweating it! Peaceful night.
Patos to Matia to end of Orcas Island,
End of Orcas Island around to Jones.
36 nm – which is roughly 5 hours.
Long day!
Oct 5 – we left Jones Island at 9 am and had a calm cruise back to Anacortes. Just the way we like it. Started to get choppy around Rosario Strait. After we docked we rinsed off the boat, cleaned up and went to the Union. Beautiful evening. When we got back our slip mate was the same boat that we spent last night next to on Jones Island. Small world!
We took a quick trip home as I had a dental emergency. I’ve been seeing the same dentist for 20 years and didn’t want to go to one here. Plus, it was a good excuse to smooch those boys.
Little did we know that we only had one more overnight cruise this season, then we would be wintering in Anacortes.
Talk Soon.