Oct 9, 2009 -- Blind Bay to Bellingham, WA

Up at 0 dark-thirty, we blinked at the dim light and got underway.  The weather was forecast to be, well, sloppy.

We left Blind Bay, turning eastward into Harney Channel, and were greeted by this glorious sunrise.  We were reminded of the old saying, "...red sky at morning, sailor take warning!"  Being optimists, we decided the sky in this case was sort of orangy-yellow:

As we moved along and the light got stronger, we could see Mount Baker clearly:

We cruised through Peavine Pass (we love that name), and could see fog in the distance.  That's something we didn't want to see!

Once we were clear of Obstruction Island and Peavine Pass, we entered the open water of Rosario Strait and it got rough.  Fortunately, the fog we saw earlier drifted to the south and dissipated.  It stayed rough, however, for the next couple of hours until we got into the protection of Lummi Island just outside Bellingham Bay.  Then it began to calm down and things returned to normal.

We pulled inside the breakwater of Squalicum Harbor to get fuel.  The breakwater is very impressive and substantial:

After fueling, we idled our way back to Grand Adventure's permanent berth.  On the way, we once again went past "Northern Song," the small "ship" NW Explorations charters with crew:

Then past Deception, sitting much as we had seen her on our first day.  Of course Brian and Carol were off helping the rest of us tie up:

We hurriedly finished packing our stuff up and the staff of NW Explorations helped us carry the six dock carts of remaining food, clothing, etc. to the car.

As we left the harbor, we got this picture of the harbor sign and bid goodbye to NW Explorations:

It had truly been a wonderful trip.  If anyone reading this log is ever interested in chartering in the Pacific Northwest, or buying a really nice new or used Grand Banks, you can't do better than to contact NW Explorations (www.nwexplorations.com).  Tell Brian and the gang hello for us!

We did laundry and checked into a motel.  We had supper at our favorite Thai restaurant, "On Rice," and turned in.  It was really wonderful two weeks on the boat!

Tomorrow we head home....

Oct 8, 2009 -- Brentwood Bay to Blind Bay, Shaw Island, San Juans

We were up and underway at a more reasonable hour this morning (about 8:30 a.m.), and headed out of Brentwood Bay , then eastward toward the San Juan Islands in Washington State.  Our first target was the town of Friday Harbor on San Juan Island.  There was a Customs station on the dock at Friday Harbor.

The trip back to the USA was smooth, with a few puffy clouds and little wind.  A nice day.  We were sort of excited to see the San Juans again.  We used to cruise this area back when we lived in Portland, OR.  Here is a typical scene of the day:

It was fun to see Mount Baker again -- although hazy and way off in the distance:

We arrived at Friday Harbor and cleared customs by phone right on the dock:

The harbor master let us move over to a transient dock for a couple of hours so we could walk into town and have lunch.  It was quite a walk just to get to shore:

We were interested in the way the marina had boarded the dock pilings together at the top.  We guessed this was done for strength and to steady the pilings and dock:

We had lunch at a quaint pub Brian and Carol knew about.  It had "personality:"

We weren't quite sure what the significance of this picture of five gentlemen was, but it added even more charm to the pub:

Bill walked a few blocks to the local liquor store while everyone else ate lunch.  Then, we wandered back down to the marina.  Friday Harbor is pretty hilly, and that allowed a pretty good picture of the huge marina.  You can see the three flotilla boats, slightly left of center in the very back of the crowd of boats:

We (Harry, Josie and we two) talked Brian out of staying the night at Friday Harbor. and since we had to be off the boats in Bellingham by noon tomorrow, we moved to an anchorage at the north end of Shaw Island called Blind Bay.  It was a little closer to Bellingham than Friday Harbor, an a lot cheaper than staying in a marina.  Once we arrived there, Victoria and Grand Adventure each tied to a mooring buoy, while Deception anchored.  Sorry we didn't take any pictures in the anchorage.

Since we would be getting underway at dawn, we turned in early.