June 19, 2020. Furry eyeful alert!!! Hood Canal really is just as beautiful as any of the inlets in Canada. And, except for last night at Twanoh, it’s been very deserted and peaceful. Last night we had some boys on jet skis trying to impress some girls on the beach. I really wanted to shoot them with a flare gun but Alan wouldn’t let me! So we pulled up anchor and left right after sunrise:

It was a stunning morning, not a cloud in the sky, no wind, mirror water surface and when we came around the corner, there were the Olympics in the background. It doesn’t get better than this does it?

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We motored until the tide gave out on us and ended up at Stavis Bay. From here we can look up Hood Canal, down Hood Canal, up Dabob and Quilcene Bays, and across to the Olympics. Truly stunning. This would not ordinarily be a good anchorage because it is totally unprotected from winds in any direction, but today and tonight are calm and beautiful. We head back to Gamble Bay in the morning.

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June 17, 2020. We motored 8 more miles almost to the end of Hood Canal to Twanoh State Park. This is a very nice park with a picnic area along the water, swimming area, tennis & horseshoe courts, mooring buoys and boat ramp. Back in the forest across the road is a campground and an awesome trail along a creek with a few old-growth trees. We hiked a mile up the creek and back this morning. Truly lovely. Unfortunately the population density has been steadily increasing as we have traveled south along the canal. There are wall-to-wall houses along both shores with lots of lights and noise. We’ve decided to head back up the canal tomorrow morning (June 19).

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June 16, 2020. We were able to sail on a broad reach for half the trip from Triton Cove to Hoodsport, where we stopped for groceries. The grocery store was mostly a bust; no organic veggies! We bought a few things and headed on down to Potlatch.

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The bottom of Hood Canal is shaped like a fish hook. At the bottom of the hook sits Potlatch State Park. The park itself is lovely with a short but steep trail. The views are gorgeous and the Olympics peeked through clouds in the early morning. We only stayed one night because of road noise (Hwy. 101), lights and too much wave action (long fetch). It was a difficult anchorage, deep and steep. We anchored in 25 feet, the wind changed, swung us around and next morning at low tide we had 2 feet under the keel. Not your ideal situation.

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June 15, 2020. We have been plagued with south winds ever since crossing the strait. Even the slightest south wind set up uncomfortable waves at our anchorage in Quilcene Bay due to the southern exposure and long fetch. Next-door Dabob bay is the same, but we saw a small spit where we could hide, so we did. For a few days of cold and rain. We even had to start our diesel heater. We were well-protected behind our little spit, though we lost Roger. Good riddance! Reading about recent events is like watching a train wreck. Unbelievable, yet we can’t take our eyes off of it! Speaking of which, they extended the border closure yet again! It’s been pushed back to late July. I doubt we’ll go to Canada at all this year. But the main reason we go so far north is to avoid the crowds. There are no crowds here now. We otherwise would never have ventured south, so it’s all good.
At the end of the spit was a driftwood structure that was quite unique and about three stories tall. When we walked out there we also found some rough tables, benches, a fire
pit and a barbecue! We think it was probably built by kids from Camp Discovery, which is directly across the bay from the spit. I found yarrow and plump sea asparagus growing on the spit.

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June 11, 2020. We left Gamble Bay on the 8th, back through the tiny opening, around the corner and under the Hood Canal Bridge. Piece of cake!

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After the bridge, we passed the submarine base at Bangor. They had a great big sign that said, “Restricted Area, Use of Force Authorized.” They also had a small gunboat cruising the perimeter. Needless to say, we gave them a wide berth, but were still able to see three submarines at the docks through our binoculars.
We stopped at Seabeck for two nights to wait out a southern blow and rain and then proceeded on up to Quilcene. This morning shrimping season opened and the entire bay filled up at 5A.M. with mosquito boats dropping pots. These guys are serious!

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June 5, 2020. We left Port Hadlock early to catch the slack current through Port Townsend Channel. We took low slack because we also had to pass under the Hwy. 116 bridge which has a stated clearance of 57 feet. After consulting the book of charts (tells you what all the chart symbols mean), we find that bridge clearances are stated for mean high tide. Chart depths are for mean low tide and it’s easy to figure that out because mean low tide is zero. A minus tide is less. We were in the middle of a three foot minus tide, but where is mean high? We need 50 feet of clearance for the mast, so we thought it was best to go at low tide, even though the channel is only 25 ft. wide and 12 ft. deep! We draw almost 5 ft. So this is dicey. Plus the current changes rapidly and can get up to 4 kts through there. Yikes!

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Once past the channel, we put up the sails and were able to sail as far as Port Ludlow (about 5 nm) on a beam reach. I love it when we can sail! So quiet!
The entrance to Gamble Bay is another narrow, shallow channel but is mercifully short. This is a lovely bay with trails and such and we plan to stop here again on the way back. We’ve been here for a few days but leaving tomorrow when we have to go back through this channel and under the Hood Canal bridge. This bridge has a clearance of 50 ft. on the east side, zero in the middle, and 38 ft. on the west side. As previously mentioned, we need 50 feet. Not a problem, you say? Well, this bridge has a huge slant. Where is this 50 feet? I can find no info. One would think it would be measured on the short side (i.e. minimum clearance) but I would really hate to smash the top of our mast into it. So, we leave at the bottom of the ebb and hug the shore (the high side). Wish us luck!

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June 5, 2020. We reluctantly left our peaceful anchorage in Kilisut Harbor. The entrance/exit of this harbor is nerve-wracking. It’s a narrow, shallow (I measured 5 ft at one point), winding path almost 4 miles long with strong currents. There was a group of seals hauled up on the beach on our way out. I couldn’t take my eyes off the channel, but Alan took some photos.

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After successfully exiting Kilisut Harbor, we motored down to Port Hadlock where we went ashore to the grocery store and spent a night gripping the sides of the bed because the current was turning us sideways to the NW wind creating a great deal of turbulence for us. This will only be a day stop in future!

June 2, 2020. We had a very narrow window of good weather with favorable tides this morning. We headed out of Discovery Bay at 0730 and made it around Point Wilson and Port Townsend, hitting the tides just right and averaging 6 knots. It was a beautiful, calm morning with very little ship traffic and only the Port Townsend to Keystone ferry to contend with.

Killisut Harbor is a shallow inlet between Marrowstone and Indian Islands with a very narrow, winding and shallow entrance. We hit this just right also at the beginning of the flood tide before the current picked up. Fort Flagler State Park is at the northern tip of Marrowstone and we spent a pleasant week there in Harvey last January. We didn’t stop there as it is extremely shallow, but continued on to Mystery Bay and Mystery Bay State Park. We walked about a mile down the road to Nordland where we were going to visit the quaint little store there (see funny signs) but they required a mask so we didn’t go in.

Mystery Bay was full of boats, houses, lights and noise so we pulled anchor and went across the harbor to a small, unnamed cove on Indian Island. Indian Island is some sort of military outpost with signs everywhere that you cannot come ashore. We have been expecting them to come and check us out for anchoring so close but so far they haven’t shown.

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May 28, we motored over to Sequim Bay and anchored off of Sequim Bay State Park. We stayed here in Harvey coming back from the peninsula last January. We walked around a bit and spent one night. Then we went to the John Wayne marina for water, laundry, hot showers and provisions. It was great. The marina itself is open but everything else (restaurants and such) is closed so very relaxed. We are now anchored out behind the spit that protects Sequim Bay, waiting out some weather so we can go around Point Wilson at Port Townsend and head down the Hood Canal.

May 31, 2020. Well, it turns out we didn’t wait long enough. We ran into some nasty waves going around the corner from Sequim Bay so we ducked into Discovery Bay and anchored off of Miller Peninsula State Park. There were no accessible trails, only steep cliffs. We tried unsuccessfully to climb up a dry creek bed.