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.

May 29 we arrived at Dungeness Spit and dropped anchor after transiting the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Furry eyeful alert! This was absolutely gorgeous! There are mountains and water in every direction with a lighthouse at the end of the spit. Unfortunately, it isn’t great in strong winds so we only stayed one night. We rowed over to the spit, followed by several seals, and hiked out to the lighthouse. While we were walking down the spit, a coyote ran past us. I was looking at the coyote and spooked an eagle who was perched on a branch about 15 feet away. We also saw a dead seal on the beach, partially eaten. Orca?

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After getting bored at Prevost, we toodled back to Waldron, picked up friend Cyn, and took her to Shaw Island where we anchored for three days in Squaw Bay. It’s a small bay, very quiet and peaceful except for a ferry wake about every half hour. There are some great trails. We anchored near here in Indian Cove our first year on the boat. We remembered that there is a county park there so we hiked over to check it out. Everything was closed and locked up tight. Well, that’s what’s making it nice for us, no crowds. We had planned on stopping in Fisherman’s Bay on Lopez to get water and provisions but the marina was closed to transients, their website said we were forbidden to tie up at their dock. So we decided to head south. We have never gone south, always north and always trying to get away from the crowds. But hell, if everyone is staying home, might be a good time to go there!

On the morning of May 27, we headed south down San Juan channel intending only to go as far as the southern tip of San Juan Island and wait for the next day to go through Cattle Pass (between San Juan and Lopez Islands) where the currents run strong. But it was a lovely day, no wind and the current was in our favor so we decided “what the hell?” let’s go for it. We thought we’d just go through the pass and anchor at the south end of Lopez and wait until the next morning to transit the strait. But it was a nice day, no wind, calm as could be and the currents were in our favor so, “What the hell?” We cruised across the strait and it was gorgeous. We met two cargo ships on the other side heading toward Seattle. They put up a mighty wake. One was a Cosco freighter. We thought about boarding and demanding some toilet paper but didn’t think our flare guns would do the job!

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Monday, May 18 we left Waldron for Prevost Harbor on Stuart Island. Stuart is the furthest US island in the San Juans. We wanted to be ready for the US/Canada border re-opening on May 21. Unfortunately the border closure was extended another month so we sat around not knowing what to do for about a week. Prevost is a most beautiful and safe harbor with lots of trails so it wasn’t exactly torture. Our friends Kate and Carl were also there on their sailing vessel MOM, so we hiked and visited with them. Because of the shutdown, the little island called Satellite, which makes up part of the harbor and is owned by the YMCA, was unoccupied and we could also hike there.

We took Kloe back to Lummi, this time parking in Legoe Bay. We got some meat and eggs from Heather’s new squeeze and took off for Waldron. We had an easy trip and were able to sail all the way down President’s Channel. We spent several days on Waldron, mostly visiting. My dear friend Cyn and I hiked up a steep trail to Point Disney where the views are fabulous.

May 6, 2020. Well, the lockdown wasn’t very much fun for us. They closed all the State AND National Parks around March 20. They threw us out of Larrabee and we felt truly homeless. Alan’s Aunt Janet was so very kind and let us stay on her property for six weeks. The guy who was doing some work on our boat went into quarantine and wouldn’t come out. Long story short, Calliope launch date was delayed by a month.

We splashed on Cinco de Mayo and immediately left Bellingham for our favorite anchorage on Lummi Island, Smuggler’s Cove. There we picked up granddaughter Kloe and sailed to Saddlebag Island for our checkout trip. It was the first time for Kloe being under sail. Kloe did online homework in between hiking, kayaking and fishing. We didn’t even get a bite. Lots of seals, eagles and wildflowers.