Friday Harbor and Homeward Bound

Leaving Deer Harbor

Having the storm pass by and the waters calm, we left Deer Harbor headed for Friday Harbor, a short cruise south.  

Small island off SE corner of Orcas Island

The morning was beautiful, the skies clearing, and we really enjoyed maneuvering through and around the tiny islands that are south of Orcas Island.



 


We entered Friday Harbor and saw a flurry of activity.  A large marina, with permanent moorings and enough dock space to handle more than 150 transient boaters, we found our slip and got checked in.  Friday Harbor sees a lot of ferries coming from Anacortes, Sydney B.C., and smaller ones from other islands in the San Juans.  The town is close and easy to walk to and get around.


We ran into Sequim boaters, Bob & Linda on Pound Foolish, who were at Friday Harbor celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary.  They moor at the end of our dock at the John Wayne Marina, so it was nice to see friends.  We brought our leftovers and, along with their leftovers, enjoyed the evening eating and sharing stories.  

We were surprised the next day when the friends we met at Deer Harbor came into the marina and moored across the dock from us.  We spent another evening visiting with them.

We know that Friday Harbor will see us again.  With plenty to do and see while visiting there, we'll return when Nancy's knee has improved so that we can do more walking around the area.  The marina has two prices for mooring, one if you call in to reserve a space, and one lower price if you just show up and get lucky to find an opening.  Being that we were there before the July 4th weekend, we were happy to see plenty of empty slips and were very pleased to pay less than $1/foot for moorage.

Lighthouse at Cattle Pass with Olympics in background

Listening to weather forecasts, we decided to take an opening in the weather to head back to Sequim and continue the work needed on Cloud Nine.   We had hoped for a day or two at Fisherman's Bay, but knew we wanted a smoother crossing than our northward crossing. The morning was clear and the water calm as glass as we headed south.  Current was pushing our 6 knot speed up over 10 knots that morning through Cattle Pass.  Fun! 

Didn't want to play chicken with this big guy!

There was plenty of ship traffic in the lanes this day so getting across the shipping lanes this morning turned into a bit of a challenge.  Not wanting to be stuck in the middle of the traffic lane with a 300+ ship bearing down on us, we hung out in the separation zone waiting for an eastbound ship to go past us.  We had a westbound ship coming up fast behind us, but the separation zone gives you plenty of room for safety.  We snuck in behind the eastbound ship and continued our crossing, pulling into Sequim safe and sound and glad our first long outing was mostly successful.

We know that we have to resolve an issue with our batteries, and will schedule a visit with the marine electrician before we plan our next night off grid.  Lots of work still to do on Cloud Nine, but she's so much fun to be on each and every day.  We're looking forward to the projects still to come!