Last summer we took a week to sail around in the San Juan Islands. This area is the perfect destination for our small sailboat as it is well protected. We trailered Webfoot to Bellingham, which is about a four hour drive from Portland. We had been to the San Juan Island the year before with our much smaller (19′) Potter and knew what to expect in the summer months. The area is nearly devoid of wind this time of year and it’s a good idea to be prepared for very little sailing. During the course of the week we stopped at all of the bigger islands and did a complete circumnavigation of San Juan Island.

Our first night at anchor, Independence Day, was spent on the east side of Matia Island. This gave us an excellent vantage point of the fireworks and it was a beautiful clear night.

The next day, while we were motoring, we noticed a very strong gasoline smell. After some investigating we saw that one of our two fuel tanks had a small crack, which had been caused by sun damage, and was seeping fuel. Thankfully, all of our fuel is stored on the outside of the boat in well ventilated compartments. But in order to enjoy the rest of our week and not have to get fuel every other day we needed to find a replacement tank. We were glad to have our wireless broadband internet card for our laptop and were able to locate a West Marine in Friday Harbor. Luckily they had just the fuel tank we needed. And it was the last one on the island…

Webfoot in Friday Harbor