This is the last part of a four part series of our sailing trip to the San Juan Islands over Memorial Day weekend.

Day 1 – Launch, Bellingham to Matia Island
Day 2 – Matia Island to Friday Harbor
Day 3 – Friday Harbor to Rosario, Orcas Island
Day 4 – Rosario, Orcas Island to Clark Island

Our last full day vacation was upon us and we just couldn’t bring ourselves to leave Rosario without enjoying the warmth of the pool and hot tub one last time. We walked up to the Mansion fairly early and were greeted by a “closed” sign. I tried the door and found it to be open. I looked right and left, and saw a cleaning lady vacuuming the floors with her back turned to me. I gave Captain Mike the let’s-go-quietly-wave, and ducking behind her we ran down the stairs to the spa. All the towels had been put away, but I remembered from our snooping around the day before that there was a (real!) ships door near the pool, behind which was the supply closet. We had a long soak and played with the beach ball in the pool. By the time we headed back to the boat our skin was wrinkly and beet-red. I was just hoping that the warmth would last me all day.

We left for Clark Island around 10:30 am and motored on a windless, cloudy day. Along the way we took a little detour to scout out Doe Bay for possible future visits since we had read about the hot springs there. Regrettably, it seemed more like summer camp with some cabins and lots of tents perched on a hill side and there were no mooring buoys or docks near there.

Around 2pm we arrived at Clark Island, dropped anchor on the east side and pulled the stern up on the beach so we could explore the island. Clark Island is quite flat with long beaches on the east and west sides.  Beautiful wild roses were blooming everywhere when we arrived.

After our walk we noticed that we were going to have neighbors for the night. A small group had arrived in three kayaks and they were busy setting up their shelters. It was starting to rain again after a mostly dry day. We pulled up our anchor, secured a mooring ball for the night, and hung towels from the sides of the bimini to make the cockpit more enclosed and keep out the rain. For dinner we made some Halibut Fajitas we found on GalleySwap 

Around 3am we were awoken to a very rolly anchorage. The wind had picked up and the tides had come up so far that the protective reef was completely covered. We slept well for a few more hours knowing that we were securely tied to a mooring ball. By 7am I started to think about the last time we tried to get back to Bellingham from the San Juans and told the Captain that we had to leave “right now”! Last fourth of July weekend the winds picked up right when were trying to leave (we were already pushing it with a late departure) and we were unable to cross Rosario Strait because our engine kept stalling when we slammed into a trough. We had to wait at Matia Island for several hours until the wind abated and the tide switched around making the waves less steep. This time we headed across right away and even had a very pleasant crossing. We slogged down Hale Passage in a head wind on a favorable tide. By noon we were back in Bellingham ready to haul the boat and drive back to Portland.

Right after we pulled the boat out of the water the clouds parted and the sun shone brightly the rest of the day!

On the way back we checked in at another closed scale. We had gained 200 pounds!
Truck: 4,920
Boat 3,700

 

PASSAGE NOTES AND PHOTOS

6 mooring balls on east side – not very protected at high tide when reef is under water

3 mooring balls on west side – could get pretty rough in north or south winds

Obstruction Pass at the south end of Orcas Island, the rough water is caused solely by current
Webfoot on the beach at Clark Island

Beach on east side of Clark Island

Video of view of Orcas Island from south end of Clark Island

West side of Clark Island
Our mooring ball
Dinner aboard Webfoot
Rain…. rain…. rain… If you look closely you can see the raindrops
Back in Bellingham at the ramp