When we discovered that we’d be going to the Seattle area early in September for the birth of a new grand child, it hit me that, Wow, I’ve always wanted to go sailing in the San Juan Islands and September would be a great time to visit this area, a Mecca for sailors.  

Yes, it sounds like its somewhere in the Caribbean but its north of Seattle and borders Canada

We could add on a few days to our trip to the Pacific Northwest.

While a bit colder than many of the places that we like to sail, the words of a National Geography Expedition leader on a trip to Svalbard, came back to me.  “There’s no bad weather, only bad gear.”  

We added long underwear, snuggly hats and gloves to our “grand parents-on-duty” attire, and planned a four night excursion on the  Diminuendo, a boat in the NorthWest Sailing Adventures fleet.

Northwest Sailing Adventures

I didn’t know anything about sailing in the area so off to Google I went and found NorthWest Sailing Adventures.  After minimal research, we decided that sailing with Skipper Scott and First Mate Todd would fit our needs.  The 43 foot Jeanneau seemed to be well equipped and they appeared to be able to plan a very personalized cruising adventure for us.    We lucked out.  The boat and the crew were perfect.   

Let me share our experience.  

After shoving off from Bellingham, we headed for an uninhabited island called Suchia Island, one of many in the 200 named and unnamed islands in the archipelago formed by glaciers.  What appealed to me about Suchia Island was that it had finger like harbors created with carved out sandstone.  Sculptural.  Interesting.  Ahhhh.  Reflections.  Heaven. 

Since we were post prime season we were able to tie onto a mooring ball in Snoring Bay, named for a  field worker who was known to nap on duty.  Funny.  What I liked was the gorgeous rock formations and fantastic reflections.  Both sunset and sunrise had  fantastic light. Lucky me. I was entranced. If it weren’t for the itinerary we were on, I’d still be there.

Snoring Bay had only two mooring balls and I got a kick out of the colorful socks on the sailer we shared the intimate space with.  I yelled out a compliment to my sailor friend.  “Love your socks!”   He laughed and  responded, “I forgot mine so I borrowed these from my wife.”  

That’s sailing life for you.  

Other spots for anchoring included the ones where we had constant views of the Madrone Trees—unknown to a midwesterner like me.  Stunning.  The red bark drew my attention and camera. 

I also enjoyed one morning capturing raindrops on the railings of the very comfy boat.  

Our skipper became very tuned to our interests so by the end of our trip, he knew I pretty much always had my camera at hand. The more interesting the view, the happier I was. Well, I liked it when the wind came up and we soared along gunnel to the the water too.

 We moored the last night where we could see a well known mountain and then a gorgeous sunrise. A rock that is called the elephant and Madrone trees were near by.

I enjoyed a little time doing double exposures. 

WE loved the peaceful spots in the quiet harbors.  But we also found Friday Harbor to be a funky little town with shops and restaurants.   We checked into the  marina there.  We enjoyed browsing the cute shops, listening to  a Marimba band, meandering the docks to see different kinds of boats including National Geographic/Lindblad excursion ship. This was a nice contrast to the more secluded nature spots we hunkered down in the other nights.  

Float planes zoomed over head while we enjoyed a bit of time on land.  

Come by next week for whale sightings and  other interesting sailing experiences in the Salish Sea.