Orcas Island Circumnavigation Day 1

Orcas Island Trip (click for larger view)

A little delayed in reporting on this, but better late than never.  On August 1st I set off with a friend to circumnavigate Orcas Island by kayak.  The trip could not have been any better.  The weather was absolutely perfect.  Not too hot and almost no wind.

We had to get up at a crazy early hour to make the first ferry from Anacortes.  So I was loaded and driving down the road by 3:48 am.  I am totally not a morning person so this was brutal! After transferring all of my stuff to Ed’s truck we were on our way.  His truck is low enough that we could avoid the over height charge for the ferry if we used his.  All the passengers on the ferry were sacked out.  Some brought sleeping bags and pillows to make the short trip a short nap.  I was wide awake with excitement now.  We made our way to our launch point near Terrill Beach on the north side of the island.  We were hoping to get as early of a start as possible to take advantage of the favorable ebb current in President’s Channel.  We were paddling by 9am, which was just about perfect to catch a ride with the current.  A casual paddle with very little effort gave us a top speed of 6.5 knots.  Porpoises were swimming between us as we paddled around Pt. Doughty.

Calm seas looking at Pt. Doughty

First stop was a small beach just south of Lover’s Cove.  Just a quick chance to stretch the legs and get rid of some of the vast quantities of coffee I had to drink to make myself function at 3:48am.

We worked our way to Jones Island.  I would have loved to have camped here.  Tons of open campsites, beautiful beach, and trails to explore.  Unfortunately it was too early to call it a day so after lunch we were off again.  We explored the shores of Yellow Island a nature preserve known for its vast wildflowers.

Lunch break at North Beach of Jones Island

Wind blown tree on Jones Island

Mistake #1

It was after leaving Yellow Island that we would experience our first mistake/ lesson of the trip.  There are numerous little island and rocks in this area called the Wasp Islands.  We had decided that we were going to paddle through Wasp Passage.  We were going to pass by the south side of Cliff Island.  We looked at our charts and looked at the islands in front of us and thought for sure we knew what we were looking at.  We should have taken a bearing to verify our course, but no that would have been too smart.  So we paddled by the shore of Shaw Island heading into San Juan Channel.  Thinking about this now I can’t imagine how we could have made this mistake.  Wasp Passage is very small and San Juan Channel is huge in comparison.  After nearly a mile we figured out our mistake and backtracked to where we needed to be.

Mistake #2

So back on track we were loving life again.  I was enjoying the scenery as I paddled right down the middle of the passage.  Why was I in the middle of the passage?  Because I was too busy loving life.  I brought along my GPS just for the entertainment value of telling how fast / or slow we were going at different points in our trip.  At this point I decided to look at our speed.  1.5 knots and we were paddling pretty briskly.  Obviously the current had turned against us.  I suggested that we move closer to the shore to try to get out of some of the current.  Good thing too because when we started to move toward the shore we saw the ferry that was bearing down on us.  We had plenty of time to get out of the way, but we never should have been in the middle of the passage.

Mistake #3 (more of a lesson than a mistake)

So the current had thoroughly changed against us.  We knew it would.  There was no way for us to avoid it with the time that we had to start due to the ferry schedule.  At some point we were going to be bucking the current.  Max current was supposed to be 2.35 knots on this day flooding against us.  No problem I can handle that.  The currents were definitely magnified around some of the points and through the narrowest points of the passage.  If only we had some kind of clue that there would be such strong currents here.  Like maybe a notation on the chart I was carrying on my front deck.

The strong current warning I ignored

It was in this current that I was very thankful for all the time I had spent practicing at Deception Pass.  It paid off huge.  Crossing the eddy lines was tiring, but at no point was I in fear that I was exceeding my skill level.  I have seen so much worse at Deception Pass.  However while fighting through some of the current and while hugging the shoreline I unfortunately found a rock that was just barely below the surface of the water.  I didn’t see it at all.  It hit the hull of my boat hard.  Later I had to use duct tape to cover a hole about the size of a silver dollar in my gel coat.  It didn’t go all the way through so I didn’t have a leak, but a gel coat repair will definitely be needed.

Looking at Blind Island where we camped from the Orcas Ferry dock

After 17 nautical miles of paddling the last few hours of which were against the current we made our destination for the night.  A little rock in the water called Blind Island.  This little state park has only 4 campsites and we pulled ashore the same time as several doubles and triples.  The island was going to be packed.  We rushed up the shore and staked claim to the first campsite we came to.  There was no way I was willing to paddle any further to try to find somewhere else to camp.  It all turned out okay.  There was plenty of room for everybody and we had a great little campsite within spitting distance of the beach.  We were so close to the water we just carried our boats into our campsite.

Our camp at Blind Island

So as we were enjoying the peacefulness of the San Juans…….. gunfire broke out.  No joke, seriously there was somebody across the water on Shaw Island going nuts with their guns.  This went on for about half an hour.  Once that was done the rest of the night was pretty nice.  There were a couple of families that were camped there with their kids.  Wonderful family and some of the best behaved kids I have ever seen.  Just goes to show how positive it is for kids to be in the outdoors.  Their dad said he was trying to keep them from plugging in for as long as he could, referring to TV and video games.  It is obviously working.  The two little girls kept stopping by our camp to visit.  They were not the least bit shy, but it was fun having them around as a little entertainment.

Absolutely charming kids

So that concluded day one.  Even  though we made some mistakes we learned some lessons.  It all just added to the adventure.  As I settled into the tent I was so tired that I was fast asleep before the sun went down.  Probably the best I have slept camping in a long time.  More on day 2 and 3 later.