Awesome 2 weeks up San Juans to Desolation

So many places to go and so little time...
There are over 30 marinas on just the San Juan and Orcas Island and hundreds of anchorages and State Park areas with docks and protected anchorages... Then you have the other 100+ islands in and around the San Juans and Gulf Islands all in a 40 mile radius...
http://www.mapquest.com/maps?city=S...=48.540501&longitude=-123.071999&geocode=CITY

We hit the Islands a lot and have only gotten to 1/5 what is out there the past 19 years...
 
Sundancer said:
Here's the Bayliner on the rocks. He dug a hot tub size hole trying to power forward through the sand. I'm not sure what he was thinking!

SanJuans09252.jpg


SanJuans09253.jpg


What the heck?! :wow:
That's painful to look at... the guy must've been devastated...
Click to expand...
 
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He "dropped" anchor in a squall and didn't set it apparently. The storm blew them into the spit at high tide where he tried to drive off the spit!! It was a sandy beach, except where he blew the sand out and exposed the rocks. There was a 6 x 6 hole that he created and the stainless props on his B3's were looking pretty rough! They towed him off at high tide the next night around 8:45 or so. A big tow boat got a rope to him and they towed him to Sydney. He had just gotten the boat too. Bummer!
 
At least it wasn't a Sea Ray!! Just kidding!

One more:

SanJuans09254.jpg
 
The boat was so new that he hadn't removed the stickers from the windows into the cabin!
 
Sidney Spit is about 2 miles from 'my' marina... I see a boat a year on the beach there.
It's sunny and open... and a great spot to spend the day but if the weather isn't ideal, I wouldn't anchor there. Maybe it's the lay of the islands but it's always breezy there and when the wind kicks up it gets nasty. If any of my southern neighbors are heading up this way... go around the peninsula (past Schwartz Bay ferries) into Deep Cove instead. Well protected and calm there... and almost always empty... and it's only an extra 20 minutes. It's a little undiscovered gem.
Oh, if you're interested in fine dining, spoil yourself with a visit to the Deep Cove chalet. It overlooks the bay so you can look at your Sea Ray while you slurp down some lobster bisque :)
Happiness is... :)
 
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magster, thanks for the tip on Deep Cove and the chalet. We plan to once again head to Brentwood Bay this coming July and may have to stop for the night there either before or after hitting Buchart...

Reason half our group stayed over at the spit was for the crabbing and ability to 'walk' from one friends boat to another. Nice warm water there due to the shallows too. I would suppose Deep Cove also has good crabbing...

That guys new boat that he worked up into the bar was finally pulled off and taken to Sydney. Heard he had a problem with water intrusion as he was being towed. Something broke under the hull and was allowing water in. His batteries were dead and he said he could not open the electric engine hatch...
 
Yes indeed... there's some good crabbing at Sidney Spit!
Deep Cove is pretty good too... a sandy bottom for most of it but over by the little marina in the SE corner there's some mean 'ol rocks that lotsa' people run over. I stay towards the north end of the bay when I'm in there.
If your destination is Butchart Gardens you might as well just go all the into Tod inlet... that's well protected. Make sure you time your visit to the gardens on a Saturday... they put on a decent fireworks display from July through September.
See ya' there :)
 
There are a couple threads talking about the San Juans, Gulfs, Sunshine Coast, etc. Is this one, or the other one, the official 2010 NW Cruise? Is there an organized cruise? We're ready to sign-on...
 
Just Right, I think it's the one that begins with 2010 San Juan CSR Rendesvous or something like that. I was looking at it earlier today and almost posted something just to bring it back to the top!
 
Sundancer said:
I'm not sure what he was thinking!
Click to expand...
Or Drinking!!! :smt021

Nice pics and commentary, thanks for sharing. We had towed our 330 Dancer up there from SE Washington during that same time period, launching at Anacortes. We cruised from about 8/15 through Labor Day Weekend and visited many of the same places you did. Great boating up there!!

That trip cost me a lot of money because it whetted our appetites for a bigger boat we could spend 3-4 months on. Not that having a bigger boat is a bad thing, but writing the monthlies to the bank gets old.

We definitely will be back up there. Not this summer but likely in the summer of 2011.
 
Where did you launch the boat at Anacortes. I've been looking at the Swinomish Channel Boat Launch under the SR 20 bridge but I've never used it. Have a 340 I'm towing over.
 
If you are talking about me... I launch at Port Townsend. They charge $35 for the season and watch the truck and trailer to boot. No limit on how long you are gone... Also have fresh water wash down after dunking...
 
Thanks for the info--any particular ramp in Port Townsend
 
I don't know if this came to pass but they were talking about raising the rates at Port Townsend significantly.

<http://www.piscatorialpursuits.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/631887/Port_Townsend_Area_9_Boat_Ramp.html>
 
The ramp fee is now $45 for the year. Still worth the price since I leave the boat upwards of 15 days at a time. The launch fee is $10 per round trip if you don't buy the yearly pass.

The ramp is on the left side of this photo just left of the moorage office. You can see the parking area to the left of that and the gas station is about 40 feet outside the photo. As you enter town on the ONLY road in, you will pass Safeway on the left and past the light you will see the Safeway gas station on the right. The ramp and parking area is directly behind that gas station.
boathaven_info.jpg

I normally gas up the boat there and drive through the station to the ramp.
http://www.portofpt.com/boat_haven.htm
 
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