Ferries and Fog and Orcas, Oh My!

Today is Wednesday, July 18th. We left Frank and Judy’s in Poulsbo just in time to catch the 9:30 ferry out of Kingston—we were the last vehicle on! A quick trip across, then about an hour drive up to Anacortes for the ferry to the San Juans. They don’t run all that frequently; we missed the 11 a.m. by about an hour, and the next one wasn’t until 3:10, so we paid the fare, got in line, and just hung out. There was actually a nice, rugged beach there, so Steve and Ellie went exploring while I got out the Featherweight and sewed. Since they charge extra for both height and length, it cost us $150 to get the RV on. Ouch! Well, at least it’s a round trip fare. And if you take into account four days worth of fuel that we won’t be using while camping, it comes out almost even.

The ferry ride to Friday Harbor took a little over an hour, and it was beautiful. Smooth and quiet and not smelly. We cruised past little islands covered with evergreens, and cabins tucked in pretty little coves. Lots of sailboats of all sizes and some big power boats too, but not overly crowded. Very picturesque. Friday Harbor is a pretty little town, but the streets are narrow and not fun to explore in an RV; besides, we were a little anxious about being able to find our campground, so we didn’t dawdle. The island is fairly small, and we had a good map, so it would have been hard to get too lost. San Juan County Park is on the opposite side of the island from Friday Harbor, about 10 miles away. Not that far, but the roads are very narrow and winding, with little or no shoulders. There are lots of bicyclists on the road, and the speed limit is 35, so we took it easy and eventually got to the park and found our campsite and got set up.

San Juan County Park is on the center of the island’s west coast, perched on the edge of Small Pox Bay. Despite its unfortunate name, it’s quite lovely.There’s a little cove with a boat launch, and a wide open meadow above the bay with strategically-placed picnic tables and huge driftwood logs for admiring the ocean view and watching for whales. You can see Vancouver Island. Bicycling, kayaking, and whale-watching seem to be the main activities here. Many of the commercial kayak trips launch out of this park. The activity in the late afternoon is to sit up in the meadow with a snack and a drink and look for the orcas. We’ve seen them from shore both days so far. They are unmistakeable—their black dorsal fins stick up 6 feet above the water! Every kayaker we’ve talked to has seen them from their boats, as close as 10 to 25 yards away.

Although when we got here Monday, it was beautiful and sunny, we woke on Tuesday to a steady drizzle of rain. That didn’t seem to stop the commercial kayak tours, but we were a little reluctant to go out in the rain because of our unfamiliarity with the currents, tides, etc. The storm cleared up in the late afternoon and the sun came out, so we schlepped our kayaks down to the bay , maybe 50 yards from our campsite, and paddled off, heading south against the current. The current didn’t seem too bad and we paddled about 45 minutes or so before deciding we’d better head back. At first, we couldn’t locate our bay and panicked a little—wow! We must have gone further than we’d thought. We then spotted our bay practically right in front of us—we had barely gone anywhere even though we were paddling hard. We laughed and paddled back, riding the current. We definitely have a lot to learn about sea kayaking.

We had a paddle all planned for today, but again woke up to rain, harder and steadier than yesterday. It’s now mid-afternoon, and it’s not raining as much, although it’s still quite overcast. No wind though, and the water is calm and smooth. I imagine we’ll give it a try in a little while—it’s getting to be time for the orca show, and it would be fun to be out there with them instead of just watching them from shore.