Too Early

FRIDAY  June 19th –  Our cruising plans this summer have us spending most of August in Desolation Sound – about 220mi north of Tacoma.  The kids have been begging to go back since we were last there the summer before last.  The plan is to spend 3 long travel days getting there so we can maximize our time up north.  Now, with the kids just out of school we decided to take a quick 12-day trip to the San Juan’s since we will be skipping by there later this summer.

Thursday June 18th we spent the day at home doing final preparations for the trip.  We figured we would spend tonight on the boat in Tacoma so we could get an early start tomorrow.  By the time everything was packed and ready to go it was 10:30pm.

4:00am my alarm goes off.  I feel miserable but drag myself to the galley to make some coffee. Luckily and unexpectedly Julie gets up with me.  We shove off at 4:25am, coffee in hand and well before the sun peaks over the horizon.

I absolutely love early morning departures but this time I was so tired I could barely stay awake.  Julie felt the same way so after a couple hours she went back to sleep!

We were planning on a really long run today.  We figured we might as well bust out an all day run to Matia or Sucia Island 100 miles north of Tacoma.  We had a beautiful calm run up the inside of Whidbey Island, through the Swinomish Channel, past Anacortes and through the San Juan’s to Matia Island.  Matia is one of the most north islands in the group.

At 3:10pm and 10 hours 42 minutes run time we arrived to find the lone buoy in Matia’s Rolfe Cove available for us to snag.   As tired as we were we knew the kids had to run, so we took the dinghy to shore for a little hike around the island.  Dinner and bed could not have come sooner!