Friday July 13th – Sunday 15th. It was tough leaving our anchorage at Kimball Nature Reserve but onward we went through the heart of the San Juan’s to Roche Harbor at the north end of San Juan island. We have had a nice time with without Skylar aboard (Love you Skylar ) giving Ava all the kid attention for a few days has been nice for her. But, tomorrow Skylar is flying in to Roche to join us for the rest of the trip.

Radioing in for a slip assignment had us at the very end of the seaplane dock, perfect for seeing Skylar off the plane and a quiet spot in the marina. Julie readies the lines and fenders on starboard side. 10’ from the dock its evident starboard is not going to work, the slip is too small, and we have to let the bow hang over. Julie quickly flips everything to the other side. 10’ from the dock we realize we can’t get the dinghy down if we dock on that side. We motor to open water and put the dinghy down then dock the boat for real this time. Just kidding, the power doesn’t work at the dock. “We are going to have to move you to I8 at the other end of the marina” the dockhand said. Ok, flip lines and fenders to the other side, again, and off we go this time to our permanent slip for the next 3 days. Wheeeeewwwwwww….

The next day (Saturday) was the opening day of crabbing season and we were excited to get some pots down. The 3 of us dropped the pots in our usual spot off Pearl island then went on what we call “the loop hike” then went back out to pull the pots. First pot had Zero keepers, but the second pot, just 100 yards away had 7 nice size crabs!

Skylar had a nice flight in that night and got settled in to the boat before we went to dinner at the Madrona Grill. Sunday, brought more crabs for a total of 19! Our friends Todd and Tami arrived by boat with Todd’s brother, wife and kids onboard. They are joining us for one night in Roach before heading north at a quicker pace then us. We are going to meet up with them in Desolation later in the trip.

Having caught 19 crabs, we prepared a feast for our arriving friends. We all had dinner together on Todd’s boat, eating crab until we could fit no more. We shelled the rest of the crab and still had another 5lbs of meat! Those were some hefty crabs.

Thursday July 12^th– Lazy morning at anchor, we didn’t get up and off the boat until around 11am. Nice to just sit and relax in a beautiful anchorage.  We finally got in the dinghy for a ride to the beach to do some hiking but with a minus 2.7 tide we couldn’t find a good place to anchor the dinghy.  So, we decided to do some touring of the local area by small boat and headed south to Mud bay.  Cruising along at 20 knots we came upon a huge house with multiple guest houses and a dock with a sign that said Welcome to Sperry Peninsula.  I told Julie “it says welcome, let’s go up and see what it is.”  I couldn’t convince her.  We later found out it it’s one of Paul Allen’s houses, probably better we didn’t venture on land, fine Julie was right.  We toured Mud Bay then Hunter Bay scouting out good anchorages for a return trip.  We got a little too close to some seals on a drying shoal, they seemed to bark and snort at us, but the babies were so cute we couldn’t resist getting closer.

After the tide came up we went back for the hike.  Really fun cliffside trail all the way around what I think is called Unnamed Island #3. The views were amazing, and Ava loved the challenge of the hike.  We then crossed back over the beach and hiked the other side (Decatur Island) up to the highest point overlooking the bay.

Tuesday July 10th – We left Edmonds at 7:44am and set our speed so we would arrive in La Conner at 12:30 for a scheduled haul out. The boat needed a new propeller shaft seal and the only what to do it is to take the boat out of the water by sling.

We arrived on schedule and hauled the boat where the American Tug crew quickly replaced the seal while we walked to town for lunch. 1.5 hours later we were back in the water working on installing a new air filter system. A custom metal fabricator had to come and template for a bracket that evening. He was awesome! He did the templating and built half the bracket that night then finished it in the morning and had it all installed by 10am! Very thankful for his efforts to get us back cruising so quickly. Kurt at American Tug was just as quick getting everything installed in record time.

Ava’s PLOP was easily extracted by Kurt with a shop vac, and she was very thankful. We got to hang out with Kurt (one of the owners of American Tugs) his wife Kristen and daughter Grace that evening. Ava and Grace get along great and we always have fun with Kurt and Kristen.

Wednesday July 11th – After the final fitting of the air filter, we had lunch on the boat while waiting for the rising tide. A minus 1.5 tide would have been a little sketchy leaving the Swinomish Channel. As soon as we thought it was safe to head out we started north through the channel. 12’, 10’, 9’, 8’ came up on the depth sounder. Hmmmm…. Not what I wanted to see, and I know we were not even in the shallowest spot yet. We turned around and slowly motored back toward town killing time as the tide came up. About 45 minutes later we turned north again and had a fantastic cruise across Rosario Strait, through Thatcher Pass and into a little anchorage on the south end of Decatur Island called Kimball Nature Reserve. New to us we studied the charts for a good anchorage then dropped the hook.

What a fantastic place, we couldn’t believe we haven’t been here before. We were the only boat in the anchorage and it was beautiful. After some exploring in the dinghy and beachcombing we cooked dinner on the boat then settled in for the night. More exploring tomorrow.