Sailing the San Juan Islands - Transport via the RV Magic Carpet

[scard]

Originally Posted by scsmith

Your first fuel stop didn't even get you out of Texas

So, at Rawlins, with DA of 9K a 4000 ft runway, with less than full tanks, what was your required runway length afterall? Would it have been worrisome at gross weight?

I think it took about 1700’ to break ground and were climbing at 700fpm at 2500’. We left 10gal on the ground to accommodate the unfamiliar territory factor that Tanya described. But it really is a nothing burger.

Originally Posted by tcard

Of course, he still greased it on.

Aww shucks. I must have done something right today.

[tcard]

Monday morning arrived, and it was time to fuel up on a full breakfast. Thanks Sandy! Then, off to the marina for a shower. You buy tokens and get 7-minutes of water per token. Scott and I both hatched a plan for an abbreviated shower, but it turned out seven minutes was plenty of time if you treated it like a clearance from tower that include the words ‘No Delay.’

The second mate on the boat is Pippa. She inspected our quarters.



Echo Bay on Sucia Island was the planned anchorage for the night. We made our way that direction. Unfortunately, the wind was a direct headwind. That didn’t stop us from sailing some and enjoying the water and wind, but we didn’t make much progress to the destination. In fact, one of the tacks had us moving further away. At some point, play time had to come to an end and we motored into Echo Bay.

From an early age, my dad taught me to read maps, from road atlases to navigating in the Boundary Waters with a chart and compass. When Sandy handed me a chart atlas of the San Juan Islands, I buried myself in it for a while.



Sandy and Roy are a great team when setting an anchor. It was a perfectly choreographed dance. One selection, one drop, one anchor set, and it was time to relax.

We did have a request from Roy before we left. He needed a mic muff for their anchoring communication tools and asked if we had a couple extras. Of course. into the CQ1 mic muff research stash, and out came the perfect mic cover. Packed, and check!

Sucia is a designated as a wildlife rescue area. We loaded up on Peace, and ferried over. The area is beautiful, both from the boat and on land. We did a
little exploring, filled up our water bottles, and motored back to Tranquility.





It was a rough afternoon in the hammock.



Oh, then it was even rougher with afternoon snacks.

[donaziza]

Is it cold there? I see Scott is wearing a jacket in the motorboat.

[crabandy]

Please keep it up, I’ve been dreaming of visiting Roy and Sandy during the summer on a trip like this. Amazing adventure!

[RV7ator]

Consider popping over to Roche Harbor for kayaking with San Juan Outfitters. Five hour tour is nice. Minimal people contact. WA09 is private, PPR is not really enforced, but apt mgr Dan Root 425-773-2307 can brief you on ops. Stroll down to the resort and marina.

How's the grass surface for camping at Eastsound this year? Happen to know if the shower/loo is open in the hangar area?

Other resorty/backcountry airport mgrs have told me traffic is up this year; escape from quarantine.

John Siebold
Boise

[tcard]

Tuesday morning started off with a run back to shore for a quick walk through pine trees and across the isthmus. There were plenty of boats in the bay on the other side as well.





Roy hauled up the anchor for our departure from Sucia and picked up half the mud off the the ocean bottom. The cleaning method of choice around here seems to be a crab bucket with some of the juice left in it, and a few bucketfuls later the mud was returned to the whence it came.

The nav plotter had a very familiar magenta line, but add 3 IFR pilots and an inexperienced person at the helm, and it becomes a comedy of errors. Somehow, the magenta line knows precisely how to plot a GPS route to miss land with the minimal amount of clearance. Two hundred feet off centerline looks HUGE as it’s a full two boat icon lengths.

We found some wind on the way to Stuart Island and hoisted the sails. The winds were from the perfect direction and we were moving along at a nice clip. That entertainment lasted about 45 minutes, and the we ended up in a wind hole, and then another, and then another. Down came the sails, and we motored our way into Prevost Bay.



Sandy took a quick dip in the bay, but we didn’t join her. The water up here is COLD! Note to self, never agree to any kind of charity event in the San Juan Islands that might include a dunk in the water.

Scott and I came into the trip with a camping mindset and not expecting the accommodations we encountered. We had a comfy stateroom with all the space we needed, lots of shade in the cockpit, plenty of water and beverages, and the food, oh the food, was 1,000% better than what I feed Scott at home. The Thomas know how to treat guests like royalty. My favorite were the crab melts with homemade bread and goat cheese with a bean salad with all sorts extra yummies. Scott favored the fresh caught prawns in a marinade that is an ancient, family secret.



The evening entertainment included watching other boats anchor, some needing 4 tries, kayak races and a little bit of math with three scientists in the cockpit. I just watched this round of hilarity as an observer. The problem was how to determine how much propane was left in the 6 pound propane tank. Both solutions included using Pippa as either a weight on a balance or to calculate her displacement. The people were amused, but Pippa, not so much.



After some relaxing, a huge part of the trip and so welcome for a couple Type A personalities, Roy and Sandy took us up to the spot they got married. They packed a picnic, and we told lots of stories, some true and some a little embellished.



We enjoyed a fantastic sunset with enough clouds for some color like home. Oh wait, no, that’s not right...(per request) ignore the sun and clear summer days and shorts, the weather was rainy and cold...

[Stitch462]

Originally Posted by tcard

The San Juan's are beautiful. Nice pic. Que Crosby, Stills & Nash "Southern Cross" in 3... 2... 1...

[tcard]

The day started off with another gourmet breakfast of crab omelette and an oven-baked-heavenly concoction of granola and fruits. Hey Sandy, can I get that recipe?

Roy cooked up the rest of the crab. While I love crab, I had never cleaned one.
I got a lesson on the first day and honed my skills with the morning session. Another first for me.

Our shore excursion for Wednesday was a hike through the state park and then onto a jeep road out to the old schoolhouse and further to the Turn Point lighthouse on Stuart Island. It was about a six mile round trip trek.











Along the way, we passed a tiny private airport. It is a grass strip with a steep slope carved into the landscape and ends very abruptly into the trees. You’re definitely committed to landing once you cross the threshold, there’s no going around.



A Cessna seems to live there.



There are actually two airports on the island. The other was right at the end of Prevost Bay and our anchorage was right on the approach path. If the arrivals we watched were SOP, the arrival procedure is to parachute down to landing.

Mount Baker in the background. The airport is actually behind us.



Sandy had packed us all lunch, and we had a picnic overlooking the water and into Canada. Generally, there was very little commercial traffic on the water. We have only seen one cargo ship and one Canadian ferry. The recreational traffic and anchorages were very busy even during the week. Apparently both are very unusual.



After getting plenty of exercise for the day, it was back to our floating hotel.

We typically make a couple shore excursions for Pippa. For most, the trusty dinghy Peace revs up her electric motor and efficiently shuttles us back and forth. However, she did also have oars on board. I’ve spent plenty of time with a paddle in a canoe, but oars were foreign to me. Of course I had to give it a try. The first trip included a few figure 8s. The next improved to be just s-turns, and the third trip only required minor course adjustments. I could hear the cackles from the peanut gallery in the cockpit, but I was entertained.

[Jaypratt]

Looks cold but fun! Thanks for sharing. That dingy looks too small for 4 adults.
Tippy dingys can get you wet

[scard]

Originally Posted by Jaypratt

Looks cold but fun! Thanks for sharing. That dingy looks too small for 4 adults.
Tippy dingys can get you wet

Correct. The max gross on the dingy is 2.895 adults in calm water. It also has some pretty small crosswind and density altitude limits that we didn’t test.

Tanya is a day behind, but we woke up in Ogden UT this morning after a bumpy afternoon. Time to Fly!