7/2 La Conner to Westscott Bay

This morning was another opportunity to laze about and get a later start, and we took full advantage of it. We did nothing more than admire our view and watch a few boats cruise by. We finally got underway about 10 o'clock in the morning, heading north out of La Conner up the Swinomish Channel. It may have been wiser to leave a bit earlier, as we had another minus tide today, and the channel is notoriously shallow in places to begin with. When we left the dock, it was already at minus 2.8 feet, and fell to the maximum 3.7 feet within the next 45 minutes. We cruised along slowly mid-channel, with an eye on the depth sounder. Most of the time we were in 8 to 12 feet of water, but at times we had shallower readings. I didn't mind the 6's or even the 5's, but I was a little concerned when it read 4 feet, then 3 feet. It quickly dropped off again, though. We have a little cushion in the readings, because the transponder on the bottom is about two feet below the waterline to begin with.

Along the channel on either side are many pilings, and on several of these we saw bald eagles perched, looking stately as they scanned the exposed mud flats for morsels of food. We saw one down on the mud flats, probably dining on some unfortunate clam or crab. On the opposite shore a pair of dogs were playing – a large black lab and a Pomeranian. Fortunately the eagles weren't interested in Poms today.

When we passed by the railroad bridge, we noticed that the water was low enough that we probably would have fit under it had it been closed to marine traffic. North of the bridge is Padilla Bay, and the dredged channel traverses it past March Point, where an oil refinery and tanker dock sit. Once past the last channel marker, the depth gradually dropped as we entered Guemes Channel to pass Anacortes. At this point we noticed another potential hazard to navigation – there appeared to be a wall of fog about halfway out into Rosario Strait. We continued on as I warmed up the radar, and as we approached within a quarter mile or so of the fog, it mysteriously vanished and we could see Thatcher Pass beyond. We were now officially in the San Juan Islands.

Our destination for this evening was Westscott Bay, just around the back side of Roche Harbor. We chose to head north between Shaw and Orcas Islands rather than turn left at Lopez Head to go by Friday Harbor. Crane Island lies between Shaw and Orcas at the west end, with Wasp Passage to the south and Pole Pass to the north. Wasp Passage is the larger of the two passageways, and is used by the intra-island ferries. We went through Pole Pass, a narrow but fairly deep passageway that leads to Deer Harbor on the west side of Orcas. We continued on into San Juan Channel to the north shore of San Juan Island, where we met a 4 knot current from the incoming tide. We didn't have much further to go, though, and turned into Roche Harbor to make our way into Mosquito Pass and Westscott Bay.

Trav and Barb were anchored here, but when we made the final turn into the mouth of the bay what we saw were hundreds of crab pots. Today is the first day of crabbing in this area, and they were out in force. We slowly weaved through the crab buoys as we raised the Bar-T-Na on the radio. They were straight ahead of us just beyond the floating mine field.

We had a great visit aboard Potentate and had them stay for dinner. Erin prepared honey baked salmon and rice with green beans. Dessert was a special treat of peaches grilled in a rum and butter sauce. It was all yummy, and Trav took the leftover sauce back to marinate some steaks - or so he says.

Trav and I deployed a couple of crab traps in the evening - we're hoping they'll soon be filled with crabs. We plan on checking those and having a joint dinghy ride around the bay in the morning.