Our plans were to cruise to Everett today. We've enjoyed stopping there the past few years to break up the long run between La Conner and home. Past experience has shown us that late in the afternoon, at least whenever we're there, the wind picks up and blows into the harbor from the west. It's a reliable enough pattern that Jetty Island is an afternoon and evening haven for kite surfers, especially on weekends. Keeping this in mind, we left La Conner around 9 o'clock in the morning for an early arrival in Everett.
It was low tide when we left, which makes the normally scenic Swinomish Channel and Hole in the Wall south of La Conner even more dramatic in appearance. As we rounded the corner out of Hole in the Wall and lined up with the range markers at the far end near Whidbey Island, the channel was clearly defined for us, with tide flats and rocks on either side of us.
We had the current in our favor, and continued on at with the engines at idle and our speed at about 6.5 knots. We had left the dock first and we were enjoying the scenery as we waited for the Bar-T-Na to catch up with us – not that that would be a problem with our top speed limited to about 8.5 knots while nursing the port engine's heating problems.
As we approached Goat Island we could see to the south that where normally Camano Island's shore would appear was a pretty solid looking fog bank. The sun was shining and we thought that would make fairly short order of the fog, but we were prepared to follow the Camano shoreline via instruments if necessary. It wasn't necessary at all, as it dissipated before our very eyes over the next half hour.
The Swinomish Slough is a dredged channel that takes us to the far side of Skagit Bay. The bay is a large body of water, but probably 80 percent of it is either one or two feet deep or completely shoal at low tide so it's important to stay to the west side of the red buoys after exiting the slough itself. As we were passing Goat Island we could see a boat stationary just beyond the exit of the slough and wondered if they were aground. Usually it's the sailboats with their deeper draft that get hung up in this area, but as we neared we could see it was a large power boat, the Big Brivet, which had left La Conner about an hour before us. They were indeed aground, and tilted slightly to starboard. We could see that they had used their dinghy to set an anchor out in front of them so that when the tide came in they would stay in relatively the same spot to minimize damage. Unlike sailboats, where the lowest part is the keel, power boats have rudders, struts, shafts and propellers hanging down, usually below the keel, and very prone to damage in this situation. We didn't envy their position, and kept our speed at idle as we passed so as not to send them any wake. Hopefully when the tide rises a couple of feet they'll find that they were in soft mud and didn't suffer major damage.
By now Bar-T-Na had fallen into "formation", and we continued on towards Camano Island and followed its western shore. The sun was out and the water was calm, a perfect day for a leisurely cruise. We occasionally traded stories about various points of interest as we cruised along, and eventually we could see Hat Island, off the shore of Everett, in the distance. We watched Hat Island gradually grow closer for at least an hour or more, eventually passing it on its eastern shore as we headed towards the Port of Everett. The landmark carrier Abraham Lincoln and its accompanying fleet were not in port at the mouth of the Snohomish River so we missed out on that view as we cruised by their empty berths and on to the guest dock. We arrived in Everett around 1 p.m., leaving us plenty of time to kick back and enjoy our new surroundings.
It was past lunch time, and we had various leftovers to take care of before returning to our home port on Lake Union. We heated up the remains of the salmon and crab chowder we'd had a few days earlier, and I also cracked about 3 crabs that were remaining in the refrigerator. I had a good sized helping, gave a dose to Trav and still had some to pack away in the freezer to add to the next batch of seafood chowder, wherever that may be. Later in the evening we had some leftover rice and sausage casserole as we continued to clean out the refrigerator.
The evening's entertainment was a full game of dominos, from the double twelve's down to the double blanks. We had an enjoyable evening on our last night of cruising. It was just before midnight when we returned to the Potentate, and the air had warmed up quite a bit so we went for a walk down the length of the breakwater dock and back and then on to shore to walk the grounds there. One of the "highlights" of that walk was seeing some rats scurrying under the restaurants Woodfire Grill and Anthony's Home Port. I'm sure they would be delighted to hear about that.
Tomorrow we head for home. Trav has secured a slip in Edmonds for the next month, as his Kenmore slip is rented out through mid-September. Our plan is for the Bar-T-Na to leave before us and get situated at their slip, which is at the end of a pier. We'll come in an hour or so later and pick them up for a ride through the locks and a ride home so they can get their car. At least, that's the plan. We'll report on actual events tomorrow.
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