Cruising the Pacific Northwest

After a peaceful night at Jones Island, we headed up President Channel (bucking the current) to Sucia Island, which is definitely the jewel of the San Juan Islands. Rounding the corner into Echo Bay, I was very surprised to see the anchorage was almost empty (Thursday @ noon in August). We headed over near the lineal moorage and dropped the anchor.

After pulling on the anchor to verify it was well set, we had some breakfast then lowered the large dingy to motor over to do some exploring on my favorite place in the San Juan’s. The all girl crew was excited to get some exercise and to see the entire island.

We walked over to Shallow Bay and admired some of the very nice boats that were hanging on mooring buoys in the bay. Then we hiked over to Fossil Cove and Fox Cove on the south side of the island. The girls were wading in the warm waters of Fox Cove and talking to a group of Kayakers that had just paddled half way around the Island.

We briefly went back to the boat for some Lunch, then putzed over to Ewing Cove, beached the boat and hiked from Ewing all the way to Shallow Bay. It’s a beautiful hike with stunning vistas of Echo Bay as you round each point along the trail. While stopping for a break, we noticed the rest of the flotilla arriving, even the two boats that had been missing in action in Anacortes for so long! Whoo Hoo!

After hiking back to the dingy at Ewing, we did some exploring along the north shore of Sucia and then putzed over the raft-up to say hello. A large group dinner was planned for the evening and we headed back to Sea Eagle to clean up for dinner.

Still here? Dinner was awesome and we didn’t head back to Sea Eagle until well after dark. Some idiot in a blue hulled sailboat anchored right next to us and sure enough, during the big Thunderstorms at night, drug their anchor. I was awakened at 4 AM to pouring rain and I could see that the other boat was clearly headed our way, so I fired up the main engine and pulled the anchor in the dark. NOT my idea of a fun time! We motored over to a spot near Ewing Cove and dropped the hook until it became light at 06:00, then headed for Roche Harbor to pick up Ken Houlder.

We decided to add Sea Eagle’s name and logo to the front and sides of the boat. There was a nice Sea Eagle graphic on the transom, but you really couldn’t see the name of the vessel due to the indent. I called Eric Nelson at Tacoma Rubber Stamp and sent over the logo that we’d be using for our shirts. He scaled the logo up and cut out the vinyl.

The small gray logos went on the outsides of the bulwarks easily, fooling us into thinking this was going to be an “easy” boat job (finally!). Then we started on the Large black graphics across the front of the flybridge and the “fun” began. The compound curve of the flybridge and the big straight line all the way across the top of the logo I designed didn’t like each other much (moral, don’t let an engineer design artwork). After some head scratching, we hinged the vinyl side to side and rolled it out.

I think the graphics project turned out pretty well, but time will tell if I want to keep the big black and white logo across the front or not. The gray logos on the sides are a lot more subtle. Any opinions?

I also finally got around to changing the oil, plugs and filters of the 40 HP Honda on the large dingy. Just a few more jobs (and a few more days) and we should be ready for the San Juan’s.

Now where did that list of boat repairs go….

We spent the Cinco de Mayo weekend on the Sea Eagle and were fortunate to be able to catch up with Scott’s cousins (Debbie and Walter MacVittie). We hadn’t seen them in something like 25 years and really enjoyed entertaining them on our new boat. Especially since they came prepared with Margaritas and great attitudes. We are hoping to catch up with them again before the boat heads for the Great White North!

On Monday, Jeff Merrill flew in briefly, to do some training on boat systems. The Boyd’s seem to have a pretty good handle on how the boat worked, with a few Easter Eggs that Jeff had us searching the boat for. Jeff did a great job during the purchase of the boat, providing outstanding documentation and photos of every nook and cranny on the boat. If you’re in the market for a Nordhavn, Jeff is the guy to talk to. His service before, during and after the sale have been awesome!

Tuesday morning, we moved the boat over to a shipyard in Richmond for some repair work, before hoping on a plane and heading home after a long, mind expanding weekend. We’re both starting to feel at home on our new Nordhavn and are looking forward to bringing her home in the near future.