Weekend trip to Orcas

Click on photos to see titles in the lower left corner. The lobsterboat Happy Destiny belongs to the friends we cruise with. A "buy boat" is a vessel that goes alongside purse seiners and gillnetters on the fishing grounds to buy and load their fish for the processor the buy boat represents. The machinery on the aft deck is the pump that sucks the fish out of the fishboat's ice hold.

Looks like fun...

Marin

very nice cruising ground

Cheers

Last pic must be Bellingham as I don't recognize it.

After 8 years in Alaska it's hard to imagine being out on the water in this heat. You kids got AC? I may be a fall and spring boater ... not to mention winter.

Happy Destiny looks loaded.

Nice pics Marin.

Eric-- It was actually quite pleasant out in the islands. It wasn't near as hot, or didn't seem near as hot, as it's been on the mainland. And there was almost always a nice northerly breeze. In fact the nights got a wee bit chilly under totally clear skies.

So it was somewhat warmer during the day than we prefer (anything over 70F we consider to be too hot) but for the most part it was certainly tolerable.

Yes, the harbor entrance is the north entrance to Bellingham, with the Bellingham Cold Storage plant and BCS's big ice dispensor and a couple of fish processors on the long pier.

I don't think Happy Destiny is particulary loaded. There were the owners on board, but that was it. He runs it at about 9-10 knots these days to conserve fuel (normal cruise speed is 15-16 knots.

Quite a few years ago he designed and had fabricated the big, aluminum stern davits to carry his dinghy. Initially it was a 12' aluuminum Duraboat and motor that didn't tow very well (the motivation for the davits). Then he sold that and got the 10' Bullfrog that's there now. It's the best dinghy/shoreboat on the planet as far as he and I are concerned, but it's not light.

He's talking about changing anchors. He currently has a Bruce but it's been very unreliable for them. Whatever he decides on, he wants to go to a lot more chain in the rode. Right now he has about 60' of chain and the rest nylon. Besides getting more reliability in terms of setting and holding, he feels this will help bring the bow down a bit.

Looks a bit like Maine on steroids.

Those lobster boat types like to run bow high.

I hate Orcas (Orcatraz). I was sent to summer camp there as a youth. The first day I got beat up, then I got an appendicitis, but the doctor thought I was faking it so I laid in my bunk bed for a few days until i lost consciousness at which point the helivac'ed me to the mainland for surgery. I have never been back.

Well, as long as you don't go to summer camp, get beat up, or contract appendicitis, Orcas is an okay place.

East Sound, the (small) main settlement, is very touristy during the summer with boutique shops and B&Bs, and Moran State Park, the large park with lakes and campgrounds and which includes Mt. Constitution where I took the photo of Rosario Strait, is very popular with Washingtonians.

When we go Orcas, we stay at an out-of-the-way, quiet boatyard, and our main objective is to visit friends who raise horses in the nearby hills above Crow Valley, an agricultural part of the island that, if tourists and campers visit it at all, it's simply to drive through it on the way to or from the ferry.

Like most places, Orcas is a place where one can find whatever one wants in terms of the experience one has. The Orcas we know,with its ravens and purple martins and horses and cattle, is far, far different from the picture of Orcas that is painted for the tourists and campers. But they have a great time in their way, and we have a great time in ours.

Marin said:

.... anything over 70F we consider to be too hot).......

Click to expand...

Wimps!

Much under 70 and I have to find a jacket and long pants. I hate that!

Nice pics Marin. I recognised the guest dock at West Sound in your bad weather post. Very nice place, I enjoyed it. I was at the end of the dock for my avatar pic.

Orcas Island is an incredible destination to explore in Washington. We can enjoy a lot of adventures activities in this region. It is located in the northwestern corner of Washington state in San Juan County, Washington.