Aboard Astraea

Seaplane departing Deer Harbor

We woke up to an seaplane landing right next to us! Pretty sweet. We were able to catch some pictures of it on the way out while making breakfast. Seaplanes are all over the place in the San Juan Islands.

We prefer to stay on the water...

This was the day we were headed to Canada. We hauled up the anchor after breakfast and started making our way West towards Haro Strait. We were about to become international cruisers! It was a little rough coming out of Spieden Channel, south of Stuart Island, because of the current and the wind. I got a little nervous that we were going to be crashing into five foot waves the whole way to Sidney. Luckily they subsided as we motored further into Haro Strait. As always, the wind was on the nose, but we needed to run the motor to charge the batteries anyway.

I watched closely on the chart plotter as we crossed the line into Canada. I was weary about not having access to the internet through my phone for a few days. Yes, I’m pathetic. The tide was still going out as we entered Tsehum Harbor. We had to pull into Van Isle Marina to clear into customs. It was pretty easy. At a phone booth on the dock, Nate dialed the 1-800 number that connected him directly to a customs agent. He told them our boat name and registration number, our names, and answered a few simple questions. The whole process took less than five minutes. We were given a confirmation number that we posted in our window for the rest of our stay in Canada.

This is not what we plan to liveaboard

After clearing customs, we headed west further into the harbor towards Sidney North Sannich Yacht Club (SNSYC). We needed to scope out possible anchorages in case the reciprocals we were hoping to use were full. On the way, we saw some pretty interesting livaboards in the harbor. Luckily there was still a few reciprocal spots open at SNSYC so we were able to pull in and use the free facilities. We didn’t have any “loonies” (Canadian dollar coins) to operate a shower, so the free, high pressure showers provided by the club were very much appreciated!

Sidney waterfront

We decided to walk into town for dinner. It was about 2.5 miles, a 45 minute leisurely stroll. We walked all the way to the waterfront area and found a restaurant for dinner. Mussels and clams and nachos were on the menu for us with our pitcher of Spyhopper Honey Brown at Rumrunner Pub and Restaurant.

After dinner, our next stop was Safeway to pick up some more food. I also discovered the candy aisle which outside of the US is full of Cadbury chocolate! They sell my favorite candy coated chocolate eggs all year long!! They also have ones with pop rocks mixed into the chocolate and they were delicious! Not as big of a selection of Cadbury as in Australia, but still better than here in the US.

They have pop rocks in the chocolate!

We called a cab and rode back to the marina with our bags of groceries and said “Hello” to our neighbors, Margie and Chuck, in a Cal 2-46. They’re pretty cool cruisers from Eureka, CA and they’re boat is definitely the layout we’re interested in. Inside their center cockpit pilothouse boat was plenty of storage, a V-berth, private aft stateroom and to Nate’s joy, a big engine room with a workbench. We talked about travel, boats and getting over to Victoria the next day by boat. Before we knew it, it was after 11:00 at night! Time flies when you’re with boat people.

: Seaplane departing Deer Harbor

: We prefer to stay on the water…

: This is not what we plan to liveaboard

: Sidney waterfront

: They have pop rocks in the chocolate!

Leaving the Orcas Island Yacht Club reciprocal dock behind.

On the morning of our fifth anniversary, we headed over to Doe Bay from West Sound after a lazy morning and free showers atthe Orcas Island Clubhouse. It was about 3 hours motoring with light wind, too light for sailing. The most difficult part of the passage was going through Obstruction Pass between Orcas and Obstruction Islands where we fought the current coming through at about 3 knots. When your boat normally only goes 5 knots, pushing against that current really slows you down.

When I was on deployment, I spent a lot of time surfing the web and dreaming about our San Juan Islands cruise. One of the sites I stumbled on was for the Doe Bay Resort and Retreat because they have hot mineral water soaking tubs like we relaxed in when we lived in Japan. Finally we were out cruising, making dreams come true!

Love the views

We called ahead to Doe Bay Resort and Retreat and reserved the mooring buoy. When we got to Doe Bay, I thought the mooring ball was too close to the shallow rocky coast, so I rowed out a stern anchor and set us up with our port side toward the shore. We rowed ashore and had some difficulty pulling the dinghy onto the beach because it was full of water. Hitting the rocky beach put a bunch of small cracks in the bottom layer of the dinghy, filling the foam core with water. Just take a look at the short video I made about our dinghy cracks. Natalie and I decided that if the inside plastic cracked, we’d probably sink, and towing a waterlogged boat for the rest of the trip wasn’t a good idea, so we decided to go to Friday Harbor the next day and get a new dinghy.

Natalie found a gently sloping waterfall

Ashore at Doe Bay we checked in and paid $15 each to use the mineralwater soaking tubs. Before jumping in, we explored the grounds and Natalie found a cool waterfall that runs down into the bay. A little while later, we hopped in the tubs and relaxed while taking in the scenic view out across Doe Bay into Rosario Strait, perfectly framed by pine boughs. It was great, letting the hot water soak our tired sailor muscles.

A quick dip in the cold tub to refresh and then back to hot tubs. While we were soaking, a spike buck deer, still in velvet, came up to the grass around the tubs. We tried to be quiet while reaching for the camera, but it took off before we could get a picture. Later, after eating a delicious dinner at the Cafe, we saw a lot more deer while we were walking around the resort grounds.