Lopez Island, San Juan Archipelago; 5/11/21

10,000 to 18,500 years ago, the Pleistocene glaciers advanced south from the mountains of western British Columbia.  One of the last, the Fraser, well over 1 mile thick, ground its way through this area, scouring, smoothing and rounding whatever rock was in it’s path.  Softer rock was gouged and plowed aside leaving the deepened channels of Haro and Rosario straits.  The harder rock that remained became what are now the San Juan Islands.  It is our plan to continue our explorations of the multitudes of rocky coves, gravelly shorelines and deep forests that shape this cruising paradise.

We slipped the dock lines on Saturday, May 8^th and motored away from Port Ludlow that has served as our home port for the past two winters.  We love it there, but the wanderlust has a foothold in our shared psyches… and is calling us to continue our explorations of the Salish Sea.  Bound by that Siren call, we continue our quest to examine the collective habitations of Thither and Yon. On our passage we passed yet again through the Townsend Canal under the famous bridge I covered in an earlier post that cataloged the demise of a fine catamaran. As we passed Port Townsend and Point Wilson and entered Admiralty Inlet the water was a bit unsettled. Leo didn’t like that at all, even with the stabilizers on. As we passed out of Admiralty and angled North around Point Partridge everything settled down nicely. After a 4 hour cruise across the eastern end of the Strait we found ourselves at the East entrance to Lopez Sound between Lopez Island (on the left) and Decatur Island (on the right).

What a great place to anchor for a few days, eh? Next, depending on the weather and which way the wind decides to blow, we will most likely motor up to Spencer Spit, or Swifts Bay or… an number of anchorages within a 20 mile radius. That is how it is up here.