From the Spit to Blind Bay and a Bit…5/14/21

We are anchored in Blind Bay on Shaw Island. We will put the Spit, that we recently disembarked from on our list of places to return to. That, and Hunter Bay, a very special anchorage, relatively removed from the madding crowd as the Islands go and quiet beyond belief. Ear ringing quiet… Well… except for the eagle shrieks and the ravens utterances and aerobatics that attempt to keep the eagles them away from theirs…

The anchorage at the Spit, at least on the South side, has great holding in sticky mud, and there is plenty of room to wander about in the skiff, circumnavigating Frost Island, a lovely repast, and a delightful walk on the gravelly, sandy beach until we tired of that and sat amongst the driftwood to contemplate the grandness of it all. Did I mention that there is a saltwater lagoon to boot. Birds fly thither and yon, scratching out territories, hunting for the little bits and bots that make up their daily fare.

Upon arrival at Blind Bay and shortly thereafter… I commenced upon the creation of another fragrant batch of Pollo Affumicato y Fungi con Orrichetti. It was Marya’s suggestion after all. We concocted a potluck repast with Brad / Marya, John / LuAnne, and usn’s… (Blair, Les, Leo). Marya and Brad brought the most gastronomically excellent dish; an Italian sausage, pasta recipe to die for, shared at an anchorage amongst newly found friends. We’d brought a simple Tamale Pie that seemed to go over well and both LuAnne and Maryna wanted the recipe. Well… I’m more than happy to reply with that requestas always, only I do not have a recipe as of this typing. I made it up on the spot based on what I had in our cruising larder. That being the case, I promised to send the recommendations for the recipe out, and suggested that I could send my Pollo recipe in its stead to assuage my guilt about not having a pie recipe at hand. Ah… the cruising life.

Whatev…

As I mentioned, we are now at Blind Bay on Shaw Island, just a long hour away from the South side of Spencer Spit (5 whole miles). So how did we make our way here from the Spit? I’m sure to find you caring deeply about that matter. First we had to conquer a bit of fog:

Yes we have radar. Yes we have AIS. Yes we have multiple chart plotters. What we don’t have is radar vision that can see logs meandering about in the brine. So we waited a bit, made a breakfast scramble of bacon, red potatoes, green onion fresh from my glass garden, garlic, a dash of Umami spice, a dash of Trader Joe’s Chili Lime seasoning spice, with a blop of sour cream topping it all off. Ole! We sipped some coffee, Checked email, and basically lollygagged. Why not? Blind Bay was only an hour away (another 5 miles).

So we were off and made our way around Frost Island for starters, and waddled our way into the passage where Thatcher Pass and Lopez Sound merge and squeeze between Blakely Island and Decatur Island. The deep water passages then continue on separating Orcas Island, Lopez Island, Leo Reef, Humphrey Head, Hankin Point, Point Hudson on Shaw Isand of course, and then squirts the unwary or well traveled into Harney Channel… that leads to, of all places, Blind Bay and West Sound on Orcas Island. Phew! The sites and waters just blew past us… or we blew past them… well, really we just trundled along at 6 knots minding our own business and staying out of the way of a few ferries.

A thriving metropolis of a bay, especially in Mid May, Blind Bay has collected a few interesting denizens at anchor:

Blind bay is a delightful anchorage. There can be a bit of wake action from the ferries, but mostly they are going slow while landing and not causing too much of a problem. There is a neat little store that has basics for sustenance just the other side of the Shaw Island ferry landing and just across Harney Channel on Orcas Island next to the ferry landing is an unbelievably stocked grocery store, restaurant, cidery, gift shops, and roads to wander… I’ll cover Orcas Village next.