Les, Leo and I kicked off our 2024 cruising season with a successful passage from Port Ludlow to Hunter Bay, Lopez Island, a favorite anchorage of ours in the San Juan archipelago. Great Northern functioned flawlessly… well except for our Naiad stabilizer system. It appears there is a leak in the system somewhere so we turned it off and crossed the Strait of Juan de Fuca without it. Not to worry… Great Northern is an exceptionally stable boat with or without it, and the seas were mild and forgiving.
This are several reasons for visiting Hunter Bay again: It is an anchorage that we can reach within 4.5 hours from Port Ludlow, the shallow bay offers great holding for our anchoring system, it is seldom crowded and it is exceptionally picturesque. This is a view to the East through Lopez Pass from the anchorage taken at 0458 this morning. You see… the early birds were chirping. That woke me up and I noticed a slightly pink haze filtering through my port lights. I got up and snapped a few pics to document the occasion. This is one of my favorites:
7/4/24 0459:
Looking towards the West at 7/4/24 0500:
Enchanting, eh? And such a far cry from Avalon on the 4th a few years back:
A world apart, eh? But Avalon does have its merits…
Salish Sea Cruising With Blair, Les, Leo, and Bliss 