Monday, October 7, 2019

Watmough Bay and James Island, Sept 22-23rd

After transiting around the South end of the San Juans, we spent a couple of quiet nights at Watmough Bay and James Island. Though it was gray most of the day we had a little bit of sunshine just before sunset:





Thawed out some prawns for our favorite pasta dish:



Kelpy anchorage!


Another frontal system forecast with SE winds, so we headed to a sheltered little park service dock on James Island, a Washington State marine park on the east side of Decatur island - just across Rosario Straits from our next destination, Anacortes. After a pretty squirrely landing (crazy currents and backeddies all around the dock) we secured safely and had the island all to ourselves except for a couple of day visitors who just stayed for an hour or two.


A break in the rain gave us a chance to do some exploring:



James island is like two tiny islands connected by a saddle in the middle. The dock is in a little cove on the West side of the saddle. A 100 yard walk from the dock brings you to the East side of the saddle where you can see Cypress Island and Fidalgo Island/Anacortes on the other side of Rosario Straits. 


We hiked a loop trail around the Southern part of the island. Definitely felt like fall with the leaves turning color and a chill in the air:





Slugs!







Kona: "When is it going to stop raining?"


The wind started to blow a bit around dinner time, and it was a very dark and blustery night. Fortunately, we had good protection in our little cove, and all was quiet except for the wind overhead, the rain coming down, and the occasional patter of little feet as the local racoons explored the deck of our boat in the middle of the night.


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