Lunch @ Roche Hbr Inn

Breakfast at Reid Hbr, Stuart Is

Visit to Turn Point Light House and the Whales!

We have tied up to a mooring buoy in Reid Harbor, Stuart Island, to spend two nights. Margie very much wanted to take the hike from the State Park to the Turn Point light house, about 5 miles round trip on mostly county dirt roads with some paths in the forest. On the way we stop at the legendary Stuart Island school house where the local children go for K - 8 educataion. It is a one teacher one room school house with varying number of students, 3 to 12 in number depending on the year. An entreprenour on the island has souvenir T shirts, post cards, hats that you take on the honor system and mail in the purchase price.

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Lightkeeper's House



 When you get to Turn Point you look out over Boundary Pass and the Canadian Gulf Islands, a panoramic view. It was a sunny, clear day with calm seas. Several large container ships bound for Vancouver passed around the point.

Light House at Turn Point





AND THEN THERE WERE WHALES!

 As we sat in the grass by the light house, Margie said it would be perfect if a pod of orca whales were to come along. Ask and ye shall receive. In a few minutes a pod of 15 -20 orca whales surrounded by whale watching boats came by close to shore heading north into Canada. There were all size whales, large and small. Their spouting was very audible. It  was great watching them from the point. A real highlight.





  

 











Popeye

This harbor seal has been a popular "attraction" at Friday Harbor for

years. He's partially blind and hangs out next to the fish store
hoping for dome hand outs. Very responsive to the crowd....a bit of a
ham!

View frm Fri. Hbr. Outstation Laundry!

Time to do laundry but who can complain with view like this!  That's the Lochearn Lassie II at the end of the dock with a blue hull.   Mount Baker, hidden in clouds today, can be seen on clear, sunny days in the distance.  The SYC Outstation is fairly quiet but in just a few days it will be full for the Fourth of July holiday.

Crab for dinner

Very rainy day but we walked to town to get crab! Still to early to
put out our pot but local fish mkt had plenty.

Mr. Handy

Rainy day in Fri. Hbr. Al is catching up on boat chores.

Fwd: Goodbye Seattle...c u in Sept.!

On a cool but sunny morning we caught the outgoing tide heading north.  We spent the first night at Port Ludlow...reflecting the new lifestyle we didn't want to "rush" across the straight in one day.   The plan is to stay in the US until we meet the O's in Sidney on the 4th of July.  After spending a few days with them in the Gulf Islands we will make our way north stopping in several favorite places in the Gulf Islands before crossing the Straight of Georgia mid July.  We will spend the rest of the summer along the Sunshine Coast and Desolation Sound area.  If all goes well we won't be home until Labor Day.

One last glimpse of Mt. Rainier!

Loading up to leave!

Al is loading the last few items before we push off.  He spent much of the last month going over all the systems on the boat and learning A LOT about our chartplotter and how it can be connected to our laptop.  The chartplotter is the navigation system that uses GPS to drive the boat.  Al must identify navigation points (waypoints) and then he makes a route from one waypoint to another.   We've tried to think of what we'll need for 2 1/2 months....books to read and for me several knitting projects!  Many summers we've gone boating and wished we could stay at a favorite spot another night!  Now we plan to do just that and really don't have a detailed itinerary.