McMicken Island Bound

Friday, Sept. 3, 2010

We launched the Zipper over at East Bay and then I drove the truck & empty trailer over to the marina and met Kim. She had Hank the dog as her crew mate for the short voyage, and I had Rocky the little demon dog for mine. This was going to be his first boat trip adventure.

We left the West Bay dock at 1450 for a Labor Day weekend trip to McMicken Island. Weather is mostly sunny and warm but the barometer is falling and there's mare's tails in the sky. I am reminded of the saying, "Mares tails and mackerel scales make lofty ships carry low sails." This means the weather is going to change. But for now it's a beautiful day. There's a 10+ knot breeze out of the WSW. Olympia is crowded because of the Harbor Days celebration and Tug Boat races.

When we left the tide was high, or near high, so we cruised straight up Budd Inlet instead of following the channel and going W around Olympia Shoal. We still stayed well E of the Olympia Shoal. Several other boats were plotting the same course which generally should be avoided because of shoal water. There were lots of boats out and boat traffic - boats coming into Olympia and Budd Inlet and boats leaving. We rounded Boston Harbor, made our way up Dana Passage and then N into Case Inlet. The cruise was quite enjoyable and uneventful.

We dropped the hook at 1730 and in 25' of water well W of McMicken Island, or about half-way between the island and the Hartstine Island shore. We were well N of the tombolo that connected McMicken Island to Hartstine and with the tide so high you saw no sign of it. There's a brisk SW breeze blowing through the anchorage. There's six boats here not counting the Independence.

After arriving I noticed that my depth sounder was not always working. I checked it and found that it was "chock-a-block" full of mussels to about the size of a volleyball. I layed down on the swim step and removed the little bastards - "no more free rides for you!"

We had a leisurely evening waiting for our friends in the SV Mary O'Farrell to arrive. They arrived just before 2000 and we met for a quick drink but we were all pretty tired, so the event was short lived. The SV Mary O'Farrell was anchored about 100 yards W of us.

Stats: 13.0 nm, average speed 5.4 knots, running time 2:44, ending engine hours 6073.2