Day 1 - Eagle Is.

Thursday, July 14, 2011
Maritime superstition is that you never start a trip on a Friday.  So, we left on Thursday afternoon.  I had spent days preparing for the trip so the final loading up of the boat was pretty easy. All the victuals (groceries) were loaded, the water tanks topped off, and clothes for the trip were packed.  The engine and all the other systems were fully checked and ready for the summer trip.

Left West Bay Marina at 1629 for our annual summer trip N.  I untied and pushed the boat out of our slip full of anticipation for a good trip.  Kim helped me out of the slip and followed in the Zipper where we set up the towing rig just outside of the marina.  Skies are cloudy with a light breeze from the south.  We had rain earlier in the day but no rain for our first short leg of the trip.  The tide was rising and so we would be fighting the current through Dana Passage but I didn't care - we were leaving.  We made our way up Budd Inlet, rounding Boston Harbor to get our last glimpse of Olympia.  Dana Passage was calm, only the ripples from the current stirred the waters. We only saw one boat out and that was a sailboat going N up Case Inlet near Devils Head, other than that it seemed that we had the whole South Sound to ourselves.  We made our way up Drayton Passage and to our first stop of Eagle Is.  It is said that the local natives used to burn the vegetation on Eagle Is. to grow a good crop of berries.  Now the island is impassable with salal bushes. 

Appraching Eagle Is. from the W.

We made Eagle Is. at just past 1900 and tied up to an open mooring buoy at 1910.  No other boats are here.  The only inhabitants to greet us are the many harbor seals that call this home and a pair of nesting eagles.  The tide just started to turn and is now ebbing.  We may not get to see a sunset but it’ll still be nice.  We’re having a simple soup for dinner since it's kind of cool and dreary out.  Another trawler showed up and took the other mooring buoy about two hours after us.

It is so nice to be on our way.  I finished off the evening with a small tot of whisky to celebrate Day 1 of the trip.

Stats: Ending engine hours: 6093.1, 3.0 hrs elapsed, 14.9 nm, average speed 5.6 kts, 2:41 cruising time