Mt. Rainier to Mt. Baker

Point Hudson Marina with wooden boats


Cattle Point Lighthouse, San Juan Island. Site of Pig War and the American Camp that determined the Canada USA border to be the Haro Strait.


View from the Moran Mansion, Rosario

In Puget Sound, Mt. Rainier dominates the sky. We see it every clear day from Olympia to Port Townsend. When we cross the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Mt. Baker appears and orients us most of the way up the Strait of Georgia. Somehow it's reassuring to see the snowy summits and watch them grow and then recede as we go north.

Our crossing of the Strait of Juan de Fuca was well-timed and the weather held. Light winds and calm seas most of the 20 plus miles across open water, which can sometimes be trecherous. We reached Cattle Pass, the gate to the San Juan Islands, just after the tide had turned to flood and so our trip to Friday Harbor was also fast. There was no room at the marina there, so we sailed farther to Deer Harbor, a quiet and friendly marina. It's a popular spot for kayakers. Children here love to play in the intertidal areas. It's fun to see them get close to the sea life, and get their bare feet wet scooping up sand from the little beach. Across our dock finger was a sailboat from Vancouver, BC and the young couple aboard was good company for the evening and morning. Henry and I shared a double chocolate ice cream cone before turning in.

Yesterday, we intended to sail to Rosario, the 100-year-old Moran mansion and marina on Orcas Island that we love so much, but the winds died and we had to start the motor. Oh. well. One can't complain, the sunshine was brilliant. We've visited here numerous times on Jules and have wonderful memories of this place. It isn't the same now, since it was sold for $5.5 million last year. The mansion has been turned into a museum, so the pools in the house and on the point are no longer available to the public and one must pay a small amount for access. But, the mansion is even now in better repair, I think. Christopher Peacock still relates the history of this place and plays the fine Steinway piano and the Aolian organ every afternoon in the music room. It's a trip backward in time and the setting is so lovely, we are glad to be back. Everyone on the dock has gone to the town of Eastsound for the afternoon and evening fireworks. I'm sitting in the old mansion on an old chair, looking out the window now that this blog entry is finished.