San Juan Traverse

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San Juan Traverse
Anacortes – Friday Harbor

9/4/07

I picked Marc up at about 4:30am. There had been an amazing thunderstorm in Tacoma the night before, with the accompanying light show that we rarely (as in never), get here in the Pacific Northwest. I had stayed up to watch the electric sky as the storm moved slowly through the area, and as a result, I hadn't gotten nearly enough sleep. But this trip had been on the calendar for a month or so, and we were going, light show or no light show. The plan was to paddle from Anacortes to Friday Harbor, then catch the first available ferry (a free ride going east), back to where we started.

We got to Washington Park in Anacortes by 7:15 and we were on the water a half-hour later. Visibility was poor; we couldn't see more than a quarter mile at the best times, less than that the rest of the time. The first order of business was to cross Rosario Strait in this pea soup, across a busy shipping channel where ferries and freighters dwell. We angled south to stay clear of the active ferry lanes and as the land behind us faded into the mist, we became completely dependent on our compasses.

Fog has a way of getting inside your head, turning you around, playing with all sense of direction you may normally possess. I had told Marc before we started that, because of the thick conditions, I expected we would experience moments of doubt as we made the crossing. We did have a few.

We could hear boats in the foggy distance, and there were a few that we changed course for, but it was unlikely that they ever saw us. This knowledge that we were invisible and that our own vision was so impaired, made our other senses pick up the slack. Our ears became tuned to hear distant rumblings of ship's screws. We sniffed the air for diesel exhaust.

We made landfall just off James Island, four miles from the start and right on target. The incoming current pushed us quickly into Thatcher Pass and we paddled westward along the north shore of Decatur Island. Although the fog was still thick, it was starting to break apart in places and we could see the hump of Frost Island, our next landmark, off to the northwest.

Just behind Frost Island is Spencer Spit State Park. We had been on the water for a little more than two hours when we came ashore at the end of the spit for a snack and a stretch of the legs. The expanse of Lopez Sound was still socked in to the south, but we could see the shoreline of Orcas Island off to the north, where the skies were growing lighter as the day progressed.

After twenty minutes, we got back in the boats and shoved off. Seals surrounded our kayaks for a minute or two just off of tiny Flower Island, just north of the spit. There wasn't much current left from the incoming tide, but what there was of it helped push us up toward Upright Head, where the Lopez ferry landing is located. Rounding that corner, we crossed over to the Shaw Island side and worked our way south and west toward Friday Harbor. We went inside of Canoe island and paddled past fishing platforms and nets that were anchored to the rocks just off the Shaw Island shore.

The sky wasn't blue yet, but the fog was gone. Almost gone, actually, as tendrils of misty vapor stillswirled around the tops of the trees and the distant points of land. San Juan Island was easily visible, however, and we crossed the channel to get to the east entrance to Friday Harbor. Past gazillion-dollar waterfront homes we jealously made our way into the harbor proper, where the ferry sat at the dock, the 1:00pm sailing about to get underway.

We didn't make that ferry. But we made the next one. We sailed back to Anacortes under clear blue skies and a bright, warm sun. Another great day on the water.

Ken Campbell