Up at 2:30 am Sunday morning 12/28 and on the road by 3:15 to pick up my paddling partner Rob for our planned three day, two night paddle around Orcas Island. Took 10 minutes to get out of my subdivision due to the 10-15 inches on snow/slush on the roads, I-405 is clear so it's easy driving to Anacortes to catch the 5:30am ferry to Orcas Island, WA. We launch the boats at 7:50am from North Beach, what a beautiful, clear, crisp morning which is very unexpected. Due to a constant progression of snow storms over the past many weeks, I can't remember the last time I saw the sun actually shine in this part of the world. Our plan this morning is to paddle west, cross Presidents Channel and travel counter clockwise around Waldron Island. The island has few year round inhabitants, no stores, no electricity, yeah kind of remote. Paddling along the north side of the island in bright sunlight we saw several river otter's playing in the shallow crystal clear cold water, otters always look like they are having a blast. The snow covered hills of the Canadian islands to our northwest look pristine in the distance. We stopped and streched briefly on the south end of the island which is a nature preserve. There we saw seals, a couple of sea lions, a bunch of eagles and loads of wintering birds and best of all, bright sunlight !! We paddled about a 1/4 way around the east side of Waldron Island to check out the remains of limestone loading docks last used in the early 1900's. The island has beautiful rock formations and it is well worth the visit. From there we headed south to Jones Island State Park. The wind (15- 20K range) was out of the SW and opposed the current, so there where a few bumpy spots on the ride down to Jones which is our first day's destination. We stopped to stretch on the north end of the island which was protected from the wind but decided to paddle around and camp on the south side of the island just to take advantage of the one shelter on the island. A good plan, as by 2:00pm our tents where up and a light rain started to fall. No surprise that we had the entire island to ourselves. With a couple of hours of daylight we hiked all over the island, which still had some snow on hills and dense woods. Other than the raven's call and the eagles squawking above in the trees it was a wonderfully peaceful setting.
Last night the wind howled through the trees enough to wake me several times. As dawn broke it appeared the wind which was forecaster to be out of the southwest for our whole trip was more from the east southeast. The weather person did caution a fast moving low pressure system was heading towards the interior today with a good deal of associated rain.
Monday morning we are packed up and on the water at 9:00 am. We paddled towards Pole Pass on our way east towards Doe Bay, our second nights planned camp site. The slog across Westsound was energy consuming and took longer than we had planned due to the strong 15-20k winds and some pretty good sized wind waves hitting us head on . Stopped at the Orcas ferry landing and loaded our bellies with coffee, a great sandwich, apple and gator-aid from the grocery store. The temperature dropped noticeably during our 20 minute stay, just an hour before it was 46 degrees now it was 38 degrees. Left the ferry dock at 11:30am heading towards Doe Bay. The heavy rain with occasional hail is now coming down sideways as we near Foster Point. By the time we got to Diamond Point the wind was howling and we are fully exposed and totally committed, as there are few obvious places to bail out along the 20-30 foot high solid rock faced shoreline. The water is really jumping as the wind whipped up really big crazy wind waves. Crossing East Sound was definitely not possible so we decided the City of Eastsound was our destination this day. With the wind to our backs, it was brace left, brace right, stern rudder, stroke, brace, brace, brace, brace and more bracing for the next 3 1/2 to four miles with lots of looking over the shoulder just to see how big the next wave to contend with was going to be. Latter we discovered our timing was just right (?), we where in 40-45 mph winds with higher gusts that blew off the tops of the waves. I'm betting there was more than one Orcas resident ready to call the Coast Guard. Once safely tucked in East Sound and out of the wind's fury we finished our paddle landing at the city park near the Outlook Inn at 2:30ish. Even got a FREE ride from the Body Boat Blade Transportation Company to North Beach to pick up my truck. The other third of the 'round Orcas' trip will be scheduled in spring.. Trip covered about 33 miles.
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