A Visit to Roche Harbor and Garrison Bay
On October 21st we left Blind Bay to visit Roche Harbor. It was a little more than 2 hours to get there. Float planes fly in and out of Roche regularly (especially in the summer) and we had a great view of this one that took off right next to us!
We walked around Roche Harbor a bit and captured this great shot of the marina and harbor behind.
In the far back left side of all the boats, that’s Aurelia anchored out there!
After one night in Roche Harbor, and expecting some more winds, we decided to move to Garrison Bay (which should be more protected). Once we were settled we took Lia to shore to hike around English Camp (check out this link for history of the area).
After we cleaned a crab out back, these guys hung around the boat for a while looking for more scraps.
Greg got the drone up for some great aerial shots of the area.
While we were there, we took the time to get a couple of jobs done. Installing Starlink and cleaning the storage and bilge area under our bed.
And then the winds came. The highest gust we saw was 45 knots. Ugh! Not a fun night. Cindie was up from 1:30 on. Greg got a couple hours of sleep so one of us was a bit more rested. These winds are no fun. The boat handles it well (anchor has held every time), but it is bumpy, noisy, and we swing quite a bit. I’m understanding now why people don’t live at anchor much in the winter time in this area. Luckily we have dock space reserved in about 2 weeks.
The sky, looking toward Roche Harbor, was very pretty.
The next morning, October 24th, there was still a bit of wind - but nothing like the night before!
More winds were coming in the next 2 days, so we decided to head back to Blind Bay (Shaw Island), which is situated more in the center of the San Juan Islands. Hopefully the winds will be a bit less in there! Here’s us on our way.
