Travel

Sailing in the San Juan Islands: Labor Day Weekend, 2015

As discussed in previous posts (primarily the route plan), this past weekend I took nine of my friends with me on a sailing charter trip in the San Juan Islands, north of Seattle. I’d lived on Orcas Island from 1990-1992 as a child while my dad was the pastor of Orcas Island Community Church, and hadn’t been back since. But let’s back up a bit to the beginning of the trip and talk about the yacht.

s/v Christelle

The yacht we’d chartered was the s/v Christelle, a 2001 Beneteau Oceanis 50 (yes, a 50 footer!) out of Anacortes, WA. She was clean and fairly well equipped, with four cabins (two doubles and two twins) as well as a two-bunk crew cabin in the bow (with the windlass controls inside). While not a very good layout for a live-aboard cruiser (too many cabins, too little non-cabin space), she was ideal for a short charter, and was very easy to sail and motor around the islands.

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Aside

What’s On Deck

I’ll resume more regular posting in the next month or so, but in the meantime:

  • I’m working on finding a new job, since my current contract is about to hit its max of 18 months
  • I’ve started diving into improving my incredibly poor grasp of Spanish using the excellent Duolingo, as it will become useful as I continue my travels around the (mostly tropical) Americas and Caribbean
  • I have my first trip dedicated to birding lined up: in the third week of September I’ll be spending four days at Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge
  • Nikon is releasing their new 200-500mm f/5.6 lens in the middle of September and I’m very tempted to buy it. I’ve liked the Tamron 150-600mm but I’m not entirely satisfied with its sharpness at f/8, and the bokeh at f/9 and above is very harsh
  • My next sailing course, ASA 106, is happening the first weekend of October, where I’ll be learning advanced techniques in coastal sailing including anchoring and sailing at night
  • And of course the San Juans charter trip I’ve detailed previously will be occurring over Labor Day weekend, and marking the second time I’ll be a skipper during a sailing charter, and the first time I’ve put the entire thing together by myself

Route Plan for a San Juans sailing charter

I’ve been so busy this past month I haven’t even updated this blog with the few bird photos I took while camping in early July, but it’s time once again for planning the route for another sailing charter. This time I’ve chartered Christelle, a Beneteau Oceanis 505 (a 50′ monohull sailboat) out of Anacortes, WA for a 4 day, 3 night trip into the San Juan Islands in early September, and nine friends will be joining me.

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British Virgin Islands 2015 Trip – Part 6

After a calm night moored in Little Harbor, we took a lazy morning making breakfast and not rushing things. The plan that day was to head to Sandy Cay for a few hours for lunch, before heading back to Soper’s Hole to get the boats checked in so we could leave early the next morning. We’d be sleeping onboard the boats that night, but docked up securely in the marina.

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