Inland Sea

[saavedra77]

Last week, I managed to get away to the San Juan Islands for a couple of days. The planned whale-watching was a bust, but I enjoyed the change of scene.

I traveled up via the Victoria Clipper, which turned out to be much more convenient and comfortable than the route I'd initially thought I'd have to take--an hours-long bus ride north to Anacortes and a ferry from Fidalgo to San Juan Island. Instead, I just caught an early-morning city bus down to Pier 69, checked in, and settled in for a two-and-a-half hour, 65-mile catamaran ride up the Sound to Friday Harbor.

This is the ship, the Victoria Clipper III:



Here's an inside view, as we were all getting situated:



I'd been worried about the weather, which has mostly sucked in Seattle, lately--more like October than August. Thankfully, however, we passed out from under the clouds almost as soon as Seattle was out of sight.

The trip wound up the long eastern shore of Whidbey Island to Skagit Bay, through Deception Pass to the Rosario Strait, and thence to the San Juans.

We passed a series of beautiful restored sailing ships between Whidbey and Camano Islands. Here's one I managed to snap a picture of:



And here are a couple of working tugboats plying the waters near Skagit Bay, rendered more picturesque by a low clouds, hills in the background:



I wish I could do justice to the sights and sensations we experienced heading into Deception Pass: The bridge connects Whidbey, Pass, and Fidalgo Islands. The current starts to pick up as it approaches the narrow passage between the cliffs, never quite working into a froth, but forming whirlpools and pulling you along pretty rapidly. I don't think that the pictures can quite capture the experience, but it was beautiful, exciting:







The waters around Deception Pass run emerald-green with algae, which along with the rapid current contributes to the sense that they're teeming with life:



Once we traversed Deception pass, we technically entered what the Victoria Clipper's promotional materials call "The Inland Sea of Northwest Washington and Southwest British Columbia."

Crossing the Rosario Strait into the San Juans, you immediately feel like you're in a different kind of environment than in the Sound: more open, choppier waters, and drier, more windswept islands.

I loved how this one island, essentially just a massive slab of rock, dwarfed passing boats:



Then, after rounding Lopez Island, we crossed to San Juan Island and our destination hove into view:



Friday Harbor's a touristy little town with a ferry dock, marina, and a modest boardwalk--really peaceful:





After one day spent exploring the boardwalk coffee shops and restaurants and such, and a night lazing about the hotel, it was off to whale-watching, the next day. Here's one of my fellow passengers, a woman from Ireland, as we were passing the north end of San Juan Island:



Note the yellowy grass: all of the islands north of Deception Pass have that dry, windswept look.

Our first stop was Shaw Island, an uninhabited, undeveloped place apparently once intended for use as an exotic game reserve. The pictured deer reportedly an Asian species introduced in support of that scheme and left behind when it failed:





After the visit to Shaw Island, the Clipper veered west into the Haro Strait, where we'd heard that a Minke whale was feeding, and where there was said to be at least a slim hope of spotting some Orcas.



That's Vancouver Island off in the distance--we were by this point just outside Canadian waters:



Unfortunately, as we approached the Straits of Juan de Fuca, the seas became seriously choppy, and it became increasingly difficult to keep the camera steady enough to photograph anything. Moreover, as we circled around the waters off of Lime Kiln Park chasing radio reports of that Minke, we began to cross our own wake, causing the boat to rock even more, and motion sickness finally caught up with me. I spent much of the remainder of this outing kneeling over the porcelain, then found a place to lie down by a window.

Not that I missed anything: despite all of that chasing around, nobody actually saw any whales, on this trip.

Back in Friday Harbor, I was on land just long enough to overcome the nausea before it was time to catch the 4:30 PM Clipper back to Seattle. The seas were mercifully calm, on this route.

Predictably, as we cruised toward the Admiralty Inlet, the clouds closed in and the rain resumed.

I did manage one last wildlife shot, though--a harbor seal lounging on the gravelly shore of Minor Island:



And next thing you know, Seattle's skyline began to coalesce out of the haze.

The Friday Harbor trip was brief, but I appreciated the chance to get away from the city, see new things, wake up someplace different. Maybe next time I'll have the wherewithal to stay longer.

Comments

[waysofseeing.livejournal.com]

Beautiful photos.

One small correction: Shaw is inhabited, but very sparsely. It's the smallest and least populated island served by the WA state ferries.

Shaw was locally famous for years because their ferry terminal was run by a small, absolutely charming, group of nuns. Sadly, the nuns are now gone.

[saavedra77.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the information about Shaw Island. I'm intrigued to learn that the ferries serve it--I might be interested in visiting there, sometime.