Our second day at Blakely Island started off a bit late as we slept in until almost 11am after staying up past mid-night watching Mission Impossible III (yes, Tom Cruise gets the girl, although he doesn’t know what to do with her, and saves the world), so I won’t have nearly as much to write about as yesterday, which I’m sure to some will be a relief…I know it is to me. After hitting the shower and having some breakfast/lunch, we headed up to the marina store for some caffeine and to access their wi-fi to download the photos and commentary onto our blog site for Day 1.Once I finished with updating the blog, we headed back to take the Reaper out for a short sightseeing cruise to East Sound of Orcas Island and down the channel between Blakely and Lopez Islands.
Making our way up into East Sound, we soon discovered a minefield of crab pot buoys in just about every direction and if I didn’t want the line from those buoys wrapping around my propeller, I’d have to be on my toes just about the entire time we were out. It helped that we were only cruising at 10 knots, which made the whole zigzagging around buoys much easier.
Once we made our way up about a third of the way into East Sound, the view of bobbing green, orange and red Styrofoam pot markers started to abate and we could spend more time focusing on this amazing part of Orcas Island. Soon, we were just off shore of the Rosario Resort, where we’ll be spending the last night of our trip. It looks to be a very cool place and the location doesn’t suck at all.
Having reached the end of East Sound, we turned around and cruised south back to Blakely and Lopez Islands and through those damn crab pot buoys. Sorry for whining, but I just don’t get the attraction of dropping a basket with some chicken parts into the water in the hope some poor, desperate crab will wander in looking for an easy meal, where it’s out of the saltwater and into the boiling water. Yes, they taste good and are plentiful, but it just seems like an awful lot of work for what little meat you get from those little shelled critters…and wouldn’t it just be easier to cook and eat the chicken that’s used for bait?
Okay, enough on my lack of interest in crabbing. I’m just cranky for spending my afternoon avoiding those darn buoys. Anyway, we had great little trip exploring parts of Blakely and Lopez Islands that we had never seen before and the day was simply amazing with little to no wind and clear blue skies. We arrive back at the marina around 5:30 and took advantage of the excellent conditions to top off our gas tanks at the fuel dock located just beyond the protected waters of the marina.
As we pulled into our slip, we made acquaintances with our new dock neighbors, who were at the ready to offer help in getting us into the slip and tied-up. Fortunately, no help was needed as I managed to maneuver the Reaper back into the slip as if I knew what I was doing (and to some extent I do) and the couple to our right expressed some disappointment in not being needed as a dock crew. I think they were just hoping I’d screw-up enough to need their help and provide some much needed entertainment in the process. I then washed off some of the saltwater and started up the grill to cook up some BBQ crab bait (chicken thighs). While the chicken was cooking, a nice, retired couple came down to ask about our boat and to inquire about the name. They had brought their 30’ powerboat here from Arizona and we’re thinking about getting a larger boat similar to ours, as long as they could put it on a trailer.
So, with the clouds rolling in and the sun starting to set, I’ll just take a few more photos and call it a day.
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