November 10 & 17, 2023
Salish Sea, Pacific Northwest
Every couple of years we have to take our boat Elansa up to the marina to get her bottom cleaned and repainted. That means leaving her moorage on the south end of the island near the Strait of Juan de Fuca and cruising north through San Juan Channel, a 10-mile journey. We time it so we have the flood tide with us, otherwise we might not make it through Cattle Pass with our weedy barnacle-covered hull. We were actually scheduled to be hauled out on November 11 but the wind forecast looked bad so we went the day before.
Friday, November 10
The weather was fairly windy even so, with surface chop, but our doughty Swedish-built Albin 25 can handle that. The local harbor seals on the neighboring dock watched us go with interest. There’s very little human activity in this bay during winter, except for us.
Seals on the dock. Buffies prefer hanging out in shallow protected waters, and we wouldn’t see them again until our return.
They watched our every maneuver keenly. The seal on the right is Friendly Seal.
We bypassed Whale Rocks, heading straight up into the channel. A lovely 50-foot schooner coming up from Port Townsend had a colorful spinnaker deployed to take full advantage of the southerly wind — she was able to stay on one tack for miles and miles. Ultimately she overtook us. It was a great day for sailing. Sadly, we’re too old for sailing now.
Schooner rounds Whale Rocks, following us up the channel. Cormorants between.
The 3 knot current flowing northward through Cattle Pass gives us a boost at least.
Originally we thought the big sail was a gollywobber (that’s a real word!) but this view from the side as she passed us shows the colorful sail in front is an asymmetric spinnaker, attached at the top only to the forward mast rather than to both masts. (I know very little about sailing but thankfully there’s the internet)
Entering the bay where the marina is, we passed the classic if decrepit tug Buster which has been anchored here for more years than I can count. Just past her, we tied up at the marina and left Elansa for the dock crew to haul out before the real wind settled in.
Buster, an island icon
Friday, November 17
This was a much more clement day, partly sunny and quite calm. Since we weren’t trying to beat the weather, and with a clean bottom, we could cruise back home in a leisurely way. Sightseeing opportunities!
(Sunday: Here’s where Elansa was parked for her painting and zincs replacement. Mr O takes the opportunity to check the hull and sea suction intake. He used to do the painting himself but they don’t allow that anymore. Probably just as well, it’s pretty strenuous. We took the opportunity to remove all the cushions for cleaning since there were signs otters had been camping out on them in the boat ewwww)
First we had to wait for the dock crew to drop Elansa back into the water.
The Travelift is a clever way of transporting a boat from the hard where it’s been worked on over to the dock where can be lowered into the water.
The dock crew were still coming back from lunch so I wandered down onto the dock to see what wildlife there was in the bay. A Great Blue Heron perched on a dinghy dock grooming until it was disturbed by the local gang of half a dozen otters cruising by having lunch. Meal looked like sculpins mostly. You might see the seal in the background of the video too. The otters are a bit of a nuisance to the marina dock crew who have to clean up after them. In fact I witnessed several of the otters climbing onto the dock, and at least one of them taking a dump there before jumping back into the water. Seemed fairly purposeful haha.
Otters climb onto the dock
A video of some of the action:
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Eventually the dock crew lowered Elansa into the water and we were on our way.
The Travelift backs up to straddle an opening in the dock, winches the boat down until she’s floating and then pushed out of the slings.
Cruising down San Juan Channel, we saw a couple of uncommon winter visitors to the Salish Sea:
Ancient Murrelets are the size of American robins. They migrate here from the Aleutians for the winter.
Pacific loons. These are less abundant than Common loons, and their behavior differs too. Pacifics tend to flock together offshore (around here at least) while Commons come near most shorelines just in 1s or 2s.
At Whale Rocks, there was the usual winter population of 100 or so Steller sealions, along with lots of cormorants. The migrating eagles had not arrived yet.
Almost flat calm out there, like summer conditions (though the air was chilly). The big bull males are mostly only here in winter, while some youngsters and females stay through the summer too.
This may be hard to see, but about half these cormorants are Brandt’s, half Pelagics, with one Double crested — that’s all the kinds of cormorants we have
Turning the corner, we headed east through what I call “scoter alley”, a reefy stretch between two islands where scoters are often seen in winter. Indeed, there were about 40 Surf scoters, but also the less common White-winged scoters! A big flock of about 120. This rocky reef must have lots of shellfish, which is what scoters mostly eat.
Drake WWs have a white swoosh around their white eyes (drake Surf scoters also have white eyes)
And some more sightings, on islands, rocks and kelp beds —
White Seal Rock, a favored haulout for seals, who are mostly light in color for some reason — a subpopulation?
Pelagic cormorants on Cezanne Wall
Two Common loons cruising a kelp bed. Note the mirages along the shoreline, a visual sign of temperature: the air is colder than the ocean, which is plenty cold!
Common murres in our wake. Almost all the many murres we saw were in winter plumage, as were the rest of the birds that day.
When Kulshan comes into full view (on sunny days like this) we aim the boat toward the mountain, which will guide us into our bay.
Mew gulls (Short-billed) perch on a kelp bed. Winter storms will tear the long kelp strands from their holdfasts, and it will wash up onto beaches (new kelp will start growing in spring). Phenologywise seeing kelp beds indicates the big winter storms hadn’t arrived yet. Probably these beds don’t look like this after the storms of the past week.
Elansa moored again at the dock. At this time of year we’re the only boat there. In August it’s packed.
That was a rare calm bright winter day, with glassy water. More often the sea is rough and choppy, and the skies cloudy at this season. But we’re ready now to go out boating when we want, whatever the weather, because winter is a great time of year for seeing wildlife.
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Raining off and on in the PNW islands today. Temps starting to cool down from the unseasonable 50s of the past couple of days of atmospheric river weather.
WHAT’S UP IN NATURE IN YOUR AREA TODAY?
