Orcas Island and Proximate Perfection

Getting to the water from where I live is something of a drag. I have to drive at least 35 minutes to get to anything remotely interesting and to get to stuff that's truly interesting it's pretty much always over an hour. So popping out for a quick 90 minute paddle isn't something I do very often though I probably should since the alternative is to hang around on land. Usually drinking a beer or something.

If you've never been to the San Juan Islands it's hard to describe what a just spectacular paddling destination it is, especially if you like islands. Since you are on an island no matter where you are in the San Juan Islands you're actually always very close to a put in of one sort or another. When Leon and I paddled to Rosario for lunch it took us all of 90 seconds to get to the put in. 90 seconds to get to a put in on a nice patch of water is pretty sweet. It's also the case that really close to pretty much any put in is another island. There's a lot of islands in the San Juans. You can find a list of some of them here.

One morning, a day or two after I'd bailed on observing the class, I mentioned to Shawna I was going to paddle over to Sucia in the afternoon after I'd finished working, say around 3 or so and they were welcome to join. So 3 o'clock rolls around and I'm still typing and Shawna, being both Shawna and a coach, tells me I should go. About 3:15 Shawna tells me I should go. About 3:30 Shawna tells me I really should go.

So I went. Here's a picture of Sucia Island as viewed from my boat when I was about 10 feet off shore of Orcas.

Sucia is about 2.5 nautical miles from Orcas. I paddled over in 36 minutes, touched the island with the bow of my boat, and turned around to come back. Here's Orcas from about 10 feet off shore of Sucia.  See the texture of the water there? Lot's of really interesting currents in the San Juans.

This is looking east when about halfway between Orcas and Sucia. That snow covered mountain back there is Mount Baker.

And looking west. Most of that is Canada. The spot where this was taken is actually some ways north of Victoria on Vancouver Island. It always surprises me when I remember that parts of Canada are south of parts the US. It's a crappy picture to be sure, but it is a look-whats-out-there image I think. That's roughly the way Leon and Shawna went when they started their trip around Vancouver a little over two weeks after this was taken.

I paddled back in about 42 minutes. It was a beautiful paddle, I was out and back before dinner, including travel time to and from the put in, boat unloading and loading times, all of it. Soup to nuts. Proximate perfection.