The Spaniards

May 18 - 20, 2009

Wow! The weather sure changed. We woke up on the morning of the Monday the 18th to find gray skies and lower temperatures. The barometer also dropped overnight to 1015 millibars. After a quick cup of coffee we dropped the buoy and decided to motor around Upright Head to Turn Island State Marine Park where there are several more mooring buoys. It took us an hour to get there and we had our choice of the buoys. Once the engine was shut down we climbed over the stern rail and down the ladder into the inflatable Avon dinghy. We rowed ashore and took a turn around the island - it takes about a hour walking slowly and stopping frequently to identify the wild flowers in bloom. We're having a late Spring this year and the flowers are just coming into their peak. Then back to the dinghy, launching from the gravelly beach, and rowing back to the LIBERTE, a little voyage of 5 minutes.

We were no sooner back on board when the wind piped up from the Southeast and a few drops began to fall. The rain steadily got heavier until it was really pouring and it didn't stop until about 0300 the next morning. Rain on the LIBERTE is delightful - it's completely cozy inside, the diesel heater keeps the main salon toasty and the sound of the rain on the roof is magical. But after 12 hours it gets very old.



No need for a title!

Thank goodness when we woke up on the morning of the Tuesday the 19th we saw sun streaming in the hatches. The weather has changed again this time for the better and the barometer is back up above 1020 millibars. But it was cold! Our plan was to go into Friday Harbor, the biggest town in the San Juan Islands, and re-supply, do laundry and work on the blog. The marina at the Port of Friday Harbor was only a 25 minute run from Turn Island and we were soon tied up at our slip, checked in at the marina office, and up in town taking care of chores. Friday Harbor has about 3000 residents and caters to the boating crowd. Normally we try and stay away from towns but every once in a while we need to go into one to buy what we need. Like wine.

The night of the 19th we cooked on the boat - true cod in a tomato, garlic and parsley sauce with couscous and a salad. Quite tasty we must say.   Carl set the table and did the cooking and Jude cleaned up - that's the normal pattern aboard the boat.

The morning of the 20th was also mostly sunny and the forecast on NOAA weather radio is for quickly improving conditions. By the 21st it is supposed to be sunny with cloudless skies. We went back up into town to a WiFi cafe and continued to work on the blog. In an earlier post we said that we are bloggers but it looks like we are more wannabe bloggers than actual ones. It has taken a while to get the hang of writing the entries and uploading pictures and charts. Without access to our daughters to help us out at every turn, there wouldn't be a blog.

About 1330 we left the marina, stopped by the gas dock to take on 23+ gallons of diesel and then we were on our way, still motoring, (this is getting embarrassing for sailors), up San Juan Channel toward Sucia, Patos and Matia Islands, State Marine Parks all. If a park has road access it's a State Park; if the access is only by boat it's a State Marine Park. But you already figured that out, right? We decided to take a mooring buoy at Ewing Cove on Sucia Island and had the engine shut down by 1600. Then we lazed around in the sun in the cockpit for the rest of the day. Dinner was fresh Halibut du Chef roasted in the oven with boiled potatoes and a salad - plus white wine chilled in the ice cooler in the cockpit. The French are pretty clever. There are three places to store wine on the LIBERTE - two down below with bottle holders and everything and one in the cockpit for chilling white wine and champagne. Of course that had nothing to do with the reason why we bought the LIBERTE in 1997. The real reason was that there are two separate quarter berths in the stern with doors that lock. Madeline and Lindsey, teenagers at the time, (well Lindsey was 11), took one look at those private staterooms and made the decision for us.

So what's with all these Spanish names? Lopez, San Juan, Sucia, Patos and Matia. The answer is that it was the Spaniards rather than the English or the Americans who were the first Europeans to explore these waters. As is well known, the Spaniards had conquered Mexico and destroyed the Aztec civilization within 25 years of Columbus' discovery of the New World in 1492. From southern Mexico, they gradually worked their way north, in close cooperation with fathers of the Catholic Church, into what is now Southern California. But it wasn't until the 1700's that they began to send vessels from their Pacific port of San Blas, Mexico to Alaska in an effort to counter the growing presence of the Russians. The first voyages bypassed the Northwest but by 1774 Juan Jose Perez Hernandez discovered the Queen Charlotte Islands. Another Spaniard, Juan Francisco Bodega y Quadra, entered Nootka Sound on the West Coast of Vancouver Island in 1789. In 1790 Manual Quimper discovered Whidbey Island and Deception Pass at the eastern end of the Straight of Juan de Fuca. Jose Navarez, sailing with the pilot Juan Carrasco on the vessel SANTA SATURNINA, explored the San Juan Islands, the Straight of Georgia and reached Desolation Sound at the northern extremity of the Straight, all in 1791. Of course the Spaniards gave spanish names to all the islands and bodies of water that they discovered. It was not until August, 1792 that Captain George Vancouver first arrived in the Northwest sailing under the English flag and he also explored many of the same waters already charted by the Spaniards. But the Spanish were first.

During the rest of our voyage we are just as likely to find a channel or an island with a spanish name as with an english one. For example, the word "sucia", the name of the island where we are staying tonight, in Spanish means "dirty". Navarez used that word to describe Sucia Island because it was surrounded by dangerous underwater rocks and reefs.

In modern times, with charts and navigational aids, we can avoid the hazards. Jude navigates and I steer. Unless "I" am having a nap. Then Jude steers and navigates. Amazing how she can do that!



The San Juan Islands