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North U - Tactics Tour March 20th April 3rd


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Letters When we arrived, all the dock space and the buoys


were taken. I found a place where we could anchor, and then we loaded the El Toro and took the kids to the beach to stretch and run off some of their extra energy. We spent two days there. On the morning of the third day, it started to rain and the cabin became very small. It was decided that we should go to Friday Harbor and get showers, so we pulled up the anchor and headed around the north end of Orcas Island and down to Friday Harbor. Did I say it was raining? It was, and this is one place where I truly identified with Daniel’s Cripe’s story. My family quickly retreated into the relatively dry cabin, and left me in the cockpit to steer and navigate. After many hours we did arrive at Friday Harbor and were able to get the desired showers. We explored the town, got a meal, returned to the boat and motored back to Jones Island and spent the night. Again we anchored out so took the El Toro to the beach to explore. We were eating sandwiches and the deer who lived there decided we should share. One came up behind our daughter and ate her sandwich right out of her hand. Once over being startled, she took the rest of our sandwiches and fed them to the deer. A campfire and smores on the beach ended to a delightful day. The next year we again decided to cruise in the San Juans, this time, like the in Daniel Cripe’s story, to see the whales. My wife felt this would be a good way to engage our kids, who were now becoming less enthusiastic about the cruising conditions on the SJ 21. I, like Daniel, tried to inject some caution into the conversation concerning the ability to see the whales, but was completely ignored. We left Jones Island and headed south into Rosario Strait, towards British camp. My wife is a history teacher, so whenever possible we explore historic sites. As we cruised south, I saw a collection of boats that seemed to be following a particular course. I kept watching them and then I saw the spouts and the fins of a pod of whales, coming directly at us. I cried, “Whale ho!” and was at first ignored. Then, as they got closer, my kids went up on the foredeck for a better view. A mother and her calf surfaced on either side of the bow, startling both of the kids. Luckily, they were holding on, so they didn’t drop into the water. This was a wonderful experience, which I wrote up and got published in 48° North, in the late 80’s. It was titled something like “Cruising with the Humans.” Unfortunately, my family grew tired of the pace of


sailing. My brother had a series of power boats and they found them much more exciting. I once heard that the difference between power boating and sailing is that you get on a power boat to go somewhere, and when you get on a sailboat you have arrived.


So, we sold the SJ 21 and made our next move without a boat. That didn’t bother me at first because we were moving to the “dry” part of the state, to Kennewick, Washington. What I didn’t realize was that there is this


48° NORTH, MARCH 2011 PAGE 16


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