Day 352 Off to Matia

Our newly cleared stern deck.  The cowl vents are now stored till we get to warmer climates.
Looking Southeast in Echo Bay on Sucia.  The rocks are all covered with seaweed that goes "pop" as you walk over it.  Sort of creepy.  That's Zephyr in the distance.
The "beach" at Echo Bay.  Lots of small stones and BIG logs with lots of places to picnic and camp along the shore.  I can't imagine how busy this island is in the Summer time.
Looking Southeast toward the Finger Islands--North and South Finger Island--each privately owned!!  I can't imagine what these two are worth today.  That's Zephyr on the far right side of the picture.
Walking along Echo Bays shoreline.  Lots of sandstone carved by Mother Nature.
Rolfe Cove on Matia Islands Northwest coast.  The tide is just hitting low.  The ramp up from water level is really steep as you can see.
The islet to the right amazingly has no name.  How did some politician in Olympia miss naming that after some body important.  Lots more rocks all incredibly carved by Mother Nature.
A huge hollowed out tree in the midst of many other bigger trees deep in the forests of Matia Island.  Lots of ferns and smaller trees trying to gain a foothold in the forest.  Yeah that's me.
Matia Cove in the South side of the island.  A nice walk from Rolfe Cove on the opposite side of the island.  Deep rock cliffs surround this bay making it almost impossible to climb out of once you get ashore.
Another SMALL cove on the west side of Matia.  You might drop and anchor but I wouldn't count on it keeping you from hitting the shoreline.
Incredible rock formations in every cove made Matia a very beautiful island.
Wind swept on the western shore had made these trees and many others hold on for dear life.
Small coves abound but a just about worthless to anchor in.  Too shallow or too rocky to hold an anchor.
Looking East from Rolfe Cove past the docks.  The other boat is based out of Friday Harbor.  He's been out sailing for the past month up in Canada.  He bought the boat back in 1979 and has lived on her ever since.  He's powered by an outboard motor on the stern and I don't think he has a battery on board his boat.  Now there is a hard core purist.  Lots less to ever go wrong.

Now, here's my actual post!!  You've gotten past the pretty parts.

We started out this morning by doing lots of odd jobs on deck as the generator ran charging the batteries.  As this can take a couple of hours, we had some time.  I worked my way around the deck checking every screw, nut, bolt, pin or fastener.  All were checked to make sure they were attached right and had stayed as such.  Some needed tightening and some needed some lubricant to make sure when we want to loosen them, we can. 

Tracy spent the time washing down the deck with sea water.  It's better to use sea water than fresh water as the joints in the teak swell and seal better or at least that is what the "experts" say.  Lots of mold got killed today on deck.  

When we were sailing the other day, we noticed that the running rigging(main sheet that controls the boom) for the mainsail had a bad habit of hooking itself to the cowl vents on the stern.  One of these is the new one we just bought.  We made the decision that since we really don't need the air coming into Zephyr, we'd remove them and stow till we got much farther South--like Mexico where it's warm.  I've shown a picture of our new cleared deck above in the blog.

After everything was cleaned on deck, we piled into Puff and worked our way around the hull scrubbing the muck off Zephyrs sides.  Tracy had scrubbed them while we were in Port Townsend about 10 days ago but they were already growing green stuff along the water line.  If you don't get it off, it will get longer and longer and will really foul up the performance of  your boat.  I held Puff along the side as Tracy scrubbed with a brush attached to the boat hook. 

With that done, it was time for lunch.  We wanted to get ashore as soon as we could for a nice hike.  We took off in Puff and beached her.  As the tide was still going out, we were careful as to how far up the beach we pulled her as the water was still expected to go down another two feet (that's two vertical feet not horizontal feet)and that can be quite the distance to pull a dingy with a 90 pound motor on its stern to get it back to the water line.  We left her floating by a big outcropping of rocks and went for a hike.  We ran into a park ranger.  He was laying slate tile in one of the out houses that are scattered around the island.   Slate tile in an out house in a state park?  Come on people.  It's a state park, not someones house and we wonder why our states are in such financial difficulty?

We talked to one of the rangers about staying an extra day or two but his comment was that there was a three day limit but after that you have to leave for a day.  You can move to a different bay(same island) or move to a different island for a day and then come back for another three days.  Those are the rules.  OK, it's off season and we were the only boat in the entire harbor.  Just about the only boat at the island.  I really can't see that a day or two really mattered.  It's not like there was a line waiting to get my space on the buoy.  We hustled back to Zephyr as I'd written the wrong day on the park pass that you sign when you first come into the harbor.  Heck, I hardly ever know what day it is let alone what the number the day is in the month.  I haven't worn a watch in months and I used to be a watchaholic.  That meant our three day limit was up and we had to move on.  We decided to take off for Matia Island for a day for a quick stop and then come back to Sucia tomorrow.

We didn't bother to even lift Puff back on deck.  We left her in the water with Dragon still on her stern.  OK, that wasn't such a smart idea.  As we started to take off, the line on Puffs bow pulled her way up out of the water pushing the stern with Dragon attached much lower in the water.  OOPS!!!  We slowed down and it got better but if we went any faster than about 2.5 knots, she was really fighting to stay afloat at the stern.  Now this boat is an inflatable so there was no chance of her sinking but we didn't want any water getting inside Dragons engine.  So, we slowed it down and SLOWLY motored over to Matia.  We're now in Rolfe Cove(48 44.907N  122 50.548 W Google Earth fans) on the Northwest side of the island.  We came in just before low tide and ended up tied to the dock with about 2 feet below the keel and tide was still going out.  We got lucky and never hit bottom as we reached low tide.

Boy, what a difference a mile or two makes in the San Juan Islands.  Matia is covered with lots of old growth tall trees.  Sucia has lots of shorter brush and seems far more of an arid island.  Matia is like going back to "Jurassic Park" in it's feel.  Deep dark woods with trees that would take three people to get their arms around them.  Deep craggy coves and wind swept trees. Frogs croaking in the marshes and wetlands.   We'll spend tonight here and return to Sucia tomorrow--with Puff on deck or at least removing Dragon from her stern.

A quiet dinner in the covered patio(enclosed cockpit) as the sun set on the horizon with waves slowly lapping along the shore of the cove.  Finally--we're having the dream fulfilled.  Even the fur people behaved and stayed on the boat.