San Juan Islands 06

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In  August 2006 I took Joan and Gary on a week's trip to the San Juan Islands.  We left home port on Sunday the 27th and cruised to Friday Harbor.  We spent two days there, then went to Rosario Resort on Orcas Island, then to Roche Harbor on the northwest corner of San Juan Island (keep reading...).  Since Friday Harbor doesn't take advance reservations, we had to anchor for a couple hours on arrival there.  We soon had a good side-tie that we kept for the next two days.  The quaint seaport town has a wealth of shops and restaurants, and all the amenities for the visiting boater. 

 

A view of the Friday Harbor marina from just below the harbor office  Sunset from the boat looking toward Friday Harbor

My favorite watering hole in town, the Front Street Ale House.  They are a micro-brewery: my favorite is Haro Strait Pale Ale.  You can't buy it anywhere but here.  They also have some good grub.  Definitely pub food, but very good.

 

 

Up the street in the next block is an amazing little shop known as The Hot Shop.  They sell all kinds of salsas, barbecue sauces and just plain hot pepper sauces.  Some claim to be the hottest stuff in the world. 

 

 

 

 

 

Joan & Gary in Friday Harbor after a visit to the ice cream shop

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(R)  The boat in Friday Harbor on the inside side-tie.  The wind picked up quite a bit the last day and on the morning we left, but it dropped off nicely after we got up to Rosario.

   

 

 

An excellent service the Port of Friday Harbor offered was holding tank pumpouts.  The boat they used for the purpose was appropriately named Pumpty Dumpty.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next we went to Rosario Resort at East Sound on Orcas Island for two more days of rest and relaxation.  East Sound is one of the most placid places on earth and we spent two days immersed in its beauty. 

The Mansion, as it is commonly called, was built by Robert Moran in 1906 after his doctors told him that he would live only a short time due to stress from his work.  Moran made his fortune in shipbuilding in the Seattle area, and served two terms as mayor of Seattle.  His most notable achievement was the construction for the US Navy of the USS Nebraska, which later gained fame as one of President Teddy Roosevelt's Great White Fleet which sailed around the world in 1908.  He retired to the 54-room Mansion  upon its completion at the age of 46 on his doctor's orders but lived to the age of 86.  It first opened for business in 1960 as Rosario Resort and continues today as Rosario Resort and Spa.    

 

These photos of East Sound were taken from the walkway connecting the marina to the Mansion.

 

Here's the marina at Rosario with a small corner of the resort visible in the background.  Anam Cara is the third boat back.  All you can see of her is the bow facing out, with just the anchor visible in front and the two VHF antennas above the huge boat in front of her.

After two great days at Rosario we took the two hour run to Roche Harbor, another resort community.  This has a very different flavor from Rosario, and for that matter from Friday Harbor in that there is a very strong Canadian influence.  It is very close to the Canadian border, and it's the easiest first stop for boaters coming from Victoria and Nanaimo.  It's a busy port of entry, and there is a U.S. Customs office right at the end of the main dock.  Every evening exactly at sunset they perform a ceremony, very British in flavor, lowering the flags of the United States, Great Britain, Canada, the State of Washington and Roche Harbor Resort.  See the photos below, along with more about the event.

Here's the first scene that greets boaters coming ashore from the docks.  It looks like a bit of a jumble from here but it really is well laid out.

Along the walkways there are works of metal sculpture, this one a bronze of a harbor seal.  The old Hotel DeHaro is in the background.  A short hike away, over the first hill, there is a sculpture park, with a number of other metal sculptures like this one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aside from being a boating community, Roche Harbor is also an art colony, as the little booths attest.  On the left are booths selling ice cream cones and espresso coffee.  Out of this scene, off to the right is a market that has all the provisions a boater needs to keep the galley stocked.

 

 

Here are Joan and Gary as we strolled through the booths.

 

 

 

 

Friday Harbor has Pumpty Dumpty (see the section above), Roche Harbor has M.V. Phecal Phreak.  Note the driver is wearing rubber gloves.

 

 

Here is the flag ceremony at sunset.  On the PA system they play "O Canada" for the Canadian flag, "God Save the Queen" for the British and "Taps" for the Stars and Stripes. They play "Retreat" which would be more correct, but they do it for the Washington state flag.  Or they could play the National Anthem.  All the marching is done in the British manner, with wide arm swings and high kicks of the knee at the halt.

There is a LOT of money in Roche Harbor.  This is one of the smaller boats that can be seen here.  There is also an Ocean Alexander dealership here.  One of their model boats, a 64-foot type, is advertised at $2.9 million.  It has three staterooms, two heads, all leather upholstery, fully carpeted and granite counter-tops in the galley and bar areas.

 

 

Here are day and night shots of the Hotel DeHaro, one of the main attractions of the resort here.

This was the last of a very memorable trip which to me was all too short.  We left the morning after this night photo was taken, the morning of September 2, at 4:30 AM.  It was so dark that I had to post Joan and Gary on the bow to watch for anchored and moored boats in the harbor.  The rest of the trip home was uneventful and the seas across the Strait of Juan  de Fuca were amazingly smooth. 

 

 

 

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