My fiance, Natalie, has been blogging about our summer sailing adventure over at The West County Bramble. We were out on the boat for 5 months cruising around the San Juan Islands in northern Washington State.
The image above is the Doe Bay store on Orcas Island, one of our favorite spots. (The food in the Doe Bay Cafe is delicious as are the cocktails.) Read the rest of the post for more images or see the posts in full over at the The Bramble.
Link:
The West County Bramble
This summer we sailed beautiful little Jones Island in the San Juan Islands. We fed tame deer, saw snakes, and generally had a nice time. My fiance Natalie covers it nicely in two parts (Part 1 and Part 2) on her excellence blog, The West County Bramble.
Link: The West County Bramble
This is the dock off the little hamlet of Olga on Orcas Island, Washington. We had mail sent there general delivery because the post office is across the street from the water. That’s our boat, Carmana, at the end of the dock.
As we walked to shore we saw a sign declaring that the dock was slated for winter removal three days before. That would have meant dropping anchor in the rain. Not terrible but not exactly fun. Glad they were late. Being able to tie up to the dock just made things easy. It’s the little things…
Photo: Natalie MenachoThese are photos of some of my favorite moments, so far, from our trip around the San Juan and Gulf Islands this summer. Click any photo for a larger view. I hope you enjoy them. Read the rest of this entry »
OK, I may be biased, but my fiance, Natalie, writes a great blog over at The West County Bramble. She’s been doing a much better job than I have posting about our day-to-day travels.
Here’s a link to her post about our stop in the little town of Chemainus, BC, on Vancouver Island, where we happened upon a First Nations (Canadian native peoples) ceremony as well as a very well done musical. Both were quite unexpected.
The town is full of murals. Below, Natalie sneaks into the scene of one of my favorites.
In the top photo, our boat, Carmana, lies just offshore in gorgeous twilight.
Link Trail: The West County Bramble > Chemainus, Vancouver Island, BC Read the rest of this entry »
Well, a few weeks ago we were on relatively remote Wallace Island. It’s a 200-acre silver of land in the Gulf Islands in British Columbia. It’s not on the ferry route so you have to get there of your own devices.
We stern-tied our boat, Carmana in tiny Conover Cove and had a walk around. We’d read about this place in the book Once Upon an Island, at home in West County last winter, so it was nice to finally make it up here and see it on a glorious summer day. Then, come evening, we rowed to watch the setting sun, and made something extraordinary happen… we got engaged.
You may have seen Natalie in posts of our trips or seen her photos. She’s amazing. I’m looking forward to life of adventure together. Woo-hoo!
Natalie wrote about it on her West County Bramble blog. Check out the Wallace Island post in two parts. Part 1 and Part 2.
Here’s more on our trip through Saltspring Island on Natalie’s blog, The West County Bramble. It’s a nice little town and a good provisioning stop in British Columbia’s Gulf Islands.
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In case you’re traveling in the Pacific Northwest, I made a ferry map you may find useful. It shows routes for the two major ferry systems: the BC Ferry (blue routes), the Washington State Ferry (green routes), as well as the Victoria Clipper (red routes) and Coho (black route) ferries. All ferries accept cars and motorcycles, except for the Victoria Clipper, a high-speed ferry, which carries passenger only.
Seaplanes are another option. They fly pretty much everywhere. Kenmore Air is the biggest operator. NW Seaplanes is close behind. Saltspring Air flies within the Gulf Islands.
Note: the BC Ferry travels throughout British Columbia. I’m only showing their Gulf Island routes on this map. Also, if there’s anything on this map that I missed, please let me know.
Thanks!
Correction: A previous version of this map showed a Victoria Clipper route from Friday Harbor to Victoria. The route does not exist.
A couple of weeks ago we were in Vancouver and spent the afternoon at Granville Public Market on Granville Island. It’s a big market hall with, I’m guessing, a hundred or more vendor stalls, offering meats, fish, pastries, bread, chocolate, fruit and vegetables, just about everything. It’s like going on a food holiday. Everything’s delicious.
It was a bit of a trek to get there as we were anchored on the other side of the Strait of Georgia on Gabriola Island. If you’d like to see more photos of Granville Market and read about our trek, check out Natalie’s blog: The West County Bramble.
Natalie walking on Turn Island near Friday Harbor.If you’re regular reader of this blog, you may know that WCXC has taken to the water. We’re spending the summer and fall exploring the Pacific Northwest by sea. We’re sailing around the San Juan Islands in Washington State and the Gulf Islands in Canada.
I’ve gotten pretty behind in posting about the trip but my girlfriend, Natalie, has been posting about our travels on her lovely blog, The West County Bramble.
Here are some recent posts of hers you might like:
Wooden Boats! – Our trip to Seattle’s Wooden Boat Festival
Hurray for Birthdays! – We took a trip aboard the Virginia V to Bainbridge for Natalie’s birthday.
A Beautiful Sound. – We moor our boat in downtown Seattle for the afternoon, go swimming in Lake Union, then head out Bainbridge Island on our own.
I’ll post more about our trip but I hope you’ll enjoy Natalie’s post as well.
Happy travels,
Nik
