Our First Trip-Hope Island
04/27/2018 - 04/28/2018 🍒
We have had our new boat for about 2 weeks now!!! We survived orientation and delivering it from Everett to La Conner, where she will spend most of her time. We have taken her out to the fuel dock and successfully brought it back to the slip a couple times now.
It is time to venture further with this boat!! We decided to go to Hope Island!
7 whole miles (but a million miles away)!! Hope Island State Park is in Skagit bay. Placed neatly between the South end of the Swinomish Channel and Deception Pass. On the north side of the island is a little cove with 4 mooring balls. It is quite protected from all but north winds.
I snuck out of work early to begin our adventure. We packed up some food, some wine, some beer and a change of clothes and headed west. Well…south, then west, then north to end up about due west of our slip a couple miles as the crow flies. This little trip is the first time we had Cerise at cruise speed on reasonably flat water. I described our orientation day weather in an earlier post. The trip from Everett to La Conner was mostly 2-3-foot waves. Here, on smooth water was another chance to learn. I played with the trim tabs a lot. I also adjusted throttle settings a lot too. Every little adjustment helps me feel more confident driving her. I am still learning her personality. Thankfully, none of these are surprising or upsetting. I love driving this boat.
A few of the things I really love about this little island is that it is very close an easy to get to, but it always feels like a mini vacation. There are not many houses, or people, to be seen from the mooring. It is quiet. It is well east of the typical cruising lanes, but close enough to watch those boats pass by going to and from Deception Pass.
The trip to Hope Island was wonderful. The water was smooth, the skies were cloudy, but it was a nice April day. Outside of the channel we put Cerise up on plane and cruised out to the island at about 17 knots. It doesn’t take long to get there at that speed. We were in our new boat together and life is good. We used our typical mooring ball technique, bring the ball to the starboard corner of the cockpit and Tracy catches it with the boat hook. I get the bow line, and as Tracy backs puts the boat in reverse, I walk up to the bow (with my life jacket, of course) and cleat off the line to both bow cleats, creating a bridle of sorts, and we are ready to start drinking! Let the relaxing begin!
Tracy set up the table with wine glasses and a wine bottle and began taking “first trip” pictures.
After dinner we had some wine and sat in the cockpit and enjoyed our fist night away from a dock in a long time. It rained overnight. Tracy loves it when it rains overnight when we are on the boat. We had breakfast and decide to head back after a little sightseeing trip to Coronet Bay, near Deception Pass. The entire trip back, in the rain, we acted like a trawler. Making way at a leisurely 7 knots. We arrived at the south end of the Swinomish channel at about a zero tide. Leaving about 8 feet of water under the boat in the shallow spots and seeing the channel marker pilings on dry land.
We just had one night on the boat, but it was our first night away from a dock, and it was a very relaxing time. Just the 3 of us. Tracy, Cerise and I.
More pictures from this trip