Winter Weekends on James Island
11/08/2019 - 11/09/2019 ๐
12/27/2019 - 12/28/2019 ๐
New Dock On the Island
We took a few days just prior to my leaving on business trip and made our way out to James Island. James Island has a nice little State Park and it is close enough to get there quickly and still feel far from home. We really enjoy these quick trips to the close places. There is always something to see and it gets us out of the house for a few days. This was the first time we had been here since the new dock was installed. This new dock is a very nice and made of metal it is substantially larger than the previous dock. This one easily fits about six typical boats. The old dock was lucky to fit 4. This dock doesnโt need to be removed over winter, either. We arrived in the afternoon to see 4 other boats on the dock. This was rather unexpected in early November, but there was plenty of room and the people were friendly. Two of the boats left before dark.
James island has several walking trails. Some that have sections that are steep, but short. Others have that sections are flatter None are very long. We typically go for few walks while we are here. Tough to call them hikes, they are about half a mile long. After walking we noticed that the campfire that people on one of the departing boats had made still had a few coals on the bottom. We looked around for some other fuel and managed to nurse it into a reasonable flame. We walked down to the boat and grabbed a bottle of wine and cheese and crackers. Snacking we sat there and enjoyed the campfire near the picnic shelter. It was a very nice evening. Once we ran out of wine and wood, we turned in for the evening. The next day we woke up to rain and it rained most of the day. The other boats left and for a short time we had our own private island. Later a couple more Boats joined us. Since we didnโt have any paper or Kindling, we didnโt get to have a fire in the rain. Me made a mental note to bring some wood and paper next time!!!
We Are Back...
I got back from my business trip before Christmas. Right after Christmas the weather was going to be calm so back to James Island we went. This time we were armed with newspaper, kindling and some pieces of dry wood. The trip to James Island is very straightforward. North up the Swinomish Channel, turn to port and go through Guemes Channel and James Island is the first island on the left as you cross Rosario Strait. Today there were dozens of crab pot buoys north of the highway 20 bridge.ย Several right in the channel.ย We arrived at the James Island State Park dock to two other boats and one of those was preparing to leave.
Camp Fire and Wine
We were ready this time. We gathered our bag of papers and kindling and wood, a bottle of wine and snacks and headed to a campsite fire ring. We also decided to go on little walk to help to clean up the Park. We gathered a few down branches from beside the trails and some driftwood from the beach. We actually had a pretty good stack of wood when we lit the fire this time. Again, we enjoyed a bottle of wine and snacks and watched the sunset behind Decatur Island. Another wonderful evening and just as we were running out of wood, it started to rain. So back to Cerise to turn in for the evening.
These short little weekend trips are lot of fun. It is a chance to get away and a chance to use the boat without the time or expense required of taking a longer trip. It still feel like we are away from home. But most of all, it was nice quiet time with my lovely wife, in a private setting, with just the sounds of nature (or a little music) as the background
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More Pictures from these trips...