Sucia Island State Park is a 564-acre marine park with 77,700 feet of shoreline. Sucia Island is considered the crown jewel of Washington State's marine park system. It is consistently ranked as one of the top boating destinations in the world. Sucia Island and several smaller island comprise the "Sucia group."
We departed Bellingham marina around 8:00 am on Friday 7/8/2011. Soon after launching it began to rain and the wind picked up so we donned our foul weather gear.
We arrived at Fossil Bay at around 2:30 in the afternoon, set anchor and waded ashore to greet those that had already arrived and await those who hadn't yet. There is Ellie, of course, in the foreground. That's John Bigelow in the William Garden "Eel" behind her. John and I talked a lot and got to be good friends. The gentleman in the inflatable kayak snapping photos of John is the Doryman Michael Bogoger.
About that time I noticed there were many rocks on the beach, while nearby Fox cove had a much sandier beach. I decided to motor Ellie around to Fox cove which I figured would be easier on Ellie when the tide went out. I got half way out of Fossil Bay when my outboard managed to suck up a bunch of seaweed, overheated, and died. I could not get the motor restarted so I sailed back to where I started from and re-anchored. Here's Ellie at low tide. No damage was done to the hull by the rocks.
I spent a restless night worrying about my outboard. Was it fried from overheating? Would I be able to get it running tomorrow or would I need to sail all the way back to Bellingham and dock under sail in a crowded marina?
Next morning finally arrived and I carefully picked all the seaweed out of the outboard motor's cooling intake with a bent piece of wire and after a bit more tinkering, it started! What a relief!
Tim and I set about exploring the island. I won't even try to explain how beautiful Sucia is. I'll let these photos do the talking.
Every year the Sucia Small Boat Rendezvous attempts an around Sucia race. It's never been sucessful because the wind always dies. This year was no exception. We were able to sail about 1/4 way around but had to motor the rest of the way. But we took advantage of the opportunity to poke into the various bays and do some exploring.
That night, at Wine and Cheese Night, Jamie Orr played the bagpipes and everyone had a terrific time sharing finger foods and spirits. I drank too much and consequently didn't take any pictures. Sorry!
This is the view from our camp site. I woke up early Sunday morning and took an early morning hike out to the Southwest point of Fox Cove. I forgot to take the camera of course so naturally I didn't get photos of the six sea otters playing in the bay not 50 feet from me, occasionally stopping to grunt at me to go away. Nor did I get photos of the bald eagles or the blue herons feeding on fish for breakfast, or the rusted remains of an engine block and windlass lying on the dangerous rocky reef that extends halfway across the entrance to Fox cove at low tide.
Later Sunday the three of us (Tim, Myself and our pineapple named "Wilson") hiked out to Snoring Bay. Sadly, Wilson did not survive. We buried his remains at sea.
After leaving Matia we had a terrific sail back to Bellingham marina.
Ellie performed magnificently. We can't wait till next year to do it again!
