After spending two weeks in the San Juan Islands, we only managed to visit four anchorages, yet our expectations were exceeded because of our last stop – West Sound on Orcas Island.
We were finally able to leave Reid Harbor Thursday morning and motored down to Orcas. We’ve been here several times over the years and always for the same reason – to visit our friends, Bill and SylviaEmmens. From start to finish, it was a great weekend full of shared meals, good conversation and laughter. But our timing was bad, and we knew it. With the holiday weekend, their son and his family were coming from Seattle to spend a few days, so we had planned to leave Saturday morning. But Saturday turned into Sunday, which then turned into Monday.
They lent us their Jeep so we took the opportunity yesterday to drive up to Mount Constitution, the highest point in the San Juans, for an aerial view of some of the places we’d just cruised. And today we were invited up to the house for dinner to meet the family, an offer we couldn’t refuse. Family life is something we miss when we’re on the water, and they have an enviable one. Their son, his wife and grandchildren are lovely and it was a real pleasure to finally put faces to all of their names.
Even though the issue with the through-hull is currently under control, the boat has been laying heavily on our minds and we need to start making our way north to Nanaimo to haul-out, so we’ll be leaving in the morning.
Good-byes are always difficult and this one was even more so because our paths won’t likely cross on the water this year. Bill and Sylvia have a lot of work they want to do on the house, so they’re only planning a couple of short trips this summer. We normally like to travel on our own, visiting friends here and there, but with Bill and Sylvia it’s different and I can honestly say we’ll miss their company.
0 comments