Sailing Vessel Karma

Now being that its February we have actually

been in Friday Harbor, San Juan Island, San Juan Islands (confusing I know) for a while. Being that we aren’t actually sailing anywhere, the boat hasn’t moved once since October, the mentality has definitely shifted slightly and it is interesting to be mid-experience of a place we discovered cruising as now a place we just live at. Granted our apartment is more effected by wind than others who live on foundations, really we are just living in town here being on the dock which connects to Spring St.

Being that the island is small and then the town is but 2 square miles if that of the island, it has been a really fun time learning and being a part of the small life that exists here during the winter months. Without the tourists and crowds of the summer months, most restaurants are closed, the population is 12,000 not 35,000, and life slows down quite a bit. We have found ourselves in a simple routine of essentially work during the day, then 4:30pm to 7pm gym time, ensuring the 6 to 7 block being focused on the hot tub/sauna social hour, and then the occasional hang out with other islanders throughout the week and weekend.

We have had some people come up to visit. It is funny, having lived in Seattle for roughly 7 years prior to making the moves to do full time cruising, that it is surprisingly difficult and more time consuming to get up to here than you’d expect if you hadn’t been here for a bit. Its not just a 1 and a half hour drive. Its a one and a half hour drive, a scheduled and expensive 2 hour ferry ride away. Plus either leaving your car or bringing it for another quite large fee, its not like we have Seattle based friends coming up every weekend. That being said, we have had some great visits from Shaheen, Dani, Bridger/Alissa, Tristan, Ethan, and a few others during our time here. It is great to show off the island. What doesn’t feel so large to us being here all the time comes off as a special corner of the world to others which makes finding and showing people the small but fun nooks and crannies of the island very enjoyable.

Being that Heather works on another island, I (Liam) am left to my own devices during the day which has lead to some fun excursions! During my formative years in ye ole southern-California I did a lot of driving for the sake of driving. With Heather’s 1985 Volvo 240 being here I can continue this tradition! Well, continue to the extent that there are probably 10 roads total on the island to drive. Nevertheless I have been able to find some great overlooks, corners, houses, and other small roads and scenes to explore here on San Juan Island. There are a lot of state operated trails that crisscross between properties which have been fun to explore amidst the many private roads and drives. Turns out we have public disk-golf on the island for free as well as 3 different governing bodies of trails for the public! Even if one has to drive over some private drives to get to them.

Through the hot tub/sauna social out we have met a lot of awesome folks who are here for all sorts of reasons. A few are back after growing up here, growing tired of the small island life, then realizing its something you can’t get elsewhere. Others are retired sailors! Namely Eric Loss and Shanley Mcentee from S/V Seadragon over at Pangea Expeditions. The islands really are a sort of retired ‘bad-ass’ club of people who come from all sorts of backgrounds and it is funny how often we run into someone who says “oh, you’re on a boat? That’s awesome! We used to sail a bit, I went around Cape Horn on a 36footer with my dad back in the 80s before GPS. How’d you end up here?”

There are also a lot of construction workers and outdoor guides. It is awesome to run into people who are building the homes for those who live here who have a perspective on who is showing up and requesting what, and then to have those involved in the tourist industry fill in the details of who is coming to visit. Through combining what these groups have to say one can find the best corners of the island, where those without monetary limitations are choosing to live along with where the scenes those coming to visit expect to see.

Heather procured a job over on a neighboring island, Shaw, near the end of last summer when we were anchored in Blind Bay. Essentially just the act of walking around landed her in a conversation than ended her with a job working to do general upkeep, maintenance, and some construction on the island. Pretty much anything anyone with land on the island needs done, they call the small enterprise Heather has been working for. This means she takes the 6:10am interisland ferry from Friday Harbor to Shaw, and back again from roughly 3:50 to 5pm. With this being the weekly schedule we use the weekends to drive a maximum of 15 minutes (limited by the island size of course) to explore random points and roads we find trying to see if we can find directions to go different than what we did the previous weekend.

It is a serene existence here on San Juan Island. We are pretty much just repeating this pattern but it is a productive as well as a smooth one. We have learned each island has its own flavor of the serene existence which is a nice thought. While one county, each place has its own rhythm and pace to maintain its serene-ness. We are looking forward to the coming together of our projects and the weather to go further afield and cruise the extensive islands of BC’s pacific coast through the Inside Passage and out, down the West Coast, but in the mean time, there are worse places to be held up in your yacht.