Wednesday, September 05 – La Conner

Erin examines one of the dragon flies at the Sculpture Park

This morning after breakfast, Erin and I went for a walk to see what was new at the sculpture park, a field with several outdoor sculptures on display.  It had been a few years since we were there, so some of the pieces we could remember were gone, and others had taken their place.  Most were very good and easy to appreciate – but there were a few that didn’t inspire us at all.  I suppose that’s the case with most art – can’t please everybody.

We pulled away from the dock at about noon, and with the cap loose on the port engine’s expansion tank we circled around the harbor once with just port in gear.  That got it up to temperature pretty quickly, and Ray went down in the engine room and tightened the cap.  This procedure was to aid in eliminating any remaining air that might be in the system.

As we cruised out of Roche Harbor we had a close eye on the port temperature gauge, and as it climbed from 180 up to 190 we began to wonder – but there it stopped and remained for our 5 hour cruise to La Conner, matching the starboard engine within a degree or two.  So, hopefully that problem is behind us!!

Mt. Baker, as we head towards Obstruction Pass

We took the northern route once again, passing Jones Island and Deer Harbor before going through Pole Pass and on past Shaw Island.  Rather than head down to Thatcher Pass and crossing over to Anacortes there, we continued on to Obstruction Pass and cruised across Rosario Strait to the northern tip of Cypress Island, then down the backside of Guemes Island until we came to the Swinomish Channel to La Conner. 

We are at the south basin marina, and an hour or so after we arrived we all walked into town to go out to dinner at the La Conner Tavern.  It’s déjà vu all over again – that’s what we did on the way north as well.

We plan on doing a two day cruise down to Seattle, but haven’t decided on our stopping point yet.  Coupeville is a possibility, as is Mats Mats Bay or Kingston.  We’ll just have to wait and see.