Sucia Island

Harlequin ducks (note the lucky girl to the right)

We have been waiting for the right weekend to paddle over to Sucia Island from Orcas Island (in the San Juans). The crossing is supposed to be sketchy if the weather is not good. This is easy to deal with when the San Juans are in your backyard - we just waited until the forecast was on our side. The 2-mile crossing to the island was like paddling over mercury. It was flat calm, overcast with funky light, and just plain gorgeous. The harbor porpoises around our kayaks were an obvious thrill too! When it is as quiet of a day as it was when we crossed, you can even hear the little marine mammals taking a "poooof" of a breath. Sweet.

The sandstone rock formations on Sucia Island were an unexpected treat. It was so cool to paddle right up under the lips of these walls. Jay, as you can see below, even caught a sandstone wave.  In a skirt! A spray skirt that is.

This is our campsite in Snoring Bay (Sucia Island); you can see our little tent on the right of the photo. We camped on a spit of land that connected two little islands to one another. Despite the rain that day, we even managed to have a fire and play a game of chess on our travel set. I won. I never win and that produced many interesting tidbits of thoughts from Jay. =)

Our sunset that night was out of this world. 

We woke up in the morning to a ton of fog - not good for a 2-mile crossing in open water. So we waited for the fog to burn off while hiking around part of the island. We found this awesome area of sandstone cliffs with these odd head-like balls coming out of the walls. It was fascinating and it really reminded me of the Moraki Boulders we saw in New Zealand a few years ago.

We don't plan on going too far this upcoming weekend - there is a beer festival right here in Anacortes. Obviously, we must attend.

All the photos can be seen here: https://picasaweb.google.com/julie.barber1/October2011?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCLrPvL7T2JrR8gE&feat=directlink