M17 #375 – SWEET PEA

My night at Eagle Island is mostly uneventful.  The mooring is unprotected so all wakes and waves can make for a rolling stay.  Being early in the season, the 12th and 13th of May, there are not a lot of boats about to cause uncomfortable rolls.

Going from Eagle Island to Jarrell Cove is mostly motoring.  There is a light breezeas I cast off, but after 40 minutes I’m drifting with the tide.

Jarrell Cove State Park is a wonderfully protected location with good State Park docks, OK showers, some hiking trails, and many mooring buoys.  The location has built up over the years so many more homes front the cove.  It isn’t as secluded as when I was as kid, but still a great location.

I arrived hoping to get gas at Jarrell’s Cove Marina.  I find they are not yet open for another two weeks!  With the motoring this day, and the prior two, my gas supply is getting very thin and I’m not sure that I’ll have enough to make it to Olympia (if there is no wind).  The marina has posted to call and make an appointment for ‘out of season fuel’.  No one answers and I’m left hoping I’ll get a call back.

I head to the state park dock to register, drop trash take a shower and dump the porta-potti.  I choose to tie to a buoy for the night as even in early May there are a good number boats at the dock.

After I tie to a buoy, close to the dock so I can go onto shore quickly in the morning, a boat arrives and immediately is a concern: they are ‘loud talkers’ and zip around the waters in their dinghy at high speed putting out a huge wake.  As the evening progresses I begin to think about moving to a buoy further from the dock.  It seems these people don’t sleep on their boat and leaves after eating a very ‘loud talker dinner’ on the flying bridge. I sense throughout the entire anchorage everyone is relieved.

As the evening comes to a close I get a call from the owner of Jarrell’s Cove Marina and we schedule a time for me to get gas in the mid-morning.  One less thing to think about as I head to bed!