5 June 2018 –
Up at 5am and a quick breakfast of coffee and two breakfast bars. Anchor up and on underway at 7:05am. A good breeze is blowing at just the direction requiring tacking. I decide to continue motoring as I am needing to get through Skaget Bay with the current.
As I round Strawberry Point the wind is favorable for a downwind run. The channel is filled with crab pots, crabbing boats and cruisers so I only rise the main.
As I reach the Swinomish Channel the current is in my favor, +2-3 knots!, and at 10:30am I pass Hope Island. With wind and current favorable I’m able to sail right into Cornet Bay and the Deception Pass State Park docks.
I register, dump the potti and collect fresh water. The dock is busy with people fishing and I choose to go to one of the floats in order to have some privacy.
The docks here are needing some maintenance. I bet the last time they saw any significant attention was in the 1980s. In places grass is growing and most boards have a good colony of lichen.
The State Park launch ramp is close to the docks so large wakes cause rolling and dock thumping as unthinking powerboats come and go on a half-plane. They just don’t seem to understand or care that their behavior disturbs others.
Military jets fly over about every 15 minutes. These are taking off and landing at Whidbey Island Navel Air Station. I’m not a fan of the loud fighter jet but do like the purr of the Orion prop planes.
6 June 2018 –
Last night some critter was sniffing around SWEET PEA’s hull. Otter? Seal? Momma Kitty was unsure what to make of the midnight noises and spent some time with her tail in ‘full fluff’.
After breakfast I motor over to main dock and walk to Cornet Bay Retreat Center. This was called the Cornet Bay Group Camp when I spent three summers here as a counselor ‘a long time ago’. I’ve not been back since the early 80s and it was interesting to see how the place has changed.
This was ‘my’ cabin. 
When I worked here this was a swimming pool. 
The main building dining room. 
The kitchen – spent many hours as a first year counselor. 
The fire ring – many a funny skit acted out here!
After my trip down memory lane I motor over to Hope Island State Park and snag the remaining open buoy. It is really, I mean really, close to the rocky shore!
The trawler at the other buoy departs a few hours after I arrive and I quickly change moorage. Much better with more more space between SWEET PEA and shore!!
I spend the afternoon reading and enjoying the sun. In calm conditions this is a nice location and far enough from the main channel that the wakes from boats heading to/from Deception Pass don’t cause an excessive roll.
Tomorrow will be a long day. I need to start heading south again in order to position myself to be at Port Townsend for the 2018 Race to Alaska start. There are few options for moorage between Hope Island and Edmonds; so I have a lot of distance to cover.
* There a two Hope Island parks in Washington State. One is in South Puget Sound near-ish Olympia and the other in the north near Deception Pass and Whidbey Island. Both have a few exposed moorage buoys.
M17 #375 - SWEET PEA 