Sucia Weekend

Well some of us made it...

And some of us didn't!

We all arrived Friday morning with great intentions but between conflicting weather reports, a maiden voyage for one of our group, and a bad knee, we decided to spend the night on the dock. I had bought champagne to Christen George and Lorna's new Bayliner Playtime, so we spent the evening there eating and drinking merrily and hoping for better weather in the AM. (The weather from several sources showed everything from light winds to gale force- all very confusing, we will have to determine the most reliable source for marine forecasts.) George and Lorna did not want to head out on a maiden run in less than good conditions and rightly so, it is a big boat with lots of equipment. Dan and Sharon didn't trust the weather and headed back to land, Dave and Barb wanted to go but Dave's knee was killing him and wouldn't take kindly to alot of bouncing around out there (we know it must have been bad to keep Dave off the water).

Dinner on board

In the end two boats left on Saturday morning,
Playtime and Treazure!

We arrived midmorning at Sucia, lucked out with mooring buoys in Shallow Bay, and headed straight for the beach. Extremely low tides gave us a long sweep of soft sand, perfect for three dogs to run and play like crazy. Zack their year old Lab actually went swimming for the first time, and well you know Labs, it was hard to get him out of the water after that.

Doggy playtime

LouLou was having so much fun she was actually airborne.

A few hours on the beach, naps on the boat, and over to Playtime for massive amounts of Greek food, George your homemade Tzaziki is amazing, just the best! A beautiful violet sunset from the back of the boat with absolutely calm waters and a huge cruise ship heading north twinkling with lights ended a lovely day.

Playtime in Shallow Bay

We woke to gusty winds and a heavy downpour, which always makes taking the dogs to shore a great experince. Afterwards, we passed the time making french toast and bacon and sausages for breakfast and the storm passed about 10:30. The sun came out and we decided to head for shore and explore the trail to South Shallow bay. This trail was a little steeper than we thought and most of it goes along the steep cliff but it was lovely with wonderful views out over the sound and lots of arbutus trees. Accompanied by the jubilant choir of many song birds now happy the sun was out, it was just beautiful!!

We decided to head back to Point Roberts and see how everyone was. With light winds and a one foot swell, we made good time.

George and Lorna had lots of help docking and were overall happy with Playtime's voyage. One interesting note... as they were heading over to Sucia they saw a black object accompanied by two boats. Behind the black object was something white that at first they couldn't make out. Turns out it was a mostly submerged submarine accompanied by two US Coast Guard Cutters. The white thing was a huge wall of water from the sub's engines. They tried to get as far away as possible but reported it was not a happy experience to receive the force of that wave, they expected the propellers to come right out of the water. Scary.

We spent a couple of happy hours on M dock with our reunited group and then we all packed up and headed home. And I mean happy hours as in fun not the other kind.

Next destination, well we have plans....

Kalena