Sunset sail in the San Juan Islands

August 4, 2020 – Sunset short sail… As we exited Friday Harbor we sailed up the shoreline to Pt Caution spotting a bald eagle engaged in eating a gull for dinner. Tacking across the channel a few harbor porpoise popped up including a mother and calf. We drifted between Yellow and Low Islands finding groups of harbor seals hanging out, harlequin ducks swimming close to Low Island and a couple black oystercatchers standing guard. A group of three black oystercatchers gave us a nice fly by enroute to Low Island to join the others.

We hugged the east side of Jones Island before making our way up to Flattop Island. The island was glowing in golden sunset colors. Pigeon guillemots were scattered about, a bald eagle perched above us watched the sunset and a family of river otters played along the shoreline. Harbor seals rested along the waterline with their growing pups. As the sun went down the layers of islands looked beautiful to the west.

After rounding Flattop Island we continued our trip back south to hug the west side of Jones Island. We came back through the Wasp Islands and had a great sail across the channel as it turned to dusk. One planet shined bright which we believe to be Jupiter and stars began to shine brighter one by one. It was a quiet, peaceful evening sail. Shortly after we returned to the dock we saw the full moon rising.