South Sound Highlights June 25-29

Above: Looking across Jarrell Cove, from the innermost park dock, toward Jarrell's Cove Marina.

Garmin Fix & Orcas

We returned from our road trip to Walla Walla on Sunday, repacked, and headed to the boat. We spent the night in our home berth and got an early start to time our southbound trip through The Narrows with a flood tide.

We noticed a change in the Garmin auto guidance route through this area. Every time we’ve passed under The Narrows bridges, we’ve noticed the route takes us way too close to the northwestern-most stanchion. This time, the route cut into the middle of the channel – unnecessary, but better than the former route. We choose our own route at times like this but it’s nice to know this has been improved.

We cut west to pass between McNeil and Anderson Islands so we don’t know if the other weird Garmin route in that area has also been “fixed.” The route cuts out around the Toliva Shoal (just past the south end of Fox Island) marker…too much as far as we’re concerned. Maybe we’ll find out on our return trip.

Nice to see three Orcas pass near us on their way north out of Balch Pass! We’ve seen Orcas a couple of times from our condo this year, and a few times from Nick’s sister’s home on San Juan Island, but this is our first sighting while boating. (As usual, no photos - too busy watching!)

Jarrell Cove Marine State Park

It’s nice to be back in the South Sound! We arrived at Jarrell Cove planning to grab a buoy but took a spot at the dock instead. Went for a nice walk through the park and down the road a bit. Not a great walking road but not too busy.

Saw a few of these beautiful Columbia Lilies growing alongside the road:

So nice to wake up to the sound of chattering purple martins.

Saw this merganser mom with two babies riding on her back. Couldn’t get a very clear photo but one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen!

Incident note: The evening of our first night at Jarrell, we heard a noise that sounded like a boat motor or thruster. We weren’t sure where it was coming from until the guy on the boat next to us said someone had run aground. Sure enough, a 35-foot sailboat had cut the corner a little too closely on his way to the dock and was stuck about 50 feet away. We watched him for a few minutes – he didn’t seem to be in a panic, and the tide was coming in. The guy next to us said to me twice that maybe we should think about using our dinghy to tow the sailboat off. (Assuming, if he had a dinghy, he would have done it.) I said we’d keep watch and see what happened. Surely, (and I don’t know that the man’s name was Shirley) the safe and prudent thing to do was to wait a few minutes and let the rising tide gently lift the sailboat?

Which is exactly what happened a little later.

A marine layer has been dogging us, so the weather has not been as nice as we expected. Afternoons have cleared though. We took the dinghy down to Fair Harbor Marina (Grapeview) on Tuesday, just for a look around and a walk.

Wednesday morning we departed Jarrell for Oro Bay, Anderson Island. Water was absolute glass most of the way.

The Ocean City Floats No More

When we entered the bay and the old Ocean City ferry came in to view, I knew something was different. We’ve been here at low tide before but never seen her keeled over quite as much as this:

Sure enough, as the tide came in, she didn’t start floating and righting herself like we’ve seen many times in the past. Didn't seem to budge.

Oro Bay Needs Some TLC

This small bay is a really pretty place; I’ve written about it many times. However, the amount of neglect is becoming more and more noticeable. The Ocean City used to be kind of cool, rising and falling with the tide…eerie…but cool. Now it’s just a huge rust bucket and an eyesore. Used to look like an old boat; now it looks like a wreck. Near this ferry, there are a few old boats rotting away in the woods. There is an ancient boat shed that is too far gone for anything good to happen to it, as well as several other docks and structures that are in very bad repair. Several derelict and decaying boats are moored in the bay. One of them is an old Sundowner tug – what a shame. Too many safety hazards to count!

I don’t know what’s to be done about any of this. Despite the many instances of rack and ruin, the bay is peaceful, with lots of wildlife. Anchoring is good, and the Tacoma and Bremerton yacht club properties seem well maintained.

We’ll spend July 4th at the McQuarrie beach cabin with family and then ToG will head north again for several weeks in the San Juans. Stay tuned!

P.S. Garmin didn't seem to cut way out and around Toliva Shoal on the way back this morning.