[My GPS track: Start at Jackson Beach, departure path in green, overnight at Roche Harbor, return path in red]
I happened to have a couple days off and decided that I would circumnavigate San Juan Island. The day before my trip the weather turned out to be much windier than previously forecast. A Small Craft Advisory had been issued with a southwest wind blowing at 15−25 knots, predicted to shift to the west in the afternoon. This would make for challenging conditions along the exposed rocky western shore of San Juan Island. The waves would reflect off the cliffs and I could get tossed about in the clapotis. So that night I decided against the circumnavigation and resigned myself to an alternative trip in more sheltered water. But in the morning the winds lightened up a little and the Small Craft Advisory had been lifted. I saw this as my window of opportunity and decided to go for it.
I put in at Jackson Beach just south of Friday Harbor around 9:00 AM. A group of kayak guides were unloading kayaks for Outdoor Odysseys as a busload of school kids arrived. Were they really planning on taking those kids out on the water on a day like this?
I paddled with a headwind into Cattle Pass. It would be at my back after I turned west and then north. That was the plan anyway. After I made it through Cattle Pass, the wind had turned westerly, and then northerly, so for the entire day I had it blowing in my face.
The water at Cattle Pass was completely flat. But (just as I was afraid of) along the western shore the waves were reflecting off the cliffs and I faced miles of clapotis. I paddled far from the shore to avoid the worst of it, paddling from point to point. I didn't really have the chance to do a lot of sightseeing here. My attention was focused entirely on the water directly in front of me and especially the waves blowing in from the west. I weaved around in the troughs between the waves, not really keeping track of the shore landmarks or knowing exactly where I was. Of course, my pictures don't do justice to the conditions, because when things were bad I was too busy trying to stay upright to attempt to use the camera! I think that what kept me going was the thought that just around the next point conditions were going to be better -- the water smoother, the wind calmer, and the current going in my direction.
For lunch I ducked behind a rock. There was an shallow sandy area with just enough space to walk on so I could get out and drag my kayak out of the water. I was somewhere south of False Bay.
Just to the north at Pile Point I ran into a tidal rip and a patch of nasty clapotis. The waves were 4 ft high, tall, pointed, and breaking. I paddled far away from shore to keep out of it but couldn’t avoid it completely. The unnerving thing about clapotis is the randomness of the waves. Somehow I passed through without being thrown up into the air on top of one. In the middle of it though I was quickly losing confidence in my ability to recover if I happened to capsize in this washing machine. The knowledge that I came prepared with the phone numbers of the two taxi services on the Island in case I needed to bail out gave me some comfort. But wait a minute, where did I put my cell phone?
My experience in that tidal rip put everything else in perspective. The rest of the trip was easy in comparison. The sun broke through the clouds and the wind finally died down when I arrived at Roche Harbor. I checked into a room at Quarryman Hall, enjoyed a long hot shower, put on some dry clothes and had a leisurely dinner at the McMillan dining room (locally harvested mushrooms and a vegetable au gratin). All−day paddling is so much more enjoyable when you have a wonderful meal, glass of wine, and big soft bed to look forward to at the end of the day!
Not much to tell about the return trip except that I enjoyed light winds, sunshine, smooth water and a gentle ebb current that carried me down San Juan Channel all the way back to Jackson Beach.
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