Well, my journey is coming to a close at the same time a new beginning starts. I am docked at Joemma State Park in the South Sound. I have never been here before and it is just a few miles from my new marina out on Johnson Point. It is a large cove with a long wooden causeway out to the dock which has several finger piers. There are 5 buoys, but I decided to dock as I would be the Lone Ranger for the night. The cove is open to the Southerlies which wouldn't be good with the winds I had a few days ago. Tonight is calm and quiet and I can see a few fires on shore. We are on the Key peninsula which is south of Gig Harbor. As I cruised the shoreline it is high bluffed, heavily wooded and few homes. The cove has fairly large sized cobblestones at the beach. There are huge trees awash on shore, which is a reflection of the storms that come through here, especially in winter. All the south sound weather comes from the south west as it comes from the ocean and wraps around the lower end of the Olympic mountains and then storms in and up the sound to the north east.
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| Joemma State Park Key Pennisula |
I had a lovely morning which was sunny and used the last of my fresh water from my solar shower to rinse off the boat and windows from all the salt. I had washed Shatoosh the day before in Kingston. I had lunch with Virgina, my old buddy and past Chief. Then I was on my way to catch the flood tide through the Narrows. Just in time to hit 11.1k. This has been my fastest speed on this trip. All the buoys were filled at Eagle Isl. so I decided to swing over here which puts me closer to my new marina in the morning.
This has been an incredible journey for me. I have gotten to meet so many of my faceless blog readers which has been a real treat. I have spent the majority of my travels singlehanding which has been really sweet to have all that time alone with Shatoosh and Pashmina. We really can get into a wonderful rhythm and the recent storms have challenged us all to stay balanced with the wind and waves and to continue forward finding new safe havens. I have gotten to meet so many cruising ladies on both sail and power boats which is really wonderful. Joining in on the Albineers gathering at Roche was really special and fun to meet all the owners and see how special their boats are to them. I got to see many old islands with new eyes and see many new islands and locations. It has been a marvelous summer for me, which started with my down river cruise on the Columbia River, crossing the bar and cruising up the pacific coast with Joyce as crew, then for 2 months exploring the middle sound and finalizing the summer with the San Juan trip. A grand total of 900nm
PS Just as I was signing off the west wind started to blow which put it on my beam. I went out and let Shatoosh swing around 90degrees in the docking area and readjusted her lines. Later at about 2130hrs
I was out again to put on 2 more round fenders, which now makes 7 fenders on the port side. I readjust the bow lines and move the spring lines a bit. I had checked the wind on the water site and it said Carr inlet was blowing 14 mph. That is the inlet next to us. However, this time when I went out there is little wind, just those bouncy, confused waves. Lets hope things settle down, so I can get some sleep.
Days run 20nm
Total 427nm
