Whidbey Island

Woke up this morning to beautiful sunshine.  Nice way to complete our trip.  This morning the ebb current will carry us south to Cattle Pass (between San Juan Island and Lopez Island).  Brought up the anchor for the last time on this trip just after 9 am -- we wanted to time our run south to arrive at Cattle Pass at slack water.  Very pretty morning and after coming through the pass, we find ourselves in sunshine and calm seas in the Strait of Juan de Fuca.  Listening to the weather we hear of fog on Whidbey and also on the mainland in Everett - but there is none here.  As we continue our trip south to Admiralty Inlet we see Smith Island on the horizon -- and then we don't!  The fog has rolled in!  We have recently seen a sailboat nearby - so we know we are not alone.  We turn on the fog horn and carefully watch the radar.  We have a new radio (still in the box) for the boat that would provide AIS information but for now I power up my cell phone and use the Shipfinder app.  Barrie tells me that running in the fog is good practice.  For the next few hours we go from limited visibility to no visibility and back again.  We slowly make our way to the shore of Whidbey Island about 3 in the afternoon.  Our island moorage is at Lagoon Point and we must wait for high water slack (6 pm) to enter the shallow narrow channel.  We spend the afternoon just off-shore looking at the houses along the beach.  The dolphins keep us company for much of the time.  As we approach Mutiny Bay we see our friends Larry and Annette Fisher sitting on the lawn in front of their condo.  We call them from the boat to say hello and they invite us to drop the anchor and come ashore.  But, it is time for us to return to Lagoon Point and dock the boat so we will have to save that for another day.  Barrie steers us through the opening to the canals and we are soon at the dock.  Larry and Wilma have come to greet us and take us home.  A glass of wine and a toast to a magnificent trip and we are on our way.