Sail Camping

Sunday, August 22, 2021

Today, more storytelling, less tech talk. At the beginning of the summer, I was invited to go sail camping with some friends from the sailing team. We sailed out of Anacortes on Annas Dad’s Sailboat, Siggy. With the lack of wind, we were trying to catch the outgoing tide to make it around Guemes Island. I arrived at the marina at 8 am, which meant I woke up at 6 am. Nobody was there, and I slept in my car until 11. The first to arrive was Anna, who let me into the marina, where I got the first photo of the trip. Out beautiful little yacht, Siggy. A 23-and-a-half-foot-long swing-keel boat was one of two hundred made. I loved the design as it was simple and light with an asymmetrical spinnaker.

The rest of the group began to arrive; Satone, who I later learned is also a photographer, was Anna’s sailing instructor and long-time friend. Then the “party bus” consisted of Chris, Nick, Cooper, and Lara. Chris had previously worked with Anna and Satone and was in a fraternity with Cooper and Nick, and Lara was Cooper’s girlfriend. Nick, Cooper, and Lara had never sailed before, and it was Lara’s first time on a small boat. This put Anna, Satone, Chris, and I in the funny space of guiding them all the time on the boat. But they turned out to be fantastic sailors in the end.

(From left to right, above the companionway: Chris, Anna, Satone. From right to left, below the companionway: Nick, Cooper)

(Lara at the helm)

We made the tide, but the wind died so much that we motored the final half-mile to a DNR mooring buoy at Pelican Beach. Pelican Beach was a great place to land as it was a short hike from the main attraction, Cypress Head on Cypress Island. After dragging our gear ashore, we all caught our bearings in the sun on the beach.

After some planning (drinking Rainer), we dawned our hiking gear (Teva Sandals) and went for a stroll (hiked up a 1000` elevation gain). We arrived at the first outlook over the West side of Cypress and just pondered the view.

We continued up the trail to Cypress Head and took some group photos at the top.

On our way down the trail, we explored some caves.

Then, after arriving back at the campsite, we made dinner and settled in for the night. I have never seen a bottle of Tito’s Vodka disappear faster. The fact that Cooper made it down the trail back to the place we set up hammocks was more impressive than any of the sailing Chris, Satone, Anna, and I did.

In the morning, we all headed back to Anacortes pretty fast to make the tides again.