A Tumbo Memorial Day, again!

With the winter we have had, it was all the more delightful that we had such warm lovely weather for the holiday weekend. We went up Friday night and departed Friday Harbor Saturday late morning to journey to Tumbo Island, our home away from home. This marked at least the fourth or fifth year that we had enjoyed Memorial Day at Tumbo, and this year was nothing but a reminder of why we do it.

Owen is big enough now to drive the boat!

The trip there takes a bit more than three hours in neutral conditions. We were not able to sail, as it was so dead calm, and we had a bit of help from a building flood current as we approached Saturna. The passage around East Point on Saturna is always a threshold to happiness. That passageway up the west side of Tumbo is just narrow enough to feel cozy and curvy enough to feel intimate.

Elliott before leaving enjoying the pleasures of the hammock

The tides were unusually low on this weekend, and lower than we had ever seen there. So low, in fact, that on Sunday we did something we had never done, which was to cross the isthmus between Tumbo and Cabbage. It dries at negative tides, and we had no trouble traversing the half mile distance without any fear of getting washed away.

We did what we always do: play, lounge, read, eat, run, swing, watch wildlife, play cards, and generally putter. Heaven.

On the way home we got to sail down past Waldron and most of the way to Friday Harbor. A nice steady 15-20 made for perfect sailing conditions, and it felt deeply good to heel over and fly by the wind.