Paddling Alone & Dodging Death

Sucia Island (3D/2N)

3-5 November 2024

North Beach to Fox Cove: 3.0 Miles

Paddling: 9 miles - Trekking: 19 miles - Daylight: 9h 45m

Out: 3.3 mph (Calm) - Ret: 3.6 mph (Moderate Cross Wind)

Planning Notes

I recently entered the world of kayaking so I could explore my lovely neighboring islands in the San Juans. With a bit of training and a couple of “simpler” camping trips under my belt, Cypress Island from Anacortes and Jones Island from Lopez, I decided it was finally time for me to head to Sucia Island.

Looking in advanced I saw a nice window opening up in early November so I started planning. But fall planning in PNW is a fools errand, and a strong low pressure system formed and was forecast to land right in the middle of my planned trip. The forecast was for 20 to 50 kt sustained winds with gust to 60 to 70 kts. I thought about cancelling my trip outright but after chatting with my kayak “coach” I decided that the bulk of the storm would happened while I was on Sucia and not during my crossings. We discussed and settled on a number of potentially protected campsites and I felt good about my plan.

The trip over from North Beach on Orcas to Sucia was, deceptively, easy and quick. This time of year the afternoon currents were trivial.  And although you could tell a storm was a coming, the wind and seas were mostly calm.

My original plan was to settle on one of the sites in the trees in Fox cove to protect me from the strong forecasted SE/S winds. But I wasn’t happy with the quality of hammock hangs. So I went to my second choice and headed to Shallow Bay.

I ended up choosing site 29 which, while very protected for the stormy SE winds, was dank and dark. I quickly set up camp and prepped for the coming storm.

And came it did. While it was calm as could be on my northwest facing sites on Shallow Bay, on  Echo Bay things were rocking and rolling.

I was the only camper on Sucia and this was the only boat. We met up later, and he describe his very, very rough evening on the mooring. Since I was obviously not gonna get on the water, I spend the day hiking to all the campsites to scout out sites for potential hammock hangs. This is a normal routine for me now, as I’ve become a full fledged member of the hammock cult.

So far the weather forecast had been surprisingly accurate in predicting the storms strength and wind direction. So upon returning from my 6 mile campsite scouting jaunt, I found the wind had done as it was supposed to, and started its shift to the West. So site 29 was no longer protected. Now it was dank and stormy. But I decided on Shallow Bay for just this reason, since it’s a short hop to move camp across the narrow “spit” to Echo Bay which had calmed itself down.

And as an added advantage, my new campsite, 42, was a major upgrade.

I had a fabulous dinner and a peaceful night’s sleep and if it weren’t for the wind in the trees I wouldn’t even have known it was stormy.

The winds had now shifted to the Northwest, and I was totally in the lee and woke to a stunning morning.

I had planned on being able to stay an additional night, but was running a bit low on stove fuel and batteries were a bit low. So I decided to break camp and head around the south end to see how things were for a potential crossings black to North Beach.

Paddling out from Echo Bay and weaving in between Justice and the Finger Islands was amazing. Calm and beautiful.

But crossing Snoring Bay and Fossil Bay the Northwest wind picked up and there was still a bit of energy in the air. So I was thinking I might need to spend another night. This time at Fox Cove.

But I decide to have a leisurely lunch and see if the wind would continue to obey the forecast and blow itself out as the day wore on. And it mostly did. So I dumped my remaining water and made the quick crossing back to Orcas Island.

All in all a truly wonderful trip. I love Sucia Island and will be going back often. I’m still trying to figure out my kayak load out and haven’t yet brought along a “proper” camera. But I hope to get that figured so I can add better images.

Next up… Strawberry Island, or James, or… I’m not really sure there any bad choices.