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Circumnavigation of the San Juans (Single Day)

Kirk Christensen
07/25/09 #6706

Friday Morris, Brad and I decided to attempt what we completed two years ago, the circumnavigation of the San Juans in one day. Beginning on the back side of Lummi, surfskis loaded with two large pizzas, a fried chicken and scones we got up at 3:15 and were on the water by 3:45. What started out to be a windy day, Brad leading with Morris and I following, we started surfing up Rosario Straits in the dark heading northwest towards Matia.

Approaching Matia we saw a boat coming towards us from the west with no lights. The boat then circled behind and told us to pull up next to them. Not so easy on the waves in a ski. Morris was able to work his way up the boat. It was homeland security. They wanted to know why we did not have lights and what we were doing. Morris noted to them they did not have any lights either. After some explanations on our part they told us to put our lights on and let us go.

As the sun started to come up we made our way past Sucia to Patos for a brief stop. We ate breakfast of bacon and pancakes generously offered by sailors camping on the island. Then we worked our way west towards Haro Straits with no or minor help from the currents. The dolphins escorting us, Brad and I getting Stuart and Waldron confused, we made our way to the top of Stuart to reach about the 30 mile mark of our trip.

After a quick break and snack of cold pizza we made or way down the west side of San Juan(a little help form the current at first) with the goal of getting to the southern tip before the major tide change. We spent the last six miles of that stretch averaging less than four MPH. Then we made a stop at Long Island at the bottom of Lopez for our longest break (and nap!) of the day to allow some time for the currents to start pushing harder north for the ride home.

With the sun finally starting to really warm us up and currents in our favor, we completed the last 30 miles at over a 10 MPH pace down the middle of Rosario Straits and back to Lummi. On the way we were able to see a pod of Orcas doing circus acts and Brad decided to swim while moving moving down Rosario Straits .

With a few aches and pains the three of us finished about 7:30 that evening completing just over 83 miles for an epic day.

Kirk


Re: Circumnavigation of the San Juans
Morris Arthur <marthur@…>

07/26/09 #6708

It was a great day of paddling! (i.e. we got lucky :)

Here's the GPS track with highlights:

http://home.comcast.net/~morrisarthur/Circumnav2009Highlights.jpg

Morris


Re: Circumnavigation of the San Juans-techie details
Pmarcus

07/26/09 #6710

Morris and Kirk…………Way Cool!! Outstanding Day but…I'm gald it was your “ass” and not mine……hey, “want to do some intervals” tomorrow????? Happy Icing! Peter

– 2020 Followup –

Kirk Christensen
05/15/2020 #26767

In 2007 Morris Arthur and I completed a circumnavigation of the San Juan Islands in one day with a brief stop on Vancouver Island. Totaling 87 miles in just over 16 hours. To prove it was not a fluke Morris, Brad Clements and I did it again two years later in 2009 without a stop on Vancouver island. Totaling 83 miles in 15.5 hours. See the attached map for a few of the details of our second trip.

Kirk

sjcircuit.jpeg