We took our first cruise of 2020 aboard Indiscretion to Olympia last week. After a wet and windy start to the year, the weather gods smiled down at us and provided four days of sun and calm seas that perfectly coincided with our travel. That doesn’t happen very often in February around here, so we’re thankful for the reprieve.
We departed Quartermaster Harbor on Tuesday morning to catch a favorable flood tide through the Tacoma Narrows. Currents run pretty fast through here and sailboats and trawlers can only safely travel through on the right tide.
The sea was calm the entire trip, and we were cozy inside the pilothouse with the hydronic forced-air heating system fired up. The trip took about five hours from dock to dock, shaving a little time with the help of the favorable current running through the Narrows. We had the sea to ourselves for most of the way.
Guest Moorage in Olympia
We called ahead for two nights of moorage at Swan Town Marina, though we would have been fine just showing up. Swan Town Marina lies on the east side Port Peninsula, a 15-minute walk into town. During our stay, the majority of guest slips remained empty. There were boats in about half of the guest slips when we arrived, but the most were unattended during our stay. I guess the marina must permit longer-term moorage in their transient slips during the off-season because of low demand. Guest moorage is on A dock and the entrance to the marina which makes for straight forward docking.
Percival Landing is another small marina that offers first-come-first-serve guest moorage on the west side of Port Peninsula. This smaller marina is more convenient to shops and town (about a 5-minute walk to town) and offers very affordable moorage rates, but we opted for Swan Town because we could secure reservations. We visited Percival Landing during our stay and found just one lone sailboat occupying the dock. Good to know for future off-season planning.
Olympia Highlights
We packed our NineBot folding electric scooters on the boat for this trip which turned out to be a fun way to get around. We found ourselves darting all over town on them. We enjoyed a fantastic meal of oysters on the half shell, seafood and steak at the Chelsea Farms Oyster Bar on Market Street, and good pub grub and microbrews at Fish Tale Brew Pub on Jefferson. You really shouldn’t visit Olympia without stopping for a bite or drink at the veritable McMenamin’s Spar Cafe. You’ll be happy to know that the pool table and shuffleboard table are still there in the back. We love that place.
We missed out on the Farmer’s Market this trip as we didn’t stay through Saturday, but it was nice to know that it operates in winter.
Our two days and two nights flew by quickly. We need to put Olympia on our regular rotation of winter (and summer) cruising here in Puget Sound.
Eagle Island and Harbor Seals
On our return trip north, we stopped at lovely Eagle Island for the night so we could catch the ebb tide through Tacoma Narrows the following morning. The five-acre state park island sits on Balch Passage between McNeil and Anderson Islands, putting it about dead-center between Vashon and Olympia.
This spot is a favorite destination of mine, having moored here many times when we owned our sailboats. The view of Mount Rainier on a clear day is breathtaking. The island is also known for its population of harbor seals which frolic on the beach at low tide and make very creepy sounds as they surface and swim in the water. Here’s a 30-second audio recording of these night-time encounters.
It was a moonless night, so we couldn’t see the seals as they swam nearby in the darkness. We tried to spot them with a flashlight, but they all disappeared under the water with a hilariously loud splashing sound once we aimed the light. Fortunately, Indiscretion has a FLIR camera which allows daytime like visibility from the pilothouse. Turning the camera toward the island, we were astonished to see close to 40 seals in the water near us and sprawled out on the dark beach. They seemed quite curious of the boat, communicating with one another in their particular way. We have a three-foot swim-step at the stern of the trawler which would seem to make a comfortable lounging spot for one of these massive beasts. I waited for a lurch of the boat as one clambered aboard, but they kept their distance. We made off early the next morning to catch our tide through the Narrows and home to Quartermaster Marina.
Consider Pointing the Bow South
Like many other Northwest boaters, we have tended to forget about the south sound in our cruising plans. The greater Seattle area and the San Juan Islands are far more popular destinations. But exploring the southern end of Puget Sound has many charms. For us, it’s just an hour more to get to Olympia than Seattle, and there are so many spots in between to stop for the night or spend a few days: Lakebay and Penrose, Longbranch and Filucy Bay, Joemma, Jarrell Cove, Hope Island … We’ve been poring over our Waggoner’s Guide to plan out a more complete return visit to this under-appreciated section of Puget Sound.