Sucia Island – Shallow Bay

We heard about Sucia Island just before we started our adventure a month ago. Looking at it on a map it appeared to be an amazing playground for sailing nomads with numerous anchorages, camp sites galore, and a good helping of hiking trails on land. A month prior I was seriously looking forward to Sucia Island as our first true anchoring adventure, so our turn North last week may have been influenced a bit by Sucia.

We left Clark Island with fair winds to our back. Finally, we would have a down-wind sail to our next desalination – Sucia Island. Motoring off the mooring ball, past the couple sunbathing seals, we faced Meriwether to the North West to get into open waters where we could raise sail. It took for us – new sailors that we are – to turn around, facing back at Clark, to hoist the main sail which went well enough. We then turned back away from Clark to catch and ride the wind to Sucia. After only just a few minutes of glorious down wind sailing, the wind abandoned us once again. We ended up having to motor the distance, with the wind returning in the final mile of our trip. Kerri began to doubt whether we truly pleased the gods with the abbreviated re-naming of our boat.

We decided to go to the far side of the island to check out Shallow Bay, knowing that we would move again in a couple days to avoid some wind that would come in on that side of the island. We pulled into the bay and grabbed up the final remaining mooring ball – since we hadn’t learned our lesson yet. There were almost a dozen other boats in the small anchorage, some on balls and some anchored. Another Baba (a 30-footer) was anchored a few boats away. We gawked a bit but did not go over to strike up any conversation.

We did need to register on the island, so the three of us set out in the dinghy to do just that. A short hike ensued, followed by a longer one later that evening, pleasing Moose to no end. He still needs land more than Kerri or me. His potty-training keeps him from doing business on the small grassy-pad we got for him that sits on deck. He just looks at me like I’m an idiot when I recommend he “go potty” right there. So, land is a daily thing for us – at least for Moose and me. Kerri sometimes leaves it to us boys while she remains back on Meriwether taking in the peace and quiet.

Towards the end of the night, feeling more accomplished as sailors, Kerri and I sat out in our cockpit with a couple cocktails enjoying the sunset. The sun dropped in the sky to our West. Multiple large cargo ships cruised past a good distance out the entrance of Shallow Bay. Birds perched on the rocks nearby angrily squawked, announcing their impending flight to all within a mile. Finally they took to the air leaving behind the gentle breeze over the water. Meriwether seemed to know we were watching the sunset as she kept her stern facing to the West. We were rewarded with a sight neither of us experienced before; a Sun Dog. We got a double-sun sunset… we must be doing something right.