The Luciano Family Sailing in the San Juans – NW
Boating Tips:
- The Friday Harbor guest docks are on docks H and G.
- Pay attention to moving ferries, they like to stay on course and not dodge small boats.
- The places I like to eat in Friday Harbor are: Downriggers, Cask and Schooner’s Pub, The Place Bar and Grille, and The Back Door.
- The breakfast place I talked about called the Blue Dolphin is now closed, but another good place is The Rocky Bay Café.
- The Ice Cream shop we always stop at is the Friday Harbor Ice Cream Co.
- Buy herring from the market and feed Popeye! She still swims around the marina every day! Look her up on UTube!
- The best fishing for the kids would be on the end of H on the side facing the shore.
- Bring a high-powered flashlight to use at night around the docks! A laser pointer is also fun to shine in the water and will bring a lot of fish around.
- If you have a car or available transportation, drive to Lime Kiln Point State Park where there is a lighthouse overlooking an area often visited by Orca Whales!
Adventures of the San Juan Kid
By: Peter Luciano
Volume 2: Friday Harbor, WA – Located on San Juan Island
The weekend is a time to enjoy life away from work and relax. Some families go camping, some go to sporting events, and then there’s my family who spends time on the boat. We would leave Friday right after school and come home later on Sunday enjoying all the time we had. Living in Anacortes for a boater means there’s a huge playground in the backyard! There are so many places to go and none of them get old. This particular weekend we were off to a small town on the eastern side of San Juan Island called Friday Harbor.
I walked down the dock dragging my pack of clothes to the boat practically sleeping. Dad made us leave the house bright and early at seven to catch the morning current. I learned early in life to never argue with him because no matter what I say, he’s always right. We were basically sleepwalking getting the boat ready, but eventually we were ready to go and we were off. Even though I was half asleep, I knew we were off to have another great adventure.
I’m not sure what it is, but being on the boat always made me hungry. We always packed more food then we needed, but as soon as we were under way I would say, “Mom, I’m getting hungry”. The boat was only around the corner from the harbor and I was already digging through the icebox and shelves for something to snack on. In my mind I needed to get something to eat or I might pass out. My parents would always give me a hard time saying I should have eaten before we left. Eventually they would ease up and I would always prevail with a few cookies in my hand. At this time we were passing through Guemes Chanel where there are these huge buoys to warn people to stay away from the shallow water. Every so often we would pass one and a huge sea lion would be on top of it soaking up the sun. To me it looked like a giant blubber blob with a tiny head. We drove by the seal close and slow while our basset hound Clyde walked to the front of the deck and began to howl and bark at the seal. It was normal for Clyde to bark at everything, but the sea lion began to bark back! Clyde and the seal were barking at each other just as two dogs would! As this continued, the seal seemed to get annoyed and flopped back into the water. I’m not sure what they were barking about, but apparently Clyde won the argument.
While we were sailing, it seemed like there was a ferryboat blasting by us every twenty minutes. We were just minding our own business and the blast of a ferry’s horn was heard and they would plow straight through the middle of the channel. We were a reasonable distance from one of the ferries and I stood up on the deck and waved to them. I wasn’t waving to anyone in particular, but the entire boat with hundreds of people waved back. I can tell the tourists from the locals really easily. The locals would barely wave and mind their own business when the tourists are taking pictures of us along with absolutely everything around them while waving dramatically. The ferries were always annoying to a boater, but I figured I had to make their presence enjoyable somehow.
The current was with us the whole way thanks to Dad and we arrived at Friday Harbor around noon. Friday Harbor is an older marina, but it was easily one of my favorite one to go to. I don’t know why, but around the docks are mass amounts of shrimp. They would be piled on each other on the poles and edges of the dock just beneath the surface just asking to be caught. My brother had these small nets on a long wooden pole that made it easy to catch these little guys. As soon as we pulled them out of storage, Mom and Dad killed our party and told us we needed to get lunch in town. We put our nets away and started walking into town wishing we could be hunting shrimp.
Friday Harbor is built on a hill and walking up is equivalent to climbing a mountain. Before the climb, we stopped at this ice cream shop by the ferry and it was the best. Not only was the ice cream good, but also the size was huge! I got mine and it was as big as my head! We sat on a couple benches overlooking the ferry leave the harbor taking all the tourists home. After we were done we started the climb up through town. There was this boating and fishing store upstairs above the grocery store we always stopped in. This is where we bought our shrimp nets and was full of cool boating stuff. I love to go fishing and would lose myself in the fishing isle while Mom and Dad were looking at boring clothes or something. I really just wanted to go fishing in a place like Key West on a day charter, one of the best fishing spots around. Now I’m older I guess I can live out those dreams. Learn More on the website if this is something you’re interested in, like me! After touring around that store we went downstairs and made our way down the street to the whale museum. I wasn’t too impressed until I saw they had a real whale brain! It was in a glass case in this gross liquid next to a real human brain comparing the size of the two. The Orca Whale brain was huge compared to the human one! I couldn’t decide whether was the grossest or coolest thing I’ve ever seen. The lady working was rambling about whales but all I got out of that place was how cool and huge that brain was!
Washington State Ferries are very busy – watch our for moving Ferries!
After leaving the whale museum it was about mid day and my brother and I were ready to get back to the boat to hunt for shrimp! As we made our way down the dock we noticed a seal was swimming around. Her name is Popeye and people were along the dock feeding her fish! She was very gentle and took fish right out of people’s hands! I couldn’t believe it because it was like they had this seal trained! She swam around the docks all day and would even respond to her name! People were all over the place trying to get a glance at her, so we avoided the crowd and left back to the boat hoping to see her later. When we got back my brother and I knew we were about to do some serious damage to the shrimp population in the marina.
We got our nets and buckets off the boat and we were off on the hunt. We mastered the technique for catching the most shrimp and were basically professionals. My little and brother and I were the perfect team and would teach the other kids around the dock how to do it the right way. We stuck our nets down in the water very slowly so they didn’t get scared and swim away. Then move the net closer and closer to the pole extremely slow, then slam the net against the pole and pull up as fast as possible. We would gather dozens and put them in a bucket and use them as fishing bait. Once the bucket was getting full, we would go to the end of the dock, hook the shrimp to a lure, and drop it right down to the bottom. In a matter of minutes or even seconds we would have a fish! We were catching mostly rockfish and sculpins, which were all way too small to keep, but we didn’t care because the excitement of catching fish was all we needed. We eventually ran out of shrimp, so we ran back down the dock and caught more and continued the cycle. We were catching shrimp and fish for hours until it was dinnertime. Even though the day was drawing to a close, we both knew the best time spent on the docks is at night.
After a solid dinner cooked by Mom, it was completely dark outside and all of us went out to the dock. The marina looked to be settling down from a busy day, but when we shinned a light in the water we noticed it was very much alive. There were swarms of shrimp absolutely everywhere! I reached into the water and caught a few of them with only my bare hands! When the light is shinned on them they would really glow making them easy to catch. We were looking around the water and noticed the grossest little critter ever. They’re called Sand Worms and they’re about two feet long and have tiny legs like a centipede along their sides to swim! They slither through the water especially at night and because of them I was terrified to fall in. Other then those things the water awoke with exciting life at night. After going up and down the docks a few too many times we climbed back on the boat and got ready for bed. Most of the time we would watch a movie together before bed, but there was so much excitement around the docks that movies didn’t even come to mind.
Usually we’re lazy at waking up on the boat, but we were all willing to get up early because we were going to the Blue Dolphin for breakfast! This has always been my favorite breakfast place to go to because of their pancakes! I don’t know what they do in the kitchen, but they made us the best pancakes I’ve ever had. When the finishing touch is a smiley face of whipped cream, I knew they were going to be the bomb! I ate three huge ones, which felt like half my body weight all in my stomach. After that killer breakfast we made our way back to the boat to leave to the next destination. We were going to head north just up the San Juan Channel to a small but popular island called Jones…
Friday Harbor is one of the best marinas in the San Juan Islands. For an adult, it’s perfect because it’s right next to town to get supplies, there are great restaurants to eat in, and the kids will never get bored. It was my favorite marina as a kid because I’m yet to discover a place with better shrimping and fishing and that’s just the beginning. What other place has a seal named Popeye that you can hand feed right off the dock! This was our first destination of our weekend trip and next we’re sailing too Jones Island which is equally as unique!
For more ‘Adventures of the Island Kid’ – Visit:
www.boatingpugetsound.com/adventures-island-kid-destination-sucia-nw-boating
San Juan Island Sailing – Pacific NW Paradise!
Stay tuned for more from: ‘Adventures of the San Juan Kid’ – By: Peter Luciano
