In the early 1980s, I lived in Bellingham, Washington – about 50 miles north of Oak Harbor.

I moved there, not for professional opportunity, but to sail the San Juan Islands.

Before buying a home, I bought a sailboat named “Puffin,” and taught myself how to sail in the dead of a northwest winter.

Puffin was a C&C 27, a great little boat that took me to unspoiled inlets and islands in the waters of Washington State and British Columbia. Day sailing after work, and cruising on weekends were special times.

My memories of those voyages from 40 years ago are still vivid.

Today, I’m going to visit those waters again.

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From Oak Harbor, it’s a half-hour Harley ride to Anacortes, where we’ll catch the 9:30 a.m. Washington State Ferry to Friday Harbor.

We roll north on Washington Highway 20, crossing over Deception Pass at the north end of Whidbey Island. Deception Pass is a strait separating Whidbey Island from Fidalgo Island, home to the Anacortes Ferry Terminal.

The beautiful Deception Pass Bridge, rising 180 feet above the water, is on the National Register of Historic Places. It’s a commonly photographed sight in the Puget Sound region, along with the Space Needle, Mount Rainier, and Pike Place Market.

The Deception Pass Bridge is actually two bridges. Pass Island sits between Whidbey Island and Fidalgo Island. One bridge span connects Whidbey Island with Pass Island; the other span connects Pass Island with Fidalgo Island.

A group of sailors led by Joseph Whidbey, part of the Vancouver Expedition, found and mapped Deception Pass on June 7, 1792. George Vancouver gave it the name, “Deception,” because it had misled him into thinking Whidbey Island was a peninsula.

Deception Pass has dramatic tidal flows, with currents reaching more than eight knots (9.2 miles an hour). Four times a day (ebb and flood tides, x 2), the waters of Saratoga Passage and the Strait of Juan de Fuca surge through the narrow opening of Deception Pass. Boats can be seen waiting on either side of the pass for the current to stop or change direction before going through. Slack tide is optimal.

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Crossing Deception Pass, we’re about halfway to the Anacortes Ferry Terminal, where we’ll board the MV Suquamish for our hour-long ride to San Juan Island. The “MV” in MV Suquamish stands for Motor Vessel.

Today, almost every ship is a Motor Vessel, because the alternative, SS (Steam Ship) is rarely used anymore. The Suquamish, built in 2018, holds 144 vehicles. With any luck, four of them will be ours.

At mean high tide, the San Juan Island archipelago comprises over 400 islands and rocks, 128 of which are named. Some of the islands are just big rocks, exposed at low tide. Many of the small and medium-sized islands are privately owned.

From my days living in the northwest, I’ve visited many of the islands – not just those reachable by ferry, but smaller islands you can explore if you’re lucky enough to have a boat (I was). Clark, Matia, Sucia, Patos, Stuart, and James are just a few of the islands where I’ve dropped an anchor, or tied to a mooring buoy.

Today, we plan to visit two of the four islands served by the Washington State Ferry system. These ferries connect Orcas, Shaw, Lopez and San Juan Islands.

The Washington State Ferry system is the largest ferry operator in the US. With 21 vessels and 20 terminals, the Washington State Ferry system carries about 23 million passengers every year, including the four of us today. The largest ferry, 460 feet long, holds up to 2,500 passengers and 200 vehicles.

The ferry system is operated by the Washington State Department of Transportation, and is considered part of the state’s highway system. Originally, Washington state only intended to run ferry service until cross-sound bridges could be built as a replacement. But those bridges were thankfully never approved, leaving Washington residents and tourists with a wonderful way to be one with nature.

I’ve been coming to the San Juan Islands since moving to western Washington in 1979. My first trip on the ferry was in August 1979, when I rode my 1976 Honda CB550F onto the ferry, which took me to Orcas Island. It was an overnight trip to Rosario Resort, the former Eastsound estate of Seattle shipbuilder and mayor (1888-1890) Robert Moran.

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Today, we will visit Orcas Island, as well as San Juan Island.

Our first stop is Friday Harbor, an idyllic port that’s the commercial center of the San Juans. The ferry ride to get there is a 19-mile journey across Rosario Strait, through Thatcher Pass, past the northern tip of Lopez Island, through Upright Channel, along the southern reaches of Shaw Island, and into Friday Harbor.

Friday Harbor is the largest town in the San Juans, with about 2,500 year-round residents, and thousands more during the summer tourist season. Friday Harbor was not named after the day of the week. The name originates from Joseph Poalie Friday, a native Hawaiian. He moved to San Juan Island in the 1860s, raising and herding sheep around the area that is today known as Friday Harbor.

Most everything worth seeing in Friday Harbor is within walking distance of the ferry landing. You’ll find a whale museum, art museum, community theater, bed and breakfasts, hotels and inns, restaurants, shops, and a refreshing absence of fast-food chains.

We’re not constrained by “walking distance of the ferry landing.” We have motorcycles, and intend to see as much of the island as possible, before catching our departing ferry at 2:20 p.m.

We roll off the ferry, and get onto Roche Harbor Road, which takes us to the Hotel De Haro, part of the Roche Harbor Resort. During my sailing days, I cruised into Roche Harbor many times.

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From Roche Harbor, we ride along the western coastline of San Juan Island, passing through San Juan County Park and Lime Kiln Point State Park, a great place to watch orcas and gray whales. It’s considered one of the best whale-watching spots on Earth. If you’re lucky, you can see humpback and minke whales pass through the area every May through September. Peak times depend on salmon runs.

After our 33-mile ride around the island, we arrive back in Friday Harbor and get in line at the Ferry terminal for our next journey – the 2:20 p.m. inter-island eastbound ferry to Orcas Island, the largest of the islands in the San Juan archipelago.

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We board the MV Tillicum – at 310 feet in length, one of the smallest vessels in the Washington State Ferry system – and say good-bye to Friday Harbor.

The ferry takes us through Upright Channel, along the west side of Shaw Island, through narrow Wasp Passage, and into the Orcas Island Ferry Terminal. It’s a 50-minute ride that covers 8.6 miles.

We roll off the MV Tillicum around 3:15 – plenty of time to explore the island, and find dinner, before heading back to Oak Harbor.

Our first stop is the famed Mount Constitution overlook in 5,252-acre Moran State Park. Mount Constitution was named by Charles Wilkes during the Wilkes Expedition of 1838-1842. The Wilkes Expedition was chartered to explore and survey the Pacific Ocean and surrounding lands. Wilkes named the Orcas Island mountain for the USS Constitution, also known as Old Ironsides. 

Riding to Mount Constitution is about 18 miles, a 45-minute journey to the top of the 2,409-mountain. It’s the highest point in the San Juan Islands. A stone observation tower patterned after a medieval watch tower stands at the summit, offering panoramic views of the San Juans, the Cascade Mountains, and nearby Canadian and American cities.

The stone tower is a replica of Russian watchtowers constructed in the Caucasus during the 12^th century. In the 1930s, the Civilian Conservation Corps constructed this tower, and the roads and bridges that lead to the summit of Mount Constitution.

From the top of Mount Constitution, it’s about a seven-mile ride down the mountain to the Rosario Resort and Spa, where we plan to have an early dinner before catching our last ferry of the day.

The historic Moran Mansion is the centerpiece for the resort and marina, located on the shores of Cascade Bay. In my sailing days, I often cruised to the Rosario Resort, tied up to a mooring buoy, and rowed in to the resort for dinner.

Today, no rowing is needed to get here.

We rumble into the resort, find prime parking, and forage for food.

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After dinner, we saddle up for the 14-mile ride to the Orcas Island Ferry Terminal. Our reservations are for the 7:50 eastbound sailing to Anacortes aboard the MV Chelan. 

We land in Anacortes, 30 minutes late, at 9:10 pm – and arrive back in Oak Harbor with little daylight to spare. The days are long in the Northwest; sunset tonight is upon us.

What a day!

Tomorrow? Canada, eh.

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To view today’s ferry route in Google Maps, click here.

Here’s the route we took around Orcas Island.

My number today: 9:08 p.m. (sunset in Oak Harbor)

What’s your number?