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Saturday, August 11: Cross Rosario Strait for Sucia Island
Saturday dawned bright but with thick fog hugging the water in Rosario Strait. JoJoma arrived about 7:00 am after spending the night on the road at a rest stop.
 By mid-morning, all boats were together in the commercial boat section, but we delayed our departure until the fog lifted around noon. With a south wind and a delayed departure, we made up some time by motorsailing southwest across Bellingham Bay, then rounding the south end of Portage Island.
Once in Hale Passage, some patches of wind encouraged us to shut off our motors. Riding the northbound tide, we occasionally reached speeds of 8 knots under sail. Those exhilirating moments were punctuated by lulls of slack wind under the warm August sun.
Rounding the north end of Lummi Island, we passed south of the Point Migley buoy and pointed our bows toward Matia Island. Winds became lighter and we eventually motorsailed across. Approaching Sucia Island, we saw several porpoises.
 In my trip planning, I underestimated the amount of current in Rosario Strait. We were inexorably pushed northward off our planned track, and didn't realize how far we had come until we started seeing Rosario Strait buoys.
I pulled out the binoculars and suddenly realized I could no longer see into Echo Bay on Sucia Island. Instead, I was looking at the north side of Sucia Island and shoals. We turned southward and motored against the building current until we could see into Echo Bay, then turned and made the entrance.
A quick tour of the harbor showed all buoys taken, and many boats at anchor. We chose to tie to the linear moorage for the night. Tom, JoJoma's skipper, put together his origami canoe while I pumped and pumped and pumped to inflate our dinghy for the trip to the beach.
We covered 21.7 nautical miles in our six-hour transit.
Saturday photos
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Ship's Log 
