Filucy Bay Leaves

Thursday, Sept 15
(delayed due to sparse internet connectivity in the South Sound)

We rose pretty early and bid adieu to Olympia.  Early because we are now northbound, and the ebb tides are in the morning right now.  Up until today we have been very genteel with our cruising - the tides have dictated (!) that we not leave our anchorages until afternoon.

We threaded the needle back out the long dredged channel (note: Tho there were for the inbound course, there are NO range boards* for the outbound course - thank heavens for our GPS!), back out past Boston Harbor, and into Dana Passage.  About 2/3 of the way thru Dana Passage, the wind picked up enough that we could kill the engine.

For the rest of the morning, we quietly sailed, anchoring about 15:00 in Filucy Bay.  (Do you say Fil-u-see or Fil-u-she?  Those locals we have asked called it Fil-u-see.  I always go with the locals.)

Filucy Bay is special because Ken's parents (Jeff and Sue) have a beach house there, and as it turned out they were at home.  We shared dinner with them and had a nice long chat, until way after dark.  Motoring back out the boat in the dark was a really cool experience - the phosphorescence was spectacular - the discharge from the prop of the outboard looked like a pale blue searchlight pointing astern underwater, and each of the two tubes of the dinghy trailed a smaller beam.  There is no possible way to make a picture of this, unfortunately.  You will just have to go out on the water with us at nite if you want to see it.

The final bit:  Sue gave us a big bunch of bay leaves from their plantings.  Aside from their obvious use as a seasoning, we use them to repel weevils in the floury things on the boat.  We even leave some just laying around on the  pantry shelves, just in case.  It really works!


* Range boards are two boards, spaced our both horizontally and vertically, each with a stripe.  They are positioned such that if you line the two stripes up one above the other and keep them there, your course is the desired one.

Filucy Bay Leaves