Friday Harbor is one of those spots where cruising boats pass through, usually for a short period, while on route somewhere else. During the summer it is busy in the extreme, what with ferry traffic, sea planes, and yachts of all varieties coming and going. There are markets and hardware stores ashore, and even a small West Marine outlet. Restaurants abound, and there’s a movie theater too.

We looked hard at moving here when we finished our circumnavigation. The pull was strong, especially during the quiet period of the year after the summer. We ended up elsewhere, but several of our cruising friends have settled in the area.

We first shared an anchorage with Jim and Sue Corenmen in the San Blas Islands, on Panama’s Atlantic Coast. The Corenmens, along with Sally and Stan Honey, are the parents of the SailMail radio-based email system. Jim’s computer code is also used by hams around the world for their e-mail operations. Jim and Sue were on their final leg of a circumnavigation aboard Heart of Gold, and we were Caribbean-bound on Beowulf at the time.

They still have Heart of Gold, but for local cruising they use this aluminum cruiser. We think they have great taste in color schemes.

Friday Harbor is a little too busy for us to spend more than a day at a time, so we moseyed two miles to Park Harbor.

This is more to our liking. Beautiful surroundings, and very, very quiet.

And across the way our friends Chris and Bill Brees were anchored. Once we found out it was Bill’s birthday, a party was deemed necessary.

Just a few miles away, on Orcas Island, live more old friends. Hobie and Susan Alter have a place on the water, with, of course, the boat docked in front.

We go back a long way with Hobie, having raced with and against him in small cats for many years. We were at the first regatta when he showed off his Hobie 14 to the world.

"Clever, but who would want to buy something that simple without dagger boards" was the consensus of the competitors.

Untold thousands of boats later, having revolutionized sailing as a sport (the Hobie fleet was the first to use the 360-degree penalty turn), not to mention way of life, we know that we and a lot of other onlookers were wrong!

We were racing in the Yachting One-of-a-Kind regatta on Lake Michigan in 1969 when Hobie had his big breakthrough. On the last day of the regatta, with a blustery Northeaster whipping the lake into steep seas, Hobie brought his 14 home second overall on elapsed time and first on corrected. It was not the boat that made this happen, but rather Hobie’s skill as a sailor.

Hobie’s cruising boat is the nicest looking power cat we’ve seen, well thought out, with lots of interesting details – including a lovely aft deck with a bar-B-Q and patio-style furniture.

This is the view towards Pole Pass (to the right of the photo).

We know you’re into boats, but this garden, nestled in the forest, is both productive and lovely to view.

Here is another face from the past, and the next-door neighbor of Hobie and Susan. That’s Warren and Laurie Miller above. We raced against Warren for many years in multihulls. Warren was another of the pioneers, first with a Malibu Outrigger and then a P-Cat (which was slower, of course, than the Wildcat and Shark we sailed – but then there might still be an argument about that). Those of you who are into winter sports will recognize Warren from his many films on skiing.

We’re anchored here in front Pole Pass. This is one of the main thoroughfares through the islands, so there is a constant stream of traffic coming and going.

At low tide this appears to be barely 50 feet (15m) wide.

Here’s a shot of the pass at high tide.

If you look closely at the photo below you will notice something very unusual.

We’ve got our window awnings set. Between the recent warm temperatures and the hours of low angle sunshine – both of which we love – reducing heat load on the interior has become a necessity. And if gets any warmer we might bring out the rest of the awnings (or move closer to the ice caps).

The solar panels are back at work too. With more time spent sitting and less under way, these 110-watt 24V panels (there is one on each stern corner) contribute a small but important part of our daily electrical requirements.

We’re obviously into boat watching, and occasionally something catches our eye. Here is a pretty little schooner that was anchored nearby a couple of days ago. Check out the Pacific Northwest style pilothouse. Normally these structures look ungainly and out of place on traditional boats, even if they are quite functional where it is normally wet and cold. But this execution did not seem to detract that much.

We think the reason it works aesthetically is due to being mainly window without a lot of structure surrounding the windows. This would not be an open ocean solution – one small breaking sea sweeping the deck would take the house right off – but for up here, in protected waters, it works.