Dead Man's Island

"Wait! So you're all telling me you DON'T like sailing?"

Departure: 10:30am
Return: 8:00pm
Weather conditions: Mostly clear, hardly any wind
Tide: Flood tide both ways (there and back)
Boat: Red Club Boat
Crew: The entire family (6)

The shadows give it away long before the temperature. Fall arrives early in Washington. The days quickly become shorter, the light weakens and the shadows lengthen. The days are still warm, but you can sense that it's over. I can't say I like the feeling. All of a sudden all our activities feel rushed and anxious like we have to pack it in before the cold and rain sets in. The shadows are bad enough, but school started a couple of days early this year, and that really does "terminate" summer. A summer that was all too short. But I digress.

This is boring. I wish I was seasick.

We have (had) two free sailing days left to use this year. The free days come with membership to the Gig Harbor Sailing club (and excellent club). I know that the chances of getting my family sailing on a cloudy, windy, cool day is unlikely, so I've been pressuring them to go on another adventure.


I always try to pick adventures that I think will be alluring to the children. I think children are more likely to enjoy sailing somewhere than just going out and sailing for a couple of hours. Partly because they don't get to do everything on the boat that I get to do, and partly because they don't appreciate something quiet and meditative like sailing. I usually have some sort of "interesting" destination to make the journey interesting. This time it was Deadman's Island. What child would not want to go to Deadman's Island? Ours certainly wanted to go.


The destination was a good one - no question about that. And, my clever use of the tide currents in our favor was a good one. I'm proud to say that the currents helped us both coming and going under the bridge. No, there was only one major flaw in the plan (and ever trip seems to have one ). The flaw in this case was the distance.

This trip was further than our Blake Island trip; though, I hoped the currents would help make up the difference. We had to travel 19 miles there,do all our playing, and then travel 19 back. The entire week we had had phenomenal winds, and I anticipated having those same winds helping us out on Saturday. It was not to be. For most of the day it was almost dead calm. Later in the afternoon we got some light breezes, but nothing that would significantly help us. In the evening we had some good winds, but by then it was too late and we were rushing back to the harbor before the sun set.


With no wind and so much distance, I knew ahead of time that we'd be motoring most of the way, but I didn't expect to be motoring the entire way. I haven't been on many power boats, so I can't speak for them, but motoring on a sailboat is usually noisy and uncomfortable. The motors are usually diesel, and outboard and two-stroke.

You say it's allergies, but I think sailing makes you weep with joy.

So, in a nutshell, it was too long, but we did have a lot of fun exploring Deadman's island and stopping at Kopachuck Park. I think we would do it again, but we would camp either on the boat (if it were a bigger boat), or at Penrose state park. Either approach would give us more time to explore Carr's inlet. Maybe next year we'll make a long weekend out of it. In the meantime, here's a rundown of what we did and where we went. I should note that our camera batteries gave out about 2 hours into the trip so you'll only see photos of the beginning of the journey.

Dad, they're going faster than we are.

First, let me describe our route. We headed south through the narrows, and under the narrows bridge. This was definately a highlight of the journey. We continued south past Fox Island, then turned west along the southern side of the island. We continued West until we reached Green Point. We rounded north at Green point and continued north to Cutts Island. We made a brief pitstop at Kopachuck for the potty. There were no moorages left, and we couldn't find an anchor so MOnica rowed a party ashore and took them to the bathroom while the remaining crew sailed about.

Luckily the island did have some moorages left. We tied up and rowed ashore (two trips) and began to explore. Deadmans Island (currently named Cutts Island) got it's name from the local indian tradition of burying indian warriors there. Or so they say. It's not a large island, but a nice size for a day of exploration and picnicing. After that we pretty much backtracked and made our way home.

We did enjoy a spectacular sky as we motored in late. That's all for now.