Day of Rain

There is something magical about the San Juans. Especially when it is raining. Luckily for us, we awoke this morning to rain. Low clouds engulfed the islands and muffled all sound, the morning was so quiet and peaceful, the water so calm and glassy. Upon checking the weather forecast, we learned that there was a small-craft advisory in effect for the afternoon, so after breakfast we donned our rain jackets and pants as we prepared the boat to head out to Rosario Resort where we knew we could spend the afternoon and night in the safety of slip. Without a hint of wind to be found, we fired up the engine and motored to our destination through the rain, soaking up the moody atmosphere in solitude with its mysterious, low-lying clouds and penetrating quietness with the boys logging a lot of bow-sprit time along the way. Arriving at Rosario, tensions were high as we surveyed the layout of the marina and the tightness of the slips. Jason, however, perfectly swung us around the corner of the marina and parked all 43 feet of us into a little slip.

Rosario Resort was built by Robert Moran, a wealthy shipbuilder from Seattle in the early 1920's. One thing that I have noticed from my experience in Acadia, the Virgin Islands, and here, is that wealthy folks from the 1920's really knew how to pick stunning locations for their private get-aways. After tying up to the dock, we headed up to the much drier historic mansion to wander and explore in warmth. (A side note here, as mentioned before, this is our first solo trip without a captain and there are many things that are firsts for us, like, dealing with the head, or what landlubbers call the bathroom. We were warned that we would probably need to have the head pumped out partway through the trip so we asked about pumping services at the dock. We were informed that they had a manual pump and we were free to use it. Gross. At this point I forbade anyone to use the head for the rest of the trip because we did not know what its capacity was and my imagination for overflow of sewage was running wild. I was thankful to be at a dock with bathrooms that we could use.) After exploring the mansion, we settled into the cabin with hot coffee and spent the afternoon reading while it continued to pour outside. Just before dinner, we suited up in our wet rain gear and went for hike up to Cascade Lake. It was picture-perfect, and I couldn't help but to imagine vacationers from the 20's sitting around on blankets with picnic baskets along the shore. I could almost hear their laughter in the mist. Funny how this muted, wet weather brightens the imagination. 

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