For the Labor Day cruise we went to the South Sound.  Instead of going to Wollochet Bay, when not many people signed up, Paul on Altair suggested we go to Echo Bay on Fox Island, where his cousins have some property.  Saturdaystarted off foggy and wet, but by waiting until late to leave, we got good weather and also good current through the Narrows.  Outlaw and Altair joined up at Echo Bay after a five hour motor trip in mostly calm wind from Seattle through the Narrows to Fox Island.  Breaking the tradition of potluck, each boat agreed host the entire dinner one night.  By dinner the water skiers had gone home and we had a quiet evening, punctuated by a walk to the Fox Island general store and pub, where we met Scarlett, who was getting ready to be flower girl in a wedding the next day.  The rest of the wedding party was there too, but they ignored us pretty much.  After dinner on Outlaw we went ashore for a campfire at Paul’s cousins’ property.

The next day we again motored (dead calm) to Cutts Island, where each boat picked up a park buoy in the early afternoon and got to do some beach combing and hill climbing on the Island.  Cindy got a few red rock crabs from her pot dropped near the mooring.  It was Altair’s turn to host the dinner, which included salmon and grilled corn along with the crab.  We got to watch a beautiful sunset with the broken clouds lighting up.  Showers had been forecast, and we could see some in the distance, but stayed dry all day.  The buoys at Cutts are exposed to the South, and naturally we had a South wind all night, but it wasn’t very strong and just made some nice ripples to rock us to sleep.  The wind persisted into Monday, so we were able to sail nearly all the way to the Narrows before the wind died.  Shortly after entering Colvos passage a light Southerly came up which provided a decent sail up the passage, assisted by the ebb current.  Of course all the power boats in the Northwest were also transiting Colvos Passage, so we got rocked around by wakes from time to time.  By the time we got past Blake Island the tide had turned and the light wind died, so we motored the remaining few miles home.

The South Sound is a great destination, with lots of pretty things to see.  It takes a few hours to get there and back, but is well worth it.  Lots of anchorages and many park buoys which are more often available than we find in other parts of the Sound.