I’ve had a recent obsession with fountain pens, dip pens, pen and ink, and watercolor sketching. I’ll probably post my thoughts on fountain pen paper later. But all this led me to the world of Urban sketching – which I like because it leans into some of my strengths, namely, playing with ink, being impatient, and accuracy not mattering as much as mood and gesture.
I’ve talked to some friends and we are planning to check out some local Urban Sketch clubs but in the meantime I thought I’d see if my current mixed media sketchbook could handle a little ink/watercolor. This was fun! I decided I liked purple. All the linework is done with purple india ink (although I know it looks black). Paper is Canson XL Mixed Media 160g. It buckled under the wash but dried flat enough again.
A street scene from a tutorialMy friend’s horses this winterSunrise before kayaking on New Years Day 2024From a photo of our trip to France in 2018
I’m also taking a composition class online from an artist I admire. I may post those images here as well eventually. So far we’ve been focusing on ‘going slow’ and ‘being careful’ – my weakness!
I haven’t done as much this winter as in the past, partially because I got covid over Christmas, but I’ve made it to a few pool sessions so I don’t lose my roll. And I figured out a new trick: the butterfly roll. This just tickles me because it’s so very simple but I couldn’t do it for a long time, and now when I do it it feels like nothing.
The Butterfly Roll!
And just for fun. I don’t have a gopro mounted to my deck but I have a friend with an underwater camera who took this shot of my standard layback roll from below. It looks super easy? Right. It is easy once you know how to do it! And then every now and then I just can’t do it again.
Sometimes I have trouble not answering questions literally even when a literal answer is not what is wanted.
When living in Albuquerque in my 20s I needed to go to the courthouse and at the time I was riding my bicycle a lot so I’d ridden it to the courthouse that day. As I’m passing through security I tossed my keys and and allen wrench into the basket as I went through the scanner.
The guard looks suspiciously at the allen key but doesn’t touch it.
Guard: “What’s this?”
Is he punking me? Who doesn’t know what an allen key is.
Me: “It’s an allen key?”
He’s not happy with that answer and is a little annoyed.
Guard: “Is it a weapon?”
Really? How can he not know what this is? Maybe the problem is the word ‘key’. I’ll call it a wrench and that will definitely clear this up. This is a mistake. I should have said ‘it’s not a weapon’ but I was a little hung up on explaining what it was to go for what it was not.
Me: “It’s an allen wrench.”
Nope. He’s frustrated that I’m not giving him the kind of answer he wants.
Guard (exasperated): “Can you hurt someone with it?”
Huh. Well that’s a different question. It’s a solid object so yes, I could technically hurt someone with it. Don’t say that. But now it’s become a puzzle to solve, how could I use an allen wrench as a weapon? Could I take it and jab it into an eye? Don’t say that either. Maybe I could kill someone with a ballpoint pen! I’m pretty sure I’ve seen that in a movie. Again, don’t say that out loud. I haven’t said it, right? Good. Why ask this question? Aren’t there any number of other things inside that could be used as weapons? How about a chair or a lamp? A true warrior is never disarmed until the room is empty! Nope, don’t say that.
There’s an uncomfortably long pause while all these scenarios run through my head. I need a better answer. One that doesn’t get me tackled.
Me: “It’s a wrench. I could unscrew something?”
He makes a sort of scoffing grunt and stares at me a bit longer before letting me through security.
It’s getting colder and I’ve been thrown off my groove.
Things throwing off my groove: driving down the freeway I hear a thunk and immediately flash back to the day before when my kid, helping me load, said ‘I don’t think I can get this hatch cover all the way on’. I glance back and see something that looks suspiciously like my hatch cover hit the road. I exit, circle back and drive slowly, looking for it… no sign of it. I drive by 2 more times but can’t see/find it anywhere. I go home and try to locate a new hatch cover.
I bring my OTHER (bigger) boat to kayak around Jetty Island. The water is cold but I am determined to try my roll because I don’t want to lose it. I blow the first try, then blow the 2nd try, then blow the third and now I’m swimming. Great. But I’m not going to give up yet – I try a re-entry and roll, blow that the first time, then finally, finally get it on the second try. With some relief I slide the noseplugs off – not realizing that on that last try my glasses slid over my head and now the only thing keeping my glasses with me is the strap on the noseplugs. I drop both into the sea.
Have to call my husband to bring me spare glasses so I can drive and then also need to order a new pair of glasses.
How do I look when I’m NOT off my groove? Here’s me testing out my roll in the bigger (harder to roll) kayak at the beginning of October.
My ‘good side’ roll in Big Red
My offside roll
Not all successful at first – here’s the first time I tried to do a balance brace and realized it’s not as easy to get back upright in this boat as it is in my other boat.
I know I’m going to fail but not sure what to do about it until I fail completely
But I eventually figured out how to fix it.
Much better
So enough of this failed roll shenanigans. I’m signing up for some pool sessions so I can practice without getting cold and without getting cold water in my ears which makes me dizzy.
And my neighbor and ‘noodling’ buddy took me out on the lake early in the morning for some quiet practice and made this wonderful video. The groove is back? Sunrise noodling in Little Red.
Using paint is intimidating but I know I’m not comfortable with a brush yet and I’m also not comfortable picking colors so I need the practice. Here’s the last two months. Most of these are very small.
Set 1: pen and ink sketches with watercolor.
Set two – oil sketches on paper
still lifemadrone barksunlit treesDeer LakeMushrooms
I purchased two tutorials by Tim Packer on how to draw the sun shining through trees.
In September I decided to restart doing one sketch or painting a day, every day. I get thrown off by life or, specifically, camping sometimes but I’ve been overall good about it and I feel like it’s getting easier with less effort. Half of these are from my own photos, about half from photos on Unsplash and one is a copy of a Georgia O’Keeffe.
Part of what I mean when I say it’s getting easier is that I have fewer obvious failures. This is not everything I did in the month but I didn’t take photos of the stuff that really didn’t work at all – the rate of failure like that has gone down.
More kayaking! Over the weekend I went to a 3-day kayaking ‘jamboree’ at Deception Pass where we had instruction and spent the rest of the time learning about camping, knots, and going on multiple paddles (one of which I led)
But now it’s time for the real adventure. I’ve been wanting to do this paddle since last year but I’m not ready to do it alone and it’s only scheduled so often. So here it is: Washington Park in Anacortes to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island going south around the tip of Lopez Island. It’s 24 miles and goes through Cattle Pass which can get ‘spicy’.
Of course an early start is necessary. Here’s my adventure-van.
This was unexpected (to me) given how clear it was on the drive over, but on the water there was heavy fog. We thought the sun might burn it off quickly but no – we made the whole crossing in heavy fog. With a strong south current pulling us if we’d been navigating entirely without GPS there was a chance we might have missed Lopez island entire. Here our trip leader is calling Seattle Marine Traffic on the radio to confirm there are no large ships before we cross the shipping lane.
The fog broke just before lunch at Iceberg point on the south end of Lopez and then we quickly got into Cattle Pass before it reached max flood (which was about 6 knots). Even though we went through early we still reached a max speed of 10.5mph at one point. It felt like it took no time at all to reach Turn Island.
No photos of the excitement of Cattle Pass (a relatively calm day, I’m told) because I was busy not falling out of my boat.
Friday Harbor! I always feel very fancy when I get to arrive at dock, climb out and go get food. Which is what we did! We left our kayaks in front of the ferry terminal and went across the street for an early dinner. We landed at 3pm but wound up having to wait for the 6:30pm ferry, which was then late. But Friday Harbor is always enjoyable so we walked around and spoke to the caretaker at their community garden.
Finally on the ferry heading home with all our boats loaded in the front. We brought wheels to roll on and returned to our cars back in Anacortes.
Here’s the summary: 24 miles, just over 5 hours moving time and an average of 4.5 mph. I’d do it again, and I’m feeling less intimidated by Cattle Pass (even though I know we got it on an easy day and nobody was sucked into a whirlpool).
A quick edit – I thought I should include this planning map we made to outline the potential hazards in Cattle Pass. See if you can spot my special additions!
I had to cancel a trip I was leading earlier in the month but was invited along on this little 3 day as a make-up paddle. The trip was planned to Sucia which I was excited about because my only previous trip to Sucia had to be cut short due to weather.
We launched from the small beach area next to the Lummi island ferry. Total of 8 paddlers and we knew we might need to change plans due to some predicted high winds. The original plan was Day 1 Sucia, Day 2 Patos, Day 3 return. Instead we did Day 1 Sucia, Day 2 Clark, and Day 3 return. Moving to Clark placed us much farther south so the wind would blow us in the correct direction on day 3.
Day 1Day 2Day 3
On our way we stopped at Matia Island and despite a lot of discussion on the topic I’m still not sure how to pronounce it. It had a beautiful forest loop, a large boat dock, and limited forested camping.
The loop trail on Matia
Sucia was lovely again. Soon after landing we made camp, hung our gear to dry and set out exploring. First we explored the shell fossils along the beach but I mentioned to Steve that there was a really nice fish fossil on the other side of the island and we decided to go see it. It’s a small island, how far could it be? It had seemed pretty close when I paddled over there before.
It was 3 miles each way. So we got a good hike in. Still worth it.
Gear drying on Sucia65 million year old fishshell fossil
The next day we checked the weather forecast and our trip leader decided the best option was to wind up on Clark Island to the south so that the following day the winds would be blowing us toward our destination and not into Canada. That meant Day 2 was a much longer day than originally planned.
First we headed over to Patos Island where we met some other paddlers we knew, scoped out the campsites, and met the docent at the lighthouse who opened it up a few minutes early so we could have a tour. See those two solar panels? They replaced an entire room full of machinery that the lighthouse used to need to function. The light is now LED and only about 5 inches high.
Patos Lighthouse
Steve’s favorite madrone tree on Patos
We then turned back east, paddling along the north side of Sucia and stopping for lunch so everyone could check out the fish fossil (without a 6 mile hike). We passed by Matia toward Clark, making a 6 or 7 mile crossing. Here’s where I found out I was getting too much sun or not enough water or something: I got a migraine that did not go away with medication. A few miles in and I was struggling – everyone could tell and offered to help out with a tow. We set the lines up and while I never quite stopped paddling, several people traded out giving me an assist so we got where we were going. So when you see our slower time for that day – this is why.
As soon as I was able to sit down in some shade for a decent amount of time I felt better.
Clark Island
This time we were able to snag some of the beach sites out of the wind. They were not as private and the toilet was farther away, but building a fire on the beach was pretty cool. We had a firelog along, this time courtesy of Susan. And we had an excellent view of Baker.
The next morning was windy but not as exciting as we had feared. The whitecaps settled down while we made our crossing toward Lummi and we made it back to our launch site a little early.
I’ve been asked about how to prep for kayak camping trips, started writing it all out, and decided instead to make it a post.
In general, kayak camping is very much like packing for backpacking except you have a lot more space, sometimes have to carry ALL your water, and the weight isn’t too important. It can be like luxury backpacking. But if your kayak is on the smallish side having backpacking-worthy gear is very helpful.
GEAR
Here’s my very official camping list that I used to prepare for one particular trip. The colors represent the colors of the actual drybags I was using so I would remember where I put things. It’s better to use more small dry bags than a few large ones. It’s easier to fill all the spaces in the hatch with small bags rather than having one large bag that blocks access and leaves a big air space. Your hatch seals might be good, but you should expect water to get in. Don’t leave anything loose in the hatch that can’t get wet.
Clothing: extra socks, fleece, long underwear, warm jacket, OR shorts & t-shirt for warm weather. Spare undies. Camp shoes.
First aid kit: has my epipens, bandages & less used medication
Kayak specific equipment: dry suit, pfd, spare paddle (main paddle too, of course), marine radio, rope to secure boats.
Not pictured: tow rope kit, clothes I will be wearing: 1-2 layers of fleece to wear under the drysuit, wool socks. HAT
In the top right I have drawn something called ‘insulation’ – sometimes I bring a big pad of insulation to put under my sleeping pad for extra warmth. Sometimes I bring a piece of yoga mat or a ‘hello fresh’ bag to use as a sit pad and as a ground cloth for the inside of my tent vestibule.
Chairs: If there’s space I will bring one, but I frequently sit on the insulated bag, or at picnic tables, or on my bear canister.
FOOD
Some people prep elaborate, healthy meals and are there grilling up steaks or salmon. I am not one of those people. I won’t bring anything that can’t be eaten by, at most, pouring hot water over it and waiting 5 minutes. Meet your new best friend:
These only need some hot water and you’re good to go; Add instant gravy, or rehydrate some peas, or add it to whatever else you’ve been cooking. They are also useful if you are rehydrating something savory and accidentally use too much water.
In my opinion noodles, except angel hair, take too long to cook. Instant rice or dehydrated, cooked rice is good, but I’m not going to use the fuel to cook raw rice. I tend to enjoy spicy things so taking some spicy dehydrated rice & beans worked well (it might help to mash up the beans before dehydrating or else they take too long to rehydrate). Lots of veggies like zucchini and peppers dehydrate well and can be added to other meals. If I’m feeling fancy I’ll bring a few fresh green onions or green peppers and add them to the meal to make it look like I cooked.
For breakfast I usually stick with (quick) oatmeal with sugar, cinnamon, and either raisins or other fruit like dried mango. On the water I usually stick to dried fruit, almonds, summer sausage. For lunch packet tuna salad with a tortilla is typical but I like to bring a salad on day 1 as a farewell to healthy eating.
I bring very minimal cooking equipment: a titanium pot with a lid for boiling water, a camp mug, and a titanium spork. If I need a bowl I tend to use the container I brought salad in for day 1 and rinse it out. My stove is a cheap one I bought on Amazon for something like $12. My first one lasted 5 years and at that rate I can just keep replacing them as needed. It’s tiny.
PACKING
Here’s an early ‘what I packed’ example for a 1-night trip. This boat is my old 14 foot Delta – I’ve since upgraded to a 16 foot but it doesn’t hold any more gear (it’s just sleeker and faster).
I now carry extra water (and sometimes a fire log) in the rear hatch directly behind the seat. The bear canister always goes behind that because that’s the only place it will fit.
I want to distribute weight evenly so I don’t cause problems with my boat weathercocking or leecocking in wind. Since this photo was taken I’ve also switched to a much, much smaller camping pad.
The ikea bags are important! I can load and unload my gear into them first and it keeps everything from getting full of sand, plus I can use them as a rough way to judge if I’m putting equal weight in each hatch.
This is also a little out of date. I now keep my waterproof camera clipped to my PFD and leave my phone, keys, charging cables, and power supply in a separate drybag in the back hatch.
My small dayhatch contains sunglasses, sunscreen, trail mix/snacks, a water bottle, and frequently a hat or hair tie, chapstick, and the nose clips I want to keep handy if I think I want to practice rolling.
Not pictured: when I’m packing the hatches I put a long string on two very small drybags and put those all the way up in the nose and stern first. When I go to unload I can pull the string and pull the small bag (and anything blocking it) into easy reach without having to stretch around trying to reach things that are too far away.
If I need to, I can pack lighter and still fit my wheels inside the hatch. If that’s not an issue I can splurge a bit and bring a camp chair or a hammock. Last time I brought our camping french press and a little Bailey’s to go in my coffee. I don’t like to leave things on the deck but I’ve paddled with a crowded deck and it didn’t seem to affect the performance of the kayak much at all, even in some wind. I find I don’t often need a chair because most campsites have picnic tables and I can sit on the bear can if needed.
I’m always making minor adjustments to my gear or how I pack it, but this covers the basics pretty well.
This summer I really want to explore the San Juan Islands by kayak – as much as possible! And if I’m able to do it without getting onto a ferry, even better. Yesterday I left for a 1-night (Sat-Sun) trip from Anacortes to Clark Island. Clark is located just off Orcas Island and isn’t far from Sucia (where I need to get back to).
Our route as mapped on Gaia. Anacortes to Clark (orange), 15.2 miles in 2 hrs 57 min. Average moving speed was 5.4mph with a max speed of 7.9 mph. As you might guess we had a substantial current pushing us along.
Return trip (red) 15.36 miles in 3 hours 43 minutes. Average moving speed 4.4mph and max speed 6.8 mph. We still had the current with us but had a substantial headwind until we were close to Cypress Island. We also stopped for lunch at Cypress Head.
Setting sun catching the madrone trees on Clark Island.
We launched at 2pm to take advantage of the current assist. There was no rain or wind but it was overcast the whole way. We passed by a spectacular view of Eagle’s Cliff at the north end of Cypress and I hope to go back to hike it soon. North, near Lawrence point the currents were confused – first pushing left, then right, then left again, but it was slow enough that it was hard to see which direction they were going before they caught you. I’m told that it can be MUCH more exciting than what we experienced. We arrived a little after 5pm and found, to our surprise, that the entire beach area was filled up!
There were many empty sites, though, up the little hill in the forest and I picked one that had a view of the rocks to the east and south to Orcas.
View from in front of our campsite
It rained overnight which meant it was kind of gross to pack up, but it didn’t rain ON us, at least. THere was a pretty brisk wind from the SSE (but less than 10 kts).
Dave and Jeff, north of Cypress
Fred, Susan, and Terri
I was a little cold when we started, but, as usual, working hard warmed me up. By the time we reached Cypress the wind had died down and we could see some sun start to break through. We stopped for lunch at Cypress Head, paddled through some confused currents to the east of it, and then rode the last of the ebb back to Anacortes. We only had to dodge one ferry (and it was quite far away). By the time we returned to the launch it was warm and sunny.
This felt like a pretty ambitious trip to me, and we got quite far into the San Juans. It makes me confident that I can do a lot of exploring without always having to take a ferry. I guess the trick is the weather and timing the currents.
No photos of these, but we saw porpoises, lots of seals, and two sea lions who came very close to the boats.
