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Hiracer · 10-03-2010, 14:00

I could use some help. Telephone number for the regional office is 360-755-9231. I'm told that calls and letters help get things done. The mooring buoys are scheduled to be reinstalled this spring but it's far from a sure thing.

My youngest kid loves to have campfires and s'mores on the beach of this particular island. It's his favorate, ferry wake notwithstanding. Thanks for any help you can offer.

* * *
Washington State Parks
Northwest Region Office
220 N. Walnut St.
Burlington, WA 98233

Dear Sir or Madam,

I am a user of the mooring buoys at James Island, San Juan Islands. I see that of the five original buoys, only one remains.

I am writing to urge you to please reinstall the other three for the east side of the island. I understand that the west side will not have one reinstalled.

Please remedy this problem because soon the existing mooring buoy will be very inadequate for the traffic that the island attracts.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Hiracer · 10-03-2010, 14:02

The buoy on the west side of the island will not be reinstalled because the bottom is rock. They can't drill into it. They use a block, but the currents are enough that it gets dragged off a ledge and then drops, taking any connected boat down with it.

Oops.

Stillraining · 10-03-2010, 14:37

I wondered where our boat went off to..

Hiracer · 10-03-2010, 15:12

It does bring a bad image to mind, does it not?

Of all the things that could go wrong.

I was on a U.S. Forest Service mooring buoy in Alaska when about 4 in the morning I heard the keel scrape gravel. Got up, figured out the tide was getting too low--which was news to me--and anchored out.

Some poor fool in a small sailboat was up at that awful hour and took the buoy. I didn't notice until after anchoring. I tried to shout that trouble was coming but nobody was on deck and nobody answered.

Next morning I saw that boat nearly on its side. The guys had just bought it and couldn't get their small Danford to stick all night. When they inexplicably saw me leave the mooring buoy, they grapped it and were asleep before I had finished anchoring.

I gave them an extra anchor I had and didn't like, which they used after the tide came in. Sort of a welcome to boating present.

Some where in all that there's a lesson or two about mooring buoys.

senormechanico · 10-03-2010, 17:31

Try Jones Island, North side.

Hiracer · 11-03-2010, 16:44

Much further from Anacortes.

tager · 11-03-2010, 17:00

What about the dock?

Hiracer · 12-03-2010, 12:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by tager

What about the dock?

In nice weather it fills up real fast. Besides I like the privacy of buoys. I go to the dock to BS, and then back to the boat for private time.

Shoot, even with all the mooring buoys and the dock, the island fills up pretty fast on summer weekends.

Hiracer · 24-03-2010, 13:55

In the FWIW department, got a letter back from the San Juan Marine Area Manager. The east side buoys are scheduled to go in the week of April 5, 2010 weather permitting.

The letter was cc-ed to three Parks employees (I presume). Did not recognize their names.

So, potential happy ending here. Gotta tell my boy; he'll be good with it.