Winter Dreams of Small Islands

Two excursions in the Salish Sea to islands that keep me dreaming throughout the off-season

Article by Sean Grealish

Thanks to a cold snap it has been dusting snow for the better part of a week around my apartment in northern Washington, and my interactions with LAZYDOG have been reduced to biweekly visits to brush snow off her canvas cover and sponge frigid water from her bilge. As is often the case with small boat sailors, I spend this period of winter reliving past excursions and hypothesizing plans for the upcoming sailing season. After all, something must spur me towards a strict timetable for any pre-season upkeep or repair work, and I find going through photos and writing about previous trips does just the trick. Most prominently amongst these winter dreams are past escapes to small islands in the Salish Sea, where the deadlines and expectations of my 20’s can be cast aside for a moment on islands that are quickly circumnavigated by foot and afloat. The following tales are two explorations that firmly stick in my memory, from little islands at both the southern and northern boundaries of Washington’s inland Salish Sea.