Advice on Sucia in August-gctid817960

[njosephson]

Our summer cruising season has been delayed due to an unplanned need for a new outdrive, but I'm trying to salvage the time remaining. Does anyone have any advice about what days/times the best bets are for getting anchorage (ideally a mooring buoy) in Shallow bay on Sucia in crowded August? What day of the week is least crowded, what time is best to arrive?

[Guest]

Typically most boats get going around 8 to 10, and then start arriving their destination around 1 - 4. So we typically found a buoy in mid late morning time frame. By 4-5, everything is typically taken. That has worked for us in the past. We'll be up in Sucia 4 days in August, great place to be ! (We're anchoring so we're not competing for space with you )

[Pcpete]

They also have what I'm going to call mooring cables that work very well. We are just completing two and a half weeks on the boat and the Admiral's and my observation is that there aren't nearly as many boats out. The Canadian side is just plain sad there's so much open moorage.

[Norton_Rider]

"Nauticat" post=817964 wrote:
Typically most boats get going around 8 to 10, and then start arriving their destination around 1 - 4. So we typically found a buoy in mid late morning time frame. By 4-5, everything is typically taken. That has worked for us in the past. We'll be up in Sucia 4 days in August, great place to be ! (We're anchoring so we're not competing for space with you )

+1

Also Tuesday's through Thursdays tend to have fewer cruisers.

[Guest]

Shallow bay is....shallow, and has some room for easy anchoring as well. It's protected from the predominate summer southerlies, but can get some swell from passing tankers. It's nice, but not essential, to be tucked in a bit away from the opening to the bay.

[Guest]

Take a look at Ewing Cove on the southeast corner of the island as well. I think there's three mooring bouys, and not good anchoring, but it's a nice spot without the crowds if you can grab one of the bouys.

[TenMile]

We've only been to Sucia once and we anchored in Shallow Bay. Second night of our stay the wind starting blowing from the north -- not strong -- maybe 10kts. By 5am, everyone was up and we prepared the boat to leave as the swells were making us all sick. I think there are some better more protected anchorages than Shallow Bay as others have suggested.

[Norton_Rider]

"mwerner89" post=817988 wrote:
Take a look at Ewing Cove on the [strike]southeast[/strike] [color]blue wrote:
northeast[/color] corner of the island as well. I think there's three mooring bouys, and not good anchoring, but it's a nice spot without the crowds if you can grab one of the bouys.

Ewing Cove is our favorite place in Sucia. We usually head there first to see if one of the buoys are available. Current runs through the cove and the bottom is rocky in areas, so anchoring is not recommended.

A few years ago we were at the easternmost buoy of Ewing Cove and a very strong southeast gale came up around midnight. I was very happy that I used two lines on separate cleats on the buoy. All through the early morning we could hear engines starting up from boats that were dragging anchor in other areas of Sucia.