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Trip Report    

Sea Kayak - Skagit & Hope Islands

Spur of the moment Day After Thanksgiving Turkey Burner paddle! Great group and an unexpected encounter with a curious sea lion made for a fun day. Plus, higher than expected winds on the east side of the route made for a somewhat more vigorous paddle. So mission accomplished!

Doug Palm Doug Palm
December 06, 2024
  • Road suitable for all vehicles

  • Weather forecasts called for winds increasing from around 6 knots to around 10 from the southeast, calming down later in the day. Conditions at Cornet Bay were calm going out and coming back. East of Hoypus Point winds picked up to more like 11 or 12 kts with small waves driving up from the southeast. Waters northeast of Hoypus Point were pretty bumpy due to the flood meeting the wind so we followed a course to Skagit that took us through calmer seas. Calm waters in the wind shadows of the islands greeted us as we got closer. In the gaps and open spaces between the islands the wind and waves were elevated. Winds calmed for our return after we left Hope Island.

I planned for a typical Skagit & Hope island paddle out of Cornet Bay, with a slingshot around Ben Ure Island to take advantage of the flood at Deception Pass Narrows to boost our travel to Hoypus Point. At the time the flood was running at about 4.3 kts and the flow between Ben Ure and Strawberry islands was punctuated with minor boils. Out of one of these popped a large female sea lion (or maybe it was Elsie May, the local Elephant Seal?), her huge mouth gaping with a “what the heck” expression. She looked gigantic in any case and we were glad when she lost interest in us.

Flying on to Hoypus we encountered small waves in upper Skagit Bay, and saw that to the northeast the current and opposing winds were kicking up white caps.  Ahead the waters were smoother so we kinda sorta maintained a range to take us to Skagit Island.  As we drew closer the wind shadow effect gave us a smooth approach to the beach on the northeast side.  

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The water in the gap between Skagit and Kiket was bumpy from the action of the south moving current there hitting up agains the 10-12kt SSE winds. We took a 30 minute break then rounded the east side of Skagit, headed for the east end of Hope Island.  Upon reaching the yellow WDFW bouy south of Skagit Island we decided to change course and head directly for the campground on the north side of Hope.  Wind and wave action in the channel between Hope and Sneeoosh Point looked manageable but it was easy to see a lunch break on the south side of Hope would not be pleasant.  The north side offered wind shadow and while it was not in the sun it was better than experiencing windchill.

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At Hope Island we had lunch for about an hour and one member of the group had fun testing out the rope swing on the beach there. From there, we headed to the west end of Hope then identified a range and practiced ferry crossing over to the tip of Ala Spit in the 1 knot flood current. Next, we took advantage of that flood to get back to Hoypus Point where the ebb was running at about 1.7 kts by the time we arrived where the small kelp bed on the northeast side of Hoypus Point was indicating the direction of the outgoing flow.

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Back at Cornet Bay several members practiced self and assisted rescues before taking out.

All in all a great day to be on the water and burn off a few excess kcals from holiday feasting!

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