The idea is to use an Efoil to explore most of the San Juan islands unsupported using one battery and a charger. The final journey will be over two days and consist of over 10+ legs and covering close to 100 miles. I've started with a few training legs to prove out my methods and gear. This is the second of those training legs and the most interesting one so far.
The first training leg was from Bellingham to Anacortes and back which is about 38.5 miles round trip and was completed about a month ago. This trip was the next iteration to see how many legs and miles I could accomplish in one day. I also used it to mark out possible charging locations and bailout options.
Leg 1 Bellingham to Anacortes
I left the Pacific North Sports shop in Bellingham at around 7am on Sunday 19July and headed for Anacortes. This is about a 19 mile Journey through mostly open water to the Anacortes marina on the north side of the peninsula. The trip was pretty good but there was a lot of seagrass and seaweed that I had to avoid. This would be a good time to stop and talk about logistics. I had two dry bags that were russian doll packed inside each other.
This is what I had inside the dry bags:
-Changing Poncho
-Fast Lift Charger
-Wallet, keys, etc
-Shirt, shoes, shorts
-Front wing cover
-Battery bank charger for phone and accessories
Efoil and gear:
LIFT5 4'9" board with Full range battery, 55mm LIFTX 32" propulsion, 150 Vario front wing, 31 Flow tail.
On me I had my Mocke Life Jacket, VHF radio, Insta360 camera, cell phone in drybag, and about 1.5L of water in a camel pack. I also had Shokz head phones, ear plugs, hat, 5/4 wetsuit, booties, and enough house music for this trip 10 times over. In case you don't know, the BPM and pumping bass of good house music is incredible for long distance rides especially on the efoil!
I made it to Anacortes marina pretty much uneventfully. This is a pretty empty section of the ride and a direct route puts you a good distance from shore. There are also few boats on the north end of Bellingham bay, so I'm always nervous on this crossing. Everyone is so friendly and I've never had trouble charging at this marina My girl Lucia runs the marina there and is amazing, she encouraged me to charge up in the marina office. She also recommended the Calico Cupboard which is about a 5 min walk from the marina for breakfast. It was excellent and I got totally fueled up for the rest of the day. After breakfast I checked out the walk and access on the north side of the island. Walking the gear to the north access would save me about 3 miles of ride distance which I'd need if I was going straight to Friday Harbor from there.
Leg 2 & 3 Anacortes to Lopez
Once the battery was charged I carried the unit and gear across the peninsula to the access I had checked earlier. The plan was to make it to Friday Harbor or to pit stop at Lopez island before hopping over. After carrying all of the stuff the 1 mile across Anacortes I left on the efoil around 11am. This was the one leg that worried me as there are very strong currents and it is BIG water, so my adrenaline was pumping while I navigated out into the channels. Not to disappoint there was about a 4kts following current which helped me make great time. There was a pretty big swell running and winds in the mid teens through sections. Lots of big boat traffic including a couple tankers which I had to cross paths with...always exciting! It was an efficient passage with the currents and I was able to make it to Lopez with about 40% battery left. I decided to stop there since I may not be so lucky when I do the actual run. I went to the ferry terminal and after jumping a few fences managed to charge for 30min at the waiting area. I also got some great intel for another better charging location at the camp ground around the corner.
Leg 4 Lopez to Friday Harbor
After I charged up and met some great people I headed back over the fences and back down to the beach. The ferry terminals are controlled areas so access from the water can be difficult. Once on the beach I was just in time to see the ferry coming into Lopez and another going by heading to Friday Harbor. This was perfect timing! I have been waiting to ride some ferry waves basically my entire life. It was on! The ferry had slowed after cornering and passing the ferry going into Lopez so I had to wait for it. It finally got up to speed and I was able to ride and slay those waves for about 7 miles on my way to Friday harbor. I heard about the passenger perspective from some of the riders and crew later as I took that ferry back to Anacortes. Apparently, like half the boat of passengers was on the back deck watching my exploits. I also got a scolding from the ferry staff as I was within 100 yards of the ferry which is illegal. They did say that it was one of the coolest things they have seen while underway, which is nice. It was incredible of course! The Ferry was probably moving about 16-20mph on average but putting out huge rolling waves.
Leg 5 Ferry Ride back to Anacortes
The Ferry slowed for the turn into Friday Harbor and I passed it to head into the dock area so I could change and be ready to board the Ferry. I met a bunch of people as I was packing things up at the dock there and inadvertently flashed an entire restaurant while changing. These was just all kinds of excitment on that dock let me tell you. I made it to the ferry without an issue. Getting the efoil on the ferry was no big deal and they asked me to actually bring it up in the elevator to the passenger level. Once on board I plugged in my charger and was able to get a full charge on the ride back to Anacortes. This ferry had made a stop at Lopez so the transit took longer than a straight ride back to Anacortes.
Leg 6 Ferry Terminal to Marina
The issue with taking the ferry back to Anacortes is that the ferry terminal is about 5 miles from the marina and about 24 miles from Bellingham. I can technically do about 25 miles on a full charge if I'm managing my amps carefully while riding but that is cutting it too close. To fix this situation, I did a hopscotch from the ferry terminal to the marina to see Lucia again and charged to full. The charge in the marina only took about 30 minutes so I got a coffee and chatting with some people there while I waited. I left Anacortes for home at around 530pm.
Leg 7 Anacortes to Bellingham
I'm so glad I charged up as I had a head wind and big waves for about half of the journey back to Bellingham. Once I got to the near side of Lummi island things relaxed a bit. I still only arrived to Bellingham at around 7pm with 18% battery life.
I wanted to make sure I could get three legs of efoiling in one day logistically which I was able to do. It ended up being more like 3 long legs and 2 smaller legs for a total of 5 efoil legs, one ferry leg, and a short walking leg. Total distance travelled on the efoil was 65.5 miles over about 12 hours with a bunch of other shenanigans mixed in. This was a total adventure and I think I'm ready for the full 2-day ride next time. After cleaning everything up I headed to Stemma for a brew with my brother and mom.