There are so many special moments when out cruising, but a quiet dawn in a secure anchorage has to be near the top. I spent years waking up hours before the rest of the world, and never tire of the peace and the possibility of a quiet morning.

After a blustery few days and a run-in with a rock that left my ego bruised even more than our keel, we found this nice little spot tucked in behind, “Blind Island,” just north of Shaw Island, in the San Juans of western Washington State. We were hardly out in the middle of nowhere, as a ferry landing stood quiet about 200 yards away, but Sugar and I seemed to be the first up, aside from the occasional weary gull and a lonely heron.