Our charter details

By Kim Kavin

Nature guide Charlie Everard shuts down the Yamaha outboard and lets our wake settle. He pulls a 6-inch-long rock cod from his cooler, stretches his arm over the water, and dangles the bait from his fingertips. He waits for the breeze to quiet, squints toward the tall tips of the trees about a half-mile from our aluminum skiff, and whistles a few sharp notes before tossing the fish off our starboard bow.

I hear the bald eagle before I see her, the sound of her powerful wings flapping like a thick, loose jib. Princess, Everard calls her. She knows the routine: Wait for the tourists to focus their zoom lenses on the fish, then swoop down and retrieve it just a few feet from the skiff.

“Oh—do that again!” I cry, closing my agape jaw and knowing full well my amazement has caused me to miss the photo op.

Everard smiles with pride, then grabs another cod from the cooler. He is as thrilled with my reaction as I am with Princess: a beautifully built creature with a stunning gracefulness of purpose. She offers a unique glimpse into the raw, natural world she inhabits in the Pacific Northwest.

Actually, she’s a lot like the yacht and lodge that make meeting her possible.

Everard works for Eagle Nook Resort, an elegant lodge that combines with the 85-foot motoryacht Endurance to create a rare charter package, a soft-adventure take on the more typical Caribbean boat-villa vacation. Endurance—the first Doggersbank Offshore series hull to be built by Kuipers Woudsend, in 1985—spent four years in refit before landing in her new home port, San Juan Island’s Roche Harbor, during the summer of 2003. Her slip is about a day’s cruise (or a quick float plane flight) from her owners’ resort, which sits up north on 70 acres of road-free countryside on the west coast of Vancouver Island.

I joined the owners in August during Endurance’s shakedown cruise in the San Juans, then accompanied them for a few days at Eagle Nook. From what I saw during my week as their guest, this brand-new land-sea package has the potential to offer limitless exploration by day and pampering by night.

Guests likely will want to begin aboard Endurance, flying from Seattle or Vancouver to the boat’s Roche Harbor base in the San Juans. Weeklong itineraries can vary from city shopping and garden tours in Victoria to gunkholing and hiking through state parks on Sucia and Stuart islands. Then, guests can make the run up to Eagle Nook, never having to backtrack over their route before beginning their second week of vacation. “The best scenario is to not return from where you arrive,” Capt. Dave Borden says. “The best for your buck, to see the most, is apt to be a one-way.”

If you’re unfamiliar with the Doggersbank design, Endurance’s workmanlike exterior may surprise you. Doggersbanks are built to bash around the world safely, not to sit at the dock and look sleek. Inside, though, these boats are all megayacht—and great for charter. They have more nooks and crannies than most designs, which means plenty of places to nap or get lost in a good book. They also have great gathering spaces inside and out, and their construction makes them exceptionally comfortable to cruise aboard.

Endurance underwent a reported $5 million to $6 million worth of restoration during the past four years, everything from engine rebuilds to a new interior décor. Each room inside the boat was redone, save the two guest heads and the crew head, which are in good condition. The owners worked with Catherine Michel, the lead interior designer at naval architect Jack Sarin’s office, for about six months to select a palette of neutral tones accented by dark leather amid the medium-stained oak and teak. “We took the existing wood and worked with that,” Michel says. “We concentrated on the master suite and the salon and dining area, trying to keep the Northwest in mind but adding some lightness.”

The result is a practical boat that is beautiful and inviting. “It’s tough to believe her windows were boarded shut just six months ago,” I told the owners over a dinner of freshly caught salmon.

“You had the vision,” the wife said to her husband, holding out a recent photo of Endurance on the hard.
“C’mon,” he replied. “All you needed was a pair of glasses.”

A lot of people buy on appearance, he explained later, but that’s not always where the value is. The couple applied that same philosophy to Eagle Nook, which they purchased at auction three years ago and have been renovating based on their experience owning about a half-dozen inns in the Pacific Northwest. The lodge is accessible only by float plane or boat, which makes it a fine cruising destination for a yacht of Endurance’s caliber. Charter guests can request both of Eagle Nook’s private cabins, or can stay in a few of the main building’s 23 guest rooms.

For two reasons, I didn’t expect much from Eagle Nook. First, I visited Endurance before flying to the lodge, and the boat was in great condition. Often, land-sea vacations have a strong link and a weak link. I assumed the lodge would be the latter. Second, the owners told me the lodge is run entirely on generators and propane, with a single satellite phone line allowing communication with the outside world. When I heard that, I nearly planted myself in Endurance’s cozy fly bridge settee and refused to leave.

What a bad move that would’ve been. Eagle Nook is a precious enclave with a first-class staff and an ambience of rugged elegance. Resort manager Jimmy Muhlebach is a great surprise in the middle of nowhere, so knowledgeable and charming that he could easily slide into work in the most luxurious hotels on the French Riviera. Chef Stephen Bondy, an Ontario native, manages to offer a gourmet selection of beef, fowl, and fish during each night’s three-course meal in the cathedral-ceiling dining room. During two of my dinners at the lodge, eagles swooped just outside the roof-high windows that overlook the bay.

It is mesmerizing to enjoy fine food and wine while sitting next to the huge stone fireplace, watching the eagles soar—almost as mesmerizing as the up-close encounters with them during adventures like Everard’s nature tour.

Eagle Nook is for the young at heart, offering kayaking amid hundreds of sea lions, hiking along sometimes challenging trails, and fishing for halibut and salmon. For those who want to relax, there’s a full-service spa. I highly recommend the helicopter tour of Vancouver Island, during which we landed in an unlikely field of wildflowers at 4,200 feet, on a chilly snow peak at 5,500 feet, and on a sunny deserted beach down below—all in the span of about four hours. As copter pilot Peter Barratt says, “She climbs like a homesick angel.” That’s a good quality to have when you’re a mile above sea level in God’s B.C. (no, not British Columbia; “Big Country”).

Eagle Nook also has a game room with billiards and poker tables, along with a meeting room that houses a big-screen TV, but I can’t imagine anyone wanting to watch DVDs when there are so many stunning vistas to explore outside.

I feel the same way about Endurance. The new televisions installed during the boat’s refit will likely remain off during a cruise through the area, which has oodles of coves for kayaking and tons of trails to explore. Capt. Borden knows darn near all of them, since he has spent most of his 64 years poking around local waters.

Borden is a great asset to the new charter operation. In addition to having commanded yachts from 40 to 167 feet during the past 20 years, he used to be the director of a marine science center near Seattle. His combination of local knowledge and naturalist instincts makes for fun sightseeing and wildlife encounters.
“I’ll take carefully calculated risks for the enjoyment of the people,” Borden says. “It’s like taking a raft down a saltwater rapid—somebody’s gonna get wet, but everybody’s gonna be happy. I try to give you enough information to get out on the edge of your comfort zone and have a great time.”

Borden was the first crew member to be hired for Endurance, and he was the only full-timer aboard during my visit. The owners say they plan to hire two to three more crew with an eye toward realizing the same high standards they have achieved at their lodge.

When they follow through for the summer 2004 season, this boat-lodge package will be tough to beat. All I could do as I headed home was close my agape jaw and think to myself, “Oh—do that again!”