True to the forecast and the barometer, we woke up to cloudy skies threatening showers. But it should clear out by tomorrow giving us a few days of summer...at last!
It continued to blow last night and David was up until 3:00 am (while I slept like a baby) seeing 22 knots of down slope wind coming across the head of the bay from Bute Inlet. Everybody was out with flashlights looking around – apparently, it was all very confusing and, at one point, our stern was even facing upwind. But I didn't hear a thing.
In the morning, I took Sally for a walk along the logging road where there's been a lot of recent activity in the forms of fire pits, barrels of jet fuel dated April 2011 and animal scat – bigger than a dog but smaller than a horse...I'm guessing cougar. I'm no expert, but it wasn't fresh. Maybe a week or two old. And ALL over the place which made me very nervous and Sally very upset when I abruptly ended her walk and made her go back to the boat.
Upping anchor in some of the places around here, especially in former logging camps, can be nerve racking – you never know what you're going to pick up: an old logging cable, chain, etc. This morning we were lucky again and only picked up some kind of packing tape that had tangled itself around the chain. Frances Bay is conveniently located; but we won't likely anchor here again, at least not at the head of the bay. It's just not worth the headache.
It was blowing 15 knots from the northwest in the anchorage and about the same in Raza Passage and Pryce Channel, so David pulled out the head sail (he still hasn't been able to replace the turning blocks so that we can raise the main – we may have to order new ones directly from Lewmar) and we had a nice downwind sail moving along at six knots with the chop. It was so quiet and enjoyable. For once, we were going the right direction and in no hurry to get there – maybe this summer's going to work out after all. There's nothing like a good sail (and it was) to get you excited about cruising again. That and good weather.
The water flattened out immediately as we turned south into Waddington Channel which separates West Redonda and East Redonda Islands and made our way to Walsh Cove Marine Park, a small but sheltered anchorage which sits on the east side of West Redonda. Most boats are stern-tied, but we plopped down in the middle of the anchorage (25 metres of water – the benefits of carrying a lot of chain) where we would see more sunshine (not having motored, the batteries still needed charging). And, once the boat was settled, we dropped the kayaks in the water and had a quick paddle around.
While out kayaking, David met a couple, former cruisers now travelling by trawler, who invited us over for drinks – beautiful home-made wine. We had a evening with Judy and Paul sharing stories about our time in the South Pacific. But it was getting late and we hadn't eaten dinner yet, so we said our good-byes ending another all-around perfect day.
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