A Little Goes a Long Way

Friday, December 18, 2015TheCambrians

It’s amazing what a little sunshine can do for a person’s psyche, not to mention cabin fever. Whether it lasts one hour, one day or one week, it makes everything that came before it fade into the background. At least for me it does, but I tend to be a “the glass is half full” kind of gal. David’s a bit more practical than I am and is waiting to see what the long-term forecast holds (party pooper!), but even he can’t deny feeling more optimistic after taking a long, hot soak in the tubs at Baranof Warm Springs . . . and saying good-bye to the month of July.

August was off to a good start. There was a full moon and the tides were huge, so we hung out at the dock until noon waiting for a more favourable current, squeezing in another bath and chatting with new-found friends before we dropped our lines.

There wasn’t a breath of wind on the water, so it wasn't a day for sailing. But it was beautiful outside and we were all smiles until Red Bluff Bay came into view. The entire southeastern coast of Baranof Island was sitting under heavy, dark clouds and it was raining. Meanwhile we were enjoying mostly clear skies and the warmth of the sun. We couldn’t believe it: Did we just spend the last week sitting in the wettest spot in Southeast Alaska while waiting for the conditions to clear? Would we have found blue skies (as the barometer suggested) a mile or two out into Chatham Strait?

It’s possible, but I don’t think so. The folks we met in Warm Springs had all had similar experiences and whenever we were able to listen to the forecast on the radio, the current conditions outside our area sounded pretty grim with very few exceptions. Either way, we were headed in the right direction now.

Honeydew Cove wasn’t an anchorage that was on our list of places to see. In fact, we hadn’t heard of it until we ran into Tom, Gale and John in Red Bluff Bay. They’d just come from there and Gale won me over with her photos – boy, am I glad that she did!

We arrived close to 4:30 pm and had the place to ourselves. Within minutes of anchoring, we launched our kayaks and set out to explore. Honeydew has a west coast feel to it reminiscent of Effingham Island in Barkley Sound and just like with its counterpart, the kayaking is fantastic – I could’ve stayed there for days! Our evening was topped off with our first bear sighting in over a month and a beautiful sunset. It was, quite literally, the best day we’ve had in very a long time.