Friday, June 14, 2019

Ballet Bay, off of Blind Bay off of Nelson Island, B.C., Canada

     This is a pleasant spot with islands helping to protect the bay from some winds. We arrived last night and the wind was coming from the west, blowing strong in here. Still this place has better holding for laying anchor than the place the night before last. The other place had lots of rock on the bottom. It took us three times to drop the anchor and finally have it set properly. Because the bottom was so much rock we heard the anchor chain scrape every once in awhile on the bottom during a windy night. The guide book said it was protected from the northwest and northeast. It was protected from wave action but the wind came up around dusk and made plenty of noise in the rigging during the night. All in all not a very restful night. There is a bonus to wind in an anchorage for us. The wind generator spins and recharges the batteries which in turn make it possible to run radios, navigational electronics, and a mall refrigerator. 

     The wind from the night before, continued all day yesterday, so we had a wonderful day of sailing with the wind at our back, (downwind), in the morning and in our faces, (upwind), in the afternoon. The wind was just right, so we were moving between 5 and 7 knots of speed, which is as fast as we go with the engine. We probably could have sailed into this bay but it was starting to get late and the wind died down at one point, just when we were debating to continue sailing or take the sails down. Transitions are often a challenge. 

      Kieran is on the boat with us since the 4th when we rendezvoused  in Campbell River with him. Our first day out on the water with him was also an idyllic sailing day. We went back to Melanie Bay for a couple of nights and for Kieran to experience the beauty of it all. The first afternoon he went for a sail in our dinghy. The clouds had been around off and on all day. They clumped together and started to pour rain from the sky just as Kieran got within a hundred yards of our “home” boat, Pinniped. He was soaked by the time he arrived. We almost never use the hot shower on the boat but it was just what Kieran needed on this day. That and hot coco. 

      There is something special about watching raindrops falling on a large body of water. If they are big enough they make a great splash! I love to watch it happening. Even though I didn’t want it to rain that afternoon, there was this unexpected pleasure in seeing the raindrops hit the water with so much exuberance!

      So we are gradually headed south, visiting new places along the way. This place is great for sailing the dinghy around the little islands that help create the shelter for the bay. We took turns taking the dinghy out, each on our own throughout the day. We had a sunshine and just enough breeze. After dinner, still enough breeze to sail the dinghy, Mike and Kieran went out together and then Kieran and I. The sailing was much more exploratory because it was high water. We went in and around islands we couldn’t during low water earlier in the day.

Wednesday, June 19, Vancouver, B.C., Canada

     We arrived here on Monday afternoon in False Creek by Granville Island. This is a creek that acts as a harbor as it flows into Burrard Inlet. We came so Kieran could catch his flight back home to Carbondale early Tuesday morning. We decided to spend yesterday here so we could buy some much needed groceries. At 5:15 this morning the high winds forecast for midnight made a late arrival. A small sailboat had come in and anchored rather too close to us during the night. With that first big gust of wind Mike was up on deck checking things out. Luckily so was the young couple in the little sailboat. They managed to get their anchor up just in time so as not to run into us. Pretty exciting to wake up to another boat only a couple of yards from our boat. 

     So we are still here in Vancouver, waiting for the wind to subside. The wind will have calmed down by tomorrow and we will get an early start crossing the Strait of Georgia one more time to the Gulf Islands. From the Gulf Islands we will head south to the San Juan Islands in the States. If some old friends are available in Friday Harbor we will visit with them for a day or an evening. Our time on the water is fast coming to a close. We have another week and a couple of days left before the boat will be hauled out of the water until next year.

Once in the boatyard we will be on the boat for another couple of weeks. We will clean all the salt off the boat, take the sails off the boat, take off  the running rigging (all the ropes used for controlling the sails), empty the water tanks and dry them as much as possible, put away cushions, bedding, life jackets, emergency equipment, (life raft, survival suits, survival bag), then put it all in storage. There will be laundry to do,  tools and clothes to be packed into the truck for the drive back to New Mexico. The dinghy will be lashed to the top of the truck. To do lists for next spring will be made. For example, what will need repairs, need  replacing, what if any new project will be planned, etcetera.