Yes, indeed, it’s been another chilly, rainy, gray day of meteorological misery for boaters trying to see the sea! We spent the first part of it motoring from the dock at Port Neville to our current location in lovely, friendly Lagoon Cove located between East and West Cracroft islands in the Broughton Archipelago (photogenic even on a wintry day!)
over the course a little more than three hours. Just as we were untying Braesail’s lines this morning, the Sea Spirit, a cute red-and-white Nordic Tug, came into Port Neville’s dock, and, before we departed, we helped the crew land in the space vacated by Gordon on Corazon earlier in the morning. The couple had come from Shoal Bay (where it was very dreary with no one around, they said–the dock was filled with boats when we were there on Monday), and when they asked where we were going, we told them about Lagoon Cove, which we’d visited in the summer of 2017. As we headed for the range markers in Chatham Channel (the markers consist of two signs arranged vertically at one end of a shallow passage, which, when lined up visually during navigation, help guide the skipper straight down the center of the channel), we noticed that the Sea Spirit was traveling the same way, and so we became “boat buddies” for the trip.
Having passed through Chatham Channel without incident at slack water, and using the little fan in the cockpit to keep moisture from accumulating on the windscreens so that visibility was tolerable, we entered the Blow Hole (a shorter and even narrower, shallower channel) in continuing rain. Today, variable winds blew from behind us and produced “following seas,” and they and current flowing in our direction of travel boosted our speed. The rain clouds did not hang as low over the shores and the sea as they had on Tuesday, and views of the rocky, heavily forested shores and islands were a bit clearer. Our docking in Lagoon Cove, assisted by the helpful staff, was still a cold, wet enterprise, however, and we were glad to climb down into Braesail’s warm saloon after greeting Gordon, who had tied up earlier on Corazon, and the couple on Sea Spirit, who arrived just after we did, and registering in the marina office. We enjoyed a lazy afternoon and a good dinner, and I used a Trader Joe’s Truffle Cake mix to make very tasty chocolate/chocolate-chip cookies. I’m so thankful that we are NOT in Southeast Asia where a series of days with highs over 100 degrees F. are seeing the destruction of crops, animals, the power grid, infrastructure, and people! Lord, have mercy!
Braesail - A grand yacht in the Salish Sea 