Sailing on two consecutive days!

Braesail left her moorage in a marina in Port Hardy on Wednesday, September 7, and headed across Queen Charlotte Strait after her crew completed a number of tasks. Walt biked to a few stores to purchase marine toilet tissue, a some grocery items, and some hardware with which to repair the tissue roll holder in the aft head, which had come apart while I was attempting to install a new roll of paper; a small part of it tumbled through a hole near the base of the toilet and disappeared irretrievably into the bilge — aaawk! (The holder has now been repaired–thank you so much, Walt!). I finished some reading and writing, and away we went.

After an uneventful trip through some wavy water, we motored slowly around Blunden Harbor and observed the lovely white-shell “midden” beach and an aged, unused dock, but after letting down our anchor and finding the bottom rocky, and considering the speed of the wind in a relatively open bay in light of forecasts for more forceful wind to come, we decided to weigh anchor and travel for three hours more to Carriden Bay.

The wind was blowing at the right speed and in the right direction to allow glorious sailing, and we enjoyed a marvelous ride for TWO HOURS–what bliss!

Anchoring in peaceful, scenic Carriden Bay, where the heavily forested, round-topped, “roller-coaster” hills surrounding it provided good shelter, was straightforward, and we enjoyed salmon burgers for supper as the sun slipped behind the treetops.

On Thursday, September 8, shimmering sunshine greeted us as we awakened, and the clouds into which the four peaks of a mighty mountain had snuggled overnight lifted enough to provide us with a beautiful view. By late morning, we were motoring along Drury Inlet, a long east-west-oriented waterway surrounded by low hills (the source of countless logs over the years) and lined by numerous small coves and islands. We visited log-boom-filled Jennis Bay but did not stop, and eventually found ourselves with just enough wind for slow, quiet, gentle sailing for about an hour. So dreamily serene!

We “dropped hook” in a snug, single-boat anchorage called England Point Cove, tucked behind an island; it took awhile for the anchor to dig into the rocky bottom, and then we had to tie a long line from Braesail’s stern to a tree on the shore to hold the boat securely in place. The cove’s water, at nearly 70 degrees F., was lovely for my ankle-dangling from the end of the bathing platform in the stern, but it wasn’t quite comfortable enough, at least for me, for swimming under a sleepy late-afternoon sun. Tomorrow we plan to take Coracle on a sight-seeing tour of the area on a sunny day.