On our way again!

Tuesday, June 4, 2024

Monday night was quite windy, and the morning was increasingly so and showery as well, so Walt and I spent it reading, writing, and working on our French lessons while we periodically checked weather forecasts and thought about spending another day in Squirrel Cove while the unsettled weather settled a little. By noon, the blustery winds were quieting down, and we at last decided to leave the cove and head for the three sets of rapids, Yuculta, Gillard, and Dent, that guarded the way to the entrance to Loughborough Inlet, which we were looking forward to exploring, now that all our navigation instruments were working properly again. Since these rapids can contain dangerously turbulent waters if tides are not running at slack, we needed to leave Squirrel Cove by 12:30 pm in order to pass through the rapids safely at a little after 4 pm.

This we did, just as a rain squall swept through the cove, and it wasn’t long before a lovely tailwind was carrying Braesail along at about 7 mph. We sailed peacefully for nearly three hours, but the wind died away just as we approached the Yuculta Rapids, so we started Braesail’s engine and cruised through the rapids on water that was barely ruffled. We did the same through the Gillard and Dent rapids, and then decided not to dock in a place called Shoal Bay, which we’d visited during previous trips, but to go on motoring to a quiet, unoccupied anchorage in the Cordero Islands that is very close to Greene Point Rapids, another door leading to the myriad channels, inlets, and islands that lie along the northern portions of British Columbia’’s west coast. As we were traveling, I heard a sharp barking sound, and then saw the sleek, round heads of several sea lions slipping through the water—the first “wildlife” I’d seen since my attention was captured by the white moon-jellies’ lacy parachutes pulsing through the water near the Okeover docks.

It didn’t take long for Braesail’s anchor to dig itself into the mud at the bottom of the Cordero Islands anchorage when Walt let it down at about 7 pm. We had no connectivity, so I did some blog-post-writing while Walt made a marvelous spinach salad for supper. The puffig clouds that had dumped the contents of their rainy rucksacks onto the waters we were crossing earlier in the afternoon were now wandering around the hillsides surrounding our anchorage, and I managed to take a few photos before dinner. Tomorrow: Loughborough Inlet!