Staying alert

Saturday, June 8, 2024

A thoroughly silent night led to a delightfully sunny morning, and the three sailboats in Mound Island Cove appeared to be sitting motionless on a gigantic deep-green mirror. We sat in our “sun porch” reading and relaxing until about 9:30 am, and then, since the wind had gone to explore other places, we motored out of the cove, passed an Indigenous fishing weir (a kind of trap), and traveled for about two hours to the crowded Boat Basin in Alert Bay, where, almost exactly two years ago, we’d spent over a week, waiting for a replacement part for our new satellite phone. The trip took us through a narrow passage lined with kelp patches and colorful granite banks, and then across wide stretches of water where currents were stirring the surface water into ripples and whirls.

Two views of the colorful shores we passed as we left Mound Island Cove

At about noon, we arrived in Alert Bay, a town filled with buildings displaying a surprising variety of colored sidings, doors, and roofs (bright and dark red, pink, salmon, yellow, pale green, deep green, sky blue, turquoise, brown, black, and white). Stephen, the wonderfully helpful wharfinger whom we remembered from our 2022 stay in almost the same spot in the marina, had to move a boat away from the dock and tie it to the side of another boat, which was tied to the side of ANOTHER boat that was tied to the dock, in order to make room for Braesail (he had done the same two years ago). With the boat safely moored, we had a pleasant conversation with Duke, the owner of the fishing boat across the dock, Walt and I had lunch, and Walt took a long nap.

I was resting in the warm cockpit when I saw another large sailboat approaching us; the skipper was asking me if they could raft to our boat, and I said yes, but when I glanced around to find our spare fenders to attach to the side of the hull to which they would tie their boat, I didn’t see them. Their boat did have fenders along its hull, and I WAS able to grab one of their lines and secure it to our stern deck cleat. By this time, Walt was awake and on deck, helping with the rafting procedure, and all went well.

Once our boats were tied securely together and we’d enjoyed a good conversation with Steve and Peggy, the owners of our “guest boat,” Walt and I walked into the downtown portion of Alert Bay to enjoy the views across the water to the mountains, and to visit the general store to buy a few items. Then we received an email from our son Martin, who’d just told us in the morning that his girlfriend, Karen, would be able to join us in Port Hardy for the last three weeks of our trip. Now he was letting us know that she could get only one week off work and would have to be back in Vancouver on June 24, meaning that our plans for visiting the southern tip of the Haida Gwaii Archipelago before beginning our journey around the outside of Vancouver Island would have to change. More conversations and research and planning would be needed!

As Walt was preparing dinner, our propane stove ran out of fuel and Walt and to switch the gas source to our second tank; we were glad the propane ran out in a location where it would be easy to refill the empty tank, giving us two full containers. After supper and galley clean-up, we played Backgammon, which Walt won, as usual, and we waited for the predicted rain and wind to arrive.