Thursday, October 16
After three days of superb weather, clouds returned overnight, and rain looked likely on Thursday morning. After Walt purchased an excellent raspberry scone and a loaf of chunky multigrain bread (made locally) in the general store, he checked us out of Page’s Resort and Marina and we motored for about 1-1/2 hours to reach Pirates Cove on De Courcy Island. Some wind gusts whipped about as we left Silva Bay shortly before 1 pm, but they subsided, and we encountered some water ruffled and shuffled by currents as we approached Gabriola Passage. We took a detour to see if Degnen Bay, an anchorage we’d read about in cruising guides, looked inviting (it did not—it was well sheltered but much too crowded with boats tethered to private mooring buoys), and Walt spent some time testing Braesail’s autopilot to see if it would maintain a set course (it would not, but veered ever more widely from side to side as we motored—supposedly—straight ahead, and Walt made notes of the problems to report to the manufacturer).
Pirates Cove, rimmed with the fascinating sculpted-sandstone “galleries” typical of those appearing elsewhere in the San Juan and Gulf islands, was empty when we anchored in gray water undulating gently under unhappy clouds at about 2:30 pm, but some sunshine had fought its way through them by the time we’d had snacks and naps and Walt had reported his experiences with the “inebriated autopilot” that can’t follow a designated track. I caught up on some email correspondence and reading while Walt prepared a pasta supper; took this sunset photo;
and wrote this blog-post; and after Walt had defeated me twice at Backgammon, we headed for our aft cabin bed with Friday’s travels dependent on what the wind might decide to do in the morning.
Braesail - A grand yacht in the Salish Sea 