6/30
Tuesday morning, we rose late. Heading to Canada, the tide would be against us until the afternoon, so there was no reason to force ourselves out of our comfy warm covers prematurely. We breakfasted on the last of our blueberries, since we couldn't take them into Canada (?), and spent the morning reading (me) and knitting (Jane).
After lunch, we dug out our Canadian courtesy flag and got the ship's papers ready, and hoisted anchor. Unfortunately, the anchor wash-down hose failed, after the anchor was aboard. We'll have to get a new one at Ganges when we get there. The trip failure count now is back to 2.
Going across Boundary Passage is always interesting. Aside from it being an international boundary, it is also a major junction between the waters in the Strait of Georgia and the Strait of Juan de Fuca. A lot of water flows thru there every tidal cycle. Consequently, there are lots of tide rips, overfalls, boils, and the charts are marked with foreboding "swirls" (the Norwegian word is "maelstrom") all over the place. The direct path between Parks Bay and Bedwell Harbor (South Pender Island) passes right thru the worst of these. We altered that path, going north of Flattop Island.
It was an interesting day - for most of it, we had the wind on our port quarter, and flew the yankee by itself. At one point we were seeing 15 kt relative wind and were doing 7.5 kt over the ground. Thankfully this was just when we were trying to stem the south-flowing current at Flattop Island. But eventually, the wind faded and we were forced to start up the diesel.
After clearing customs, we anchored in Poet's Cove, not far from a spot
others remember well. Not wanting to pay the exorbitant international roaming fees, we both have our cell phones turned off. And there is no internet service available here (doesn't BBX have a site at Bedwell? I'll just jump on line and check. No - wait...). Wow - three days without a connection - how long will it be before the twitching stops? Before I don't feel the need to check my email, facebook, etc. every 30 seconds?
This morning it is downright chilly. In the cockpit, inside the full enclosure, the thermometer reads 46°, and the cabin was 56° before I lit the Dickenson. But it is a bright sunny morning, and I am sure it will warm up (he says bravely). Interestingly, the Poet's Cove anchorage is hard under a high cliff which is shading the anchorage, so it may be a while before that sun actually shines on us.
This morning there are platoons of these guys patrolling between the boats, keeping things orderly - entirely appropriate since we are in their country!
And as were leaving the harbor, we saw something sad and almost a little comical . There was a bald eagle,
in the water. I guess he dove on a fish and misjudged and got too far into the water. He was slowly making his way to shore with a kind of slow overhand (overwing?) crawl. There was a kayak with two folks in it debating whether to close in and help. I didn't get any pictures because we were too busy getting under way, and I don't know how it all turned out.
I'll bet the eagle was embarrassed.
Poetry in cove
We are in Montague Harbor. Summer has knocked on the door. It is late in the day and the sun is shining at a shallow angle, glancing off the water and making a light show on the ceiling of the cabin. What you can't see in this picture is that the pattern is constantly rippling, changing.
We had planned to visit the restaurant at the marina tonite, but it turns out that reservations are required, and this is Canada Day weekend... So we enjoyed happy hour on the deck with a view that cannot be topped from any restaurant on shore.
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