25 Jul 17
The alarm went off at 07:00, so we got up about 08:00 and were ready to leave the dock at 09:15. There was no breeze but the 1.5 kn of current pushing us off the dock made for an interesting departure. After pumping out the HTs, we headed west, motoring all the way in a very light (i.e., less than 6 kn) breeze and eventually anchored at Croker Bay, with a shore line to a tree on the beach just after 13:00. A couple of friendly chaps from another raft-up nearby came over and offered to run our shore line to the beach; they have declared “Christmas in July” here in Croker Bay. “Islandia” did the same and rafted up to us; not sure how well this is going to work as the wind is forecast to get up to 15 kn tonight and we have a dead lee shore about 80 ft away. Just after lunch, Rob and Laurel on “Soul Mate” pulled into the same bay and anchored out in the middle. They dinghied over for a visit later on.
46-04.883’N, 082-12.567’W;
About 17:00, the wind had swung round to the SW and was up to 10 kn, which is not bad, but with a bit of fetch in the bay, it was getting choppy and although we were not dragging at all, we had moved closer to the beach and I was seeing only 6 ft of water under the transom (i.e., about 1 ft of water under the tip of the rudder). So, we decided to move into the middle of the bay, out by “Soul Mate”. On the way over, “Islandia” decided to go all the way to Amendroz Island, about 2.5 miles away, to the NE side of the island, where there is very good protection from the SW wind tonight. We were anchored by 18:00 and settled in for the evening. “Adanaco” is also anchored here. After dinner, we had the crews of “Soul Mate” and “Islandia” over for a sing-along.
46-03.237’N, 082-08.521’W; Log = 22.3, Sum (2017) = 1382.3 N-m
26 Jul 17
It rained a bit during the night and was cool, but the wind did not get up quite as strong as predicted. However, when we got up at 08:30, it was still overcast and threatening looking, with the occasional shower and gust. As the morning progressed, the weather got worse and worse, so we decided to just sit tight and catch up on planned maintenance and reading. The anchorage is very calm and we are quite content to sit here. In the end, we ended up spending half the afternoon trying to contact the Social Security Administration to see about getting the Admiral signed up for Medicare (yes, this deadline is later this year); but of course, you cannot make calls to 1-800 numbers in the USA from Canada and when we called a different number, they were unable to call us back, for reasons that are not clear. Later, after the rains abated, we joined the crews of “Soul Mate” and “Swallow” (Jeff and Barbara) on “Islandia” for happy hour. We all chatted on until nearly 20:00, when we came back to our boat to prepare dinner.