7 Aug 19

We were up at the crack of dawn to catch the early courtesy bus up to the laundromat, but the dang bus decided not to stop at the Government wharf, so the Admiral had to drag the laundry up the hill to the laundromat. While she was doing that, I got the coat/towel hooks hung up in the aft head. I also, on the advice of the experts at Marine Traders, added to my prawn fishing accessories: prawn oil for the bait and an extra 150 ft of line, so I can set the trap at a more appropriate (i.e., deeper) depth. The Admiral got back at about 10:45 and we ran up for showers and then got away from the dock just before noon. On the way out, we stopped into the fuel dock and bought 55.7 L (14.7 gallons) of diesel. Then, it was a long motor back up the coast to Pendrell Sound, where we rafted up to “Massilia” at the absolute north end of the sound. On the way, we passed one humpback whale and a large pod of Dall’s porpoises - 40 or 50, or so. We dropped the anchor in 37 m of water about 37 m away from the shore and backed in. Perfect; at least it was on the 2nd attempt. We had a nice reunion with the crew of “Massilia”, happy hour and dinner. We are tucked up into the NW corner of the sound, so the sun went behind the high hills to the west early and cooled things off. The water temp is 24 degrees C, so we are looking forward to swimming tomorrow.

50-17.954’N, 124-44.075’W; Log = 34.8, Sum (2019) = 726.2 N-m

8 Aug 19

The dawn broke clear and warm and calm. We were awakened by a neighboring power boat starting their generator at 06:30, presumably so they could cook breakfast on their electric cooktop. The noise persisted until they finally left the anchorage at about 09:30. After breakfast, John and I rowed out to check our respective prawn traps; he had 19 and I had none - either I set again in too great a water depth and the trap was floating above the seabed, or these prawns do not like prawn bait, even with prawn oil. I relocated to a shallower spot and reset, this time adding a bit of tuna-based cat food to the bait bowl. It was noon before I got back to the boat. There was a huge exodus of power boats during the day, so now the upper sound is relatively quiet. After lunch, it was time to take advantage of the warm Pendrell Sound water - 24 deg C - to change the prop zinc; just in time, as well as it was about 98% expended. This time it took 6 dives to remove the old zinc and screw in the new one. While I was in the water, I did a quick inspection of the whole underside of the boat (all good) and cleaned off the waterline with a scrubby. It was a lovely swim, followed by a fresh water rinse with piping hot water from the solar shower. We played guitar for a little bit, then, after happy hour and dinner (lamb/beef skewers with green tomato chutney from Saltspring), it was time for a round of Settlers of Catan; I won, for a change.