16 May 23

We rousted out about 07:45. I hauled in the shore line, with only a bit of trouble (the end loop snagged on a log and I had to take the dinghy ashore to unlatch it. We pulled out of the anchorage at 08:39 and motored slowly out into the stream to wait for slack water at Seymour Narrows. We were in position a quarter mile south of the narrows at 30 minutes before slack; it looked fine - a bit of turbulence, but no overfalls and no big whirlpools - so we decided to go for it. In 15 minutes, we were through, with a max SOG of 11.5 kn, and headed north with the last of the flood, intending to stop for the day at the Chained Islands, to wait out the flood. However, when we got to the turn-off, we we still going fine, so we decided to shoot for Blind Channel, which was “only” 15 miles away. Even though the current tables were predicting up to 4.5 kn of foul current, we found that by sticking close to one bank or the other, we were able to either stay out of the mainstream (and maintain SOG close to the boat speed) or, even better, find a back-eddy and exceed boat speed by a significant margin. We made it to Mayne Point (the turn-off to Blind Channel) at 11:20 and decided to just carry on for a while; we had checked with Blind Channel, and although they had room for us at the dock, the restaurant was not yet open for the season. We rocketed past Billygoat Bay by 13:00 and headed for Blenkinsop Bay. At Blenkinsop, we carried on and aimed at Port Harvey. About 30 minutes after that decision, the wind went from calm to WNW 20 (i.e., on the nose) and the sea got a little bit choppy, but it only slowed us down a little. We finally pulled into Port Harvey and anchored at Mist Islet at 17:01; the old Port Harvey Marina is long since gone and that whole end of the inlet has been turned into an industrial wasteland. Unfortunately, whoever has a house or shop at Mist Islet has place of couple of buoys right in the middle of the only tenable anchorage. We got the hook to set, but shortly afterward, the wind changed direction 120 degrees and gusted up alarmingly and we decided it was time to relocate. We ended up moving around the corner to Burial Cove, which is pretty much bullet proof from the NW 10-20 predicted for the night. Long day, but we made some serious progress and are now another day ahead of schedule. Unfortunately, we once again did not receive a permit to enter Glacier Bay; not looking good on that front. Astros beat the Cubs 7-3.

50.33.630’N, 126-13.176’W; Log = 55.0, Sum (2023) = 224.4; Eng. hrs = 9.7, Sum = 3145.2