6 Jun 23

Seventy-nine years since that “Longest Day”; salute to the boys who landed under heavy fire on Normandy beaches in the early dawn hours all those years ago. I woke up last night at 02:30 to go to the toilet. As I walked back to the aft toilet, I noticed a flashing light coming from the cockpit. Upon investigation, I found our emergency alternate flare light merrily flashing “SOS” with a very bright lamp. I got it turned off within a few seconds, but had no idea how long it had been going. Back in bed a few minutes later, and wondering whether I should call the CG just to let them know there was no emergency (thinking back to the PLB incident last year), I could hear the noise of a motor boat off in the distance. I got back out of bed and could see running lights out in the channel, but he did not turn in toward us, much to my relief. After another hour or so, I finally calmed down enough to get to sleep. The alarmed rousted us out of bed at 05:50 and we fairly hit the ground running. The anchor was aweigh by 06:36 and we soon motored back out into Grenville Channel to catch the second half of the ebb tide current. The run to Chatham Sound was uneventful, although the wind was right on the nose at between 8 and 12 kn. It stayed that way all the way to Prince Rupert. On the way in, we filled up the tank and both gerry cans (179 L, or 47.1 US gallons), then moved over to the Cow Bay Marina, where we were tied up at the dock at 12:30. Immediately after checking in, we wandered up to Breaker’s Pub for lunch and a pint. Then, we walked up into town to look around and get in a few groceries, to tide us over until we get to Ketchikan, on Saturday or Sunday. When we got back to the boat, we filled up the water tanks, then had a What’sApp call with Dan, Emily and the grandkids. The call was chaos, but the news was great: Emily is expecting another baby in November. This is certainly a surprise to us as we did not know they were even thinking of another child. Well, good for them.  

54-19.1680’N, 130-19.244’W; Log = 33.0 Sum (2023) = 766.7 N-m; Eng. hrs. = 5.8, Sum = 3235.9