27 Aug 22

The alarm jangled us out of bed at 05:00; short night. The weather forecast was the same as yesterday and the latest wind report from Cape Scott was NW 15 (estimated), while we were seeing NW 3-5 in Sea Otter Cove; so, we decided “GO”. We were underway by 06:00, in the half-light and pulled out into the Pacific Ocean for the last time at 06:30. The seas were a bit lumpy, 1 - 2 m NW swell, but not uncomfortable until right at Cape Scott. We reached the Cape a few minutes before LW slack, but the seas were confused and got a bit steeper and higher as we went through the Cape Scott Channel. But a few minutes’ perseverance saw us through and turning 90 degrees to head toward Cape Sutil. And, just like that, we were round Cape Scott, our last major hurdle on the circumnavigation of Vancouver Island. Technically, we have completed the circumnavigation now, as we have been up here several times before. John had indicated he did not want to fool with the Nawhitti Bar, so we went around Hope Island and turned into Gordon Channel between Pine Island and Hope Island. Only to see John turn into Goletas Channel, between Hope Island and Vancouver Island, and cross straight over the bar. We were anchored in Clam Cove at 13:10. “Massilia” rafted up beside us just before 15:00. It is all “downhill” from here back to Anacortes, with only a few details, like Ashley’s impending visit, to sort out between here and there.

50-51.971’N, 127-40.271’W; Log = 38.6, Sum (2022) = 750.0 N-m; Eng. hrs = 7.4, Sum = 3030.6

28 Aug 22

Apparently, summer has come to an abrupt and precipitously early end - or so it seems. After yesterday’s early start (proceeded by a bad night’s sleep), we went to bed early, slept like logs and did not get out of bed until 08:30, only to find that it was overcast and quite cool outside. The weather has gone bad (there is an Alaskan cold front bearing down on us) and this is complicated by the fact that the water is about 4 degrees C colder on the east side of the island than it is on the west side, for reasons that I have yet to discern. The forecast for today was ugly, outside of our snug, bullet-proof cove, so we sat tight; and, it looks like we will be here all day tomorrow as well. That’s OK: it is nice to have a day where we do not do much of anything other than a few minor boat chores and read and try to stay warm. We did not really poke our heads up out of the cabin until noon. In the afternoon, we did a bit of detailed planning on the potential itineraries for Ashley’s visit;  Laurie came over and we dissected several NY Times columns on Bridge; then, we were finally able to convince John to come over for a bit of Bridge education, when Captain’s Hour arrived. So, we put it on HOLD until after dinner.  We actually played several hands of bridge after dinner and I think even John had fun. We ran the generator for 20 minutes before bedtime to try to heat the boat up a bit and to charge the batteries a bit, since it was very cloudy all day long.

29 Aug 22

We slept in again, as it was cold and windy early in the morning. The wind was up quite a bit, sporadically, last night and it rained a bit as well. We hunkered down in the salon all morning and even started the generator up to run the heaters, but it kept tripping out (on over-heating, I think). I eventually discovered that the cooling duct had become disconnected from the enclosure, so that was probably the cause. I spent a bit of time looking at the details of some of our longer planned travel days during Ashley’s visit; we have tidal currents and tide gates to consider on a couple of different days. Anyway, about noon, the wind had eased dramatically and the air temperature was up appreciably, presumably because of the southerly wind. In the afternoon, the clouds thinned out a bit and we even had a few stretches of sunshine - enough to charge up the batteries, but not enough to heat up the solar showers. We played several hands of bridge in the afternoon and played a bit of guitar as well. The 16:40 weather update showed Cape Scott still has E35, gusting 39; so we came around at the right time. After Captain’s Hour and dinner, we chatted and had a whiskey or two and enjoyed the sunset. Tomorrow, we are headed the 31 miles to Sointula for a day, then on to Port McNeill to get the boat ready for Ashley and AJ’s visit, commencing Friday, 2 Sep.