Thursday morning came way too soon for both of us as we were sleeping like babies. It felt good to sleep again. We both knew we had a big day ahead of us so reluctantly we got up and got going.
We met up with Russell and Jean in the office and settled up our bill before going over to put our girl back in the water. Back in the water all was good sitting in the lift so I said good by to the gang at Almenara and motored back to the slip at Spanish to pick up my bride before we headed off to try and salvage what little bit of our time we had left on the North Channel.
With Cindy aboard and back on the tiller we headed back out the channel that by now we were very familiar with. I check for leaks as we exited the channel and sadly found water. I wanted to cry, ok, so maybe I did cry, no one saw me and I won't say for sure.
The keel bolts were dry so that wasn't the problem. So where is it coming from. I stuck my head down into the keel locker and locked up. Water was running down the side wall from the top of the keel trunk. How in the hell could that be? I took some of the underwater epoxy Russell gave me and managed to plug up that whole, or so I thought. There was also water coming in around the top of the keel trunk in front of where the winch mounted on.
I was crushed. At first I told Cindy to turn around as we should not take a leaking boat out but then I finally had enough and said " F it!! If she sinks our problem is over. We will just get in the dinghy and catch a ride back with someone. Let's go!" So off we went!
This was not easy for me to do as a pilot I strictly adhere to a 3 strike rule. I never want to get to 3 strikes or issues against me in the air. We had already had 2 strikes and now we were still leaking. Probably not one of my best decisions but after all the planning, work, and money spent we were going to sail the North Channel or else! EXACTLY the kind of attitude that gets people killed in planes...
So off we went. With Cindy at the helm and me down below on leak detail we motored our way to Little Detroit where Cindy got to make her radio call. " Securita, Securita, Securita, 20 foot sailing vessel will be passing through Little Detroit from West to East in 2 mins over".
Just as we approached the entrance a power boater called entering Little Detroit from eastbound. So much for calling ahead. That was one thing we noticed about people on the water up north. They were just rude. Maybe they just had no patience. Whatever the reason they cut us off, crowded us, ignored our calls and went in front of us. On dry ground everyone was as nice as they could be, in the water they were just the opposite. With all the issues we had I was the one who had the right to be rude.
We held our position outside the channel and let the little man with the 34 foot penis extender come through then we took our turn. It felt good to finally get Little Detroit and see what was on the other side after being so close twice before.
Once clear the channel the sails went up and Cindy was sailing.
As for myself, well I had plenty to keep me busy down below bailing. I had looked on the chart and we were going right down the center of the Mc Bean channel.
We should have 100 plus feet of water the whole way so I had no worries about shallow water causing Cindy any issues. No sooner than I had that thought with my arm stuffed way up under the floor I hear the depth warming go off on the chart plotter!!! Cindy yells down to me that we were in 4 feet of water!!! WTF!?!?!?! I told her to turn the boat as I ripped my arm out from under the floor impaling myself with multiple shards of fiberglass pungee sticks. Once up in the cockpit with the Admiral I looked around and saw nothing that looked like shallow water. Nothing on the chart. But the chart plotter depth reading was bouncing around from 9 to 3 to 100 plus feet. I stopped to think about the settings and when I set it up we were in our home lake with less than a 100 feet of water so it suggested the shallow water setting. I scrolled up to the general use setting and hit enter. It immediately jumped to 154' and held steady. I turned around to tell the Admiral that she was good and that is when I saw our next big issue.
The sky to our west was just a wall of black. Great, all we need is a storm! I checked my phone and luckily I still had a signal and could get the live radar. Boy was it ugly. I should have took a screen pic. There was a bowing line of severe thunderstorms to our west headed right at us. I had to laugh, really, a severe thunderstorm, what the hell was going to be next??
After a year of researching, reading, and cursing around Google earth I knew this place like the back of my hand. Oak Bay was a couple miles east off our port side. We would just pull in there and anchor up to the west side and ride it out. So while Cindy sailed us there I went back to my water removal detail.
Arriving at the mouth of Oak Bay first in front of a large powered cruiser we waited for a sailboat to come out before we would start in. Once again, Mr. Impatient in his penis extender cut us off and went between us and the sailboat leaving so he could get in the bay first. I guess waiting in line was too much to ask. Oh well, we could get places he couldn't so we tucked in tight to the rock wall and trees and dropped two anchors not knowing how bad it might get.
We were all set to ride it out but had a little time before it hit so we hopped in the dinghy and motored over to the island and did some exploring.
Funny how we never wear these inflatable PFD's at home when they are so comfortable Cindy even hiked wearing hers :-) We both really enjoyed climbing around on the rocks looking for blueberries. There were non to be found here due to the really dry spring but we saw lots of bushes. We had a awesome view from the top.
and we could see our little girl patiently waiting on us down below
With the storm getting closer we headed back to the boat and shut her up for the storm. We had plenty of company as others took refugee from the storm too
Took this just as the shelf passed over the boat. Time to shut up the companionway and ride it out.
We had a snack and played cards while it rained. We really lucked out in that the really bad parts of the storm went north and south of us so it really wasn't too bad. It rained maybe 45 mins and then moved on. We climbed out and surveyed our situation. All seemed good so we started prepping the boat to head back out into Mc Bean channel and continue onto Fox island.
With the path setup in the chartplotter and with Admiral Cindy on the tiller I went back down below to keep us above water. What started out as a nice breeze was picking up quickly into a full blown wind and the water was starting to get choppy as well. By the time we rounded Gilmor Point and headed southeast towards our entry point into Fox Harbour the wind was cranking. We pulled in some head sail and let out the main some more to stand the boat up a bit. By the time we turned east
into the entry for the harbor the wind was probably 25 to 30 and blowing right down the harbor. My hope was we could tuck in behind a large rock and hide from the wind. As we motored back into the harbor just our luck that someone beat us there and had the one good anchorage out of the wind. We dropped anchor and ran out all 120 feet of rode as we were in about 20 feet of water with a stiff wind right on the bow.
We had invested in a Lewmar Claw anchor before we came up as it was the recommended anchor for the area. We were both really impressed how well that little claw held. It never slipped once the whole time. I ordered a 4.4 lb anchor as it was rated for 20 feet and under. At first I did not think it would go into the anchor locker I made but it goes in there just fine so that is even better! I added 25 feet of chain to the 100 foot anchor line and we never had any issue anchoring.
Once anchored we popped the top and installed the tent top just to make sure we were ready for the visitors at sundown. Once our house keeping was done we hopped in Ding Dong and went exploring. West of where we anchored was a nice little water way that lead out to the west side of Fox island. We went ashore there and climbed up to the top of the rocks to check out the view. We could see for miles to the west so we decided that is where we needed to take in the sunset at. We also found some blueberries here! Not big ones, about the size of a pea, but at this point we were not going to be picky. We finally found about a cup full of berrys before returning to the boat to check on the leak and get supper cooking.
When we packed for this trip we had one whole cooler full of canned foods just in case I did not catch enough fish. Well seeing how we are only going to be on the boat a couple days we are not going to worry about running out of eats.
I lit the grill so it could warming up while i prepared the flat bread pizzas. We found a 3 pack of 8" flatbed pizza crust, a small packet of pizza meat sauce, a small can of mushrooms, and cheese. I put them in our rail mounted oven/grill and watched the temp gauge as they baked. In about 10 mins we had yummy smoked pizzas!
Dinner was delish and it was all we could do to eat it all. By the time we got the dishes washed and everything put away it was almost time for sunset!
Cindy and I love to watch the sunset together so anytime we can get out and catch it we do. Tonight we were going to watching it set off of what we have called Sunset Point on the southwest corner of Fox island.
Back in Ding Dong we headed west back through the narrow channel then went ashore on the east side of Sunset point. We scurried up the rocks like a couple of squirrels and set up our wine bar!
Always practice safe drinking and boating, even in the North Channel!
The sunset did not disappoint as it was beautiful.
The temperature was awesome and there was still a nice breeze. Here we are celebrating our one week anniversary!!!
Motoring along in Ding Dong back to the boat through the narrow waterway
We decided it would be fun to have a fire so we picked up my backpack and headed off to the mouth of the harbor. We scurried around and gathered enough wood to last us a while then just as I was lighting the fire the mosquitos arrived. Run to the dinghy!!!! All I could think as I pulled the started rope was "please start, please start". The cruise and carry lit right off and away we went! Arriving back to the boat we jumped in and got inside before too many skeeters joined us. I lit a citronella candle and that did an amazing job of keeping the skeeters at least a foot away from the boat.
We played a game of cards as the last bit of sunlight faded to black out our starboard side window.
While not everything has gone as planned we have hung in there together and we have had a great time. Someone told me that you never remember the trips that everything goes as planned. If that is the case then it is guaranteed that we will never forget this one!!!
I had noticed that the leak was worse the more weight we had in the bow so we decided to sleep on the table with it dropped down. After getting our bed made I set my alarm to go off every hour to wake me up so I could mop up water under the floor just to make sure we did not wake up with more water in the floor. So every hour I woke up and wiped up water with the chamois.
I guess it was the 3 am alarm that something caught my eye. It was the moon out the screen in the door as it was looking to the northeast. I had to venture outside to see it as it looked huge in the night sky. It was so beautiful out that I had to wake Cindy up to come out and see it. All we had for cameras were our phones and I did not think they would work so we did not bother to try and take a pic but is was breath takeningly beautiful. The moon was so bright you could actually read by it. The stars were so bright and crisp they looked like you could reach out and touch them. We just stood in the cockpit with my arms around Cindy as we stared off into the night sky. There were just a few high thin wispy cirrus clouds that the moon had light up like neon lights. Words, nor pictures, could fully convey the beauty of that night. I feel the same way when I try to describe Cindy to someone.
Words nor pictures truly do her justice. She has been so much fun to be with on this trip and has taken all the set backs in stride. We have laughed a lot, after that first night, and I am sure we will laugh countless more times about the setbacks through the years to come. I am just so glad fate brought us together and now we husband and wife. All the problems we have seem so petty now as I stood there under a billion stars with my best friend in my arms...
Here is a our sail path for the day. Not too bad considering all we encountered.
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