A Week in Between - With Some Nasty Wind
We left Telegraph Harbour Marina on September 28th and headed south. We decided to check out Tod Inlet, located on the Saanich Peninsula on Vancouver Island. This is a good anchorage to dinghy up to the Butchart Gardens dock. We didn’t end up visiting this time though as we only had 2 hours left before they closed. Next time!
entering Tod Inlet
We dinghied over to Brentwood Bay for a walk, and ended up with snacks and a beer too!
On September 29th we decided to head to Winter Cove on Saturna Island. We knew some winds were coming and expected this to be a pretty protected anchorage. While we were dropping anchor, our anchor buoy line got wrapped around our prop shaft - not good. Luckily it was wrapped in a way that made it still usable so we could set our anchor well before dealing with it. But, dealing with it meant Greg putting on his wetsuit and going under the boat to cut it off. This was his first time trying to go under the boat with a wetsuit and quickly realized that he wants a weight belt which will make him not so buoyant and will allow him to get under the boat easier - just need to find the right amount of weights to add. This was also his first time using our BLU3 Nomad Mini hookah system, which he says was very helpful. Once he got the line removed, he decided to go around both boats and clean scum off the water line. He was not cold with the wetsuit on, even though the water temperature was around 52 degrees.
Here’s a previous picture of what the anchor buoy was supposed to do - mark where our anchor is on the bottom. Unless we find a better way to manage this, we will not be using one going forward. Most boaters don’t use one anyway. Another benefit of having this though is that it connects to the back side of the anchor, so if it gets caught on something, we could pull from the anchor buoy line to help get it unstuck.
We had a nice afternoon and went for a hike on Saturna Island. Later in the day was a rainbow and a beautiful sunset. All before the winds picked up.
On the nights of September 30th and October 1st, we had very strong winds. On the 30th, we saw wind as high as 41mph, and on the 1st we saw 38mph. And, that was in the protected anchorage! We took turns staying awake most of both nights (until the winds came down to the 20s). It was a long couple of days. We had about 10-1 rode out, and we held. Whew! (For non-boaters, rode is the chain or line/rope that connects the boat to the anchor - ours is all chain, so stronger.) We are very happy we added an oversized anchor on Aurelia.
After the strong winds were over, we headed south, back into the US. We are so happy we are no longer on a schedule and didn’t have to push through to make it back home by a specific date. We made our way to Blind Bay on Shaw Island. We used the ROAM app to check into the US once we crossed into US waters. While in Blind Bay, we took Lia over to Orcas Island to go for a walk and have dinner. Once we got settled at the dock, a C-Dory pulled in. This is the type of boat we used to have (this one is a 25 - we had a 25 and then a 19). We did not know this C-Dory owner though.
On October 3rd we headed to Hunter Bay. While there we cleaned our composting toilet, caught some crab, played a new card game we learned (called Swipe), kayaked, captured a pretty sunrise, and spotted a huge full moon.
The reflection of the rippling water on our ceiling looked pretty neat, so I captured a video to include here.
And now (September 7th) is the day we head to Cap Sante Marina in Anacortes. Tomorrow we start driving south. I’m so excited to get to visit so much family: Nana & Grandpa, Grandma, Debi, Bri, Kash, Nellie, and AVEN!! Our overall goal is Family Weekend at Boise State.
