A Blustery Day

 

Early morning kayaking, before the big winds hit mid-day!   Karen & I kayaked around the bay as the winds were building.  The water was glass-smooth when we started an hour before this picture was taken.  In this picture, it was probably blowing 5-6 knots with gusts to 10knots.

Photos of Blue Redd from our kayaks, courtesy of Karen.

Breakfast on the aft deck.   We soon had to abandon this as the winds got to be too much.

It is now 1600 and the winds have just slackened a bit to the mid thirties...  Blustery, eh?

We watched a large powerboat behind us drag their anchor.  They pulled it up and reset it.  I'm not convinced it is holding yet.

We haven't moved at all.  That's not surprising...

Our ground tackle (anchor, chain, bridle, and windlass) are stupidly heavy.  That is intentional.  We carry a 155lb anchor on 400' of galvanized G4 high-test chain with another 150' of eight-plait 1" nylon line behind that.   We pick this all up with a 3500lb Maxwell windlass. Aside: This all weighs so much that I couldn't lift it off the ground without mechanical help (windlass).  Lastly, I'm careful to not anchor over hard rocky bottoms as nothing will hold in those conditions.   I am a big believer in sleeping peacefully, so when I drop the anchor, I want it to stay put.   Fortunately, so far it has.  I also have a secondary anchor with another 300' of 3/8 chain rigged on it.  And we carry a third anchor that is stored away.

Catching-up on national and world news.   I wish I hadn't.   We have all lost our minds and our way.

We tooled around Waiatt Bay and Octopus Islands Marine Provincial Park this afternoon.

This is the sign denoting the park.   It is on one of the many small islands that dot this bay.

The view up to the head of the bay where we are presently anchored.   You can't even see our boat in this photo.

The wind picked up again to 35knots.   It doesn't look like much, but there are whitecaps (breaking tops of wind waves) all over the bay.

We decided that the hushed whistle of the wind blowing through the trees was their means of talking.  If that were true, there is quite the shouting match with a very rowdy crowd of teenage trees going on out there now...

Tonight's sunset.

Tomorrow we are underway at 0730 to time the Beazely Passage rapids, just south of here.  Then we continue on to Campbell River for a few days.

I sure hope this wind stops, I'm getting pretty tired of it!

Good Night...