June 12, 2020. Gowlland Bay to Billy Goat Bay. 36 NM.
Or should I say Junuary 12? The theme of the day was rain and cold.
The wind settled down last night in Gowlland Bay, and we slept OK, but were woken early in the morning by pouring rain. The rain settled long enough for us to raise the anchor without getting soaked, but started again as we made our way out to Discovery Passage.
We were ready to go a bit early, and timing was everything, as we were aiming for Seymour Narrows at slack current. We motored slowly up towards the Narrows against a waning flood current, and navigated our way through various whirlpools and eddys that wrestled for control of our rudder. We were a bit early for slack current, so we waited outside behind Maud Island. Sara took the helm and held us in place while I went below to get out of the rain, and grab some breakfast to warm up. A toasted bagel and a couple of pieces of bacon put a little fire in the furnace, and I popped back up as the current dropped low enough to head up the Narrows.
We had planned and anticipated for a couple of days to hit the slack properly, so when we ended up going through with no difficulty, it was a bit of an anticlimax. The only challenge was the pouring rain. Transiting just in front of us were the only two other pleasure craft we were to see all day.
Once through the narrows, it became clear that the cold and wet weren’t going away, so we decided to take shifts at the helm, so the off watch person could go below and warm up. Sara went down first, and cooked up a pot of corn chowder. After eating and warming up the cabin with the stove, she came back up to the helm, and I went down to ease the chill.
Doing 1 hour watches made the day go by quickly, and as the current turned to ebb, we got an escalator ride up the rest of Discovery Passage. At one point, we managed to make 9 knots, which is about 3 knots faster than our usual cruising speed.
Given our rapid transit, we arrived at our initial planned stop for the night at about 2 p.m. We both felt well enough with our breaks, and with the ebb still in our favor we decided to carry on past Blind Channel and aim for Billy Goat Bay on Helmken Island, right in the middle of the Johnstone Strait. En route, we saw a few dorsal fins and some arched backs which looked like humpbacks, but they didn’t stay long enough to make sure. We also saw at least one dolphin going about his business in the otherwise empty Strait.
We turned into Billy Goat Bay about half an hour before the current changed again. We ran the water maker for a couple of hours to put some back in our tanks after our showers last night. Now, with the noise of the water maker pump finally off, and the deli-made Shepherd’s pie eaten and cleaned up, the only sound is the kettle boiling, and the crows in the air. Occasionally, we can hear the “snuff, snuff, snuff” of a seal surfacing and looking around.
The rain has finally taken a break, but the clouds all around suggest we won’t stay dry all night. The wind is calm, though, and we are swinging lazily on our chain, as the last of the day slips into the empty islands around us. The only signs of man are the two markers I can see on the rocks at the entrance to the bay. Otherwise, it must look the same as it did to the First Nations people who preceded us here, or to Captain Vancouver and his crew member, Mr. Johnstone, for whom the Strait is named. Not even a clear-cut is visible, which is unusual for this coast.
Hopefully we can dry out a bit tomorrow, although the forecast is not promising.
In the mean time we will relax at anchor, and sleep the way you do after a long day in cold, fresh air.
No comments:
Post a Comment