Friday August 13th;
AUG 13 By Becky – We made it through all rapids safely and spent a quiet night in Beaver Inlet. We were the only ones in the bay and while it felt isolated it was also very peaceful. Up early and on to our next stop in Harvey Port. Harvey is an up and coming port where each year they are planning to add additional amenities and facilities to make it a destination. It is a cute but rustic building on a float at this time. Their main generator was down and they didn’t have much water since it is fed from a small pond that was low. We had a good hike and ate fish and chips while visiting with other boaters.
The trip to Port Harvey was a bit rough since there were gale warnings in Johnstone Strait that we decided to attempt. We were able to avoid most of it by using Sunderland Channel where the tide was in our favor and the wind was coming straight at us which is not so bad. We did ok even though we heard several boats on the radio that decided to turn back. There was a bit of bouncing and spray where we had to leave Sunderland and travel for a bit in Johnstone. I ‘filmed’ a small clip with my camera and will try to load on this blog. We had made it through the worst of it before I thought to film so it looks a bit tame. The wind was still pretty cold when we first arrived at Port Harvey but then the sun started to come out and everyone was saying it was the first sun they had seen in over a month. We woke to a clear calm day that was cold enough that we had to fire up the heater for the first time. Paul tried out his new folding crab nets by putting them off the side of the boat. We ended up with two keepers that we made into excellent crab cakes on the way to our next destination of Lagoon Cove.
Lagoon Cove on East Cracroft Island is a short distance from Port Harvey so we arrived around 1:00 pm to an amazing warm, sunny afternoon in a calm cove. Every marina that we had stopped in for the last several stops didn’t have laundry facilities for one reason or another so we finally decided to take advantage of the sun and did some hand washing and hung a line off the stern of the boat. We then had a great potluck with the other boaters hosted by Bill and Jean Barber who supplied all the fresh shrimp we could eat and very entertaining stories. We were invited to play dominos with some very fun and nice people we met on a boat called the Spirit of Balto that took the owners 10 year to build since they did all the work. They have a lot of custom woodcarving and full size appliances so it has a sort of feel of a condo.
We are being treated to another amazing sunny, calm day and enjoying every minute of it. We decide each day where we will head next and I am loving the spur of the moment adventure that takes us to new experiences each day. Christy and Jim from the boat Noeta (who played dominos also) have been at the last two ports the same evenings we were and have kindly taken me under their wing. They are great people that I will miss when we move on.
The sun and the good camaraderie at the marinas in The Broughtons have slowed us down a bit; in a good way…. Took the anchor windlass apart yesterday for a cleaning and a lube, trying to get in working easier. Cleaned up the boat a little and took a walk. This has been the first sunny day for the folks of The Broughtons, so they are in good spirits. Awaiting the arrival of our friends from Florida and Becky is trying to stay longer, trying to figure that out and seeing if the floatplane company can drop them off in another location. The good news is that Becky’s friends at work have been following the blog and can see that she is having a good time and are allowing her to stay a extra week; I’m a happy man. OK out of the marina and off to find a nice secure anchorage and put the kayaks in the water. Or off to Glendale Cove to watch some bears…… Not bad choices…
