Misty Moments

Fog!

I forgot to mention that yesterday's excursion around Cape Caution was accompanied by fog. Not real bad, probably had almost a mile of visibility at all times, but combined with the dreary, overcast sky, it made it difficult to see what was coming in the busy waters around the Cape. As a result, we had the radar on for most of the way. We haven't had to use this much on this trip and it took a few minutes to remember how to get it turned on and synchronized with the chart plotter image, etc. Indeed, while I was fiddling with the settings, both Sue and I saw a boat approaching from our port side. Noting that this now corresponded with a small purple blob on our display, we started congratulating ourselves on our brilliant observation, when we noticed a much larger blob on our starboard side on the display. We looked up to see a huge ferry steaming past us. Boy, are we on the ball or what?

This morning, we left Blunden Harbour to continue our way southward down Queen Charlotte Strait. As soon as we left the shelter of the harbour, we were able to launch our genoa and had a nice, slow (maybe 3 knot average), two-hour sail to the start of Wells Passage, which we then motored up an into Grappler Sound and then through a couple of narrow channels to an anchorage called Turnbull Cove. While under sail we encountered more fog and had to resort to radar again for about an hour.

Turnbull Cove is a beautiful spot, completely land-locked and very protected from all winds - a big improvement over Blunden Harbour. It is also very busy. I counted 14 boats at anchor here, not including us (all but 3 are power boats). And since we were the last boat to arrive today, they were all treated to a little demonstration of our anchoring techniques - I am sure they were all impressed!

We may stay here a couple of nights so we can explore a nearby trail that is supposed to be worth a look. It would be nice if the weather would cooperate though; it has been overcast and cool for the last couple of days - not at all what we expected for the middle of summer.
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