Route Reversal

It was a beautiful morning in Potts' Lagoon; calm and, though the sky was not perfectly clear, the sun was mostly shining.

We upped anchor at around 9:30 AM and motored for an hour and a half to Lagoon Cove, where we had anchored when we were on our way north.  This time it was only for a quick fuel stop at the marina.  I figured we had enough to get us back to Nanaimo, but decided to play it safe and top up the tank while we are so close to a fuel dock.  I'm not sure what diesel is going for on the mainland right now, but I suspect the $1.21 per liter was a bit of a premium.

Now, the timing was right for us to continue to Chatham Channel, to arrive at slack around 1:00 PM.  In fact, we were a bit early so we killed the engine and sailed (drifted) down the channel for about 1/2 hour, in about 3 knots of wind.  The only reason we made any way was that we were still in a flood current going down the channel at about 2.5 knots.
We made it through the narrows ok and proceeded a few miles further to Port Harvey.  This is exactly the reverse of the route we used when going the other way, and tomorrow will likely be more of the same.  There is just no way to avoid using Johnston Strait on this section of the route.

Since we anchored here last time, this time, just to be different, we stopped at the marina.  Met a few fellow boaters that we have seen at a distance over the last couple of months at various anchorages up north.  Somewhat gratifying that so many of them have also had mechanical problems of one sort of another - I don't quite feel so bad about our little issue back in Shearwater any more.

Tonight we will be dining on designer hamburgers in the marina restaurant.  Looking forward to it immensely.

And tomorrow we have arranged for fresh-baked cinnamon buns to be ready for our departure.