Day 2

Day 2;

Is it really only day 2 ?!?...seems like we have been out for quite a while.

The weather reports for the West entrance to Juan de fuca are still not cooperating; our plan is to still ‘harbour hop’ our way to Sooke to be positioned to go when {if?) the weather cooperates. The winds have been building throughout the day so we can travel early to avoid the gale/near gale forecasted. If not, we go to Plan B and do something else.

We left Tumbo about 09:00, did some successful Man Over Board [ PC correct term should be Crew OverBoard] drills; then raised the genakker [ large light-weight sail]. After working out bugs with this we are at point to turn into Boundary Passage near East Point and the well named Boiling Reef and had a wind shift that turned into no wind. Down came the genakker, and on went the engine.
At one point we were making 0 kts over ground due to the current and had to tack across the current to make headway.

We stopped at Bedwell [ Poets cove] for fuel and found the last buoy at Beaumont marine park and called it an early day. Neil and I tested the dinghy outboard and went ashore for a hike up to Mt. Norman; we didn’t make it to the official viewpoint but did make the elevation – it felt good to get some exercise again. There was a very nervous osprey pair guarding their nest from crows and making a hell of a racket. We saw one of the parents taking a fish back to the nest.

It was a hot day, crew was tired and to avoid mutiny Neil and I did a beer run to Poet’s Cove via dinghy; this doesn’t quite violate ships articles about a dry boat – as Neil pointed out this applies to offshore only and we are 2-3 days away from that!

Dinner tonight was a second round of pork schnitzels since they thawed first; these were cooked and then cut up and added to spiced onions/mushrooms and butter chicken curry sauce over rice; followed by cherries with hot sauce over yogurt. I thought I had made enough rice to have left overs for rice pudding tomorrow, but alas, I once again neglected the NF [ Neil Factor]… there were no leftovers.

Ralph and I did some moon shot practice and as I write this the rest of the crew is having movie night watching episode 1 of “Rome”. The geek patrol was able to connect Ralph’s computer’s audio to the stereo so they have good audio.