Heading East

Friday, May 13. It was a sunny and cold morning when we rise at 5:30, but it was worth it. What a beautiful ride across the calm Georgia Strait. We left the dock at 6:30 am and were in Secret Cove at 10:30. The actual crossing was only 2 hours and it was very nice. We were so glad we waited.

We wanted to stay at Smugglers Cove, but the tide was too low to pass through the narrow channel so we headed to Secret Cove. It was a very nice place, but as the winds picked up, they were hitting us full on. After the tide came up, we headed over to Smugglers in the Trophy to check it out and it was beautiful. We moved the big boat over and had our very first experience of stern tieing. No wind, no current, it was relatively easy. First mistake, I didn’t put out enough anchor line, which will come into play later, but it was good for the night. It is very disconcerting to be so close to the shore, and rocks, but we got used to it.

Saturday started out rainy but cleared up later in the afternoon. We took advantage of the nice weather and headed to shore for a small hike around the point.

It was good to get off the boat for a while. The wind started to pick up so we headed back to the boat. Remember my comment about not putting out enough chain earlier. We were just settling in to get some lunch and realized we weredrifting. Sure enough, the gusts were hitting hard enough, we were dragging anchor. We knew when we landed we might have to reset the anchor but it was ok in the calm. We pulled everything in and it took us 3 tries to get it secured again. The lesson learned: reset the anchor when it's calm, not in the wind - the wind is not our friend. We got everything back in order and had a peaceful evening.