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Tuesday, July 11th: My Dad always said “When you’re the skipper, and you have to make decisions, you usually end up as the hero or the goat” and he was right. It was my turn to take that chance today. As you may know, we’ve been somewhat battered by moderate to strong SE and SW winds pretty much since we got down here and yesterday was no exception. We couldn’t have left our dock yesterday if we had wanted to; too much wind and opposing current. So, after two fun days in Deer Harbor and knowing we really wanted to get away today and that the wind was supposed to drop a bit overnight, I had to make one of those decisions. For us to take advantage of lower winds while backing out of our narrow slip, we needed to leave early; very early. I’m usually not very popular when I suggest leaving early but everyone sucked it up and I set my alarm for 0500 hrs.
I checked at 0445 and there was absolutely no wind. Phew… I reset the alarm for 0600 (and then lay awake waiting for the time to pass). Ha!! I felt the faint shudder as a gust of wind tickled our rigging… and then another, and another. “ UP “ I called, “it’s time to go!” Bless their hearts, all crew members responded without complaint. Maddie was delighted we were all up early. Kathy not so much but certainly up and at it quickly without complaint. While K and M went for the obligatory morning ‘walk’ I made coffee and readied the deck. The next few hours looked like this… 0520 up, dressed, dog walked, coffee made. 0600 engine on, power cord disengaged and stowed, dock lines retrieved and a slow but steady backing out of slip against a building breeze. Luckily Kathy was able to hold SSpirit away from the pointy corner at the end of our slip and still get back on the boat before we left her behind. 0820 having motored out of Deer Harbor, through Spring Passage, past Jones Island and north towards Canada… we arrived in Prevost Harbor on Stuart Island. This was our plan. We wanted to arrive in this SE protected anchorage early enough to be hovering in the vicinity of the 7 mooring balls reported to exist. We did; they did; and after only 30 minutes of
polite hovering a boat kindly let go and vacated one of the mooring balls. Voila!!
We are secured to a lovely mooring ball, in a lovely protected harbor, and we’ll stay for a couple days of walking and exploring. Then it will be time to head back into the Gulf Islands and slowly home. We may be home a day early…after all we have a windlass to repair… sigh. Hope your winds are gentle and your day is peaceful. CJ
