Dixie Cove, BC, Canada, 13-sep-2018 — My apologies for not posting.
After waiting out weather for four days we’ve stated noodling south on the west coast of Vancouver Island. Tomorrow afternoon we’ll get Zeballa, the first place on the road network in a while. They’ll have fuel.
Since that low passed through with forty-knot winds, the weather has been settled and calm. Fall is starting and the weather is transitioning to winter storms. The next five days are still calm settled weather, which is as far off as we can reliably see.
In the next day or so, the days will become less than twelve hours long. At the height of the summer up north, it would get dark around 1 am and light around 3.30 am. This morning it will be light enough to be called light around 7 am.
The night before last was spent in a bight in the Rugged Point marine park, hidden from the Pacific swell, barely. With a two-foot ocean swell, the anchorage was rolly with limited swing.
We rowed over to the next inlet, walked across the spit of land the comprises the island to a rare sand beach to look for foot prints and to collect rocks. A small black bear had left tracks, and Jennifer added to her rock collection.
We returned to the inlet the next morning to find bear tracks crossing ours where we beached the dinghy.
Pulling Caro Babbo’s anchor demonstrated everything we love and hate about our Rocna. It was definitely holding, but came up in the middle of a ball of weeds. If conditions caused it to reset, it would have failed, and we would have been relying on luck, or noticing quick enough to keep us off the rocks.
The west cost of Vancouver Island is more rugged than any place I have ever sailed. It is shear ragged rock rising in pinnacles from the bottom, hard walls comprising the coasts and impenetrable rain forest.
It’s begining to get light and we want to catch a favorable ebbing tide. Last night was in an inner pool, with water so calm it felt like being on land… disconcerting.
We need to get the dinghy on board and get a move on.
Thanks for staying with us.
Sent from Iridium Mail & Web.
Hey John,
I happened to notice on the Iridium Satellite view sent this morning (2018-09-19) from Carobabbo that there was this interesting platform, or vessel, sitting northwest of your position. There isn’t a distance scale on the Iridium view so I can’t tell you how far you were away from it. My suspicion is that it’s some type of fish farm, or maybe barge of some type. If you saw it, can you clue me in on what it is?
Thanks,
John
ps – I’ll send you an image of it to you in a separate email.
It is a fish farm. They are very common in Canada. Washington state is banning them, so we’ll see more here. But, in BC they’re talking about banning or restricting them.