Close to "Home"

Tuesday, September 11
Here we are back in "almost home" waters, and we had to deal with a nasty Strait of Georgia. After spending a couple of nights in Garden Bay, Pender Harbor, we decided that we would trust the weatherman that the winds would go down by midday, but no! We were in contact with boats ahead of us and were warned that the seas near Nanaimo, our intended destination, were so rough that it was impossible to stand up in the boat. This came from friends that have a
commercial fish boat and 39 years of experience. They had their poles down and stabilizers in the water. That was enough to convince us that our roll prone boat would not do well in those conditions. We made a left turn around the south end of Thormanby Island and cruised in smooth waters back to Secret Cove where we spent a quiet night and got to visit with our friends on Bleau Mist and Reel Angler.
Same weather forecast the next morning, so we trusted again and were disappointed again. This time we decided to cross to Silva Bay instead of Nanaimo. It afforded us the possibility of seas that were more astern to us than abeam. Well, that theory worked, sort of... We rocked and rolled for about 4 hours taking occasional big swells that upset things in the cabin including us
and Mac. It seems that our test of rough water is a broken wine glass. Sure enough one came crashing off the overhead holder and broke the stem. Anyway, we
were glad to be across the last big crossing of the trip. As an added bonus, we picked up a wi-fi connection here at anchor. Our slip in Anacortes is ready for us now, but we will probably not be back in it till the last week of Sept. The weather, except for the wind, has been glorius. All the way up and down the coast people have been saying, "This is the worst summer we have ever had." I guess we can't complain about Alaskan weather too much, since everywhere else had their share of clouds and rain, too.
Judy, Bob, Mac, Dinghy and Dock