This morning start with a jolt. We’d retired really early last night and shut down the radio. Somewhere in the vicinity of 7:30, as I was dozing/thinking of getting up, I heard a series of “Ahoy Shearwater”s… I scrambled out of the berth, lurched up the companionway and slid back the hatch. In that moment I saw Electra, a bay empty of boats and Dave from R Shack Island just off my port side. This didn’t seem right.

Luckily, before my sleep-filled brain could start to actively panic, Dave shouted that slack was now and everyone was going. He headed over to hail Electra and Leslie and I tried to filter the info.

Since we had decided to tag along with Corus, and Corus was just round the curve and disappearing from sight, it seemed we needed to up anchor ‘Right F*cking Now!” as the 20,000-lb. parrot said. I grabbed pants and a shirt, fired up the motor, hit the windlass switch, grabbed the controller and headed for the bow. Leslie got dressed and we were up anchoring in less than 10 minutes from the first shout.

At this point our brains started to function a bit quicker and we saw Intrepid and R Shack Island ahead and only Electra still in the bay. After Les had finished getting ready, she relieved me at the helm and I hit the head, finished getting dressed and put the water on. While waiting for the water to boil I finished up grabbing the day’s charts and gear and double-checked we were good to go. Luckily the water was still as glass so that was one less worry.

Passing the docks we saw Mariners Compass still there. Later I saw another sailboat behind us, so I suspect Ocean Grace was also there tucked in behind the pier.

Time to breathe. I remember checking the tides and currents last night and thinking something was off with the leave-at-ten-o’clock plan, but I brushed it off and let them take care of it. Too many cooks… I thought to myself. Well, I don’t know if we turned off our radio too early last night or everyone else left theirs on all night, but we sure as hell missed something. Very disconcerting to contemplate being left behind. I guess we will find out the rest of the story tonight. In Port McNeill… Unless this was some sort of Star Chamber ploy to try and ditch us, and then who knows… 😉

As we were blasting past Intrepid and R Shack in our pathetic attempt to get Corus back in sight, it occurred to me to wonder whether there was some sort of etiquette that we are tramping all over.

Last night when we shifted to the anchorage those two were also ahead of us, but on an indirect course to the other boats. I just cut the corner and arrived at our chosen anchorage ahead of them. I didn’t actually know their intentions, but I’m thinking now I was rude.

Same thing this morning. We passed Intrepid in the channel out of Port Neville and I revved her up to 2600 as soon as we hit deep water to zoom past R Shack Island. Maybe I should have played tagalong until we were well and truly underway? I have about a knot on those two and an anxiety disorder about being left behind, so that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.

The infamous Johnstone Strait was as smooth as glass and we, as we sipped our coffee/tea, were having a beautiful followthrough to what was a shocking start.

We got talking about orcas and dolphins and feeding and I glanced over my shoulder to see a whale fin. I think. Maybe. It never came back. Leslie swears she doesn’t think I’m crazy, but I think she thinks I overthink the thinking. Anyway, maybe I saw a whale or maybe I am now seeing things. We’ll never know.

Leslie took over after I got chilled and we are now 30 km in and the tide changes in an hour. We’ve caught up to Arcturus (I know we have one knot extra speed on them, according to the Cooper spec’s) and still have Corus in sight, although they are pulling away slowly still.

We passed Robson Bight, which is an ecological preserve with whale-rubbing rocks, but no sign of the wee beasties anywhere.

The rest of the trip looked to be calm and beautiful with the temps rising and falling and L and I taking turns warming up under the dodger.

My second near heart attack of the day occurred when a Pacific white-sided dolphin popped up about a foot away from the starboard beam. It took Leslie’s literal squeal of delight to figure out what I was seeing. There were four or five of them and they zoomed and whooshed around the boat, hopping the wake and diving under the bow. This lasted for 3 or 4 minutes and they dropped back into our wake. It looks like they were hanging out in a particular spot (probably hunting) and we watched them cavort as we slowly pulled away.

I radioed back to Arcturus to keep an eye out as they were headed straight for them. The encounter with the dolphins pretty much paid for the trip in my mind. I could have reached out and touched them. Simply delightful.

The rest of the trip was uneventful. Nothing but beautiful snow-covered mountains shining in the distant sun, eagles fishing and miles and miles of peaceful wilderness.

We caught Simply Irresistible right around the entrance to Port McNeill. We were both headed directly into the approaching ferry. They broke left, we broke right and we met in the rolling waves of the ferry’s wash.

North Island Marina is the expanded and rebranded Port McNeill fuel dock. They have a terrific staff and they handled ten boats staggering in with grace, charm and a sense of humor. They offer on-dock fueling so there was almost comic ongoing confusion as each incoming boat requested a slip and directions to a nonexistent fuel dock.

Soon we were all tied up. L took refuge from the day by tidying up and I took care of fueling, filling the water tank and socializing.

[flexiblemap src=”http://macblaze.ca/kmz/Day12.kml”]
5h50m 42.1nm

A note about fuel. We’d used 65 litres since Powell River and that seemed high. The ‘manual’ on this boat says cruising speed is 2400 rpm with a max of 2600. We ran at 2600 quite a bit today to get caught up to where I wanted to be, so I guess I may have been burning a lot of extra fuel. I checked Cooper’s website, however, and the specs for Shearwater there have the cruising revs at 2200 rpm with a fuel burn of 3 litres/hr. Given that quite a few things in the ‘manual’ haven’t applied to anything in this particular boat, I wonder if the 2400 is also inapplicable. Might explain our speed in comparison to other boats in our size class.

Anne came by looking for cash and I made her sign our Desolation Sound book. She stated there was a 5pm skippers meeting onboard Corus.

We settled up at the marina office and walked up for groceries and more booze. A list of 6 items became 6 bags. We better have one if these potlucks soon or we are going to be donating a lot of groceries to the foodbank when we are done.

The long-awaited skippers meeting produced mixed results. But I brought a beer so that was a strong point on the plus side. There were a lot of strong personalities, too much side-tracking and a lack of detail that took away from the basics I was hoping for. But then I don’t like meetings and have never felt group anything was much good for producing desirable results. In the end I got what I wanted out of it and I’ll corner Laurence later about any details I’d like clarified.

In fact a later conversation with Ian cleared up a few misperceptions on my part. Seems most of my impressions are based on descriptions of Mediterranean flotillas. They are much more involved in route planning and anchorages. Ian said our scattershot approach is more typical of a local flotilla.

Good to know; I’m not dissatisfied per se, but a later conversation with Dave in R Shack Island revealed that his waking us up was on his initiative, not the lead boat. I think I would have been quite disturbed at being left behind. All I really want out of this trip is confidence based on minimal guidance and leadership. Being left behind wouldn’t have fit those criteria.

But thanks to R Shack, all turned out well. It seems Simply Irresistible wanted an early start due to their mechanical issues and Corus decided, quite reasonably in hindsight, not to bother going back to bed after hauling up the anchors and unrafting. And it was invigorating.

Anyway, due to high winds and needed repairs (Windlasses R Us are going to make a killing off of us), we are staying in Port McNeill tomorrow and then heading across the Queen Charlotte Strait Friday. So L and I will probably catch the ferry tomorrow morning for her long-awaited trip to the socialist Mecca of Sointula.

Back on board I poked L until she was up and about (not that she was sleeping!) and dragged her off for sushi. Come on, sushi 100 yards from the sea? What could be fresher! We stuffed ourselves. Mmmmmm.

Back to the boat in a light mist. We stopped and took a picture of Carmen’s monkey puzzle tree. It remembered her and said to say hi. We stopped and gossiped with Ian on the way back and then settled in with the heater on to catch up.

I’m eyeing another bottle of wine and Leslie has been eyeing the cards. I’ve skunked her 3 times this trip, so crib will be a hard sell but maybe some rummy…

[Editor says … No.]