What. A. Beautiful. Morning.

Up at the crack of 7, I had a coffee and started getting antsy. “We should go. We should go. We should go.” It had a nice back beat with some synth and just a hint of steel guitar. Still, I think I was annoying Carmen.

Belle Serena headed out and I started doing what I could with still-sleepy crew and then just sat and waited. Waited. Waited.

Eventually Dave and I moved the schedule up by about an hour and we started to go. We cleared the shoal by 13 and a half feet in a falling tide so I’m happier than not we went a bit early.

No wind again so it was a calm sunny motor for a few hours out of the Sound and across the Strait towards Quadra Island.

I’ve got better cell service so I’ve gone back and added pictures and routes to the last few posts.

It was a warm, uneventful 4-ish hours and as we rounded the spit into Drew Harbour I called Ian and inquired about our outboard. He said someone would meet us at Herriot Bay Marina so we opted to go straight there while R Shack Island anchored. I called the marina but they didn’t know anything, so we motored in anyway. About 5 minutes later they called back and our motor had arrived.

We tied up on the outside and met the young lady on the dock. I walked up to get it and we wheeled it down to the boat. Unluckily for us it was low tide so getting it down the ramp and the old one up wasn’t the easiest task. But we got everything loaded up and cast off for our anchorage.

Over at Rebecca Spit we tussled with the current for a bit but got a solid anchor down and started cleaning up.

[flexiblemap src=”http://macblaze.ca/kmz/2014-8.kml”]
5h44m 28.6nm

I quickly motored over to R Shack to check in and stayed for a beer. We decided to head in to Herriot Bay for a few supplies so I meandered back to Baraka Too and roused the crew to action. 40 minutes later we piled in the dinghy and started off to Herriot Bay.

But the dinghy gods have been angered, and the outboard quit halfway across the bay. I tried to start it to no avail but luckily Dave circled back to offer a tow. Humiliated, I sat while he towed us in and all the other boaters pointed and laughed and laughed. Well, maybe not, but it felt like it.

We walked up to the store and grabbed some supplies and a bit more beer. Then back to the boat to pull fruitlessly in the outboard before giving up and accepting yet another tow back to the mothership. Once back I stubbornly worked on the motor and eventually got it running, but it cut out again and then would bog down on anything more than an idle.

So I called Ian. Unfortunately he was a bit distracted because the car with our motor had gotten into an accident on the way back. I hate hearing things like that. As far as he knew everything was all right, but he was waiting to hear more. He suggested a quick plan of action and I let him go.

As it stands I am letting the motor settle and C is making baked pasta for dinner. We ate in the cockpit and draped a sheet from the bimini for shade. It was delicious as usual. After dinner L and I rowed ashore, took a short walk along the spit and watched the boats at anchor twist in the fading sun.

Another special day.