We awoke to fog. The most rock-filled, bouy-markered, tortuous route into any harbour in the trip and that’s the one we wake up in with fog all around.

So we chatted up one of the locals and his super-cute 3-year-old, had cinnamon buns and generally waited for the fog to lift a bit. Then we fired up the engine and the radar and wove our way out. We took a different route out heading southwest. Once again there was little-to-no wind and we headed out to sea towards a red lateral buoy that was slowly honking off in the fog.

There were however, lots more otters and we passed quite close to a few before they dived beneath the waves.

Outside the rocky shore we motored along on some big swells coming in on the starboard quarter so the ride was pretty rolly. After a couple of hours we tried the sails but that only lasted about 15 minutes. The wind was just too light and variable. So far today Leslie and I have monopolized the helm and put on a lot of sea miles. The fog lingered at the edges of the horizon, never quite lifting.

9 and a half hours of sailing brought us to Friendly Cove in Nootka Sound. Friendly Cove isn’t so friendly with a $12 head tax to visit. But we were intending to move on to Bligh Island an hour further up anyway. But once we made the Cove at around 7:15 we took a vote and decided to head out again.

The prediction is for fog again tomorrow and we would rather be stuck in Hot Springs Cove than an inlet on Bligh Island. Hot Springs in only another 25 nm further and we could easily be there by midnight. So I hauled the wheel over and head back out of the sound. Pretty soon after, Terry and Bob suited up for the colder weather and took over the wheel while Les and I took a break.

Then it got dark. Sailing in the dark is at once both mysterious and eerie, but there is certainly something glorious about it. We sailed towards the horizon until a faint light appeared through the fog and dark. And then another. The two lights marking the entrance to the cove.

Bob took us in and more sudden than you could imagine, the dock appeared out of nowhere illuminated only by our big flashlight. We tied up around 11:30 and soon retired.

There’s cell service here so I will post three days worth. As always, forgive the typos until I can get back and fix them.

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