Day 426 Rain and more wind.

It was another day of rain and wind with gusts into the mid-30 knot range with big waves hitting everything outside our little bay. The weather folks, both US and Canadian were talking about winds in the 40's in Dixon Entrance which is where we are headed to tomorrow.

We've been here since Thursday and the front has finally decided to pass on. It is slowly getting calmer out there and hopefully it will be gone by early tomorrow morning. Yesterday afternoon, the two power boats that had rafted up together slowly floated through the bay when their anchor came loose. They had been anchored in the far South side of the bay and headed North missing the other boat in the bay. We watched them as they slowly glided past Zephyr. We saw five folks sitting in the cabin of the smaller boat as they went by. As they got close to shore on the North side, the bigger of the two fired up his engine and pulled up his anchor(totally covered in kelp) and headed back to the South side. He never bother to even go forward to look at it. He just dropped it again when he got where he wanted to be. Being covered in kelp, his anchor just slid all over again and he headed back across the bay all over again. Up came the anchor and down went the anchor. It finally held about half way across the bay right in front of the small cut in the shoreline that looks out into the strait.

This morning the other sailboat(had had the engine problem)took off for our guess is Prince Rupert. With winds and waves out of the Southeast, he had a tough go ahead of him. I don't envy him his trip.

Later this afternoon, a large power boat came in and took up residence on the South side. I hope he fairs better than the previous power boats. They're still here in the anchorage. Another sailboat showed up about 1600 and dropped anchor and drifted back to almost exactly where our anchor was dropped. I called them on the VHF radio to advise them that we would be leaving about 0400 and that there might be a problem. Apparently, they were having a problem with their windlass(raises the anchor)and were trying to fix it. I went on deck and talked to the skipper to let him know our situation. He wasn't to concerned but did move to a different location after getting his windlass fixed.

We spent most of the afternoon working on cleaning up inside Zephyr stowing everything that wasn't stowed properly. Not being sure what we will face tomorrow(wind and waves) we want to make sure that everything stays where it is supposed to if it starts to honk out there. Ropes got tightened and things got screwed down and put away. There are a few things to put away on deck but other than that, we are ready to go.

We're off to Prince Rupert and beyond tomorrow. It's just over 50 miles to Prince Rupert where we have to check into Canadian Customs and pick up a part that should be there waiting for us. Then off again to another inlet closer to Grenville Channel. That's set for Tuesdays journey. We've lost three traveling days on our journey back to Port Townsend so we have some ground to make up.

If you're reading this on Monday, it means we got to Prince Rupert and I could log onto their internet server and get it out.

As always, there is more to come so stay tuned. I'll get it out when I can.