DESOLATION SOUND

We had a quiet evening in Lund last night, although the marina is sheltered only by a floating breakwater and is a little rolly. At least it was a gentle roll and rocked us to sleep.

I downloaded a photo of the town of Lund, viewed from the dock. It shows the hotel which has a gallery, post office, laundromat and grocery store behind it. But that’s only half of the town - not in the picture is the Bakery, sweater shop and kayak tour office. That pretty much makes up the whole town. Nancy’s Bakery is a very well known establishment, and for good reason. They have an incredible assortment of bakery products and also serve meals from a nice, casual menu. We stopped in for a breakfast treat and coffee this morning and it seemed like half the town stopped by for coffee while we were there.

The big discussion on the docks this morning was the weather report. Gale warnings have been issued as there are two fronts coming through - one today and the larger one tomorrow. Winds are forecast up to 35 knots today and possibly up to 50-60 knots associated with tomorrow’s front. People were trying to decide wether they should stay in Lund (with the rolly docks) or head out to find a sheltered anchorage to hide out in for a couple of days. Lund is only about 15 miles from some protected bays in Desolation Sound, and with the first front forecast to come through around noon, we decided to go for it. Although it was windy, the water wasn’t too bad since we were in the lee of the peninsula and a bunch of small islands along the way. We went through a very narrow, shallow passage into Prideaux Haven then through another smaller passage into Melanie Bay. Both of these bays are well protected from the forecast southeast winds, with Melanie Bay, although much smaller, being the most protected. As we got into the bay, it was obvious others thought the same way we did. This small bay already had five boats anchored in it, but there was enough room for one more, so we dropped anchor.

Only a few minutes later, the front came through with very strong winds and heavy rain. By this time, we were snug in the cabin, warming up soup and noodles for lunch…










BTW, we had a great dinner last night - that poor fish that got caught up in my crab pot ended up wrapped in parchment, accompanied by some onion, peppers, tomato, lime and a splash of vermouth. A few minutes in the oven and that was it!