GREEN ISLAND (June 30)

(No internet or phone reception for a while - will have to load up a couple of days worth of posts when we get to Shearwater...)

We woke up very early - 4:30 or so - had coffee, got everything ready and weighed anchor a little after 5. Conditions were better than we had left them out in the channel yesterday, but by no means was it a piece of cake. We were going into 4-6 ft. swells, but they were far enough apart that it wasn’t too uncomfortable. We talked it over and decided if it didn’t get worse, we’d keep on going. We had one last chance to bail out at Miles Inlet, and we kept that in mind, even if we had to double back to it.

It didn’t get any worse - for a while… By the time we were in 6-8 ft. swells with a cross wave on top of them, it was too late to turn back. The forecast was for declining wind speed starting a 9 AM, but by then we were almost all the way around Cape Caution. After rounding the Cape, we had to change bearing and head more north, and that meant the swell was coming more from the side - the dreaded “beam sea.” We did what we could to ameliorate the effect, but it was a very confused sea, and swells were coming from multiple angles, so there was no way to get away from some significant rolling. This is when Elaine takes the helm - as long as she’s busy driving the boat, she doesn’t get seasick.

We finally got into Fitz Hugh Sound around 10 AM and the conditions were markedly improved, although still grey and overcast. In fact, we were feeling so good at that time, we passed up our planned anchorage site at Fury Cove and kept on going to Green Island, another couple of hours away.

What an incredible anchorage. We kind of had to trust the charts finding the entrance, because it wasn’t at all obvious just cruising by.

Once through the small entrance channel there was a beautiful, fully protected cove which was completely empty of boats, and the sun came out! We picked the prime spot to anchor in a small area protected from the northwest winds.

I got the dinghy down, pulled out the new fishing gear, and headed down a small channel to deeper water to see if I could catch dinner. This was too easy. Within 15-20 minutes I had 4 rock fish, more than enough for dinner. I came back to the boat, cleaned the fish, and now Elaine is getting ready to fry them up. Maybe that rod and reel were a smart investment…