Ominous Clouds, we should have listened!
Goodbye Vancouver
Our Neighbour at BYC "Ollie the Osprey"
"Bucky" the saltwater beaver at BYC
No Pot of Gold here, just wind!
Saturday night brought on a great Barbeque steak dinner and an informal "Gathering" with our boating buddies. A leisurely departure this morning of 10:00 am in the bright sunshine marks the begginning of another "Excellent Adventure with Mikey!"
The marine forcast is for light winds this morning building to 20-25 knots this afternoon. We should be in Pender Harbour with plenty of time to spare and maybe even a cocktail or two before those nasty winds hit! Wrongo......The water chop was not bad between Lions Gate and Point Atkinson and of course, there is always the bit of wave action from the tide change, but what we didn't expect around Gibsons was the
7' and 8' holes we soon found ourselves in. Again, yours truly was told "it's only tidal action" in front of Gibson's Gap, so we make the decision to keep going rather than be held up in Gibsons. A bit of a mis-calculation on both of our parts.
The chaos that ensued on the boat in the following 3 hours (after our miscalculation) had us make a list when we arrived, of all the things we need to do before tackling Malaspina Strait on Tuesday. The Fridge managed to jump its way out of its hidey hole and ended up jammed against the counter, the freezer door had flown open ice cubes spread from one end of the boat to the other...pity, we were rather looking forward to those arrival cocktails! The downstairs port door had worked it's way open with salt water pouring in for gawd knows how long, one of the salon blinds had flown right out of its track and was hanging by a thread, banging merrily against the window, the dinghy flew right out of its chalks, the upstairs beer fridge (fully stocked) had flown open with 24 beer flying around the top deck and some of those little devils even went swimming and a few more were found when we arrived in Pender Harbour on the side deck, the bridge patio table had to be put upside down to keep it from flying overboard, all the liquor bottles in the side cabin cupboard were making a run to freedom and rolling around on the salon floor, all my computer stuff was on the floor.....and yours truly got coco-bonked with a glass paperweight bear (heavy I might add) on the top of her head (Nice goose egg) - and why? are you asking was I sitting under the paperweight, to keep the cat calm.....there I was covered in white anxious cat fur from head to toe (cats shed when nervous I guess) - a goose egg on my head.....a dog panting so badly I thought he was going to have a coronary - and I says to myself....why didn't we go to Gibsons?????
All is to rights now, with everything back in its place, all the salt is washed off the boat (BYC'er's take note, they charge you to wash your boat now and to take on drinking water and you are not allowed to run your generator as power has tripled in price over last year) It was an eventful start to our cruising year and we hope it is not a prelude of things to come "weather wise" and or have we just been so lucky with weather that we have now become complacent? A nice pub dinner tonight with Mumbo and Jimbo and an early night (now that the adrenelin has worn off!)
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