See you soon, St Peters

Since the store closed early on Sunday, the primary objective for Monday morning was to get groceries and fill in the empty propane tank. Julia took the dog ashore for a quick walk while the kids were still asleep, her solo dinghy ride was smooth and easy in windless conditions. It took a while to get everyone organized after a slow breakfast, but we had a shopping list. Diego stayed at the marina to get some work done, Andres ran to the playground where he was joined by Alina and Georgi. Anya wanted to get something sweet at the store, so she joined us for the shopping.

The place that can fill propane tank was closed due to a holiday. Now, I’m pretty sure we have enough till the end of the trip, but it would be psychologically easier to have the second tank filled.

The biggest shopping surprise for me was to find frozen fish (some sort of cod) “Product of China”! This is the fish place! It just doesn’t make sense to me. Given its size, the local Foodland could have a bigger diversity of meats and produce, but then again, this is a part of Canada where Sweet Caroline and West Virginia, country home are favorite songs, so the store caters to people with simple appetites.

Rather than load everything into the dinghy, I took Alina to Salty Ginger and we motored back. We needed to get the holding tank pumped out and get some water into the tank that cannot be filled by the desalinator. There were very few people at the marina, so they allowed us to stay at the dock once we were done. We ate lunch, cleaned up and motored into the inlet. I had my sight laid on the Crammond islands in the west arm of the lake.

Contrasts on the water

Predictably enough, the kids loved riding the inflatable. They kept falling off, sometimes in narrower places than I would have liked. This slowed down the progress of moving down the inlet, so at 3, when some wind finally filled in, I had to make a call to get sailing.

The water was smooth, protected by the land and the islands. We were going downwind under the mainsail and code-0. Alina went to a sailing camp, but now she has forgotten quite a bit, so she has some re-learning to do. Andres also wanted to steer, but he had to wait until we stopped going wing-and-wing.

Once we got out into more open waters, the wind picked up and it started to rain. We could see the rain sweep from the north, so it wasn’t unexpected. As quickly as we sailed into the patch of rain, we sailed out of it and soon enough it was back to shorts and T-shirts.

With the wind directly in front of us now, and quite a bit stronger, the code-0 had to be taken down. Not without a small adventure, because it got stuck, but Salty Ginger liked the upwind configuration with the jib and flew forward. Sailing at its best!

I was curious as to whether we could sail past Pringle island without tacking, but my worries were alleviated by the wind: it calmed down a lot and we were only making 3 knots. With 6 more miles to go and it being almost 6pm, the option of sailing to the island was not reasonable — the motor had to be turned on.

In the cove

The lovely anchorage is between two islands, but the entrance is a bit tricky: S-shaped deep water bordered by shoals on both sides. Watching the depth got me mostly where I wanted, but then on the last turn the depth quickly fell to 0 under the keel. I knew that the bottom was soft, so I wasn’t worried, and after a joint lookout we found the deeper waters and went into the cove. 20-25 foot depths throughout.

We thought about pulling into this cove a week ago, but got scared off by the cruising guide’s warning that we might be disturbed by jet skis from the local cottages. Perhaps because today is a Monday, or just as luck would have it, there was no other human presence other than another sailboat at anchor.

Before the anchor snubber was set, Julia and the kids were in the water. Onboard instruments showed 25C water, but curiously enough, there were patches that were much colder.

Georgi was loaded into the dinghy and Julia pushed it ashore to let the dog run around. Then Diego spotted an eagle flying above them and got concerned about the possibility of the little dog becoming eagle food, but the giant bird flew over to the nearby pine tree and observed the waters from there.

Ashore Julia found lots of gooseberries, so she came back aboard, put on pants and went back to scavenge. The kids were having a blast jumping into the water and happily yelled at one another. The sound was echoing between the two islands, so we tried to get them to speak softly. And then we had a reason to chase them out of the water: there was rain on the horizon, apparently heading our way. Even though Julia was some distance away on the island, she could hear me clearly without me raising the voice.

After dinner we played a couple of rounds of No Thanks! and then we found out that most of the sky was clear. It was warm, so it was pleasant to lie down on the foredeck and observe the stars and the Perseid meteors.

Pants and jackets

In the morning the conditions were quite different. During the night it started to rain, the temperature dropped and the wind shifted to a colder northwesterly. Inside the cabin with the hatches closed it was still warm, but outside was a different story. The heat wave may be over, but the dog needs to be walked, and there are gooseberries to be picked!

Sailing dawg

Georgi adapted very well to the life aboard. He feels perhaps even overconfident, venturing to the foredeck, going up and down the gangway regardless of how the boat heels.

A long passage

Today we are picking up Dmitri and his son from a bus stop near a natives reservation. That seemed the only logistically possible way to meet someone without a car at 8:30pm. We covered some 25 miles, mostly sailing except when we motored under the Barra Strait Bridge. Despite the fact that the adults were in long sleeves and jackets, all 3 kids spent a considerable amount of time on the inflatable. Young hot blood!