On July 11, we watched the final FIFA game in Campbell River. Then we sailed off to Cortes Island where we anchored in Mansons Bay. We were well anchored and it was a good thing as the winds picked up during the night. We had an anchor watch because gale force winds swung us about all night.
On July 12, we waited for the whole day for the winds to calm down but they never did. We decided to make the trip to Silva Bay on the 13th. Instead, we explored Cortes Island, read and rested.
While Marty was napping, Mae noticed the water getting a bit green as she peered over the stern to watch all the jelly fish swimming about. Then she noticed the sand and the small rocks of the shore. She quickly ran to turn on the depth gauge which eventually read 2.9 m, 3.5m etc. We need 2.0 meters and the tide had another hour of dropping. We quickly started the engine and hauled up the anchor! We dropped anchor in a deeper hole.
They have a wonderful community radio station, which was non-commercial, non-corporate and totally community funded. They played a variety of music from the community and abroad. The DJs were local hippies who were easy going, carefree people. This station can be heard by subscribing to it on-line via PAY PAL at www.cortesisland.com
On July 13, we left Cortes Island at 5:10 a.m. Marty had to pull up the anchor from 27 metres plus a 3:1 scope. Exhausting! While pulling up the mainsail, my attention switched to the depth gauge, which read 4.0 metres and dropping. I had to change course to a safe path and went below to check why the depth was so low when we were well off shore. It turned out there was a long shallow spit that went out of the bay (unmarked). When we were sailing for three hours, we heard a PAN PAN as a 60 foot vessel ran aground on the very spot. They had to call a tug to pull it out as local resources were not able to pull such a huge vessel off.
This day started off well with a great sail from 5:30-10:30 a.m. going wing on wing down Georgia Strait. We figured that we would get to Silva Bay in no time. Unfortunately, the wind died and we had to motor the rest of the way. The last three hours was horrible as it was hot in the cockpit with the sun behind us, and any wind was on our nose, so we could not set sail, and the tide was against us to boot. The beautiful sunshine was nice but we knew that we would be coming into Silva Bay when it was dark. It was not easy getting into Silva Bay as we had to avoid “Shipwreck Rock” which was marked. One’s perception of the surroundings is obscured by darkness. Mae had to read out the depth every second…4.5m. 5.1m, 5.4m, 4.8m etc. Marty had a good shot of scotch after that long trip, punctuated by a scary entry into Silva Bay. It took us 17 hours to travel 80 nautical miles (144 km).
