8/25 Blind Bay to Prevost Harbor 14 nautical miles

Kitty cheesecake

Photos to follow when the connection is better...

It’s Erin’s birthday today so I arranged for another day of perfect weather. I don’t think it’ll hold much longer – some clouds are due for tomorrow. Not saying which birthday it is, but we expect Erin’s invitation to join AARP to be in the mail when we return.

This morning we removed all the windows around the bridge for maximum viewing and ventilation, but left the canvas up for shade. It was the right combination for today.

We got a much earlier start, heading out of Blind Bay at 11 o’clock. As we were leaving the bay a ferry was approaching, but it turned in towards the Shaw Island ferry dock as we entered Harney Channel. We took our usual route through Pole Pass, but then as we passed Jones Island we turned a little bit more to the north to pass along the other side of Spieden Island on the way to Prevost Harbor on Stuart Island. There was quite a current flowing in Spieden Channel and it was in our favor, bumping our casual 7 knot speed up to about 9.5.

When I took the captain’s class a couple years ago, we learned all about calculating for set and drift, and how to determine what heading to take when a current is coming towards you at a cross angle. We did it all with current tables, paper charts, parallel rules, compass and dividers – and maybe a pencil and paper too. For our run from Jones Island across Spieden Channel I followed the little blue highway on our navigation software, turning to starboard until it was straight. We cut a nice straight line across the channel to our next waypoint with our bow headed about 15 degrees off to starboard. I like technology.

As we were cruising along the shoreline of Stuart Island we received a radio call from a passing boat, reporting that our port engine was making more smoke than starboard. Unlike gasoline engines, which use a spark plug to explode the fuel/air mixture, diesel engines depend on the heat generated from their high compression to ignite and burn the fuel. Full combustion is best with the engine at its peak operating temperature. We had been cruising along at 6 or 7 knots, and I suspect more than the usual amount of unburned fuel was heading out the exhaust. We accelerated up to about 12 knots for a few minutes to generate some more heat, then backed off again – the amount of smoke seemed less. But, these are 40 year old engines and there are many other reasons for smoke, some probably not so good.

It’s been quite a few years since we’ve been in to Prevost Harbor – the last time could have even been with the Free Spirit. There are two entrances into the bay – the correct one, and the one no one attempts more than once. We entered via the conventional route, cruising around to the left and past the state park dock. We headed back towards the other entrance, which is very scenic from the bay side with most of the rocks exposed at low tide. Although we were at low tide, we backed off a little when the depth got down to 5 or 6 feet and we could see the eel grass from the bridge. We anchored in about 13 feet of water, furthest from the park dock except for a local boat on a private buoy.

We lazed around most of the afternoon. Erin read a book while I perused through parts of last Sunday’s paper. Later in the afternoon we went for a dinghy ride around the harbor, and may go ashore in the morning when it’s cooler to take a walk on some of the trails.

Tomorrow we’ll head into the Gulf Islands. We’re only 4 miles from Bedwell Harbour on the other side of Boundary Pass, where we’ll check into Customs. If it’s a typical entry, there will be no one at the Customs dock – we’ll report our arrival via the dockside phone, surrender any forbidden fruits or vegetables, receive our clearance number and be on our way. Our way will probably be to the town of Ganges on Salt Spring Island. It’s a great little town and one of our favorite stops in the Gulf Islands.