Day 38 - To Turnbull Islands
Captain and I took Kona to the closer shore this morning. The campground where we checked in is a nearly half a mile from our boat. It was a true North Channel landing. Very remote, rocky beach. Not much room to freely walk. Kona did her business and we headed back to Ciara to pull anchor by 8am. The kids did their jobs and immediately went back to bed. I captained the ship for the first hour or so and then Captain took over so I could enjoy my log write up time and other general chores. It is nice to be back in these waters. We are already surrounded by land and the waters are so protected. Lots of little islands around and so glad we have not only charts but GPS that show us exactly the way to go to avoid all the hidden rocks just below the surfaces here. We saw our first example of “birds don’t walk on water” off in the distance as when they appear to be walking on water they are standing on a rock one inch below the surface. See birds walking on water? Go the other way!
We passed a large bulk carrier to our port side. He was close but hardly left any wake due to his bulbous on the bow of his ship. Wasn’t expecting to see a freighter like that inside the channel but I suspect he was carrying something from one of the quarriers that dot the channel.
We passed by the Grant Islands, a small collection of islands I want to stop at some time. Good fossil hunting and nice beach according to reviews. The winds weren’t the best to stop for a day stop so we continued all the way to Turnbull Passage. After 8 hours we had the kids at the bow for bow watch as we entered the anchorage. With the anchor dropped at 4pm everyone was excited to finally enjoy a bit of the day after 3 and half long days at sea. Cory and Bert jumped into the water while Dani, Captain and I went to shore with Kona. On our way back Kona could see the other two in the water and she just jumped off the dinghy and went to swim with them. However, she was still pretty far away and when the dinghy was just slightly faster then she was she got really upset. We slowed down and she amazed us by showing that she could, when motivated, load in the dinghy all by herself using her neck muscles! Silly girl. As we got closer to Ciara she jumped in again, just not able to let anyone swim without her.
I jumped in, so did Dani. We spent the afternoon enjoying swimming and the sun. We braided Captains beard and hair. Ha! Our life lines are full of laundry out to dry and we are looking the part really well already. Cory made Caper Chicken for dinner and while Dani and I stayed back to do dishes, Captain, Cory and Bert went to shore to prepare for a fire. Captain bought a battery powered chainsaw this year and has been thoroughly enjoying using it. He cleared old bush as well as cleared the path to the other side of the island which had been over grown since we were here last year. We were sad to see the firepit had been left with a lot of non-burnable trash so we took a trash bag to shore and cleaned up from the guests before.
By the time dishes were done I could see a nice fire ashore. Kona splashing at the waters edge with the kids. I played Taps and Last Post and then Captain came back to Ciara to take us to shore.
As the evening gave way to night the anchorage calmed to glass and I could hear loons off in the distance. The horizon is dotted with tiny islands and we have four other sailboats around and on motor boat. Everyone is quiet. The kids loved the fire. Captain had cut down a very dead tree. When he would add sections of dead tree with the old pine needles the fire would erupt into 15 foot flames. The kids danced around and sang Kumbaya to the flames and set my heart in a happy place.
The mosquitos are a little aggressive here so unless we were at the fire or protected down below we were getting eaten a lot so we called it an evening around 11pm. The kids stayed up a bit later chatting and enjoying their time together. So happy to be at the heart of everything now. Our long sails should be replaced with nothing more then 3 hours at a time if we move at all. Our tankage is doing well so I don’t feel a strong push to get to Little Current before Sunday, but we may by Friday, just waiting to see how things pan out. For now, I look forward to the Whaleback Channel tomorrow!
