Day 40 - Repeat after me: Bushwhacking is fun
Ah! A day where we aren’t moving! The kids enjoyed sleeping in, shocking, I know. Captain and I went to shore with Kona pretty early since she was overdue. We met a salty sailor ashore with his golden retriever and chatted with him a long while. Back at Ciara Captain and I made Bloody Mary’s for reals and not just the yummy virgin ones I have been enjoying while sailing. Mid-morning we heard a plane fly overhead. We all rushed out to see Dax and Jenny flying overhead in their float plane. They did a loop around the anchorage and tipped their wing at us. Later Jenny would send me the picture they took! The rest morning was pretty uneventful, especially after that! We all seemed to be happy in our own activities. I gave way to a nap just short of noon as the heat was getting to me.
I awoke a little after an hour of napping and decided that I needed to swim. One new thing I packed this year was my wet suit and open water swim gear. I even bought a swim buoy to attach to me for visibility. I was very happy to see I still fit in my wetsuit and now I would find out if I could still swim distance. The kids all agreed they wanted to swim as well so they jumped in. I swam with Dani to shore so they could go explore a bit and then I swam back to Ciara. Bert and Cory jumped in and we swam over to another area that had the rock cliff they wanted to jump from. Bert jumped from here last year, his first every rock jump and he was eager to go at it again, this time with Cory. I played around in the warmer protected pool area and Dani swam out to me. I had found a rock just below the surface so I was standing on the water just like the birds. No camera with me as I was swimming but Bert and Cory got a few good jumps in and said they could see another pool on the other side so Dani and I swam over the that area. It was shallower with nice warm water and sandy bottom. Captain brought the dinghy over and joined us. We met a nice gentleman who said he was able to hike over the island to one of the southern anchorages. He said it was only about 1000 feet hike but mostly straight up. We decided to head back to Ciara and maybe try hiking a little alter when the sun was less aggressive. With the dinghy ashore everyone opted to take a ride back. I swam behind them surprised I could keep up with our little trolling motor. I was keeping nearly my ironman pace. It was really nice to open water swim again. Seeing the sea floor and not having to swim boring laps is so much more interesting. Other boaters gently hackled Captain for making me swim and there were jokes all around as I chased our dinghy. I got back to Ciara out of breath in a good way. It was nice to get a little workout in and feel my body move. Plus, the water felt so good in the heat. I highly recommend swim buoy’s though. I could just float, rest and play with the kids if I needed a break.
We spent a few more hours aboard. Captain and I hung the shade and chilled out in the cockpit with music on low, just trying to drown out the county music coming from another near by boat. I jumped back into the water multiple times. There is no escaping the heat on Ciara, but the lake always is a quick fix.
Late afternoon we took everyone back to shore to hike. Going to see if we could find that other anchorage and maybe some blueberries. Captain packed his manchette and tree blazing ribbon. Ah, bushwacking! We forgot the blazing tape in the dinghy and didn’t realize until we were far enough from the shore so I set my gps tracker on so we could at least trace our steps back. It isn’t that big of an island; we would eventually find out way back but the terrain was crazy!
Sure enough, Mark (the nice boater from earlier) was right. Five minutes into our hike we were greeted by a sheer wall. The granite rocks of this island are long smooth ramps in some places and walls in others. There is a unique ecosystem here where some plants can actually grow with no root system on to top the rocks. If you can see the rock it was nice and sticky under your feet but if it was covered in this moss like ground cover, it was like a false floor.
The kids found a good way up and we made it to the summit pretty quickly on bare rock. We bushwacked through some thick forest at the ridge before heading down to the anchorage which we could now see! Captain took a nice header with some footing. His ankles were above his head and awkwardly facedown. We got him rescued with only a few leg scrapes.
Down at the southern anchorage we found a really nice fire pit and no one there. It was nice to see the spot with our eyes before we attempt to maybe bring Ciara here sometime. This anchorage is much narrower than the main Benjamin anchorage with towering granite walls up the entire v shaped valley. We found some ripe blueberries on the southern shore but they were few and far between. We decided not to harvest them as it is just a little early in the season and hope to collect on that good will in a few weeks!
We let Cory and Bert lead the charge back. That was a mistake. Our lack of trail blazing tape meant they really couldn’t see the trees we had bushwacked to get there. I was watching our gps trail and we were only to the east about 15 feet and headed the right way. Within 5 minutes I realized we should have tried to go back. We now found ourselves on a lower set of granite rocks that were completely over grown with this false floor growth. The face was pretty steep and there were a few times with Dani, Captain and myself slid pretty far on our tushy’s before coming to a rest. Dani was pretty shaken up but we kept encouraging them reminding them that yes, this is hard, but they were ok! Captain added humor saying “hey, I slid further the you did!.” I had to rescues him a few times more then Dani as the footing really was pretty slippery and steep.
We made it back fine though, again only a few scratches for all of us, except Bert for some reason, who did the whole hike in Crocks! I felt absolutely disgusting from all the spider webs so once back at Ciara I just jumped back in the water in my dress and all. I gave myself a good tick check and reminded everyone else to do the same. There was no poison ivy on this hike at least. The kids swam some more. Bert and Cory figured out how to jump bow pulpit. Not for the tame of heart. They were very careful and Cory got a few good dives in and Bert mastered his cannonball. We still need to pre-throw a ball for Kona as she will jump off and try and rescue you. It really isn’t fun to be coming back to the surface after you jump only to have a well-intentioned dog jump on top of you!
A simple dinner of spicy Raman (spaghetti-O’s for Dani) was all we really needed. We had enjoyed crackers and snacks all day.
I have been trying really hard to memorize Last Post. The last many times I have had my music close but not having anyone hold it for me. It hasn’t gone well. I keep fracking (messing up) notes and I am still dependent on seeing the notes I need to play. I decided to let Captain hold my music tonight and not play a hero. I played really well and was glad for it as the boaters here in the bay learned quickly from last night and were all out on their bows ready at 9pm.
I went to set up the DVD player for the kids and found that I forgot the remote rending the whole thing useless. That was a bit upsetting to Dani. Upsetting to me because I pride myself in packing and as much as I do pack, I still missed something! The kids figured out something else to do so they wouldn’t have to join Captain and I ashore for a fire.
Someone had beaten us to the firepit and had a fire going already so we joined them and Captain enjoyed using his chainsaw to add more wood to the pile. We chatted up at the fire for awhile but eventually most people left because the mosquitos were having the time of their life. I saw a large toad hop by and I encouraged him to eat up but it wasn’t enough and finally I told Captain I couldn’t handle it anymore. It was nearing 11pm and we intend on getting up pretty early to make a run to Little Current. Hopeful for a slip tomorrow but there is a lot going on in town. We will get a pump out and fuel and if we can’t get a slip will go anchor nearby and enjoy the town for the day. We look forward to tomorrow very much; getting to see some folks who became dear to us last year and some sailing friends who we are going to catch up with who are here in the North Channel for the first time.
