Day 49 - The Spirits of the Stones
Captain and I were treated to a beautifully calm morning in Key Hole. I’m not sure but I think I may have encountered the spirits of the stones. If you take a picture of the perfect refection of the rocks and rotate the photo 90 degrees you get what looks like faces on a totem pole. I felt like the North Channel/Georgian Bay was saying goodbye and sending us good omens.
After Kona’s shore leave, we woke the kids to get moving. I was nervous about having to get the new 80lb motor up and on deck as it is very heavy and bulky. We have very little space on deck between the life lines and the pilot house and Cory and I struggled the last two times. We had the motor sitting up at the bow and was already causing issues with the jib lines so it also had to find a new home. We decided to work smarter and not harder and set up a line to the handle of the engine to the main halyard. We were able to simply lift it up over the life lines and lower it gently down, now, on top of the main deck out of the way of any running lines. That was so much easier!!! And safer. And something even just Captain and I could do if we don’t have full crew.
Dani pulled the anchor all the way till the light was taught while we all worked on securing the motor and reading the ship. That job of pulling up all that line has proven to really help with the hauling of the anchor. Cory, Bert and I were able to pull it out of the mud with a few good pulls.
Cory made breakfast underway while I started to get things in order for our arrival in Little Current. The weather is nice and cool and I didn’t get to enjoy much of our four hour motor sail between all the chores. I was making our grocery list and noticed that our tower of tortillas was down to the last package but other then that our stocks were doing really well. Just some fresh items and Canadian treats were on our list otherwise. I totally forgot to add lettuce for our tacos so hopefully tomorrow we can pick some up before we leave.
We arrived before the noon bridge and waited carefully in the current for it to open. The town docks were quite empty when we arrived compared to last week. We got our pump out and diesel and asked if we could have a spot on the wall for the night. The tall ship Playfair had just left the wall in Little Current as we finished up our boat business. We thought we missed them but the came around to the fuel dock themselves. It was neat to see her salty crew of all kids and one adult captain heaving lines and attempting to dock. The the while I was admiring that the ship had bow thrusters and thankfully wasn’t going to hit us. We waited for her to safely dock and we left the fuel dock and headed over to our slip for the night. No one came over to help catch our lines this time so I had to jump off Ciara to catch our lines. There are no cleats on the wall for me to catch only a large, continues pipe. Not to happy to do that but thankfully it was a clear shot so if Captain missed it I would feel confident NOT jumping and having another go at it. Thankfully the docking when very smoothly, although we did discover that Bert really doesn’t know how to coil a line or toss it correctly so Captain decided that there would be mandatory line tossing lessons after main chores were done.
The 1st mate of Playfair came to say hi. They remember being with us on the wall last year. It is really neat to chat with them as they do great work teaching kids how to sail and the growth they get by living aboard for a few weeks at a time.
So we set the rest of the afternoon to chores. Dinghy is clean, deck is clean. Floors are clean. We even did laundry at the laundromat! We decided to take care of the drying on our lines to save money (silly sailors, we get the wind for free, we want everything else for free too) and take advantage of the breezy day we had. We made jokes with everyone who stopped by about lur laundry on the line. Groceries were done and somehow, I didn’t realize that the drinks Captain had been pouring me were a little strong. Between a very messed up sleepy cycle the last few weeks and the security of a dock I passed out until 9pm! I missed dinner of fajitas, but I didn’t mind. I felt we didn’t buy enough meat as it was, so I’m glad I gave up my meal. My Bloody Mary with olives was dinner enough!
It was a quick day, mostly of chores and boat things. Back to island hoping tomorrow. Captain and I realized that we have only really spent 2 nights max anywhere for the North Channel part of the trip. I think we may 3 nights hunkered down for a storm this week, but the pace is felt compared to our sit and relax pace of the first part of the summer. I think we will enjoy slowing down a bit in August and hope to figure out a way to enjoy slowing down our time in the North Channel next year.
