We left Sonora Resort at around 8:30am after a stretch of time staring out into the channel, literally “waiting for our tides to turn.”
Our motor through the channel felt like a rush hour as a number of other boats joined us, taking advantage of slack tide. Some of the passes we’ve gone through have been somewhat mind-blowing in the sense that you can be 100 ft from shore in a pass, but in over 600 ft of water. Pretty mind-boggling if you think about how far down you would sink if you fell overboard.
Any dogs I see on this trip make it into the blog automatically...especially ones with life jackets
As we passed Phillips arm, we saw a helicopter logging show in progress. Big old Verotol twin-rotor helicopter with a giant pincer on the end of a cable. Pretty awesome to watch.
Further along we came across a large log landing, as well as some living quarters on a huge barge. All through the area you could see old/new cutblocks and evidence of industrial forestry. I can kind of see how people would say it’s an eyesore on the landscape. But for me, I find it fascinating. Even Nick was enjoying my explanations of how sort yards worked etc. Likely my forestry background shining through though.
We stopped at a place called Blind Channel resort to top up on fuel. The weather was quite nice, as it had stopped raining. The initial plan was to buy a tidebook, get fuel, ask for some advice on where to stop next, and leave. However, after taking about our options and listening to the weather forecast, the Captain thought it best to just stay put as there was some significant weather forecasted.
Falling barometer...sign of bad things to come
Rest of my day was spent writing these blog entries and sorting through my pictures. As the hours went by, the weather remained pretty nice and the Captain wondered whether me made the right call to play it safe.
Life jacket dog stopped at the same harbor as we did.
However, that evening the weather we had anticipated rolled through and we were reassured that we’d made the right call. The excitement started around 9pm with increasing winds and some lightning/thunder. By 10pm everyone was heading to bed but the weather was just getting started. Winds picked up significantly, with gusts rocking the boat back and forth. The wind gauge in the cockpit recorded a 45 knot gust (that’s around 51 mph or 84 kph!). Thankfully someone had the foresight to take the awning down before the storm. That thing acts as a giant airfoil and in winds like that “it woulda picked us right up and thrown us over that ridge,” according to Admiral Brewer (joking obviously).
I went up into the cockpit at about 11:30pm to watch the storm for awhile. I meant to take some video of the noise of the wind and the size of the waves rolling into the harbor, but I couldn’t find my camera in the dark. Quite impressive to say the least. Gives you a bit of respect for the strength of mother nature. I was mighty glad to be tied up to a concrete dock during all of that. Definitely and interesting night.
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