Day 25-26

We are currently hungered down in Dixie Cove on Hohoae Island, just east
of Union Island in Kyuquot Sound. This is a bit of a black hole for
communications; we cannot receive any VHF weather and only sporadically
are getting a sat phone connection. I've been chewing up sat phone
minutes trying to get a coherent weather forecast via the call in
facility but it seems that every time the forecast gets to Van. Isle
South, I loose connection...very frustrating. If this doesnt' appear on
the web site until later it is beacause of poor sat. phone connection.

The other problem we had was that the remaining inverter we have
(Ralph's since I managed to fry mine) doesn't seem to like to work at
low battery voltages. Inexplicably we tried it just now and it seems
happy... so i'm rapidly writing this before it decides to stop working
also. My laptop battery is not charged either so I need the
inverter....so many excuses.

Day 25 - July 7:

We got away from Walter's Cove at 09:00 and navigated our way through
the many, many rocks and islets; we had a brief turnback to pick up a
fender that came loose ( I had tied it with only a clove hitch in prep
for a rear-spring off the dock). En route the updated weather forecast
was warning of an "unseasonably low LOW" which means basically a winter
storm in the summer!!. Storm force winds were forecast north of Brooks
and a gale warning for our area. We managed to sail for about 1/2 hour
of our 3 hour motor to Dixie Cove. It is a pretty spot and very
protected. On our way in we saw the UCHUCK III coming out after having
dropped off freight to a fish farm in one of the inlets here.

Ralph had picked up some frozen hamburger in Walter's Cove which has
thawed; Stewart made up some burger patties along with boxed mashed
potatoes ( which fooled me , i thought he had made them from scratch).
The rest of the meat was cooked and will show up in pasta sauce tomorrow
night (unless we get some crabs).

The weather is forecasting gales from the SE. Even if the gales don't
appear, we would be facing a 30 mile trip directly into the wind to get
to our next anchorage in Esperanza Inlet. This would slow our speed and
if we were having to tack, we could be facing 12 hours or more in winds
up to 25 kts (or more if the forecast unfolds as predicted). So, we've
decided to stay here an extra day, let the storm pass and hopefully the
winds will veer back to the NW and we can have a good down wind sail
tomorrow.

It started raining this evening and has not stopped; we have deployed
the rain tarps to cut down on the leakage from the hatches (another job
jar item!!)

Day 26 - July 8:

It is still raining. We shouldn't complain, this is really the first day
of real rain since we started. However,we can complain, and are
complaining, about the lack of heat so far. Wool hats and sweaters and
fleece wear are still the order of the day. On the positive side, the
rain will get rid of all of the salt deposits on the boat and sails.

I cannot get a complete weather forecast at one time due to the silly
sat phone connection ( or lack thereof) but it appears that there are
winds over 40 kts at the north end and in Hecate straight and close to
gale conditions outside of where we are. All is quiet here so it is hard
to imagine that all hell is breaking loose so close to us. We'll be ok
if we don't go stir crazy; no one seems too keen on cards or games and
are content(?) to read and eat. ( how many Sudoku puzzles can you do
before you go nuts?) Another major provisioning problem: the beer supply
is now at zero!... but we still have some grog left.

I made Robin's famous Weary Willie cake, but discovered that the oven
is not heating evenly and I managed to burn one corner of it; i'm sure
it will be ok.

Last check of crab trap: no crabs.... this is the place that Jim and
Marilyn said had HUGE crabs..... maybe we need different bait or??

The BIG event of the day so far was to untangle the crab pot line that
had somehow gotten trapped between the rudder and the keel when the boat
swung on anchor. The fact that we had to untangle it in the rain made it
even more fun. Nothing like a problem and 3 engineers to help pass the
time. The line is now free and a revision has been added to the ship's
Articles: crap pot is to be only deployed from the bow, not the stern!

Tomorrow we will make our way into Esparanza inlet; not sure which
anchorage as yet.

Over and out from Dixie Cove.