Amazing how quickly the weather changes. Yesterday evening was calm as could be, but last night the wind started howling. We're very, very lucky we crossed Dixon Entrance when we did; the wind is now blowing 20 to 30 knots there with predicted storm winds of 50 knots and 15-foot seas! There are similar conditions at Queen Charlotte Sound, so we're also lucky we're not there. In fact, we couldn't have picked a better place to be in a storm. Yet even here in our sheltered cove, we dragged several hundred feet with 90 feet of chain! We were eating breakfast when we realized we were in only 11 feet of water! And it was high tide! So we interrupted breakfast and got out of there in a hurry.
As usual, the crab trap contained only a starfish.
Grenville Channel was full of whitecaps when we poked our nose out there, but we were able to make 4 knots, and later in the day, the wind calmed down quite a bit.
We're in a race now with time and weather, trying to get back to the relative safety of San Francisco Bay while we still can. We should reach Victoria around the middle of September. Then we'll bop across to Port Angeles and be back in the U.S. The hard part of the trip will come when we round the cape and head back down the coast.
Spent the day motoring down the Grenville Channel. Wouldn't you know -- when I was at the helm, we practically had a traffic jam. A big tugboat pulling a big barge was coming up in back of us, while a huge cruise ship and another big ship were approaching us. And the channel was only 3/4 of a mile wide! Fortunately, everyone got by ok.
The weather was wet and cold all day. I was wearing five and sometimes six layers of clothing. Thank goodness we have the snug, dry doghouse! And windshield wipers. It rained all day and will probably rain all night.
Reached the end of Grenville Channel in time to anchor behind Promise Island just before dark. We anchored on a broad shelf in 42 feet of water. This time, we put out two anchors and 150 feet of chain.
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