Sailing without Radar

Or there is a very load horn sounding over there.

Blackfish Sound was very frustrating for me with the fog.  I didn't too much when there was no wind.  But sailing from Sunday Harbour there was wind.  When I got to Lizard Pt on Malcom Island I had good wind and a fog bank so solid I  couldn't justify sailing into.  There is something very unsettling about fog horns.  Ended up watching two cruise ships and the above tug and tow come out of that bank.

Sunsets

Smallest ferry

The ferry between Denman Island and Hornby is the smallest I have been on.  The run takes only 10 mins.  From the discussion at Phrog (yes I do remember that night) they are planning on replacing it with a cable ferry.

Ghost Pipe

 Something I found on Mayne Island and could figure out what it was.

 The following is from my friend Emily (it is good to have a botanist as a friend):

Monotropa uniflora, ghost pipe, corpse plant, or indian pipe.  COOL!  It's pretty interesting, and not very common!  A non-photosynthetic plant that doesn't have chlorophyll to give it the normal green color, it doesn't get energy from light like most green photosynthetic plants do.  Instead, it's a saprophyte - kind of like a parasite, but instead of living off of other living things (like a parasite) it lives off of dead things - rotting trees or other plants or animals.  More recent research hypothesizes that these plants have a symbiotic relationship with fungus.  Because it doesn't get it's energy from the sun, it can grown in deep forest.  Monotropa uniflora is in the Blueberry family, the Ericaceae, most of which have pendant (hanging) pale flowers.  Other pacific northwest saprophytic plants include more commonly seen Pterospora (pinedrops), also in the Ericaceae family, and Coralrhyza (coral roots), an orchid.

Posting on the west coast

I am not sure if I will have any Internet access so I am planning a few post and if I can cell coverage I will be sending small posts via text.

Sunday harbor

I decided to got up into Blackfish Sound from Alert Bay in the hopes of seeing some Orca. Sadly I am still Orca-less. But I got to anchor in an amazing little spot, Sunday Harbor. Which is a little spot between Crib Island and Angular Island.

There are three entrances into there but on the way in I went with the easiest, Crib pass.

While I was waiting for the fog to lift I went for a paddle.

I found a old chain that was either used for booming or for a stern tie.

On the way out I took Sunday pass. Nothing like coming out of that with kayakers just hanging out at the mouth.

Kelp Killer

So sailing with no engine makes you occasionally end up in interesting spots. Some of those spots are amazing, but some just kind of suck.

I had left Alert Bay with the intention of sailing to Hanson Island and anchoring on the north side of it. Light air and high current (going opposite what you would think) lead to my dropping anchor just off Perse Island and waiting for the tide to change to the ebb.

Finally the current slacked off and the wind came up a bit. I decided to give it a try to get through and continue my day off sailing.

I was making progress but I had to decide what side of a kelp patch to attempt. With the current still running against me I decided to go for the side closest to shore. This ended up biting me in the ass.

Needless to say the wind died and the current swept me back into the kelp. I ended up well ensconced in the kelp.

Ok now what. I tried cutting my way free with my kitchen knife. Between my lack of reach and an unhappy incident on the back swing I decided that wasn't working. I ended up attaching the knife to my boat hook with a sail tie. At least now it was out of range of damaging me(well unless it came flying loose).

Cutting my way out wasn't working so o went old school, very old school. I had only done kedging once before but it does work. Placed my stern anchor in my kayak and tied its rode to my bow. Paddled as far as I could go and dropped it over. Back to the boat and started pulling myself along. After repeating once more and a bit more cutting I was free and on my way.

 My knife is now called Kelp Killer.