Tribune Bay to Campbell River
We left Tribune Bay early in the morning, in
order to avoid the winds that generally build in the afternoon, making it to
Campbell River in early afternoon.
We left Tribune Bay at 0700. Heading out, we
decide to try to go through a little spit between land and an outlying island.
The charts didn't show any rocks, and showed that we should have at least 16
feet going through. However, Steven doesn't completely trust the charts, and
there is no way to see into the murky water for visual indications of shallows.
Also, Leif freaks out whenever the depth comes up under 40 feet (even in
anchorages!). So we agreed that we would try to go through, but if we saw 20
feet or less, we would turn around and head back the long way around (which
would add about 4 miles to our
journey).
We got to just about the
middle of the crossing, when the depth sounder showed 20 feet! Darn! After a
slight hesitation, Steven turned the boat around and we went out the other way.
There was one good thing that came of the mini-adventure, however: we saw
several seals and seal pups on the rocky beach on the outlying island, fairly
up-close.
As we came around the island,
Gage, who had written an elaborate note the previous day, threw his note in a
bottle overboard (wine bottle courtesy of Mom and Dad). This occurred at 49
degrees, 34.1 minutes N, 124 degrees, 37.1 minutes W. We'll see if anyone finds
it and writes back!
We motored for the
next 4 hours, until we got the slightest (3 knots) wind behind us. Then the
sails went up, wing on wing again, and we shut the engine down. The wind built
to 12 - 15 over the next several hours, and we arrived at the Discovery Harbor
Marina at 1504.
We tried fishing, and
we were on constant lookout for whales, but no such luck on either
front.
Campbell River is a "large"
town. There are several marinas, lots of shopping, a movie theatre, etc. We
stayed in the marina because there wasn't really anyplace to anchor. We did
shopping, laundry, and ate out that evening.
Posted: Sat
- July 10, 2004 at 04:21 PM