Day 41
Travel Time: 2.5 hours
NM today: 18
NM total: 897
Locks today: 0
Locks total: 70
It is truly
amazing how a day changes depending on location. This morning we ran around Little
Current
doing last minute things before leaving port.
This afternoon we enjoyed the serenity and sports opportunities of a
beautiful anchorage. At the end of the
day I simply cannot believe it all occurred in the same day. This is not the first time I have had trouble
getting my head around the differences from site to site and thinking that
something that happened in the morning must have occurred on some other day.
Little
Current is the home to the Cruiser’s Net network by a man named Roy who
broadcasts on VHF Ch. 71 every day in July and August. His broadcast consists of the weather, some
news, some history, and then he provides a relay service to help boaters
connect to other boaters. He has quite a
following and large numbers of boaters tune in and announce their
presence. Today, Clark walked over to
the room where Roy broadcasts, met Roy and some other boaters who came to the
broadcast, and stayed to listen to the report.
While he did that, I walked around town and checked out the various
nooks and crannies of the stores in town.
When he got
back to the boat, we went out on our bikes to the two marine stores in town but
we didn’t find what we are looking for.
I need a new catch for my clothes closet so the door does not bang back
and forth in high seas. We have not been
able to find one in any of the marine stores we have visited here in
Canada. Maybe we’ll be able to find
something in the U.S. Meanwhile when we
have rocky waters, I hang my jacket over the door to cushion the slams against the
door handle of the nearby door. A second
door catch also broke on this trip but so far I have not noticed it banging
around in high seas. Still it needs to
be repaired too as soon as we can find the parts.
We finally pulled
away from dock around 11:00 saying au revoir to our friends on Harmony.
Our anchorage for tonight is extremely popular and is referred to as
“The Benjamins”. The Benjamins consist
of North Benjamin and South Benjamin Islands and a lovely anchorage in
between. We arrived at the anchorage
around 2:30 and were settled in by 3:00 when we decided we should go
exploring. I hoped we would explore by
dinghy so I could avoid a confrontation with the kayak, but no such luck, Clark
said we were going out in our kayaks. Oh
joy!
We
circumnavigated the anchorage by traveling in a counterclockwise direction. Some maneuvering was easier than other as in
some directions the wind helped and in others it gave opposition to forward
motion. We found lots of little
hide-y-holes where boats were anchored in out of the way places. The rock formations with the mountains in the
background and the trees all around made a panoramic view whereby it mattered
not at all which direction we looked because beautiful scenery met our eyes in
every direction.
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| Natural boat dock – note the rock bottom can be seen through the water |
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| Rock slope in distance just begging to be climbed |
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| Packed harbor as seen from the top of the slope (Look closely and you can see me climbing up to meet Clark) |
At 4:30 we
headed back to the boat. When we got
there, Clark said he felt like going for a swim in the natural pool we had seen
during our exploration. Being hot from
the exercise in the kayak I found a swim appealing, so I agreed and changed
into my swimsuit. Only after I came out
ready to go did Clark make it clear that we would be using the kayaks to get to
the swimming hole. Ughhh! Here I was proud of myself for having managed
to get in and out today without flipping it over, and now I have to conquer the
kayak a second time in the same day!?
Ugh!
I must say
that Clark sets the bar much higher for me than I would ever set for
myself. He expects that whatever my
issue is I’ll “suck it up” and get on with it.
Due to his high expectations of my capabilities, I have done many things
with him that I would never have experienced otherwise including hiking, riding
a 10-speed bike, kayaking, and skiing just to name a few. I grumble and grumble; he ignores me; and I
get on with doing whatever it is he expects me to do.
It is a
pattern we have followed for as long as I have known him. I mostly think about this in sports-type
situations, but the same sequence of complaints, expectations, and
accomplishments occurs regularly in other aspects of our lives. Sometimes I wonder how he puts up with my
complaining, but we both know that when all is said and done, I’m happy I
managed whatever activity he “forced” me into.
I truly think it keeps me younger just trying to keep up with him.
Anyway, to
get back to the point, we did go out in the kayaks for a second time today and
enjoyed a lovely swim in the natural pool.
Clark has a point-and-click device that reads the temperature. The water
temperature by the boat was 67 degrees. The pool was warmer at 72. The rocks surrounding the pool was 98 degrees
– those are some hot rocks! We had to
wear our water shoes out there because the rocks were so slippery we couldn’t
climb back out of the water with bare feet because we could not get
traction. Clark took his off because he
said he couldn’t swim wearing them and then put them back on when he found he
couldn’t get out of the water without them.
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| Natural Pool made of stone - rocks under water look much closer than their actual 6 feet down |
Such
fun! The water felt great. Clark helped me climb out once and then I
decided that I wanted to swim more so I went back in for a second time. Around 5:45 I decided that I was too hungry
to stay out at the pool any longer as I needed to start cooking dinner. So, back in the kayaks we went for the trip
back to the boat. I got a lot of
exercise today – first on my bike in town, two times out in kayaks, and a swim
thrown in for the heck of it. I love
it! (The only part of kayaking I dislike
is getting into and out of the kayak from the back of Sea Moss.)
After a
lovely chat with my younger son on the phone, we watched the sky change colors
multiple times as once again we enjoyed an amazing sunset over the water! Life does not get any better than this!
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| Sunset at The Benjamins |
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