Wednesday August 19th.

We awoke to a cold, foggy, drizzly morning. Not at all appealing for a swim. Summer disappeared as quickly as it came on this changeable coast.

I stalled over breakfast hoping it would clear up and the sun would come out, and just as we sat down to it we heard a plaintive 'Meow!" Kato had been sitting in the dingy and it had drifted out to the end of it's tether, so he could not get back on the boat! Dave rescued him and we settled into a big breakfast of fresh baked macadamia and raisin bread and freshly ground coffee. We are loving this hand grinder we found in an outdoors store in Barrie last winter. The loons were calling through calling and through the morning mist we watched a lone osprey dive for fish.

"We are having the ultimate human experience" Dave commented. 'Good food, beautiful surroundings and perfect peace." What's a bit of fog and rain?

By eleven it had not cleared up at all, and perhaps the fog was even thicker, so I dressed in warm waterproof clothes, Dave donned his rain gear and we trundled off to have what I imagined would be a cold bath. We would not have a chance for a private bath again this season, and showers would not be until Sydney, we both badly needed a bath.

'You know' Dave said as we headed back to the boat an hour or so later. " I think part of our role as humans is to enable creation to experience itself through us..' I understood exactly. This universe needs us, we are creation experiencing itself through our human aspect. Our ability to see, feel, hear, touch, taste, smell and express allow a deeper experience of what millennia has created here on this planet.

During that past hour we had climbed up the stream bed Dave found last night for a few hundred yards, then crossed the tumbled rocks of it's 4 feet width, went up over and around the first fall through a mossy forest trail, trees perfectly placed for support up the bank, until we came around to a very beautiful waterfall that tumbled into a pool about fifteen feet long and eight feet wide. A perfectly flat three foot ledge ran along the side we were on with a couple of tree stumps hanging over above us that we could hung our clothes on. The other side was a sheer cliff rising about thirty feet above us. We could see three other waterfalls above, each with their own pool below it seemed. The water was warm and clear, with 'standing' rocks along the edges graduating from 4 feet under to 6 and more in the centre. Trees overhung the edges far above us as we grinned at each other in delight.

We soaped up with 'Dr. Bonners' and then Dave made his sudsy way over under the falls and literally laughed out loud as the warm water cascaded over him. 'It's a full on massage' he called delightedly! I swam over to join him and we both laughed with pure joy as the water tumbled over us, truly one of the better massages I have experienced and I know some excellent masseuses! We just let this magical place clean our bodies and fill our eyes with beauty and our souls with gratitude. It is a timeless experience neither of will ever forget.

These places exist throughout the world, these special magical places, and we are here to bear witness to this one, to appreciate it and experience it. Very few people will come here, and even fewer will find it or bother with the climb to get to it. We are of the privileged to experience this place. We are so very lucky.
After our bath we returned to Mysti-Cal in excellent spirits and pulled anchor to head to our next anchorage with the fun name of Squid Hole.

Along the way Dave checked for weather updates as we had to determine if the next day was still suitable for a crossing, but could not find any on our regular stations. As a matter of fact we could not hear anything even on the standard 16! We had assumed we were out of range in our last spot as we had heard no updates and as we had no cell service for a few days, did not know what the weather had decided.

We were passing funny names like 'Butt Shoal', 'Middle Stick Shoal', 'Harry's Knob', and a few places beginning with 'Offer'. Offer Lookout Shoal, Offer Seal Island, I wondered if an easterner was asking the names of places and was told by a local 'Ya, dat's offer Seal Island dat un." LOL We came to another Tinker Island and Tinker Sunker and another Wreck Island and even another rock named Bad Neighbor!

Still no voices on the VHS radio, Dave sent a request for response from out AIS unit, but none came in. We decided to call the coast guard and ask about where we could get weather updates when we came into one bar of service. We had assumed that as we got closer to Port Aux Basques we would find cell service.

My youngest daughter who was leaving t go abroad for a year Sunday, had texted me so I took this opportunity to make plans for a call once we had better service. She was heading to Thailand for school and then on to teach in Qatar. I found out about the bombings in Bangkok from her.

When you are living aboard, away from human stuff, you forget how brutal humans can be. It seems we have explored the worst of what we are capable of in our world. I thought of the stories the Aussie sailors told us of witnessing the thousands of bodies in Rwanda piled up in schools, hundreds of babies with hammer holes in their sculls bodies limed and left there to decompose, the killing fields of Cambodia, the death camps of North Korea and Germany, residential schools and the missing women in Canada, we have brutal testaments of the worst we are capable of as humans.

Our movies, TV shows and novels celebrate this aspect of humanity, all about murder, war and betrayal, what if we began to focus on the best we are capable of? The creativity we express through our art, music, dance and design? What about our kindness, compassion and bravery? We know we create our reality, and we do collectively as well.
I want to focus on the great stuff we can achieve and I want to expect that greatness from all people, nurturing it where I can in myself. This, it seems is what we must do.

Back to this moment, we still had not heard anything on the VHS no matter where Dave turned the channel, so the decision was made to call the coast guard and ask. They were very friendly and helpful, we could get coast guard weather updates on a channel we had never used, 28. Yes, they had weather and wave updates, but in pure Newfaoundlandeese. Between the accent, phrasing and the cutting in and out of reception, there was not a chance our Ontario ears were able to decipher what the guy was saying enough to make sense of it. Dave called the coast guard back and she offered to give us the latest weather update when it came in in an hour. She also advised us to check in with Traffic Control in Port Aux Basques once we had reached Rose Blanche.

Since that is where we were, right off another 'Tinker Sunker' Dave called in on channel 11 and was told there was no other traffic out there except the Ferry between Ramea and Burgeo that we had passed two days ago. It' a big ocean!

We had Jenny out but as the wind was right behind us and she was floundering around. Dave went out to see about using our whisker pole to hook to her and hold her out. This was something we were told could be done, but had never tried it. He decided it would be easy enough to put out, but how the heck would you bring it in if you needed to drop the sail quickly? So he then tried to harpoon Jenny's Clue, (the outer corner) with a boathook and use that to hold her out. That was entertaining to watch. He gave it up after a bit and came back in. It was time for us to turn in ti Isle aux Morts anyway, and with all the waves crashing rocks and shoals around us, I wanted more control over Mysti anyway. In came Jenny and we headed into the rocky entrance to the Inlet that held Squid Hole.

I think it is called Squid Hole because with all he little islands and meanderings around it it looks like a squid. It seemed too narrow to get in, but we did and the anchor held firm. But there was virtually no cell service here. One bar came in and out, even when I lashed my iphone to the selfie stick and put it up in the air as high as we could. We really wanted access to weather and tide updates. We debated going into Port Aux Basques and tying to a dock, debated the weather for Thursday as being maybe a bit windy for a crossing, maybe we should wait a day??? But who knows what the weather would really do tomorrow, and who knew if it would change for the better or worse waiting a day?

We decided to have a crab dinner in our foggy anchorage instead. When in doubt, celebrate.
Dave took the dingy out to see if he could find cell service and I began food prep for the evening and the overnight. Hummus and Guacamole were made and stowed in containers, the chicken stew I had made and frozen in preparation was taken out to defrost and Potatoes a la Pete were prepared along with the crab for the BBQ upon Dave's return.

Potatoes a la Pete came from an adaption of how Dave's brother Pete does potatoes on the BBQ.
Tinfoil with olive oil, sliced onions, slices of potato, grated cheese, another layer of potato, grated cheese, potato and then onion and olive oil. Seal up the tin foin package and BBQ it for about 20 minutes or so, depending on the quantity and thickness of the potatoes. Steamed cauliflower and a salad using only our own greens which were finally growing in the few days of summer we had.

I wanted to check on Dave, out there in the choppy seas so I held up the iphone to get some service and texted him, only to notice his phone sitting there plugged in. He had his blackberry though so I called him on that and found out he was just coming back. The call quit three times.

Sure enough I heard the dingy and there he was. There was no cell service in the little town of Isl Aux Morts, but he found five bars in a cove right outside of Squid Hole and was able to update his weather and tide pages. I was imagining him sitting out there in the fog and swells with his laptop open in the cove. I wish I was there with a camera! LOL

We put on some music, made some tequila cocktails and feasted on the last of the gift crab from the fishermen of St. Brides. We finished off another perfect evening by me 'letting' Dave beat me badly in cribbage. Ya, I was way behind the skunk line.