This morning, after working for a few hours, Michelle and I pulled anchor and headed for the West End, on our way to Little Harbor. Skies were overcast and the wind was so still the ocean was like a mirror. Past dolphins and sea lions, we rounded Arrow Point and saw the West End in front of us. Following the coast as the 1300' peaks tumble away to this tiny point that fades into the ocean is humbling. To round the point and see the wild dramatic south side of the island and realize that if we turned right, we wouldn't see land until we hit Hawaii some 2.5 weeks later, was awe-inspiring. Wow.

Given that Cherry Cove was empty last night and it is one of the more accessible coves, we thought there was a chance the quite remote Little Harbor would be just ours. On approach we saw another sailboat in the little harbor behind the natural jetty. When we circled around to see where we could anchor in the same little space, the other boat captain (officially, and forever known as Captain Ass Hat) tells me he has 80' of chain down in 20' of water and no second anchor set. Basically, We need to give him wide-enough leeway to allow for a 360 degree turn on an 80' radius, which means he's basically taken all of the sheltered side of the little harbor for himself. We make an anchor closer to the shoal than I'd normally like, but the winds and swells are pushing us away from them. We made sure the anchor was set, then Michelle and I headed for the shore.

When we returned we found that both boats had turned around due to a very strong low tide. Windrunner was uncomfortably close to the jetty, so we pulled up anchor, swung around to another less protected area and dropped anchor again. But this didn't feel any better, so we pulled up anchor again and headed to Cat Harbor where we are now. It was pretty high tension experience. Michelle was really great though she'd never been through anything like that before, even handling the helm as we were fairly close to the rocks at one point.

It was a terrible anchoring in Little Harbor - difficult, lots of stress, etc., and all because of Captain Ass Hat. But, it was the best terrible anchorage ever; such an awesome time with Michelle in an unbelievable setting. A really special day.