This morning, we woke to lots of fog--all around us--and wind, though only about half of what it was last night. The anchor held like a champ! We woke up in the same place that we went to sleep. That's good...now we know that we can trust our anchor.
We took our time this morning, as we waited for the fog to dissipate. While we waited, we re-evaluated our plans for this trip: we'd been planning to transit the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and head out into the Pacific for a couple of days, to see what it would be like to sail at night and keep watches. But with our sailing time severely limited by the fog (neither of us wants to spend our time sailing in fog, dodging boats and ships that we never see), we realized that it would take us a really long time to reach the ocean, time that we thought might be more enjoyably spent, than slogging westward, upwind, in the fog.
Since we were still pretty far east, we decided to change our plans and head across the Strait toward the San Juan Islands. We found a suitable anchorage, and when the fog lifted--at around noon--we put up Scoots' sails and headed out.
What a difference a day makes! Yesterday, the Strait was lumpy and windy and very foggy; today, it was flat, with light winds, and good visibility from shore to shore. We sailed for 5 hours across the Strait, a very mellow sail, taking our time, happy to be able to see where we were going, and happy not to have to be anywhere at a given time.
We dropped Scoots' anchor in 32 feet of water, near the back of Aleck Bay, on Lopez Island, at about 5:30 pm. One sailboat preceded us; two others have arrived since. Aleck Bay is a quiet, peaceful cove, enclosed by high rock cliffs on the north side that slope gently down to lower hills on the south side. Cottages hug the shoreline, and larger homes perch on the cliffs. One of the houses has a group of about a half dozen college-aged men in it, who spent some time up on the roof, sitting on the chimney, having an uproariously good time.
Now, Eric and I are sitting in Scoots' cockpit, after dinner. The sky is a brilliant burnished violet, and the wind and water are calm. Everything is peaceful and quiet. I'm struck by the fact that we can drop Scoots' anchor in beautiful places such as these, and stay for FREE! It's amazing...and wonderful.