Saturday, 16 August 2014

Our business having been taken care of, we depart Port McNeill and head back to the west end of the Broughtons to continue our cruise. We will work our way from west to east and then head down the coast towards home.

Our trip across the strait is again in dense fog starting about six miles north of Pultney Point. There is some traffic coming out of Wells Passage towards us on the opposite course. We track these recreational vessels and avoid them by altering course a bit to the east. After two hours we arrive at our waypoint off Boyles Point, at the entrance to Wells Passage. There is another vessel exiting the passage and we communicate with them, agreeing to a port-to-port passage. The fog persists until we reach the entrance to Drury Inlet. We are in time to catch the slack tide in Stuart Narrows and pass through into Drury.

Monday, 18 August 2014

We spent a couple of days at Jennis Bay visiting Kim and Kent, the proprietors. They have two wonderful dogs, Bravo and Koal, who enthusiastically greet every boat that arrives. They are well trained and behave like gentlemen around visiting dogs. Bravo is a 13+ year-old yellow Lab and gets gets around pretty good, despite his age. He has lived at Jennis Bay all his life and at one point survived being attacked by a wolf. Bravo lost an eye in the encounter, but gets on just fine. He is the alpha dog at Jennis Bay and has trained his understudy well. Koal is a 2 year-old black lab-mix with piercing blue eyes, must be part Eskimo. Kim rescued him from the reservation when he was a pup. He is full of youthful energy and loves treats from boaters. We always have a bag of dog treats on board and love making new dog-friends.

Jennis Bay Marina has great happy hour events. There is a small crowd tonight, only four boats tied up, but we have plenty to go around. These events are found nightly throughout the Broughtons in the summer and everyone looks forward to them. Kim usually whips up some fabulous appetizer dishes to go along with what the boaters bring. Kim always invites the women to join her in the cook-house when she is working in there, she refers to the galley as her "woman cave". No men allowed.

Today we wait until afternoon to ride the outgoing tide down Drury Inlet, through Stuart Narrows at slack and then catch the flood going up Grappler Sound. We anchor for the night in Turnbull Cove.

Tuesday, 19 August 2014

We head over to Sullivan Bay to pick up some groceries and decide to stay overnight. They, like all the marinas in the Broughtons, have a happy hour at 5. We attend with our appetizer contribution and chat with the other boater. It is a good way to connect and gather information about places and events.