August 11th
60 degrees and cloudy
We cruised down Chatham Channel at low tide with depths dropping as low as 19 feet. Lots of whirlpools pushed us off course and plenty of rocks demanded our attention. The engine was running at 1200 rpms, but we were still cruising at only 3.9 knots. David had used the Furuno radar to determine the tides and this was not what he expected. According to David, we should have entered the channel at slack tide. It wasn't slacking in anyway.
Once we entered Havannah Channel, things smoothed out for us. We spotted several active logging sites along the way.
We planned to pull into Port Harvey for the night hoping to get a spot on the dock. We visited the Red Shoe Pub for some cinnamon rolls during our last visit in this area. In 2015 the barge holding the store and pub sunk. It was rebuilt in 2016, and we were looking forward to checking out the new facilities.
David rechecked the weather report for Johnstone Strait which we planned to traverse tomorrow using Port Harvey as our jumping off place. The conditions tomorrow were not going to be great and the strait can get mighty nasty. At that moment, the winds were light and as disappointed as we were not to stop in Port Harvey, we thought it best to "get while the gettin was good".
Five and a half hours later we anchored in the popular Douglas Bay in Forward Harbour on the cusp of Desolation Sound. We are treating ourselves to a two night stay. We have the time and need the rest.
We got a call from Ron about noon checking up on us the next day. He thought we were cruising Johnstone Strait today and was going to chastised us for taking such a risk (he is always checking the weather). I am sure Ron was relieved when David explained that we were anchored in Douglas Bay for a second night and would not be traveling on the strait again this trip. We did good.
12 boats joined us in the bay last night.
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