Plan to make a plan

This was our fourth day, third full day, in the anchorage at Shawanaga Island. Though relatively quiet here for most of the day, there were some thick clouds and heavy rain out over the inlet earlier. The waterspout warning is still in effect and the heavy cloud out past the inlet had some ominous looking trail clouds hanging out. The radar suggested that we would be getting some pretty heavy rain falling on us before the day was out. It never really showed. First Light is still swinging back and forth like a giant wind vane on a stormy day. Come to think of it that is exactly what she is and, if I am honest, the motion is getting a bit tiresome. Still, it was a good day to be riding to a well-set anchor in a protected inlet.

Tomorrow was looking like the day to be on the move again. But the latest weather reports are looking less promising with the winds not fading as much as first thought. Right now, as the sun is setting, the wind is still blowing and cold enough to make it feel much closer to winter than it actually is. So at the moment our plan to deviate from is to not have a plan. We will see what we see in the morning.

Go or not go, this has been a good, if forced, stop. When living as close to the weather as all full-time boaters do, the weather makes the plans.

Two Cup Day

Mmm...not sure what to say about today. It rained last night. This morning we got a sprinkle and a few more are inbound. First Light is swinging port and starboard in the shifting winds tumbling over the island and into the anchorage with occasional gusts to near 20 knots. There is little fetch so the ride is easy. Just try to ignore the scenery sliding relentlessly past the windows, though, forward...aft...starboard...port. It will mess with your head and have you wondering which way is which. But it is calm enough to have one thinking that we should be on the move.

The Windy app shows a solid twenty knots blowing outside of our cove here. After making the turn out of the Shawanaga inlet into Georgian Bay it would be right on the beam. And with a fetch of more than 50 miles? There is an old pilot's saying, “It is better to be on the ground wishing you were in the air than in the air wishing you were on the ground”. Same idea for boats.

Tomorrow the Windy app shows the wind laying down a little, blowing right at the edge of what we normally find comfortable. But it will still be almost directly on our beam if we head out and with that same 50 mile fetch. Perfect day for a sailboat. Not so perfect for a trawler with a roundish bottom, small keel, and no stabilizers. Sticking to our original plan of waiting until Monday to move still looks like the best choice. That has just been reinforced by a waterspout warning being issued for today and tomorrow in the Georgian Bay. 

Deb did the engine room checks yesterday. (I know, I'm a putz.) There was a minor glitch with the generator that took all of two minutes to find and fix. I was going to wash spider poop from the boat but with the rain forecast I let it go. With no one else in the anchorage I took to pounding on the djembe for a while. I've been told that its sound carries a long way over the water, so I don't usually get it out if there are any other people in sight. In the last little town we explored, we ran across xylophones permanently mounted near a walking path. I tried them all and they sounded pretty cool. Mmm...I may have to look into getting one of those when we get back to land. I know, I already have 10 ukuleles. But I only have three kinds of percussion instruments.  Four is a nice, round number. 

The hours float by filled with music practice, iPad games, reading, and writing. We are right on the edge of having internet access so most evenings we pull out the old DVD player, shuffle through our collection of discs, and watch a movie over dinner. And, since it is a bit chilly in these parts along with it being wet and windy, coffee hits the spot. So today has been a two cup day. However, whoever, or whatever you think about how the universe works, it is sometimes hard to understand why we have the chance to live this way. However, whoever, whatever...thank you.

What a great way to start the morning...

And what a great way to end the day.

Choices

There were four other boats in the anchorage with First Light last night. All of them sailboats. The wind has arrived and is blowing a pretty steady ten knots or so and we are seeing gusts to 15. All the sailboats are gone. When I look around all 360 degrees there is only one other hint of human kind besides our boat. It is a small cottage tucked into the trees along the edge of the inlet. At the moment I don't think anyone is in it.

Daughter middle called a little while ago. She got a call from a Canadian number and no one answered when she picked it up. Spam of course. But with us pretty far out of touch she called just to make sure all was well. Surely it has been years, since the last time we were in the Bahama Islands, that there has been this much room between us and the rest of the human family. I have to admit that I am enjoying the solitude. Sometimes I think the entire human family could use a break from itself. Everyone needs a chance to remember that we are all self aware, conscious beings. At least to some degree we are all responsible for the choices that we make, and have no responsibility for the choices others make. A choice we might make may not be the same someone else would make. As long as no one is injured, no one is oppressed or taken advantage of, and no one is coerced solely for the benefit of another, different choices are just that, different choices. It would be pretty boring if we all made the same choices about everything. It would be pretty depressing if we weren't allowed to make choices, being forced to live at the dictates of others. Others who, let's be honest, may not have our best interests in heart.

It may well be that we will not be the only one in the anchorage tonight. The forecast is back to twenty knots of wind for tomorrow with an 80% chance of rain. There are piles of billowing clouds filling the sky to the East. Those are associated with the low that was once a hurricane and is weather moving away from us. The low to our NW is dragging a cold front over us this afternoon. That low will bring the rain forecast for tomorrow. As a place to bail out for someone who is finding the ride less than comfortable out on bigger water or who is trying to get some miles in before the worst of the weather arrives? This would be a good choice.

Deb's Take:

This morning dawned clear and calm, the proverbial calm before the storm. Given that my knee has been acting up and hiking isn't all that pleasant, I decided to launch the dink and go for a row for some exercise. The bay that we are in has a bunch of really neat coves tucked all around its sides that beckon.

An hour and a half passed without my even noticing as I rowed into all the little coves and just sat there in the quiet. It's true—we all need a break from the human family once in awhile, a chance to float along in solitude in the quiet and smell the fresh pine and listen to the mating calls of the herons and to watch the antics of the river otter on the rocks. I am incredibly blessed to be here and to be able to experience this and I just needed a reminder this morning that in the large scope of things I'm really only a very very small part. It's a good thing to be reminded of once in a while.

OK so look at the rock in the picture...and turn you head sideways...and tell me you don't see...

A Pug face!

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions...

We bought a second night on the dock so we could gather up all the stores we needed, including ice cream and rum. We got some veggies, fruit, and other healthy stuff as well. The decision was when to leave given the questionable weather forecasts we had been watching since tying off. Rain was mentioned as (for the second time on this trip) the remnants of a Florida hurricane looks to be doing some far inland traveling. But the real question was the possibility of 25 knot winds. There are big open spaces of water on the Georgian Bay. That much wind could make for some very uncomfortable trawler travel. The forecast has the rain starting this afternoon, with the winds hanging around until Monday. So we needed to be in a pretty well protected anchorage before this afternoon or commit to another four nights on the dock. It is a pretty nice marina (though the showers could use a little attention). There are Looper boats all around, several of which we have crossed wakes with before. One tied to literally two feet off First Light's starboard side when they pulled in. (The finger docks in this marina are as skinny as I have ever seen.) They let us know that they were planning on staying put for the weekend's wind.

The tentative decision was to head out this morning and give the wallet a break. But the final decision wouldn't happen until a last morning weather check. Even this far inland and playing with just the carcass of a hurricane, being as well informed as possible is the only smart way to go.

We woke up early. If anything, the weather forecasts were a bit more pessimistic. No one else was up and prepping to move. We talked about it a bit more, each aware that either one of us could pull the plug on leaving with no argument from the other.

At 0700 Deb pulled in the bow lines. I let the wind drift us back out of the slip, bumped the trannies, tweaked a little rpm here and there, and crept out into Perry Sound. An hour or so later we were in the open waters of Georgian Bay. So open are the waters that we passed a full sized cruise ship going the other way. The wind picked up enough off the starboard stern quarter as to make for a little roll. It was't a bad ride but it was just enough to keep the autopilot working harder than I like, so I relieved it of it helming duties. A while later, I turned turned the bow into the Shawanaga Inlet. And no, I have not the slightest clue how pronounce that name.

Three hours and forty five minutes after dropping the dock lines, we coasted as deep as we could into the NW corner of Hopewell Bay, a bay on the east side of Shawanaga Island. We stopped with fifteen feet of water under the keel and the shallows about 300 feet away. There we splashed the hook, dug it in as hard as we could, put a bit more than 100' feet of chain into the water, and added the snubber. The plan is to be well protected from the W and WNW winds as possible. There is virtually zero fetch in the direction of the forecast winds. It is a pretty place, just like the rest of Georgian Bay that we have seen. It is really quiet and, the guess is, come night fall it will be really, really, dark. 

At the moment, there are only three other boats in the anchorage with us. All sailboats. Though this is one of those “popular weekender” hangouts, my guess is the winds will keep most of the Georgian Bay natives at their home docks this weekend.

While we were on the dock, we watched a float plane giving rides take off over the boat several times. I remember wondering how long was the flight. We are 20NM as the float plane flies from the dock we were on. The plane keeps flying past us, still out over the Georgian Bay heading more or less NW, then flying past us heading back to base. Occasionally he goes by pretty low. We hear it more than see it so some pretty low sight seeing must come with the ticket. It feels a bit odd knowing I used do things like that. It seems a long time ago now.

So the next few days will be dedicated to doing...whatever we feel like doing at the moment depending on how hard the wind is blowing. As to when and where we will be heading next? Decisions, decisions, decisions.