I am writing this on Saturday morning from Campbell River where we are leaving today in an hour. Today is calm and lovely but cold. The temperature is 45 at 7:30am, so we have the heater on. The heat is powered by diesel fuel and is very loud outside but very effective inside. The vents are near the floor so at night we put our shoes near them, so we will have nice warm and shoes the next morning.

Back to yesterday and the late Thurday night….. Before going to bed Thursday night the wind was coming up and was supposed to be 20 to 30 knots durning the night. We were tucked away in a nice little cove and all rafted together with two anchors out and two boats tied off with stern ties. At around 4:30am we heard some noise outside and some people were crossing over our boat. I did not think much about it except that the wind was really blowing, so I rolled over. By 5:00am I decided to get up and see what was going on. I went outside and most of the guys were up shouting in the wind so they could hear each other. The situation sounded a little tense but I was still sleepy so didn’t really get all of what was happening. It turns out the wind was stronger than we forecasted and both stern lines snapped free, and at least one anchor was drifting, so now the entire flotilla of six boats was moving! We were only 50 feet off shore to begin with. The consensus was that we needed to break each boat off the raft of boats, and then anchor one by one until 7:15am when we would depart for Campbell River. We couldn’t leave this early because it was pitch black and because the tide at Seymour Narrows was going to be too strong if we departed early. We put on our life jackets, found my headlight, turned on the engines, turned on the chartplotter, and tried to be calm; all this when the wind is blowing 25 knots, with light rain, in complete darkness. The group wanted the catamaran off first (us), so we released the lines from both sides with the help of others, and we were now on our own to anchor in the dark in deep enough water to clear other boats and the shore line, and a rock that was 100 yards out off our starboard side. I had been using the chartplotter to navigate our course for two weeks now, so I was completely comfortable with knowing where we are in relation to the shore and the rock, but was having trouble seeing the other boats because of the darkness. The wind and currents made it a bit tricky because the boat kept swinging around to differnt headings, so I was having to power left, then right, then forward to keep us steady. We went our farther than I originally planned to set the anchor, but it felt safer that way. Dianna was forward getting the anchor ready, and we had done this before, so I felt comfortable. I gave the signal and she let it go out where we were in 28 feet of water, so we decided on a scope of five to one. As it hit the bottom, I put us in reverse idle, but going straight back was a challenge in the wind. After 150 feet of chain was payed out, we hit reverse to 1000 RPMs to make sure it was set. I did not turn off the engines until we were sure all was okay. For 10 minutes we watched the chartplotter and coordinates to make sure we were on the bottom without dragging. When we were satisfied, we turned off the engines and put on the kettle for coffee. Whew. All was good, we were on the bottom with one hour to first light.

We planned to leave at 7:20am, so at 7:10am we started the engines and raised the anchor. Dianna had the anchor two thirds of the way up when the windlass (motor that pulls the anchor up) stopped. She looked a little startled because there is no way to raise the anchor by hand. I reminded her that we might have tripped the circuit breaker, so she went below and, sure enough, that was the problem. She finished raising it exactly at 7:20am, and we were now ready to go. By this time the winds had calmed down and the waves lessened to almost nothing. We got underway with everything in place. The journey to Campbell River was an easy 3 1/2 hour journey through the rapids of Seymour Narrows. The only issue was the amount of logs floating in the water to avoid during the trip. The storm had probably released them from their temporary home on the shorelines, as the winds and waves did their work.

Great day in Campbell River! More about that later. We are leaving soon……