Back to Barkley Sound

 Here we are again ... totally isolated in the little 'thumb' of Effingham Bay where we dove last February. We left Victoria's Inner Harbour with an afternoon tide and motored to Becher Bay ... next day we awoke to challenging weather. The wind was good for sailing, but we encountered a lot of  detritus in the water and we kept a constant watch. In the two days of sailing, we had to evade a complete tree and two huge deadheads which disconcertingly vanished beneath the surface and then would bob up in their own eccentric rhythm. The wave heights were at 2-3 meters. Luckily, we still retained our 'sea legs' and didn't get sick. The rolling never stopped. Our night in Port Renfrew (which faces South ... just the direction the waves rolled in from) was quite miserable. We arose ... somewhat fretful  ...   but the beautiful sunrise erased our prior surliness.

The weather was forecast to be horrible, so once we got here we decided to tie to trees. We have one bow tie to the North and two stern ties to the South. We always spend an hour driving around in the dinghy to find suitable trees to tie to after anchoring in the middle of the little thumb and launching the dinghy. Then, Larry runs out the portside line to the shore while I monitor the line run smoothly. Larry ties it over the water with enough clearance to undo the knot at any state of tide when we want to leave. We usually seem to use nearly all of the available rope, and I drag back enough line to secure it (with 3 turns) to the portside winch. Larry then winches us in. This way we'd probably already feel safe with forecast winds coming in at 55 knots.

We then follow up with the same system for our other rolled sternline and Larry we connect the 'flaked' line from the forward hatch to the bow and yet another tree. We now feel perfectly secure here. Not only that, but we've been able to dive and take some beautiful photos. I/m grateful to the folks who fixed my knee to enable scuba diving once again: Dr Galas, Dr Torstensen, Dale Rainsford (physiotherapist).

... the above written on Sunday January 8th ...