Gore Bay July 15, 2016

The best laid plans of mice and men, and Captain Don . . .

I was up early to check the wind and sea forecast, and they were a go. There was no wind and a nice quietness outside. I waited until 8:00 then walked over to the marina office to get 2 bags of ice. I saw the little girl who starred in the show last night. She was servicing a power boat. It had started to rain by this point and her face was mostly hidden by her foul weather gear. But the biggest smile came out when I recognized and complimented her on her excellent performance. She has never had acting lessons, but has studied under her director for 8 years.

Then I bought my ice, which actually is from the charter company and not the marina. I told the manager about the charter boat that sped through the marina last night. He said he would not lie, and that he was probably on that boat! Then I recognized him as being on the fly bridge. He must have recognized me as the person shouting at him at the same time. We were both so surprised that neither of us said anything else. He gave me the ice and I thanked him and left. I wished afterwards that I had explained the effect the wake had on our boat, although I am sure he knew.

I made tea for Kerry when I returned and said we would leave after the farmer's market. Shortly afterwards Peter's flag started standing straight out. It really got cold, windy and rainy. Lots of boats were coming in and having a hard time getting safely to a dock. One sailboat left and the pitching motion was dramatic after he passed the break wall. So a decision was needed. Wait to leave until later today when the forecast was to be calm, or not travel today. Sunday is forecast to be 15-25 knot winds, so not a good travel day. This meant that we travel 25 miles today, and 45 on Saturday, or we travel 70 tomorrow. Marianna saw our wavering and promised to take Kerry for pizza if we stayed, applying lots of pressure on the captain. Later we decided to stay today and leave early tomorrow. The forecast is for sun and 5-10 knot west winds tomorrow. It finally did calm down about 3:30, but we are glad we stayed. I hope the forecast is right. Our new next destination is Harbor Island.

Don checking Annie's lines.

It was a lazy afternoon. Kerry and Marianna spent most of it shopping, successfully it appears.

Kerry and Marianna have signed up to coordinate the VYC Fish Fry in September for Stuart who cannot be there. He wanted a picture to use for the invitation, so we caught a passing fish off the stern of Annie and snapped this picture.

Kerry did get her pizza tonight. Hard to believe after this morning, but we sat outside at Buoy's restaurant. The evening was just beautiful. Peter and I walked out on the new break wall while we waited for dinner.

Check out the tree line across from the break wall in this picture. It looks like someone manicured the lower branches on the trees to a consistent level. It is really the deer that do it. They eat off all the lower branches, as high as they can reach. From a distance it looks like a straight line.

When we returned to our boats, we met Rufus, a dwarf poodle. He was so cute that we gave him a dog treat. For some reason he does this great dance around the bone. He only ate it when mommy broke it up for him. We love dogs, and have met some great ones on this voyage.

We had our last pleasant nightcap on Brillig. Peter and I smoked cigars, we all sipped on a liquor, and we talked about all the fun we have had together on this trip. And who knows, there could be more joint trips in our future.  We plan on leaving early tomorrow for our long voyage. The winds are forecast to be light. Marianna says she will be up to cast us off.