Monday September 4, 2017

There were 7 boats on the dock at Port Harvey this morning, and we were all up pretty early to start heading south. Heading down Johnstone Straight is one of the big crossings that you need to plan. We all had a lot of discussion on the what's and where's of how to do this, and of course there were more opinions than people. Also, the calculated time of slack at Race and Current Passage (from the software) was 1 hour different than the time given by the Canadian Hydrographic Society (CHS). The former gave around 10:00am and the latter around 11:00am. We tend to follow what the CHS says, but it's hard to argue with software (!) and of course the truth is probably somewhere in between.

It was quite foggy in the morning but George said it was clear at Chatham Point already. (How did he know?) and that they had no fog at Dent (he looked at their webcam!). Sirena left first, then Beau-Dinky, Tahsis said they were going to follow us to Blind Channel, Emerald Star came slightly later, and CanTu went to Shoal Harbour but left at the same time as us. Once out in the Straight we could see more boats coming down from Port McNeill area, and a couple more coming down Chatham Channel. Busy day.

The water was flat flat flat, which was nice, and the 3 of us made a nice radar target so we were fine. Byron ended up fielding a bunch of radio calls as the leader of our pack (!) and we got several reports from CanTu on the way down.



Eventually the skies opened up and the sun beat down and the water stayed glassy. Probably our best trip down Johnstone ever. I took the opportunity to do some boat cleaning and had a shower.

We arrived into Blind Channel Resort just after 1:00pm. We had to wait a few minutes outside as they tied up another boat and then EG in front of us 1 by 1. Of course the current was running one way outside the resort, and the opposite way inside. Fortunately, there are always lots of hands on the dock. When EG arrived, the dock "young lady" said she was so exciting to finally have boats here again, she had been so bored! It was 1:10 when we finished tying up and the lunch patio was open until 1:30 so we headed up for their famous fish tacos. Unfortunately, they don't have fish taco's anymore But we had a lovely lunch in the sun anyway.



Did a bit of shopping in the store and picked up some essentials to get us a couple days before we go to Campbell River. Then back down to the boat for a bit of relaxing and sunshine. First, time to do some email though. Their WiFi is not the greatest but EG was able to pull a Telus signal in with their booster. I put on shorts and a T-shirt and sat on the flybridge again to do my sun worshipping and some knitting. Greg and Byron went for a walk up to the "Big Cedar" tree.

Soon, it was time for dinner. The restaurant did it usual good job, and was still slightly too expensive Rob and Sharon from Sirena joined us for dinner so we had some different company for a change. Our waitress Stacey was the only one in the place for most of the evening, but she managed to do just fine. Greg and I had a pasta dish with prawns, Sue had the halibut, and Byron had Goulash. It was dark by the time we headed back to the boats, somehow I'm still surprised that it's getting dark earlier and earlier.