A 10-knot westerly
carried us quickly back to Little Current’s town wharf
where we added our princess to the row of queens (below)
before rushing off to the nearest restaurant and Al’s
ever more urgent appointment with nature.
.....
.....
.....
We soon located the
Edgewater Restaurant right where the name suggests
that it should be, next to the dock.
.....
.....
By the time Uncle Al had
finished his toilette, Doug had increased our order from
coffee to a full-blown breakfast which we fully enjoyed
in a leisurely manner while keeping an eye on Whirlwind
which we could do right from our table (below).
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.....
It was a really nostalgic
moment, sitting there in a real old-time Canadian
restaurant - woodsy but with the obligatory arborite
table tops. Little Current turned out to be a far better
provisioning spot than Killarney and we soon had all the
postcards, juice boxes and cigarettes we were likely to
need for the rest of the week. One fly in the ointment
was that the ice store was not open this early (1100
hrs) and we crossed our fingers that the steak which had
left Huntsville on Tuesday morning, frozen, would still
be OK to eat for tonight’s anticipated last un-canned
supper.
Soon we were back on the
dock and with a last glance at our friend the swing
bridge (below), we set out to chase our group
which had left at least an hour and a half before from
Maltas.
.....
.....
Unfortunately, there was
little sign of either the four boats ahead of us, or the
forecast SW winds to 30 km/h. as we fought our way
upwind out of the channel against the not so "little"
current. In a leftover chop and the dying winds, we
tried for the funnel effect by going in between the
Minks and East Rous Island. Not only did we find some
breeze but in light of the previous day’s navigational
debacle, we were also delighted to confirm our position
with some fishermen among the islands.
As we passed West Rous
Island, the wind was down to about 3-5 knots, and we
got our first glimpse of three boats from our group
who looked becalmed way off shore and to windward.
This kind of sailing being Al’s forte, we were soon
close enough to discern some changes in the crewing
arrangements which had been made in light of the
expected SW blow. Glenn Foster had picked up David
Sleightholm while Tim France had traded crews with
Bill Burton. This left Dick Harrington (whom we had
yet to see) to single-hand Blue Mist.
Arrival on
Clapperton Island
Increased cloud activity
was a harbinger of good things to come, as a 10-15
knot breeze settled in from the WNW along with
clearing skies. Soon we were romping along into the
odd spray making wave and enjoying a little boat speed
test with Bill Burton and Alan Asselstine on the side.
As we passed Bear’s Back Island, we finally saw what
had to be Dick Harrington way off to the SW. As he
tacked to port to head for our Clapperton Island
rendez-vous, we got a closer look at Blue Mist
and a chance to admire a veteran single-hander at
work. Dick’s form was superb!
At 1500 hrs, having
sailed 20+ miles, we trailed Dick into Logan Bay which
would clearly be our last stop. He headed for a
derelict dock we had had our eye on, but went off in
search of better things near Logan Island while Doug
and I grabbed this choice spot.
.....
.....
Cleverly, I dropped our
anchor while we were still well off the dock and under
sail, while Dick (below) used the more
conventional muscle power approach.
.....
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Not only did this
well sheltered place have its own dock, but a dinner
table (below) as well!
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Not to be totally outdone
by David Sleightholm’s fine example of British
spiffiness (above), the rest of us also took
advantage of the shallow waters which were much warmer
than our first night’s cove’s had been. Tim (below)
perhaps carried things a bit too far, but we were
all refreshed after a challenging day at “sea”.
.....
.....
Doug’s swim provided an
unexpected bonus when he discovered that our anchor was
not where the rope led us to believe it was. In drifting
around after dropping the anchor, we had managed to lay
the anchor rope in a giant U which was only lightly held
in place by being wedged under some flat rocks on the
shallow bottom. This could have caused us some night
time trouble but Doug came to the rescue by swimming the
anchor out to a better location.
.....
.....
Judy Burton (above)
appeared to use her swim to inspect their outboard while
Doug (below left) picked up a useful alternative
to the clothesline from the Blue Mist crew (below
right). A relatively relaxed afternoon which Uncle
Al used to start on his mega-project: 30 postcards to
Wayfarers around the world who needed to be told that
Uncle Al was actually cruising! Even with preparations
such as pre-printed address labels the sticking stuff
took until supper time.
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