summer: Conover cove
Date: July 8, 2017
Time Start: 10 a.m.
Time Finish: 4 p.m.
Cruise From: Port Browning
Cruise To: Conover Cove, Wallace Island
Engine Hours Start: 641
Engine Hours Finish: 643
Weather/sea conditions: Sunny, clear day again! Hazy p.m., low 70's, cloudy evening
In spite of a dock full of boats (Commanders!), it is a quiet morning. Many are headed to the local Saturday market. Dan is wearing his pirate t-shirt. Are we headed to Pirate's Cove today? No, the captain wants to check out Selby Cove on Prevost Island.
Time Start: 10 a.m.
Time Finish: 4 p.m.
Cruise From: Port Browning
Cruise To: Conover Cove, Wallace Island
Engine Hours Start: 641
Engine Hours Finish: 643
Weather/sea conditions: Sunny, clear day again! Hazy p.m., low 70's, cloudy evening
In spite of a dock full of boats (Commanders!), it is a quiet morning. Many are headed to the local Saturday market. Dan is wearing his pirate t-shirt. Are we headed to Pirate's Cove today? No, the captain wants to check out Selby Cove on Prevost Island.
Well, we check out Selby Cove, and although it is a nice anchorage, the shorelines are all private with no access for shore walks. Our stay is a brief one. Just a couple of other boats are at anchor, and ferries pass by the entrance to the cove.
New destination - Conover Cove on Wallace Island, a favorite of ours! (See Ten Weeks: Poets Cove, and Ten Weeks: Vancouver Island, 2016.) At Victoria Shoals off of Salt Spring Island we find ourselves in the midst of a sailboat race.
I have the helm as we make our way in the Trincomali Channel. The captain is busy with his charts.
We find a perfect stern tie in Conover Cove. A sailboat, "Phoenix" from Mill Bay, comes in next to us, a beautiful boat with an energetic family, the parents and three teens. They have a really difficult time setting their anchor, it just doesn't want to hold. The mom is the unlucky one who gets to pull it in by hand and drop it again and again, several times over. We admire her strength! Ashore, a large family group is in the camping area, along with a group of women on a kayaking expedition. They are all from Calgary, are neighbors at home, and several have never been on the water. They are having a magnificent time, enthralled with the Gulf Islands.
I head out with the dinghy to enjoy the cove and then venture to the outside of Wallace Island, just in time for a rare experience. A seagull that has been foraging along the shoreline gets harassed and chased by two eagles! The sounds and sights of this event are unforgettable. The seagull is finally brought down in the water, and at that point, the eagles leave it alone. Was this just practice? Or a game for them? The eagles return to perch in the trees above the cove. One is larger than the other. Is it training the smaller one (the smaller one is the final one to harass the seagull and return to the trees). Wow!
The water is on the chilly side, but we adapt and stay in long enough for some good swims. Chicken grilled in the cockpit tonight as singing from Phoenix next to us drifts our way. The teen daughter has a beautiful soprano voice and is doing renditions of IZ's Hawaiian music! Family members harmonize with her. "Somewhere, over the rainbow . . ." We enjoy the evening, both ashore and on the water. A full moon peeks through clouds.
Date: July 9, 2017
Conover Cove layover day
Weather: Sunny! Upper 70's.
We get our shore walks today. First stop is the shed where boaters leave their wonderful signs, such a fun place to browse. Boaters are so creative! We find the pair of oyster shells that we have left in the past, the words on them have faded away. This time we have a sharpie marker with us to freshen them up.
Morning on the water, our neighbors on Phoenix leave:
Conover Cove layover day
Weather: Sunny! Upper 70's.
We get our shore walks today. First stop is the shed where boaters leave their wonderful signs, such a fun place to browse. Boaters are so creative! We find the pair of oyster shells that we have left in the past, the words on them have faded away. This time we have a sharpie marker with us to freshen them up.
Morning on the water, our neighbors on Phoenix leave:
The shed with the collection of signs from boaters:
Around Conover Cove:
The walk to Princess Cove:
Relaxing on NORTH STAR on this Sunday afternoon, we get new neighbors. Puffin, a Camano Troll, from Beaux Arts in Bellevue, stern ties beside us, and Alle Mare, a Ranger Tug, from Mayne Island completes our row of boats. We all socialize, go for swims, and enjoy this lovely cove.
A Boston Whaler arrives with an adventurous young couple. They have circumnavigated Vancouver Island with their small boat more than once. They, too, swim, and then we are totally surprised when they go to shore with a cat on a leash. How do they pack all of their necessities into such a small space?? And yet another boat arrives, a Flexible Flyer. It turns out this is the same boat that we shared anchorage with at Roscoe Bay in Desolation Sound last summer!
Evenings, such a lovely time on the water, and this one is no exception. We do a small chore, moving our flag from the stern where it always seems to get in our way to the top of the cabin of NORTH STAR. And then, we just sit back and enjoy the last hours of this wonderful day.