the summer cruise: Gorge harbor
Date: July 6, 2015
Time Start: 6:25 a.m.
Time Finish: 2:45 p.m.
Cruise From: Egmont
Cruise to: Gorge Harbor, Cortes Island
Weather/Sea Conditions: Smokey skies, calm, 80 degrees
With water, fuel, groceries all refreshed and clean laundry, we pull out of smokey Egmont with very poor visibility. Skookumchuck Narrows is fogged in with smoke. We are heading north towards Desolation Sound, hooray! We'll round the north side of Nelson Island to Malaspina Strait and then follow the mainland coast of B.C.
With radar on once again, we pick up a B.C. ferry ahead. We hear it toot and we toot back, and then, like a ghost, we see it through the haze of smoke. We have ghost islands, too.
Time Start: 6:25 a.m.
Time Finish: 2:45 p.m.
Cruise From: Egmont
Cruise to: Gorge Harbor, Cortes Island
Weather/Sea Conditions: Smokey skies, calm, 80 degrees
With water, fuel, groceries all refreshed and clean laundry, we pull out of smokey Egmont with very poor visibility. Skookumchuck Narrows is fogged in with smoke. We are heading north towards Desolation Sound, hooray! We'll round the north side of Nelson Island to Malaspina Strait and then follow the mainland coast of B.C.
With radar on once again, we pick up a B.C. ferry ahead. We hear it toot and we toot back, and then, like a ghost, we see it through the haze of smoke. We have ghost islands, too.
It is a calm and uneventful cruise as there are just no boaters out in this smoke. Off Lund we are still in the smoke. Will we escape it today? We are beginning to wonder just how far north it goes. The smoke is still with us when we reach Cortes Island, but visibility is improving and we are actually seeing some shadows created by the sun! Good news! We pick up the weather forecast and learn that the smoke will probably be blown away tomorrow.
We follow a couple of small kayaks through the scenic entrance to Gorge Harbour on Cortes Island. We find a good spot to anchor at the west end of the harbor amid a group of mooring buoys. We use sponges and water to give NORTH STAR a wipe down, removing as much ash as we can without a hose. The canopy is going to need a good washing when we get back home.
The afternoon is smokey and sultry. We have cruised more than 90 miles on NORTH STAR in these two days since leaving Princess Louisa. We started with heavy smoke, ash, and soot, and we are still in the smoke from the forest fires. It is all so sobering and sad. We worry that there is still so much warm summer weather to come and the forests are tinder dry.
We follow a couple of small kayaks through the scenic entrance to Gorge Harbour on Cortes Island. We find a good spot to anchor at the west end of the harbor amid a group of mooring buoys. We use sponges and water to give NORTH STAR a wipe down, removing as much ash as we can without a hose. The canopy is going to need a good washing when we get back home.
The afternoon is smokey and sultry. We have cruised more than 90 miles on NORTH STAR in these two days since leaving Princess Louisa. We started with heavy smoke, ash, and soot, and we are still in the smoke from the forest fires. It is all so sobering and sad. We worry that there is still so much warm summer weather to come and the forests are tinder dry.
Dan pays a visit to the oyster farms located in the harbor, then stops at the resort to make a dinner reservation. We have been to Gorge Harbour Resort twice before, both times with large groups of Ranger Tugs on the Desolation Sound cruise. This time, we are just the two of us. Instead of a big BBQ with fellow Tugnuts, we enjoy a dinner on the deck of the restaurant overlooking the marina. Live music on the shoreside deck drifts up to us as we dine. (Dinner is delicious, by the way, and topped off by fresh raspberry pie ala mode.)
An R21 is on the marina dock. Its owners are from B.C. and on a vacation. They were in the red and blue kayaks that we followed into Gorge Harbour this afternoon! Our friends on Carlyn who we met in Princess Louisa are also here. A "pinkie schooner" sits out in our end of the harbor, a beautiful boat with wood tiller.
We are having a beautiful end to our day. Where will we go tomorrow? Weather and smoke forecasts in the morning will help us decide.
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