July 26, 2013 ~ Waddington Bay

Early this morning the wind finally stopped blowing and we were in mirror smooth water here in the bay.  It was also pretty cold, and Erin got to hear our new furnace operate for the first time.  It was nice and quiet and took the morning chill off in short order.  The respite from the wind didn’t last very long, though, as it started in again while we were having a breakfast of blueberry muffins, sausage and scrambled eggs. 

As we were cruising through Retreat Passage yesterday, just before getting here, the wind managed to loosen the line to our Alaska flag on the mast.  It was still hanging on by one string, with the other flapping in the wind.  Erin unzipped the window above our windshield and managed to reach out and snare the wayward string and secure it.  I was going to fix it yesterday when the wind died down, but it never did.  I thought I’d better get up on the salon roof this morning and re-tie it before it really started blowing again.

We lazed away the rest of the morning reading, and then decided to take a dinghy ride around the bay.  The wind was blowing somewhat moderately by then, but the gusts were only up to 15 mph.  I started the generator – we figured we might as well take advantage of our absence to load some extra amps into the house batteries without listening to it.

Waddington Bay has lots of little islets and rocks around the entrance, and after circling through the main bay we headed out that way looking for interesting things to see.  Out just beyond the entrance channel we could see a flock of hundreds of birds swarming.  They had been there yesterday too when we passed by.  They were feeding on herring or some sort of small fish.  We decided to head out there for a closer look.  When we got close I shut off the engine and let the breeze blow us slowly towards them.  There were a couple varieties of seagulls – one type with black tips or stripes on the wings, and also the common gull we all recognize.  Many were gray, that they were young – seagulls don’t get to that familiar white until they’re two or three years old.  The other contingent we’re pretty sure was a variety of auklet.  They had stout bodies that ride low in the water, a couple of white stripes on their wings, and a white mark on their beaks.  The seagulls would hover over the water in the wind, then dive down to snare a fish.  When that happened they would all squawk and converge on the hapless gull that just got the fish.  The auklets didn’t compete with the seagulls – instead they just swam underwater and popped up with their catch.  And, they kept quiet about it too.  We had only brought our little pocket camera, but wished we the video with us.  We planned on returning for some video later in the day, but the wind changed our minds.

Most of the boats in our anchorage left, either in the morning, or while we were out in the dinghy.  Many of them were sailboats, and this is definitely a sailing type of day.  The harbor wasn’t empty for very long, though, as some others came in.  One of them, a large cruiser, anchored in front of us.  When we got back to the boat we saw that it was the Tuzi, the 65’ Ocean Alexander that was rafted to us at Lagoon Cove.  They’re the ones who plan on cruising home to Australia next year.

As the afternoon wore on the winds increased up to a steady 20 mph here in our anchorage with gusts to over 27 mph.  At one point I saw the Tuzi powered up fairly close to us and it appeared that he was leaving.  But, I think he had dragged his anchor, as he went forward further ahead of us into the back bay and reset it.  We’re holding steady but I did go out on deck and run out another 50 feet of chain.  A little later we noticed a sailboat that had been at anchor also repositioning, but I think he was tucking in behind the small islet in here to get out of some of the wind.  Although our once smooth mirror-like water is now sporting some whitecaps, we are riding smoothly and having a quiet evening.  It was a good day to not go anywhere.

repairing the mast flag lines