Skid - e - git Bound

We're anchored in Larsen Harbour. It's a remote, windswept, gouge in the rocks that was a little intimidating to enter, but the anchor holding is good and it provides good protection from wind and waves. It's beautiful.

The transit across the north end of the Principe Channel to Banks Island was uneventful. The crossing was windier than I anticipated. It was blowing over 25 knots down the center of the channel. Chuck put out a fishing lure to see if he could tempt a fish with breakfast. Regrettably none were. Maybe it's not so regrettable. If we catch something we'll have to do something with it.

So, tomorrow is the big day. We'll cross the venerable Hecate Strait. At the other end, just sixty miles away, is the Sandspit Marina. We'll stay a night or two there if there's room, then make our way into Skidegate Inlet. I pronounce Skidegate like it sorta looks: skid-gate. Chuck laughs at me for my tourist pronunciation. His pronunciation is slid-e-git. He lived there for a couple of years, so I guess we can trust him to know how to pronounce it.

The wind is expected to be a little lighter tomorrow. Hopefully that holds. Big wind makes big waves and the crew isn't looking for that much fun. We put our order in for light wind and a sunny day.

Yesterday was smooth and calm, but as is true for many coastal places, calm brings fog. We had to fire up the radar for a few hours.

At one point we heard our boat name on the radio: Quijote, Quijote, This is the Pacific Islander. So I answered: Hello Pacific Islander, This is Quijote. Hello Quijote, Go to one-one. So I switched channels from 16 to 11. Quijote, this is Pacific Islander. What are your intentions? Huh? Does he think I'm dating his daughter? But no. As it turns out he was barreling toward us, at thirty knots down the channel that we were crossing and he didn't want to run right through us. How neighborly. We agreed to occupy opposite sides of the channel and he went roaring by. We never saw him in the fog, but his electronics and my electronics saw each other. That's comforting. Less comforting was the small fishing boat that went flying by in the fog with no electronics. I did see his radar image, but not until he was already by.

Tomorrow we'd like to see placid seas, low wind speeds, and no fog. Barring last minute changes to the weather forecast, we'll be off tomorrow around 4am. Sixty miles, should put us in around 4pm. Earlier if the winds are favorable. Later if they're not.