…jewel of Johnstone Straight. Well, cubic zirconium anyway.

It’s a reasonable spot to duck into when the wind comes up, which it did today. We had the most wind we’ve seen since the start of this voyage. It was gusting 25 which isn’t such a big deal offshore, but when it goes against a current AND you’re towing a dinghy (dumb) it gets a little dicey. We were very glad to tuck in here to wait out the breeze and tide.

The Johnstone Straight route is a shortcut of the route we took to get north. Back in late June, we went “inside”, taking the inlets and their respective “Rapids”, instead of the more direct but sometimes volitile Johnstone Straight. Well today’s run has already saved us three days of inside passage making, but it’s downwind, so even when it gets windy, it’s not so bad. Not the same going the other direction – of which there were zero boats. In fact we were one of the very few on the water today.

So, we’ll wait here for better weather. I actually think this wind will calm tonight and we’ll have another window tomorrow. In fact, 25 knots is nothing for us going downwind. The big issue is the dinghy. With engine on it can capsize with all kinds of obvious problems. So…tomorrow, the engine comes off until we get back in the protection of the inlets. We have one more 25 mile leg down the straight. About 6 hours at Charisma speed in an ebb tide (the tide ebbs constantly in “The Straight” around a full moon). Then we’ll officially be back in Desolation Sound for a couple weeks of goofing, before turning south.

Oh, and Port Neville? Well, we’re tied up at the “Government Dock”. It’s a decripit, falling down dock that you tie up at you own risk. No charge. In fact no one’s here except another sailboat that came in as we did to wait out the wind and waves. But, they say there’s a grizzly mama bear with cub that cruises the beach in the low tide. Let’s hope!