The passage should only be taken at slack between tides. At other times the current runs - right now - up to 7 knots maximum in either direction.
I timed my arrival at the pass for a little before slack. Should I run into trouble mid - pass, the new flood current would spit me out on the other side. I was 10 minutes early, there was not much spitting going on, but a little pushing against the lingering still quite insistent ebb stream.
Now I am anchored in Silva Bay, the northernmost Gulf Island Harbour with decent protection.
Except it's pretty plugged...Islanders seem to have placed moorings, even floating docks into every bit of available space, so there it little room left to drop a hook. The Marina's guest docks - luxurious with all the trimmings - are almost empty, nary a visitor in sight. Maybe both situations are a sign of present economic woes...
The man at the fuel dock hut, which doubles as a 'terminal' for Tofino Airlines (puddle-jumpers) said, that 'the police is going to clean that up', meaning removing some of the buoys etc. Poor floatplane-pilot really has to do some fancy wing-work to get in or out of this place dodging all that stuff.
Well, what there is of a watery runway, started right at my pulpit today. Waved to the pilot, whilst he revved past me, almost near enough for a handshake and a dustoff of the wings.
He was airborne in seconds and banked through the tops of the pine trees out of sight behind a rocky cliff.
Spent the last two days in Clam Bay, a roomy anchorage between two Islands, and watched the eagles and herons feasting on the shore, which were laid bare by one of the lowest ebbs of the year.
Weighing anchor at Clam Bay this morning was not too tough a deal.
But I still wished fervently for a couple of strong manly arms (not a cry for romance) to manhandle that brutish anchor from dangling (kinked and the wrong way) so near and yet so far above the water into its bow roller resting place.
It cannot be done with the electric anchor winch, which I learned the hard way. It took two guys with a sledgehammer to get the anchor unstuck from where it was well and unbudgeably wedged thanks to a VERY strong electrical winch hauling in the last yard of chain.
Just not the easiest for a little old lady.
