Sunday-Monday July 27-28th 2008
Woke up to a grey cloudy day, but no rain. Not very much wind either. We motored out of Teakerne Arm and turned north. Our trip today would take us half way around Cortez Island. As we left Teakerne Arm, we were only about 2 miles from where we would end up at the end of the day, but since the boat does not have 4 wheel drive, we had to go north and around the island to get there. We were headed to Von Donup Islet to meet up with Ghost and WindDancer to celebrate Angie’s B-day.
Once out of Teakerne Arm the wind picked up, but it was directly out of the north. The channel we were heading up was fairly narrow, and we really did’nt feel like tacking for hours to make our way up. So we motored till we got to the northern end of the channel then put up the sails.
Once we did get the sails up and we started tacking our way north against the wind. The wind was only blowing about 12 knots or so, but we were having fun. And since the cliffs would drop almost straight down into the water. We could carry our tacks almost right up the shore before tacking a back again.
We also squeaked past the northern tip of Cortez Island, with only 20 feet to spare between us and the island. That may or may not have been the smartest thing to do, but it was fun!
As we rounded the point, we fell off to a beam reach as the wind picked up to around 15-18 knots. We turned downwind and headed for the entrance of Von Dunup Islet. By now the sun had burned through the cloud layer and the day was bright and sunny.
The entrance to the inlet was very narrow and partially blocked by a giant boulder. At low tide there would have been less water and a narrower channel, but the boulder would have been exposed and easy to see. We however were coming in at near high tide, so the boulder was covered by about a foot of water. Tawn took lookout on the bowsprite and I steered the boat around the rock, hugging the oppisite shore as closely as I could. The charts had it marked pretty well so we got past it with no problems.
Once inside the inlet we found Ghost and WindDancer tucked away in a corner of the bay anchored togather. We circled them and got things set to raft up to WindDancers port side.
Tied up next to Ghost and WindDancer, Palarran looks so small.
We did some dinghy exploring all around the inlet and into some of the small little coves that were inside the inlet. One of these little coves had a very small entrance. At high tide it looks open, clear and wide. But at low tide their are HUGE boulders that stick up, blocking the entrance. No way to get in by dinghy. We waited till a little after low tide, till more water had come in and dinghied in and spent the afternoon checking out the shoreline and hiking around a small island that was in the middle of the lagoon. On way back out, the tide was REALLY flooding in! It was like being in a whitewater mountain river. We had to be extremly careful, in motoring out, because if we aimed wrong our prop would have hit one of the huge boulders. The amount of water flooding in was amazing. We got out alright, but it was a hell of a ride.
The photo below was taken on the small island we were hiking on. Its all three crews of Palarran, Ghost, & WindDancer. From left to right: Zack, CB, Tawn, Curtis, Ellie, Cynthia, Angie, & Scotty.
One of the other reasons all got togather again was to have a little B-day party for Angie on Ghost. We had a great dinner onboard Ghost, some booze (of course). Then moved the party over to WindDancer to played some games. We also fired up the laptops and watched all the movies and pictures we each had taken on the trip so far.
The crew of Ghost had to start heading south the next day so they could meet up with Scotty’s mom and Dad in Naniamo, BC. They are retired and are doing the RV thing down in Mexico during the winter and Canada during the summer.
Speaking of the crew of Ghost. Below are pictures of the rugrats that live on Ghost. Zack & Ellie:
That’s more than sebnlsie! That’s a great post!
This whole “artists in rural areas” is far from uncommon, even though I’m not sure it’s often brought to attention. If we really started to look, I’m sure we would find many examples of artists who have purposely chosen the rural life.I’m glad you were able to take those sensibilities with you even after you left.