Tenedos Bay

     So, let's see, it was Mother's Day when we fueled up at Westview Harbour in Powell River.  We were underway at 10:34, course overground was 296 degrees, and we were motoring at 2200 RPM making a pretty nice 6.4 knots with the current in our favor.  We hadn't taken the sail cover off for a couple of days.  We noticed that most sail boats in this area had their sail covers on.  We were the hopeful ones they were the seasoned ones.  The current and wind that we have experienced so far in the inside passage are limiting, and make it difficult  to get much use out of the sail.  We have motored nearly every day.  This was one of the last days that our hope of using the wind to fuel Velvet Sky prevailed and I removed the sail cover while Scott was at the helm.  We were oblivious that another human being existed.  Oh, they did exist, and they took a couple of photos and posted them on marinetraffic.com.  The awareness of these photos did not come to light until May 21st.  Scott was online searching through some sights; shipfinder.com, and aislive.com just to see what he could see.  And there we are.  I am removing the sail cover, Bucket is sitting safely at base of the mast, and Scott at the helm.  The first photo we have seen with the three of us onboard and underway and have no idea who, how, or why it is on this site.

     Unaware that we had just been paparazzi-ed, put the sail up for about 10 minutes, dropped it again, raised the RPM on the engine to the average 2200.  We entered Desolation Sound at 13:34, and dropped our prawn trap for the first time at 14:30.  We left it in 276 feet depth about 2 and a half miles from where we anchored and stern tied that day (which was another first).  Things seemed to go well.  Scott put the line in his mouth and rowed to shore about 100 feet from the boat.  He found that he had to utilize his rock climbing experience to get the line to the tree.

          It was pretty successful, not too bad for first timers, I suppose.  He learned that there is a better way to transport the line than by mouth.  Maybe tie it something in the dinghy?  He also got a pretty good work out.  We slept well that night.  Awoke early in the morning (as usual) and loaded ourselves into FRESH, she was now equipped with a 2.5 hp motor, and with great excitement and anticipation motored our way to our prawn trap.  We could hardly wait to retrieve our tasty treats.  We were half way to our goal, the bright orange float, that held the line, that held the trap, that held our bounty.

   

      Problem.  The outboard began to sputter.  And here is another good lesson:  Always check that your outboard has plenty of fuel to get you to your destination and back to home base.  Scott rowed to 3 Fathom Cove, a short cut to where we had anchored in Tenedos Bay.  The tide was out and the short cut was no longer a passage of water but a tombolo of fresh oysters.  At this point our option was to portage FRESH home to Velvet Sky along with the gas-less outboard, and Bucket....oh my.  I could feel the oysters crush and squish beneath my step, all I could think was, "What a waste."  The bottoms of our shoes went through quite the test and we saved the animals the hassle of shucking their dinner that day.

     So, that all turned out alright.  We fueled the outboard and set out once again to retrieve our treasure.

     

     We earned a meal.  Today it was NOT prawns.  And the bar bell is just the weight to bring the trap down (see, Unk, I knew those weights would be useful).  We set the little guy free and had something along the lines of peanut butter sandwiches instead.

     Tenedos Bay is one of my favorite visits so far. Although I truly, truly fell in love with Princess Louisa Inlet, Tenedos Bay was our haven.  It was just nature and the Smith family.  This was the beginning of feeling as though we were the only humans existing for the week.  There was no other people or vehicles to be heard or seen for miles and miles.  It was quiet and peaceful beyond imagination.  

     We did end up re-anchoring the next day in a different spot in the bay.  The boat was swinging dangerously close to the rock wall, we noticed about 15:00 the following day.  We pulled in the stern line, pulled up the anchor, and repositioned ourselves in a more experienced sort of way.  We discovered that you run the stern line first, set the anchor in line with the stern tie then pull yourself toward the shore with the stern tie.  It sounds more complicated than it is, however being the newbies that we are we did not do any of this the first time.  Every day.....something new.