July 12, 2012: Copeland Islands to Roscoe Bay
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| Seaweed on our anchor at Copeland Islands |
As we got ready to push off,
we realized we’d drifted way too close for comfort to a rock. The concern was when our anchors came
up, we’d drift right into the rock.
Our boat hull would not enjoy that encounter.
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| Wayne first kedges us to safety, then deals with 4 foot seaweed streamer weighing down our anchor |
Ever the awesome problem
solver, Wayne figured he’d kedge us out.
He did this by rowing out in our dinghy and dropping our third anchor, a
ways away from the rock. He then
hauled us closer to that third anchor, so as we pulled up the other anchors,
that third anchor kept us safe from a rocky encounter. The great seaweed monsters, however clung
with heavy hands to our anchor, huge sheets of it streaming down 4 feet.
As we sailed away, the
panoramic view was amazing, I’m not quite sure what mountains I was looking at,
but am guessing they were at least 70 miles away. There’s no way camera could even begin to do it justice.
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| Vista seen sailing from Copeland Islands along Thulin passage |
Briefly, we were able to
sail, in between islands, before their wind shadow (when a large mass position
blocks the wind flow) prompted us to fire up our diesel. While we prefer the quiet of sailing,
with a lot of “ground” to cover and not much time, we were more driven by
destination than wind direction.
Fortunately, our motor “sips,” using only ¼ gallon / hour.
With the offending crab crap
long since cleaned up, Wayne was willing to enjoy some crab and crackers for
lunch. Best crab $4 crab I’ve ever
had.
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| From our anchor in Roscoe Bay |
Before long, we entered the
channel for Roscoe Bay. Our
arrival was carefully timed, as Roscoe Bay‘s entrance was so shallow, exits and
entries were only possible at high tide; twice a day. In between then, for most boats, ours included, we were
landlocked in its bay.
Not long after we arrived,
we hopped into our dinghy for a hike to Black Lake, yet another large
freshwater lake. We were looking
forward to cooling off, as it was another warm, sunny day. After our swim, we planned to pick back
up sanding our boat rails, which we started on back in Squirrel Cove, as part
of our overall boat cleanup started in earnest that day.
Then my ever-spontaneous
husband suggested we change our plans.
In response to my skeptical look, he uttered the best ironic line to
date on our trip, “Oh don’t be such a whoosie. It’s just a little bluff hike and you know you want to see
it.” I knew then, we were
screwed. However, it’s rare for me
to turn down a challenge. There
was an info board at the trailhead, but the first dozen pages appeared to be a
poorly written school project on jellyfish (“Moon jellyfish like to come to the
surface at night. We don’t know
why….”). We gave up 2 hours later
of steady uphill hiking even though we believe we were close to summit. Other than the first 20 minutes, the
trail was filled with dead woods, very brown, soundless and devoid of
life. It took an hour and 20 minutes
at a steady downhill clip to get back to the trailhead. So much for sanding the
boat rails. It was suppertime and
we were hungry. We took sponge baths,
ate supper*, and planned our next day’s journey.
* chicken rice mixed with
chicken cooked in onions and garlic, Spike and black pepper, with a 15 oz can of
cooked black beans, 2 4-oz cans of salsa (Mexican and Cesara), cumin and chili
powder. Good, but next
time plain rice; very salty.
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| Roscoe Bay moon at 4 am |
We determined we’d hiked
about 7-miles, round trip, even though we stopped a little short of the final
summit at about 2000 feet. Hikers
we passed on our way down later told us the summit, about 10 minutes further
than our stopping point, offered
some good but not very panoramic views, as even at the summit, trees blocked
the vistas.
We ended the eve planning
our next stop, to Toba Inlet, up Waddington Channel…. Tomorrow we’ll
check the out warm, fresh water Black Lake as we’ll be killing time until high
tide, while the rocks at the mouth of the bay are risky to pass over at low
water.
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