July 5, 2007 – Walsh Cove

As the boat was being readied for departure, Ali sat at the base of the stairs looking at her Mom and Dad. It was clear to her that they had not remembered that Schnauzers, like humans need a potty break in the morning. They were too busy securing the kayaks, making coffee, etc. Eventually Ms. Alabama was noticed, and it was determined a quick ride to shore was needed. About time Alabama thought as she moved into position to board the dinghy. As she stepped onto the transom of the most graceful debutant and placed her front paws on the waiting vessel, it suddenly moved and left her feeling as though she were not quite on solid ground. Ms. Alabama went in with a loud splash, echoing off the small island to the stern of GONE WITH THE WIND. The problem was the dinghy was empty, but she was determined to catch it. Eventually she relized she was going the wrong way. Away from the boat, Mom, Dad and even Cooper were all still on the boat, and yet she was chasing the dinghy. She quickly turned around, and swam back to the boat. The whole time sucking in pints of saltwater. Once back on the boat, Mom toweled her off in the transom, and all of the saltwater caught up with her and made her sick, right there in the cockpit. How embarrassing was all she could think.

GONE WITH THE WIND cleared Pendrell Sound and moved North into Waddington Channel. A nice back eddy was caught on the East side of the channel pushing the boat through the water at 5.5 knots. The total trip time was 2 hours. After arriving in Walsh Cove, we discovered we were the third boat to arrive. A 40ish foot SYC boat sat in the NW corner, and a large 50 plus foot Nordhaven, Atlas, was anchored in the center of the cove. After circling the cove, we located a small nook with a small waterfall on the far SW side of the cove. We could clearly see a shelf off of land, and our depth sounder told us we were in 90 feet of water less than 200 feet from shore. We decided this would be our home for the night. We dropped the hook (anchor), and backed into the cove. Once the primary anchor line was set, we then took a dinghy to shore and found an old chain to tie our stern line to. As always the gymnastics involved in a stern tie prove interesting, but were successful. From our cockpit we hear the gentle splash of the waterfall which is not more than 50 feet from us. This is a great anchorage.

We secured the boat and jumped into the kayaks. On the East side of the cove is a series of small islands separated from the primary island by “False Pass”. With everyone loaded, our first stop was these small islands. At low tide they formed a small maze and were a lot of fun to paddle in. After leaving the island, and a quick break for the dogs, we headed East across Waddington Channel to a large waterfall. It was a long paddle, and when we got closer we realized the view was not going to be as great as we had hoped for. The paddle was good. We were ready to head back. On our way back we heard a large explosion. It is the type of explosion everyone dreads to hear. It sounds like a large drum being struck with the residual vibrations echoing. For those of you that have heard it, it is a boat running aground. Both of us looked at each other and said “we hope it is not GONE WITH THE WIND”. As we returned to the boat we did manage to pass Butler Point which is a 500 foot high piece of granite sticking up from the earth. We identified what looked to be petroglyphs, but could not be sure. When we got back to GONE WITH THE WIND, we circled the boat and could not find any evidence of an unfortunate encounter with the Earth. The harbor was clearly abuzz and we were concerned, but with the Sun’s angle, we could clearly see below our boat. Both the keel and rudder were clear of any rocks, so we felt confident it was not us. As we worried about the noise being us, the boat to our North was spending a large amount of time on deck, playing with their anchor, looking over the side, etc. Not normal activities for people who just got off of their own kayaking adventure. After about 20 minutes, they pulled their anchor, moved more toward the center of the harbor and reset. Though we are not absolutely sure about what happened, we think there anchor dragged and then when into a rock.