They predicted rain showers, and shower it did, until the afternoon when it just rained. Even my current foulies are not water proof, though they did keep me warm enough, thank goodness. Wet AND cold is a recipe for utter misery, so staying warm was a blessing.
Quijote untied from us promptly at 7am and we were on our way at 7:25. We’re getting this procedure down, including babying the windlass, finally. Kay piloted us out and were were smack-dab into a fog bank. On went the radar and we kept it on most of the day, even when not in fog. I took over the helm when I realized we were in Fog. However, throughout the day, Kay and Sam were very good and kind about taking turns at the helm, offering to relieve the person at the helm when they had been there for a while. Thank you both!
Along the way, a solitary whale was sighted by it’s blow, and then we saw the back arching and the flukes lifting up into the air. What made this even more exciting was that it all happened 100-200 yards away from us. Oh, and we also saw a BC Ferry plying its way up the Fitzhugh Sound, though that wasn’t as exciting as the whale.
I have some major concerns about the comfort (not safety) of our current anchorage [ed. note. concerns were unfounded – the night was quite comfortable], although I have confidence in our anchor set of 47 foot depth, 260 feet of scope. Quijote is rafted to us and everyone is over there playing cards. I used this time to re-figure our cruising plan from Ketchikan to Juneau and will work on the southbound legs another time. Right now, with no one aboard, it’s time to go clean the head.
Tomorrow I’ll need to refuel Opus, though only as a safety precaution. She should have enough fuel in her tank to get to Shearwater, but I’d rather not risk it. “Should” is just not comforting. The difficulty will be preventing rainwater from getting into the tank. Either it has to stop raining or someone will have to shield everything from the rain while we transfer one jerry can’s worth of fuel. We’ll figure it out.
Worked on fuel estimates
Assumptions:
- Fuel burn/hour 0.75 gal/hr @ 2500 RPM (we’ve been burning 0.71 galhr)
- Speed over ground, average = 4.5 knots (we’ve been averaging 5.4)
- 4.5 gal/container (actually holds 5 gal)
- 12 cans of fuel (actually will have 15)
Using our actual numbers, we have 468 miles of fuel left. Shearwater to Prince Rupert is about 260 miles, so we have plenty of fuel without refueling in Shearwater. Ok, we’ll refuel in Prince Rupert, though I’ll probably fill the jerry cans just in case, to give us 15 jerry cans.