Monday, July 14, 2025, Gwynne Bay

 

It was wonderful to see the bright sun rising over the harbor this morning. We have had two days of mostly cloudy weather. What a nice change. We've also had smoke from the Canadian wildfires drifting in and out. While having my morning coffee I made a list of seven things I wanted to accomplish before we set sail. 

I completed all my tasks except washing the port side of Annie. I even had time to walk to the marine store and buy some floating line for dinghy towing, I have had a towing system I was not confident with since I caught the towing line in the stern thruster. Since we were towing the dinghy 20 miles today, I replaced the old setup before we left. 

We had help leaving the dock. As so often happens the more help you have the worse the procedure goes. The starboard bow line remained tied when I left, or more accurately, tried to leave. Kerry was pretty annoyed about it and wants us to decline future help unless it is a difficult situation. Typically we have no problem when we control the whole procedure. She is probably right.

We stopped at the fuel dock for a fill up and pumpout. When we pulled out Peter and Marianna were waiting for us in the channel. Well, at least I thought they were. It turns out that they had lost the steering on Voyager. This was obviously a dangerous situation as there were shallows and a stone sea wall near them. I spoke with Peter who was trying to deal with the situation. He turned down my offer of a tow, probably very wise, Since he was busy trying to solve the problem and having Marianna deploy the back up steering steer, etc., I called the harbor master who referred me to Norm, the resident mechanic and owner of the boat yard. Norm's wife, Diane had him out in a dingy in minutes to provide assistance. All ended well as the problem was that the auto pilot was engaged and that was causing the problem. Norm says he had seen that happen before as the first thing he asked Peter, after hearing the symptoms, was if the autohelm was engaged. Before we knew the resolution we had our prepared lines and fenders for docking to wait with them while an assessment of the problem could be made. Once it was all sorted put, we set off for long Point Cove about 11:30. 

Norm to the rescue!

The Janet Head Lighthouse welcomes boaters and says goodbye too.

We arrived at Long Point Cove at 2:45. We motored around inside the anchorage. There were nine boats already anchored in there. I felt there was space for two more boats to anchor. Peter and Marianna did not come in thinking it was too crowded. I then proposed to Peter that he check out anchoring in Gwynne Bay just a small way east. Because I could see Voyager and her heading on AIS I was able to tell Peter it was straight in front of him even though I was in Long Point Cove. He liked the anchorage so we both decided to anchor there. It's not as pretty as Long Point, but there is lots of room and we are the only two boats there. Still, It's a nice anchorage and we are happy here. We traveled 22.1 miles today. My new dinghy towing bridal worked well. The rocks and islands are just beautiful here.Very dramatic in person.

The green anchor marks Long Boat Cove, The red arrow marks our location in Gwynne Bay

We invited the Orro's over for dinner and drinks at 5:00 PM. Peter continues to have problems with  his motor but they made it. I had offered a pick up service. We had the usual good time together. Marianna brought me a hostess gift, spicy Red Pepper Jelly. She knows I love it. Kerry served the pork chops and sauerkraut she cooked yesterday along with homemade mashed potatoes and brownies. Her table looked beautiful too. She used a new tablecloth made from a shower curtain, her new source of fabric because of their size and availability.

We had cocktails before dinner on our upper deck. It was very pleasant with a nice little breeze. Peter and I smoked an after dinner cigar up there too. 

We had heard that the mosquitos were bad here so the Orro's returned to Voyager in time to avoid them. We closed up tight.

Beating the mosquitos back to Voyager.