Aug.11. I was up at 6, checking the marine weather and condition reports. The gale warning had been cancelled, and it looked like a go. A short row into a nice pebbly beach for a leashed Pi, even shorter walk was followed by breakfast and a 7:30am departure in slightly foggy and calm conditions. The fog was pretty thick until we got close to the Estavan Point lighthouse. The rolling swells were significant as was expected off the point. Not much wind though and the chop did increase as we were just off the lighthouse. We had to keep a mile or so off shore to avoid the myriad of not so close in reefs. We did see some whale spouts closer to shore but were too far away to see any more. Once around the point it was a straight shot to the mouth of Sydney inlet and our Hot Springs Cove Oceanside destination. It took us about 5 hours of motoring to get there but once there a bit of a following wind showed and we put up our sails for a slow finishing spurt. We have cell service there and I called my neighbour Tom to see if he was available to get a picture of SeaScape with her sails up. He was. Not possible for me to get a shot, even with the “selfie stick”. We stern anchored to my mooring buoy because SeaScapes 5 foot depth was greater than my skiffs 6in. and overall length longer. Once it was determined that the cabin was in operational mode, we started unloading the stuff from the boat for a several day stay. It was going to be good to have some time off the boat after 3 months on her. Our 350 square foot cabin seemed oddly………palatial. We spend 10 days at the cabin at Hot Springs Oceanside, doing a bit of trail and brush clearing, garden maintenance and visiting with neighbours and generally just enjoying the local. Unfortunately; there was still a province wide campfire ban so the only fire we could sit around was the wood burning stove inside the cabin which was very nice but made the cabin too hot (being summer and all). We only lit the one fire on our first night there. I also dragged out my diving gear to inspect the bottom of SeaScape and do some barnacle scraping if necessary. The bottom had been cleaned and painted last August. I had a double coat of antifouling paint applied and it was still doing it’s job well. No scraping required. My knee was not doing so well so we did not do the hike to the hot springs.
Estavan Point, once the fog cleared
SeaScape sailing into her Oceanside anchorage
