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Published: September 14th 2006
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We pedalled out of Culotte Cove into an uncertain, windless sea. The sky was dark and foreboding, but it was clear the gale had passed on, leaving calm seas in its wake. We drifted in and out of thick fog patches all day, at times unable to see anything but the swells around us, until the mist would lift and treat us to the sight of primeval rock islands rising unexpectedly from the water. We were able to navigate using GPS, so we were not lost, as this stylish picture of me would suggest, but it was eerie to be out of sight of land, islands, anything, hearing the roar of the breakers on rocks and shoals as we went around them, but never seeing them. The seabirds became our constant companions, rising and falling on the swells alongside us. At one point i was thrilled to see a lone puffin paddled by. After all the wind of the last couple days, the complete lack of wind was welcome, even if it made for a lot of pedalling. The swells were soft, almost lulling us to sleep, and the fog made us feel as though we were at the end of
the world. We were out on the ocean for ten hours that day.
At times we were a couple miles from shore, which of course made me worry about what would happen if the wind did pick up. The fog cleared first, treating us to a clear view of the approaching Barasway point, which we planned to round, then camp in Doctor Harbour, which looked and sounded promising. As we came alongside the rocky point something started to change. Some kind of strong current was pushing us backwards and Fully kept trying to turn sharply to the left. The wind was coming up, so we hoisted the sail, but Fully still wasn't moving properly. Were we dragging something? We were getting closer to the rocks and the wind was getting significantly stronger. As we rounded the point we were hit by a strong wind from the northeast, exactly the direction we were trying to go. We started moving, but found it very difficult to make headway into the wind. We were also a little confused about navigation. The visible landmarks were hard to correlate with the map and Doctor Harbour was nowhere to be seen. We made a couple tacks
to try to get further north, but it was difficult to cover any ground. Should we try to head straight east, across the five mile wide bay to the other side? Would be be blown too far south in doing so? Rob was fine, of course, but i was, well, nervous. I saw a cove to our left, and we managed with difficulty to navigate our way in. We were relieved to have gotten out of a tight situation, but the cove we found ourselves in wasn't ideal. The boat was sheltered, however there was no place to put a tent. We'd deal with it, we told ourselves, if we had to, but it would help if there were some other options. Rob being the more confident sailor, took out the map and looked for a solution. It turned out the current we'd experienced was the tide emptying out of a massive lagoon called Big Barasway at the head of the bay. It made sense. Several miles of sea rushing out of a narrow entrance, combined with a strong wind, it was no wonder we got nowhere. Here was another lesson--tides were more of a factor than we thought.
Luckily
the tide was already low. We waited until it began coming back up and then sailed out of the bay. The wind was still strong, but with the current now on our side we were able to sail north, then east, hugging the shore five miles across the bay to the stunning other side. Here we were welcomed with an incredible crescent of miraculous sand beach, dotted with solid rock islands jutting out of the sea. It was some of the most amazing scenery of the trip. The sun rewarded us with one final appearance before it set, and we were suddenly giddy and filled with joie de vivre. Rob set up a complicated winch system and we hauled the boat up on shore. I helped, i swear, but everytime i turned my back he was hauling it further.
We even camped in beautiful long grass. there were even trees, something we hadn't seen much of in a while. We saw a couple people in a boat way on the other side of the bay, but still... we had this amazing place completely to ourselves. Perfection.
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