Kettle Cove - kind of

Well we planned our first "real" adventure, now that we have the sails up. We had planned to go to Kettle Cove, which is part of the Naushon Island, one of the Elisabeth Islands. The kids were all excited at the thought of anchoring at Kettle Cove and rowing to the "deserted island" to explore and have a picnic lunch.

Dave and I planned out the trip the night before, got the co-ordinates to the cove, looked at images so we knew exactly what we were looking for when we got there. We even checked out some websites for wind

conditions. Most of the sites had the same "prediction" about 10 knots with 14 knot gusts. So we planned our timing with those numbers in mind.

What we learned was that those predictions were NOT always correct. The wind speed was much slower the majority of the time. We were able to go most of the way without any real trouble. But when were were about 2 miles from the cove, the wind seemed to have completely

died down to just about nothing, and we were stuck in the irons. There were a couple other sail boats that were facing the same issue.

Since it was slow going and took us so long to sail the 12 or 13 miles to Kettle Cove, it was frustrating to see the time 3:00pm when we were only 2 miles away from our destination. But we still had the same slow wind, even slower as the wind direction was not in our favor either, to head back. So Captain Dave decided to turn around and head back to Popes Island. The kids were a little disappointed but understood. And next time we will pick a closer destination.

Here are some shots from the trip:

   

Cpt and 1st mate

Middle of Nowhere

Peter in the V Berth

Amber dancing in the Cabin

Autumn wanting more cookies

Rocked to sleep by the waves