We went ashore in the bright sunny morning and I went into the Hotel de Haro for a final internet session while Brenda went walkabout. We then had coffee while I wrote two post cards and then we boarded the Zodiac for a return to Pachuca. (On the ride back I realized that I had referred to my computer unit at Murdoch University as the long-superseded CSU instead of ITS - sure evidence to my colleagues of incipient dementia.)
We raised anchor at about noon after having decided to have lunch in transit. It promised to be a relatively short (about 15 nm) and easy run with the current behind us. As usual the wind was too light for sailing so I left both sails furled.
We motored out of the western entrance of Roche Harbor, past Pearl Island into Spieden Channel. Once we were clear of the harbor I altered course from N to NW to skirt the western side of Stuart Island along Haro Strait. This was all the reverse of our entry into Roche Harbor two days earlier. Except that this time I made an elementary navigation error that probably would not have been fatal to the boat but provided a cheap important lesson to me.
1.5 nm NNW of the entrance to Roche Harbor there is a shoal dangerous and sneaky enough to be marked with a lateral buoy supporting a light and a fog horn. I set the autopilot with a course that would give the buoy a wide berth of about .4 nm to our starboard. Then we encountered a strong cross current set to the east along Spieden Channel caused by the flood tide. I was too comfortable and complacent to realize the implication of this. About 15 minutes later I saw the the buoy less than 200 meters off our starboard bow and the cross track error from the strong current was very quickly taking us straight to the shoal. I altered course 45 degrees to port, increased the engine revolutions from 1000 to 1200, and we started to claw away from the danger. At about this time Brenda had noticed on the chart plotter that we were much closer to the buoy than we had planned but unwisely was under the delusion that I was in complete control. She saw the abrupt change of course on the chart plotter. Other than the obvious lesson on cross track error I was reminded why I should never ever leave the cockpit unattended when in close waters. Brenda's lesson was to not hesitate to speak up if she notices anything unexpected.
We made very fast time to Bedwell Harbor. At one time our COG was 8.0 knots at 1000 rpm. How much better this was than the 1.5 knots that we had been making when we fought our way against the current to Roche Harbor. During the short passage (less than 2 hours) we had a pleasant lunch in the cockpit enjoying the fine weather and splendid views, then I changed Pachuca's courtesy flag from the stars 'n stripes to the maple leaf and hosted the amber Q quarantine flag on the starboard side. The entry into Bedwell Harbor very easy for us because we were able to follow two other sail boats making the entry.
We spotted the Customs jetty and did a wide circle and made plans to go straight in with the jetty on our port side and a gentle wind pushing us into the jetty. As a precaution we also put two fenders on the starboard side. The docking went very well. I put the engine into reverse a good 10 meters from the boat ahead of us and the stern moved smartly toward the jetty.
The Customs jetty was unmanned. There were three phones available for speaking with a Customs officer. After answering the necessary questions we were given clearance for entry into Canada, and I filled in stickers for Brenda's passport and Pachuca, with numbers given to me over the phone. One of the stickers is posted on Pachuca's window. Two of our items did not pass muster: the potatoes and the apples. We were given the OK consume them but all peelings and cores had to be disposed of in the special bin at the customs jetty.
I then lowered the Q flag, untied the mooring ropes, pushed Pachuca's stern away from the jetty, then reversed around the end of the jetty and motored out. We approached to anchorage area to find a Bavaria 39 on the move obviously repositioning its anchor. We went past the Bavaria, circled another boat, then dropped anchor in a pocket behind the Bavaria in 11-12 meters of water. For the next 30 minutes or more we sat comfortably in the cockpit having our drinks while we watched the Bavaria repeatedly raise anchor, move, drop anchor, back up, etc. I could not see the problem because they had all chain rode and a plow anchor. We figured that it must be a charter boat. I had sympathy for them but could not help feeling like we were old pros who found a spot and dropped anchor with no drama.
Dinner featured potatoes and apples.
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