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07.10
Friday Day 21. Awake and up (right away!) at 10:00 hrs. No lingering in bed for this kid! My God, It must be getting feeble in my old age. Either that or I was some tired! The sun is shining and it's just just beautiful out here. Took it easy for two hours and departed for Melanie Cove, under sail, at 12:15. Well.... I never made it! At least, not for a while!
Although the cove was filled by dozens of boats, the wind was just perfect for a 'recce' of the whole cove, under sail. I made my way around the boats still at anchor then, when I arrived at the head of the cove, at the place where the lagoon discharges in the cove, that was it! Why go looking for another anchoring spot when you are already at the best of them all?
Entrance to 'Y-Knot' Lagoon Eh! Why not? Read on..... it gets better!
This must have been my shortest 'scheduled' sail run in the last ten
years: a whole 1/3 of a mile! I dropped anchor, still under sail, next
to the "Tacita II" from Anacortes, lied down in the cockpit, and
listened to the 'Hawaiian' tape with the headset.
Hawaiian Wedding Song Seq by Mel Webb
This lagoon fills right up with salt water as the tide rises then, on
the ebb, disgorges both salt and fresh water in a torrent. On the ebb,
kids love to 'ride down' the rapids-like stream. I am thinking of going
in tonight at high tide and dropping the hook right in the middle of
the lagoon. Not too many sailboats can do that! I just blew up the
dinghy and will go explore the area.
I spent a good part of the afternoon reconnoitering the rapids, taking measurements and making a drawing of where the rocks were. Without realizing it, my weird behaviour had attracted a mini crowd. Weird it must have appeared, indeed. There was this old coot, dipping a stick into the 'rapid', measuring here, measuring there then transcribing the data to a roughly drawn map... Heard comments like "Just what the hell is the old guy doing? Got any idea?" "Nope," the other fella would say.
Brindisi
The hard fact was that no one, but no one apparently had ever come into this lagoon with a boat, much less with a sailboat. Four or five people I talked to said I couldn't make it, that I would get stucked. either going in or going out. And if I ever made it and missed the 'high tide', I'd be stucked there for six months, when the next 'high, high tide' was sceduled to reappear. When I was sure of my measurements, I waited for high water slack, raised the keel and the tiller and fired up the motor. Just about everybody had heard that I was going in and all were on their boats, watching. Some had come from the far end of the cove by dinghy! At a buck a head, I would have made a killing.
There she is! At anchor in Y-Knot Lagoon
2200 hrs: It's incredible! I did it!!! Here I am in the middle of the longest, largest, and most beautiful lagoon I have ever seen. There are at least sixty boats of all dimensions (including an ocean-going yacht) in Squirrel Cove itself and, here I am, all by my loneself!
No sweat at all. That's it, no story! I had lots of water under the bottom and missed all the rocks. And, as it turned out, the slack didn't really arrive until about forty minutes later as there was still a pretty strong current taking me in. I made it right in the middle of the lagoon, in front of the narrow channel entrance and dropped the hook.
This lagoon, (almost a lake, one mile long by 1/4 mile wide) is simply incredible. At high high water it is, of course, level with the Cove but, during the ebb, it flows back to Squirrel Cove as the level ebbs and falls so low that you can barely see the main cove.
If the wind tomorrow is as strong and comes from the same direction as it did today, I plan to sail this lagoon up and down until the sails rot! It's beautiful here. There are several small islands scattered here and there and I heard that there was even a waterfall somewhere around the lagoon.
We'll see tomorrow and I intend to take a few pictures of this spot. Hell, no one who knows the place would believe me that I sailed in here. Got to have a few 'proofs'. When I get to be 90 and I 'reminisce' about this cruise... I want proof for 'myself' that I'm not hallucinating! Anyway, I can't get out of here until 21:30 hrs tomorrow or 22:00 hrs the next day. Then, want to or not, I'll have to get out of here because the high high tide water levels will start to fall off after next Tuesday. If I linger longer, I might have to stay in the lagoon till December!
As the sun set, I rowed away from Y-Knot, as Edelweiss and Amazing Grace played on the tape deck. It was just way out. Way, way out...... The later it got, the deeper the cove dropped and I lost sight of the boats gathered below. Quite amazing! And I was all alone. My God, if only Georgette would have been here to enjoy that too! And, I am sure Tenika would have loved it too.
I can't wait till tomorrow when I can explore this lagoon under sail! I put a rode of 10:1 in six fathoms of water, just for the hell of it. In here, I can swing three hundred feet, all around, and not hit a rock or a boat! Can't hit them if they're not there to be hit! And, all this, when, just outside (down there...) there are at least sixty boats, one of them, that beautiful ocean-going white yacht of some 140 feet in length! Just great. Am I ever glad I retired early enough to still have the health and the guts to try a thing like I did tonight.
I don't think I will sleep too early tonight, not after my long night of sleep yesterday. It is now 23:30 hrs and I am not even tired, much less sleepy. I think I will work on 'the book'.
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