Waiting for it....

A high pressure system came in and gave us our gale. It was sunny and cool most days, and just around the corner to the north it was blowing stink with 10 foot seas. Lots of boats hunkered down, and we met some nice people in the marina.  Tom and Kathy from Port Townsend were there  - on a tough steel sailboat. He has been to Alaska 12 times on the boat, and spent many summers working in Glacier Bay.  Phil and Vicki were waiting it out on their cool Nordhavn 35. Phil is a retired Alaskan fisherman who also worked for the Alaskan ferries. Vicki worked as an IP engineer/lawyer in spy satellite tech. Had a couple of fun evenings sharing stories. 

Still no window to round the Cape for several days, so yesterday we got out of the marina and moved east into the Broughton Archipelago, where we spent considerable time in 2022. These islands are a wild and special place. We nestled into Mound Bay, a place we didn't see on our last visit, where we're hanging with the big boys -- one full-time liveaboard couple on a converted work tugboat, and another old tug converted to a tourist boat named after the amazing novel "The Curve of Time".

With updated weather info, it looks like Sunday-Monday is good to head north.  Our current, always tentative, plan is to round the Cape on Sunday and enjoy a slow trip north to Bella Bella, Klemtu and Butedale.  At that point we'll reassess how the engine is performing (so far so good!) and the weather.  And we'll follow up with the marinas in Alaska to see if we can now secure a slip for Iolair -- because we decided if we go further than Klemtu, we'll want to leave the boat in Alaska.  The option of sailing back down to the San Juans in late Aug or Sep was definitely ruled out by our seasoned sailor-friend Phil.