Alaska Trip Day 14

5/29/11

Handfield Bay, Sonora Island, B.C.

Miles Motored:  0

Miles Sailed:  0

A stay put day.  We couldn’t have chosen a better place to stay put, or a day with better weather.  It was GORGEOUS!

We stayed put, but we worked hard.  Well, the boys played hard, but Tor and I got a lot done.  Tor was a wonder child proofer today and I feel so much less anxiety about the boys’ safety.  He fashioned a gate for the head so we can keep the door permanently open which will block the hole Lars fell out of yesterday.  He covered the reading light in our berth so that they can’t smash the bulb and he secured some of the wood slats that form the ceiling (wood covering the inside of the hull), he installed anchors for the booster seats since Lars in particular has a bad habit of rocking back and forth in his chair, and he made the boy’s sleeping enclosures more secure.  They were all little things that as the boys explore the boat it became apparent were needed, but we were having a hard time getting it done when we were on the move all the time.  We still need to come up with a solution for the stove, but in the meantime I’m trying to teach them to stay away from it.  I’m having some marginal success.

I got 2 loaves of bread made and a real dinner cooked.  Sauteed lentils with spinach (kale) and soy sauce.  Yum!  It was a hit with the whole family.

The boys got some serious playing done, including playing naked in the cockpit with a bucket of water.  Serious good times for all!

After the boys went to bed we did 2 loads of diapers, a record 26 diapers.  At times like this, you appreciate just how nice it is to have access to a Laundromat!

During the day while the boys were napping Tor and I did some planning on the next steps.  Unfortunately we need to transit Johnstone Strait next and it should really be done on an ebb tide so that we aren’t working against a pretty serious flood tide, and the timing of the tides right now is such that the flood takes up most of the middle of the day.  It looks like we will do Greene Point and Whirlpool rapids tomorrow and then maybe tuck up into the Broughton Islands to continue our northward progress instead of going to Port McNeill (bummer, good free internet and groceries were found there last time).  It will be neat to see a different area and the Broughtons are supposed to be beautiful.

We will head to Blind channel in the morning to fuel up and hopefully get wifi while we are waiting for the right time to transit Greene Point rapids.  We plan to anchor in Forward Harbour just after Whirlpool rapids tomorrow night.

Looking out of Handfield Bay, our lovely anchorage 

Playing with saltwater, fun, fun fun! 

Lars enjoying his dinner 

Odin looking a little bit like a sea monster eating sea weed 

Quite an advertisement for Fisher Price, eh?  Seriously, we love these booster seats, an excellent investment of $20 a piece