Cortes Rendez-vous

September 21, 2010

Cortes Bay, Desolation Sound, British Columbia, Canada

 

We arrived in Cortes Bay between the low cloud ceiling of the morning and the high winds that kicked up in the late afternoon.  The moorage in the bay is so protected that we didn’t even realized the wind was blowing til we went up to change over the laundry.  G-ma, Auntie Barbara and Susie arrived just as we were finishing our dinner.  Once they had unpacked and settled, we met up in the Cortes Room and chatted while the kids worked on puzzles.

     

 

Any day that starts out with fresh cinnamon rolls can’t go badly and it held true for yesterday.  We took advantage of having the car and made a trip to the grocery and co-op.  Bryce wanted to take G-ma to the bookstore.  While we waited for it open, we headed down the road to visit Hollyhock and strolled through their beautiful gardens in the fabulous fall sunshine.  Bryce got to pick out a couple graphic novels for he and his brother.  I can hardly wait to get back to our fabulous library system – talk about things we have missed over the course of our year+ away from Seattle.  G-ma took all the ladies on a hike up to Red Granite Bluff (which is just above Lively Beach – article forthcoming in the Capaz Chronicle).  The recovery from her knee replacement surgery is impressive – she may ski a run or two this season yet!  Brad filleted our salmon and we had fabulous salmon and prawn feast for dinner.  G-ma and company even let me bored with our newly trimmed slideshow of pictures from the big adventure.

  

We awoke bright and early for a trip to Prideux Haven for the day.  It turned out to be much closer than our distance calculations and we hit the pinch point right at low tide but still had plenty of water under the keel to spare.  I got Auntie Barbara out in the two man kayak for a nice little jaunt and chat.  Back on the boat, we had lunch in the cockpit while the sun played peek-a-boo behind big white fluffy clouds.  The boys went for an explore along the shore that had Brad and Austin going overland while Bryce piloted the dinghy around to meet them on the other side of a little peninsula.  Under beautiful sunny skies, we headed back to Cortes Bay.  Our early departure for Wednesday morning was confirmed by the “Securite” warning issued by the Canadian Coast Guard for impending nasty weather.  We returned early enough for the boys to fit in a quick trek up to Red Granite Bluff  before G-ma fixed up G-pa’s special scalloped potatoes for dinner.