Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Seal Bay - A Fog Sail


We once again awoke to a world of fog. We could barely see the Coast Guard station a few hundred feet away. However, we had no trouble hearing the morning symphony of various and sundry sound makers as they were tested one by one. After all, how do you know the sound signals work unless you test them? They do so every morning.

Ann made blueberry pancakes, a great way to start the day! With the Mehaffeys here, we have a car so Ann and Leathem went to a local Hannafords for restocking. Meanwhile, I was putting away the new crate we had bought for Hoolie for when we leave him in the boat alone and when I turned around, he was gone! After a quick search of the boat, it was clear he had jumped ship! Off I went with leash in hand and back tracked on the usual walking path we used with Hoolie. Sure enough, I shortly found him near one of his daily stops and he came quickly when I called. This brings up a dilemma: how do you discipline a dog for jumping ship when you still want him to come willingly when called? So I just decided to welcome him joyfully for coming when called and we walked back to the ship. This time I tied his leash to the cockpit table so he couldn’t leave the boat and everything was fine.

The fog thickened and thinned all morning so we decided to set out around 11:00 anyway. We had a good wind but visibility remained less than 1/8 of a mile until we reached the Fox Island Thorofare when the fog lifted. We were able to once again sail all the way but we didn’t see much. I offered to describe the various features of the landscape they were missing but nobody took me up on that!
We dropped anchor around 4:00 with plenty of swinging room in Seal Bay and settled in for the night after a tour of the harbor in our dinghy for picture taking of the seals. On our last trip in for Hoolie relief, he fell in the water when he mistook some seaweed for solid land, what a mess. After much rinsing and drying, he’s now resting peacefully next to Ann. Off to Pickering Cove tomorrow.

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