The zen of moving slow (or not moving at all)

The tag line on most of our adventures is: Why go fast, when you can go slow. But perhaps we’ve found a way to take this too far. Over one month ago we set sail from our little marina. We traveled a total of about 12 nautical miles (22 km), dropped the anchor, and haven’t moved since.

But why would we? The anchorage here is beautiful. It is fairly well protected, and has excellent holding. It’s great for paddling and dinghy sailing. And people keep giving us fresh cod and bread, and banana-loafs and wild mushrooms, AND keep having us over for dinner on their boats … how can we ever leave???

So yes, we’ve become a permanent fixture here at Wood’s Island. Our food stocks are holding out well (especially since we’ve been given so much fresh fish), and our friends Byron and Paula, made an addiction-run 😉 for us recently, so we got restocked with enough coffee and booze to last a few more weeks 🙂 .

Of course, it hasn’t all been fun and games. We’ve weathered a couple near-gale storms, some that have lasted for days. We’ve had a lot of rain at times  , and we’ve been swinging quite close to shore such that during low-low tides we have to watch that we don’t run aground. Our boat sticks down 6 feet, and we’ve seen less than 7 feet on the sounder at times!

During one of our gale days we woke up to find our dinghy had had enough, and had made a break for it. The attachment line had chafed through overnight, and our dingy and outboard engine had washed up on the nearby shore. Luckily we had a guardian angel in the form of a Gord, a Wood’s Island resident, come to our rescue. After much effort, he managed to get our dinghy back to us. What a sweet fellow!

So we while away the days reading, kayaking, hiking, sailing, and playing the occasional video game:

We visit friends when they arrive at the dock, usually on the weekends. We paddle and walk. We read and talk. Mostly we’re just enjoying life and enjoying each other. It’s wonderful to just spend time with the one you love .

We’re looking at another week or so here before we have to haul up anchor (if we can!), and head back to Corner Brook. We’ve got a few boat maintenance issues to deal with (broken alternator, deck re-caulking), and we have to plan our haul out. It will take us at least a week to get the boat ready for winter once she’s out of the water, so we’re looking at hauling around mid September. After that it will be fast dash across the country to make it back to what’s becoming our second home over in Penticton.

But all of that is in the future. For now, it’s back to struggling through this tough life: