We woke up, rode the free bikes that Blind River Marine Park has, and went to our favorite restaurant, 17.
The breakfast was fantastic and the Internet speedy.
Just like we like it!
Let’s Get Going!
We left Blind River mid-morning and headed out to find an anchoring spot.
Sam had it narrowed down to two islands.
East Grant Island.
West Grant Island.
Our plan was to check out East and if it was too crowded, we would move on to West.
Cruising Along
We just can’t get enough of moving through the North Channel.
The many islands with rocks and trees.
The channel markers on their very own island.
Picking Our Spot
When we were traveling around the East Grant Island, there was a narrow cut so we could see inside the cove.
I was looking through the binoculars and didn’t see any boats.
No sailboats.
No powerboats.
Nothing.
But my view was limited so we made our way around the point.
There it was.
The perfect anchorage.
Empty.
Waiting for us.
Getting to the anchorage early had paid off.
Getting Set
Since we had space and time, Sam decided to do the official figure-eight maneuver to start the anchoring process.
After he made the perfect eight, he sent me out to drop the anchor.
I pushed the down foot pedal and the windlass turned to release the anchor chain.
It was about 17 feet deep so we decided to layout about 100 feet of chain.
And we did.
Once we were set, we thought we were home free.
But then we looked around and the rock wall looked a little too close for me.
All this space.
No one to get in our way.
Except us.
We brought up the anchor, moved over a bit, and dropped it again.
We may have been fine in the first position but moving over gave us the peace of mind we anchor for.
Dinghy Drill
We have only been out in our dinghy twice.
And we just aren’t good at it.
Yet.
So, we decided to take this opportunity, with no one watching us, to deploy the dinghy.
I may have mentioned that we have a Freedom Lift.
It’s supposed to be really easy to get a dinghy on and off a boat for easy use.
At least that’s what the YouTube video led us to believe.
We don’t look anything like the graceful couple entering and exiting the dinghy.
We look more like a three-ring circus.
Sam’s Plan
Sam spent some time earlier rigging lines, adding a small fender, putting a boat hook in the dinghy, etc.
He declared he had the perfect plan.
Start stopwatch.
From the time we decided to go on this dinghy ride until we took off was six minutes.
Six minutes?!?
It took us about 45 minutes the last time.
I would say our process is improving.
More Comfortable
As we were taking our afternoon dinghy ride, I have to say that I think Sam is getting more comfortable driving it.
We went all around.
Took pictures of our boat.
Thought about going on land to pick blueberries.
But no.
It looked rocky and we didn’t need any dinghy prop issues being out here alone.
So, we rode around a bit more.
The real test of whether Sam has gotten the hang of the dinghy will be when we are actually around things (boats, docks, pilings, etc.) that we could hit.
All Alone
We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening enjoying the solitude.
No one ever did show up.
Out of all the people on the earth, we had this incredibly beautiful spot all to ourselves.
What a gift.
Please describe the figure eight maneuver.
The idea behind the figure 8 maneuver is to take the boat around the area you are going to anchor in to ensure it is clear of rocks and a somewhat uniform depth. Or at least to identify the depth for scope. This is a maneuver we learned from Capt Chris in one of his videos. https://www.captainchrisyachtservices.com/anchoring-overnight/ I have modified it to do two figure 8 maneuvers with the center point the same, but the figure 8s are perpendicular to each other. This takes a bit longer, but for overnight anchoring will give you a more accurate picture of what is below the water. Your chart plotter will help you. Most modern chart plotters have an anchor alarm built-in, so after setting the anchor you can activate the anchor alarm.