Cruise, Day 10, 11, and 12

With the weather coming in, the only thing to do was to hunker down. Being latter October, there was little boat traffic, and even fewer moving about in the stormy conditions. Even with two anchors down, the gusts coming over the bluff would knock Thistle about. I lowered the board hoping that any remaining grass might be flushed off by the constant motion. By evening, the board was raising and lowering freely, and one cold swim was averted.

On Day 11, a couple boats did come into the creek. One was a little catboat that came in about 0730. He ran on down to the very southeast corner of the creek and looked like he must have run his bow very nearly onto the shore and his short mast nearly into the trees. He handled his boat very well and gave every indication he was seasoned and knew exactly what he was about.
Usually when I’m confined to an area for a few days, the logical thing to do is to hop in the dinghy and go visiting. If others are seeking company, they’ll anchor in the same general area. If they want solitude, they find a distant anchorage that will provide more isolation. These boats were about as far apart as the confines of the creek would allow, so I decided to allow them their privacy. I had brought a briefcase full of sailing magazines for reading material. In the three days I was here, I exhausted the entire pile.

The rainy-day library. Notice the thistle applique the Mate

put on the cushion backs.

The wind had been so strong out of the northwest that a lot of water was being driven out of the bay resulting in unusually low tides. The entrance into the creek is not very deep, and a second problem with coming into Fairlee Creek with a strong northwest wind is the entrance is then on a lee shore. The approach is to first pass Light “2F” and run straight at the shore. When within about 50 feet of the shore, make an abrupt left turn and run within spitting distance of the shore for about a hundred yards before making another abrupt turn to starboard into the narrow cut entering the creek. On the evening of Day 12, the clouds started to break up.

. As it got darker, two boats tried to enter the cut into the creek, one a trawler and the other a sailboat. Both ran aground. The sailboat got off after a half-hour, but the trawler ran aground at 1900 and was still there at 0030 the next morning when I was up checking the anchors. The tide was supposed to be high a couple hours after that, and happily, when I arose just before sunrise, I saw that he had finally made it into the creek.