Tuesday, July 25, 2023 Cleary Cove

I was lying in bed last night enjoying watching the mosquitoes flying around the screens trying to get inside to bite us. I do enjoy that for some reason. What a symphony of wings they were providing. Then I realized, “Uh Oh”, there were some inside buzzing us. It took about 20 minutes and 2 zappers but we eliminated the threat. Kerry took 2 bites for the team.

I got up early today to try and post the blog. I know that it is a very slow frustrating process here. I had hoped to get it done and then be able to sit outside and enjoy the moment. It did not work out that way, so I sat out anyway while the computer attempted to reach the internet. Big Jim says I need a Starlink, and he is right!

Peter came over a little before 9:00 ready for fishing. Of course I prepared a deluxe cappuccino for him. We sat on the bow of Annie and enjoyed our coffee and cappuccino and the scenery. This is my favorite anchorage. Every view is lovely.  I just love the serenity and the setting. Peter said he was able to get his drone going this morning. He flew it across the channel and took a picture of Annie. Here she is all alone in Cleary Island.

I am going to have to return my tackle box to the Gore Bay Hardware Store. It does not work. We did not catch one fish. I did have one bite when a little fish grabbed the tail on my minnow lure. He even jumped out of the water with it in his mouth, but then spit it out and was gone. We did do some exploring while out in the dingy. The East end of the harbor has a passable exit but it is full of hazards which we explored. It’s highly recommended to use the West end which is what we do. Annie's location is the red arrow.

I ate the remaining piece of Codmother’s fish for lunch, washed down by my daily beer. Kerry just had cereal. After lunch I cleaned my fishing reel, which had accumulated some sand in it, glued some loose carpet on the closet wall, and glued felt bottoms onto some storage containers of Kerry’s. Sitting out reading and enjoying in the anchorage was the highlight of my afternoon (until it wasn’t - see below).

Kerry read and organized her closet after the carpet repair. My daily swim/bath preceded cocktails.  Just as I was ready to bathe a couple in a dingy came tooling into the anchorage. If they had been a moment later they would have seen that I am not tan all over. (Amazingly, we are still the only boat in Cleary Cove)

Actually the highlight of the afternoon really changed at 4:30. We saw a black bear! He was on the little island 60 yards in front of us. Then he swam across the channel and walked up the bank on another island. At the same time there was something swimming in the water near us. Was it a bear or a beaver? We could not tell. Its body was long and under water, but near the surface. While it was very exciting, it was worrying too. About 2 years ago there was a bear swimming out to and getting on people’s boats looking for food. Sometimes the boats were occupied when the bear arrived. How to scare off a bear was on my mind. I wondered if it was a good idea to grill ribs tonight.

Some fishermen came through the little channel that the bear swam across. Kerry told them that a bear had just crossed. As it turns out, he knew a person whose boat was invaded by the bear on Heywood Island. Apparently they had gone out kayaking and left their swim ladder down. The bear climbed the ladder, went inside and destroyed the interior of their 30’+ sailboat. He said the bear came back again when they were on the boat. Wow! He thought what we saw in the water may have been an otter. I could not get on the internet to view an otter picture. Later Peter sent me a beaver and otter picture, and this looks like a beaver to me. A lack of big visible teeth through me off!

We had a lovely happy hour on the bow of Annie, each of us having a martini in the proper stemmed glass, Kerry vodka and me Tanqueray gin. We grilled ribs without any bear incident. We have only been able to get the precooked and seasoned ribs here. We much prefer to cook and season our own. We also did potatoes in aluminum foil on the grill. It was a nice dinner.

We were not able to communicate effectively with the Orros by phone or text, so we did a VHF call on 72 at 7:30. They were very interested in the bear stories. After that we discussed anchorages. Because Peter has to run his generator regularly to recharge his batteries, which can be bothersome to a neighboring boat, he does not want to go to a small intimate anchorage. We gave him the privilege of choosing our next anchorage. He may just want to stay here, which would be fine with us. He is short on fuel for his dingy, so he may not be able to ferry us to and from Voyager, and may go to Gore Bay to get more.

After our experience with mosquitoes last night we have kept Annie closed up most of the day. It was a little warm in there but when I came in from outside they are already starting to attack at 8:00, way before dusk.