Some Photos: http://gallery.me.com/sundogjoe/100664
At anchor in Fury cove on the other side of Queen Charlotte Sound – Yeah!!! This was our longest day yet, we got up at 4:30 early bird to beat the weather and left Port McNeil in the dark with a thin line of sunrise starting to appear. You could see the lights of alert bay as we turned the corner and pointed more north towards the dreaded “Cape Caution”. Absolutely no wind and the seas were mostly calm with a slow rolling swell growing as we made our way out of the protected waters into the more exposed gulf. For some reason my tach on my port engine was saying 1000 rpms when it should have been 1500 but everything sounded good so we just continued on course. By the time we were out into the full gulf the sea swells had grown to maybe 4-6 feet but they were far apart and it was fairly comfortable. Honestly it really felt good to be in the true sea and get a taste of what it would be like on the gulf crossing later this summer. All was going great I thought but my crew was quickly deteriorating and as I looked back Daniel puked 
so much he filled up his entire high chair tray and for some reason Cathy disappeared into the aft cabin and there I was with Daniel now playing with his puke and Josiah reaching over and giving a hearty hand by slapping the flat of his palm into the soupy substance that was now splattering all over. Cathy was still no where in site, something about setting up a bed for the boys but I personally think she was having a me moment and hoped that things would resolve themselves up above given some time. I drug a sickly Caleb into the helm to keep pointed into the swells as I went back and somehow managed to balance the tray of puke all the way to the sink and dump it in and then clean up Daniel and Josiah for the now ready bed down below. Turns out Cathy needed her me time because that was the beginning of 5 hours of puking and rolling down in the aft cabin. About when things were settling down Joshua was feeling left out and decided to share his breakfast across a good portion of the cabin behind where i drive including the baby gate and cabinet. Man this is fun, not much I could do as I needed to man the helm and I now had not a single hand that could relieve me. In actuality the seas were not that big, just typical off shore sea swell and hardly any wind so it was a beautiful day to cross and it feels like an accomplishment to be on the other side and that much closer to Alaska. Just the Dixon left for facing the exposed gulf, at least for the family.
Fury Bay is a beautiful anchorage and we met another boat we saw at the GB rondy called the Selina and there are also a few sailboats in here with us. There is a wonderful sand and brilliant white crumbly clam shell beach and we motored out the tidal inlet around the corner to a very special blue green lagoon like beach where I let the boys spend a few hours digging in the sand.
Port McNiel was a really good harbor for taking care of things like tossing trash, filling the diesel and propane and restocking up with food and diapers.
We pulled up a monster of a Dungeness crab this evening and the boys enjoyed the butchering process and I look forward to boiling him up for dinner tomorrow. Right now as we sit and relax at anchor it feels like we packed 2 days of life into this day and I am confident we will sleep well.
Cheers from the Sundog Crew on the other side of the Queen Charlotte.
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