Portland Island

Finally under sails off Sidney with a southwest 8 to 10 knots we made good 5 knots. Tiller steering is a joy under sail as you can feel the helm. I learned to sail 15 ft. Sloops with center boards as a 12 year old. I’m at ease when under sail and enjoy the quiet movement of the hull through the water. Diesel engines silenced. We sailed a couple of times now and getting more confident with Kestrel.

So we stayed over at Princess bay on Portland Island on our way to Pender Islands. We anchored for the first time on this voyage in 20 ft of good holding bottom paying out 110 ft of rode. That night the wind blew a steady 10-12 knots out of the southwest and gusted to 18. Being our first anchorage in Kestrel in tight shoreline quarters I didn’t get much sleep. I had the anchor watch radius set on my chart plotter and wrote down the coordinates. The anchor held and did not drag. Enough scope saved us. Ann rowed the dinghy ashore and walked around this small uninhabited marine park with Ensign Wilson. Delightful to have left the big cities behind us. The next day we hauled anchor and set a course for Bedwell Harbor on South Pender Island.

The departure music, The Navy’s “Anchors Aweigh.”