April Point to Blind Bay Resort (June 10)

We are returning this morning to Campbell River in search of a new paddle for my kayak.  This morning the flood tide is carrying us south the 3 miles we struggled to make last night.  We arrive at Fisherman’s Wharf and find our same “parking spot”.  Once we are tied up and have checked-in with the Harbor Master (no charge), we head into town looking first for coffee and then the paddle.  As we leave the dock we see a sporting goods store just opening and agree that we will return as soon as we have found a cup of coffee. 

On the main street, we find “Shot in the Dark” and each order a latte.  This is a great local coffee shop and the owner tells us stories of local bears and town politics as he makes each of us a great cup of coffee!  If we weren’t in a hurry to catch slack tide through Seymour Narrows, we would sit down and have breakfast.  Everything in the place looks yummy!  As it is, the owner won’t let us go until he has provided us with an order of toasted homemade bread (& butter) and a bit of chicken meat for a cat treat. 

We hurry back down the street to the sporting goods store and sure enough they have a paddle that suits our needs.  We complete the transaction and continue back to the boat. 

Slack at Seymour Narrows is at 9:58 and all the books tell us that in a slow boat we should not challenge the window.  As we chart our course from Campbell River, our computer tells us that we will arrive at the Narrows at 10:18 – which is the outer edge of the window.  The good news for us is that tides today are quite small – so today’s ebb tide maxes out at 8.1 knots rather than some much larger number (like 15).  Our trip through the Narrows is both beautiful and uneventful. 

I want to return to Blind Bay (I bought a pair of earrings there last year and lost one – now I want to try to replace them).  So, we pull into an anchorage behind Turn Island to wait for the current in Cordero Channel to moderate.  We drop our anchor at noon and have a bite of lunch.  I work on the blog and Barrie naps until the water pump goes off.  The question is what is running – faucets are all off and finally he finds a leak under the forward sink.  Eureka, the fresh water leak that has plagued us for 3 years is finally found.  And the fix is just tightening the hose clamps that hold the copper hose and the plastic hose together.  Great that it is finally found.  Too bad that it was so elusive for so long.