A Short Time at Shearwater

July 23rd (Tuesday)
We were up early and left Codville Lagoon at 05:30. It was a beautiful morning to be out on the water, although not the windy morning they had forecasted so we did not get to sail. 

On our way across Fisher Channel to Lama Passage we saw some large splashes in the distance. With the binoculars it became very clear that it was a whale. The whale was lifting its whole back end out of the water, almost vertical, before slapping its tail back down into the water. It did this over and over and over, lift and splash, lift and splash. I wish that we had been closer to see it, but even at a distance it was amazing to watch.
When we got to Shearwater we anchored in the bay out front of the town, and spent the day doing chores. We did our shopping, filled up on our three fuels, dealt with all our stuff, and took in our recycling. Shearwater is the first place that has taken our recycling, except for beverage cans, without wanting to charge us. Shearwater just had a large sort-your-own recycling area, and it was very nice to get rid of everything, especially glass items that we cannot crush and make smaller.

July 24th (Wednesday)
It was another nice sunny morning, but with a gale forecasted and rain coming we headed away from Shearwater and back to the peace and quiet of nature. It has been almost three months since we were around the hustle and bustle of a busy place with cars and trucks and helicopters, and it felt somewhat like a city to us. We were happy to get our supplies, but also happy to leave.  

When we pulled up our anchor a peculiar thing happened. As the chain was coming up I was standing on the bow by the windlass, and I could hear it struggling. I gave the windlass lots of breaks, but figured it was because we were anchored in deeper water than normal and so the weight it had to pull up was much greater. I also found myself worrying about its well-being, but eventually, as I looked down at our chain coming up, a very weird shape started to appear out of the gloom. I had no idea what it was, but signalled J to come up and have a look.  As we brought the chain up further the shape of part of an old sunken tree became clear. It was weird that it was caught on our chain and not on our anchor.  

We did not want to pull the tree out of the water at all, as it would have become way heavier for the windlass, so we used a pole to try to free it. We succeeded, but it immediately started to sink into the gloom again where it managed to catch onto our chain once more. Up it came again, and since we were unable to move it away from our chain, and since our anchor was still set in the mud below, we just had to keep freeing it and then pulling it back up when it caught itself again. Eventually up came our anchor, and we were able to unsnag the branches and watch the waterlogged tree sink back to the depths.
It was choppy going down Raymond Passage against the wind and waves, but it was a short trip as it was only about 17 nautical miles from Shearwater to our anchorage. We came into our well-protected anchorage near the entrance to Hochstader Basin on Campbell Island, and anchored in a beautiful little cove that we had all to ourselves.
For dinner we had an amazing meal. We had managed to get real sushi rice in Shearwater, and had also gotten a cucumber and avocado.  We made California Rolls with Salmon Neguri and Salmon Sashimi. Wow So good!!!!