On July 31st, we decided to head back to Manson‘s Landing because we needed to pick up more insulin for Yas at the post office, drop off some library books that we had picked up at Q-Cove, get fresh food and drop into the bookstore. For once, we were the first ones to pull up at Walsh Cove, being as quiet as possible so our American friends (and Yas who wouldn‘t get out of bed to pee) could keep sleeping. It was a beautiful morning with the sun rising over East Redonda Island! Jerome took us out of Waddington Channel and into Pryce Channel. We had to motor the entire 25 nm because it was calm again. With one stop at West Redonda Bay for Yas to have a bathroom break, we pulled into Gorge Harbour five hours later. Jerome was at the helm taking us through Plunger Passage and the tricky Uganda Passage at Shark Spit.
After dropping anchor in Gorge on the first try, we had lunch, took Yas ashore for another bathroom break and got the dingy ready to head over to Manson‘s Landing. It was about 3 nm one way and quite calm so we got there and back with our missions complete….insulin picked up, library books dropped off, two new books (Tintin The Calculus Affair and Asterix In Spain), some food and sore feet from all the walking. Just FYI: if you are looking for the library on Cortes Island, it is part of the educational area at Linnaia Farm (about 3.5 km from the dock).
Once back at Gorge Harbour, we settled into luxury again. We caught up on laundry; found a really nice food truck to eat at (Bears Picnic) that was not as expensive as the restaurant and it seems to be a favourite for the locals; and swam at the pool for most of the first full day there. It was ridiculously hot and very smoky from a forest fire north of Gorge so the pool was the perfect place to be! Gorge Harbour is really an interesting and pretty place to be….it would be perfect if there was cell service and internet. (It is really hard to update the blog without these. It would also help if I would stop murdering my poor cell phones!) Our apologies to all of you hoping to hear from us either by phone, blog or email. We have missed birthdays and anniversaries and want all of you to know that we were still thinking about you!
We spent Day 2 at the Gorge swimming at the pool again; getting provisions, propane and water. The final morning there was spent with Jerome having an epic light sabre battle and playing with another young boy from the campground. He also met the boy‘s stick bug named Charlie who happened to be 19-years-old and likes to ride a motorbike. Yas had been accosted the night before (when on her nightly stroll) by an off-leash dog so she was looking a little down and beat up with a lacerated and swollen nose.