It’s raining this morning, but the wind hasn’t come up yet.  According to the weather forecast, we have about a 2-hour weather window, between 1000 hrs and 1200 hrs.  Then, the wind picks up to 15-25 knots out of the Southeast.   If we don’t cross Georgia Strait today, we could be stuck here for several days, according to the forecast.  We decide to go for it. 

I had already entered course lines to Boho, on Lasqueti Island, and to Pender Harbour.  However, the sea conditions looked like we could make it to Smugglers Cove, so I activated the course to Pender Harbour, just to get us up and around Ballenas Island; and then I plotted a course from Ballenas Island to Smugglers.  Only problem was, Al was steering, and I was totally concentrating on reading a really good book.  

As we started getting close to land, Al started seeing houses, which shouldn’t have been there.  “I don’t remember these houses at Smugglers,” Al said.  “You’d better check the course.”  Well, when I looked at the course we were on, I discovered that Al had stayed on the Pender Harbour course line, not realizing that he had to change over to the Smugglers course line once we cleared Ballenas Island.  We were looking at Pender Harbour.  Fortunately, Pender Harbour puts us 4 miles closer to Squirrel Cove, where we’re headed tomorrow.

We hadn’t been in to Pender Harbour in about 15 years, and were shocked by all the building that has gone on.  There were houses on almost every waterfront piece of property.  Sad.  On the upside, however, Pender is very sheltered from weather from all directions, so we had a peaceful night’s sleep.