July 15, 2007 – Day 3 – Personal Log – Jimmy Harrell On Sunday morning we had a skippers meeting at about 10 AM to go over the plans for the day and do a roll call. There were about 30 boats planning to participate in some or all of the planned routes. Eight boats planned to sail one week; 23 for two weeks; and 9 for more than two weeks. We were in the two-week group. Most of the boats had trailered into Spanish but a few boats arrived by water having put in some where else. Harry Rowe and his great nephew Jeffrey sailed into Spanish in their Montgomery 17 from De Tour Village in Michigan, taking two days to cross a wide part of the North Channel west of Spanish. A few others joined the group along the way. The itinerary for the first few days was the same for the three groups. Plans for the day were to leave the marina by noon and meet at the anchorage near Johns Island. We left the marina at noon and headed west through the narrow channel for 1 to 2 miles and raised the sails (reefed main) as soon as we were out of the channel. Wind was on the nose and estimated at 15 to 20 knots. We estimated the waves to be mostly 1 to 2 feet with some as much as 3 to 4 feet. The waves tossed the boat around a bit but not too much and we had a great sail. The air was chilly and the water was a cool 65 degrees F. Jerry and I both wore our harnesses and tethers. About 3 hours later we were approaching Whales Back channel and had to drop sails and start the motor. At about 3:45 PM we rounded the west end of Johns Island and headed southwest into a channel between Johns and Dewdney Islands. We were immediately behind Henk Vanderhuist (82 years young), single handing his Precision 23. Henk motored past boats that had already anchored on the left side of the channel next to Johns Island. We had already learned that Henk was a veteran of these waters and a knowledgeable sailor so we followed him. He led us around a shallow reef, through a narrow opening and into a beautiful cove, 5 to 6 feet deep, and protected on all sides. By 4:30 we had the anchor set and were relaxing a little after a tiring sail when Henk paddled up in his kayak. He didn’t look tired at all. Well, it was almost 5 o’clock so we invited Henk aboard and opened a bottle of Jack Daniels. I tried to keep up with Henk and Jerry and think I had one too many. Henk paddled off in his kayak and Jerry rowed off in his dingy and I lay down to nurse a headache. 9 PM. By pre-arrangement, all the cruisers turned their radios to channel 72 for the “net.” Cruise leader Brian Childs came on and recapped the days events and gave the waypoints next day’s anchorage. He then opened the mike for any reports from the cruisers. He did a remarkable job of keeping up with where everyone was. The “net” was held twice a day at 9 AM and 9 PM. Cleary Cove is 13 miles from Spanish as the crow files. Our GPS track showed we sailed and motored a total of 22 miles. [Click here for a Google map of the area sailed. Spanish in under the blue balloon on the right and Cleary Cove is under the blue balloon on the left.->http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?client=firefox-a&ie=UTF8&oe=utf-8&hl=en&t=h&msa=0&msid=116651256621430826857.000434c77754db27c231e&om=1&ll=46.162237,-82.542343&spn=0.283922,0.461426&z=11] [Click here for a few photos taken on Day 3->http://osyc.net/photos/July_15_Day_3/]