Red Bluff June 23 - 25, 2015

 

Uh Oh

 
Still basking in our Zen experience from yesterday, we shove off bright and early for Red Bluff, our favorite anchorage from 2012.  Jim loved it so much he said that God must have tucked heaven right into Red Bluff Bay.  This year it may be slipping dangerously close to third place.  We will need to re-evaluate. 

Frederick Sound is again sunny and calm so we have a smooth and uneventful ride for the first two hours.  But, looming before us in Chatham Strait, is a fog bank –surely it will burn off before we get there.  Meanwhile, Jim is working down in the bilge trying to fix our waste pump – the less said about that, the better. 

Suddenly, that fog bank is on top of us, around us, and everywhere you look.  South Chatham Strait has disappeared.  No worries, our trusty radar is on the job.  Having been in these conditions many times, I feel comfortable operating the boat using only instruments.

Several miles go by when suddenly, I can’t keep our boat on course and we are doing crazy eights.  I spend a fair amount of time trying to right the situation to no avail. Now I know what they mean about pilots becoming disoriented in the fog - I could be upside down for all I know.  I do the only sensible thing - I panic and yell for backup.  Jim takes command of the navigation and proceeds to swerve all over too.  The chart states that there is a magnetic disturbance in this area …there’s a disturbance all right, but it isn’t just of the magnetic variety. 

We finally get ourselves somewhat back on course and according to the chart - there is the bay entrance, right in front of us, but we don't actually see it.  We make an executive decision to stop the boat and wait until the fog clears to enter.  A small cruise ship that has been traveling with us decides to do the same and they take this opportunity to fish.  We take the opportunity to fix the pump.

Entrance to Red Bluff

Hours go by – three hours to be exact – three hours of bobbing and fixing.  All around us the fog lifts - except at the entrance to Red Bluff.  Radio reports from inside the bay claim that it is sunny and beautiful there - boats coming out are stunned to see, well...nothing.

Finally,  the curtain rises and we proceed into Red Bluff – it is as majestic as we recalled.  Steep pine covered mountains, waterfalls cascading to the water’s edge and a brown bear grazing at the shore.  Perfect, except for the ten boats all clustered in the same place, at the head of the bay where we will now wedge ourselves too.

 

By the time we are anchored, the bear has lumbered off and the wind is howling at 25 mph.  Too windy to launch either the kayaks or the dingy.  A cruise ship and two mega yachts come in and anchor near us.  It’s like being at a boat show, still very beautiful… but not heaven.