A short hop away from Montague Harbour, North and Sounth Pender Islands provide good, well protected anchorages and mooring buoys.
I anchored Enfin outside the mooring ball field, fairly close to Poet's Cove marina and resort.
The resort is real nice, and their lower swimming pool with a stunning view on the whole bay is accessible to the public at large for a small fee. Being alone with Princess, I did not partake... But it's on my list on our way back up when I'd be very tempted by a hot Jacuzzi while Di and Princess go for a walk (Di isn't a fan of hot tubs).
Nearby Beaumont Marine Park is an easy dinghy ride away, but there are no docks and the beaches aren't easily accessible under all conditions. At low tides, it's a long trek in shallow mud to get to shore. So I alternated Princess' walks between Pet's cove and the marine park. Plenty to keep us occupied either way, in beautiful forests and stunning scenery.
At the marine park, Princess alerted me to a nearby otter, and, not being able to control herself anymore, jumped in the water from the tender. I grabbed her by her life jacket and hauled her back in, and we worked again on the "no jumping from the boat" rule. There's been a lot of improvement on that front, but an otter was just too much!
A short but very steep walk from Poet's Cove is Greenburn Lake -which I mentally renamed Thighburn Lake- also part of the park system. I'm told there are beavers up there, but they cleverly hid away from us.
The stay wasn't all about "walks in the park" as I had a couple very minor problems on Enfin, both caused by the high plankton and jelly fish population in the bay.
First, my water maker pre-filters kept clogging, about every hour, making the simple task of producing water a lot more intensive than normal. Luckily I have a more expensive first pre-filter, made of stainless steel so that it can be washed and re-used. This is much better than one-use only filters, as you don't have to carry any spares (well I do have a couple or 3 or 4... just to be extra ready). A simple rinse and brush in sea water and you're good to go again.
I reached to the ever helpful Nordhavn Owners' Group and they suggested installing a media filter, which is basically what is used in many pool. A sand filter with back and forward flush capability. "Tanglewood" has a beautiful install that is very tempting, but might be a little overkill and too space consuming in my small lazarette. Saying nothing about the hit to the wallet.
Second, for the first time in a year, I had an unexpected shutdown of my generator. The control panel didn't tell me if it was temperature related or oil pressure related. Since the oil pressure gauge read a normal 180f just before it shut down, I assumed the problem might be on the oil side of things. To be safe I replaced the oil filter and checked the oil pump and its belt. All normal.
After all that the generator restarted no problem, but since the oil pressure was exactly the same before and after the filter swap and way above the safety shutdown, I am fairly certain the problem was temperature related. So, to be extra safe, I checked my whole cooling loop as much as I could. All in order, from through-hull to strainer to pump to exchanger and back out. Shooting a laser temperature gauge on the various elements while running show all normal temperatures. I must have had an obstruction (jelly fish?) at the through-hull that took the exhaust elbow to its high temperature trigger, as the engine itself was within normal temperatures.
Last, on a day with minor swell coming in the bay, I decided to try my new Flopper Stopper. It was easy to rig on the port side pole, using the same quick shackle as I use for the passive stabilizer. No doubt the stopper does its job of dampening the boat's roll. It will come in handy in some less protected anchorages, so I'm glad I got to try it in easy conditions first.
