Leaving Port Sidney Marina, my navigation software plotted a route to Montague Harbour that zigged and zagged through many rocks. I ignored the suggestion to play "dodge the rocks", and instead plotted a manual route via the main ship channel. There were a number of ships and ferries, but on a good day with good visibility, staying away from danger was easy. The big guys know and apply COLREGS (Collision Regulations) so there is far less doubt than when facing some weekend warrior on a too fast power boat being driven like a car.
Montague Harbour is a provincial park, with 2 main anchorages. One south of the park, in a very well protected bay, the other on the north side, in a more open location. The southern one is very popular, and has fee based mooring balls as well as free anchorage. On the other side of the bay is a small marina with a public dock leading to a small shop and a pub.
The US weather forecast was predicting 40 knots of winds that night, so I decided the southern side would be best, even though I trusted the Canadian forecast of light winds more.
The anchorage was busy for local standards, but I easily found a well isolated spot in the middle of the bay where I anchored using plenty of extra chain for safety. Staying there a few days. I realized most boats were only here for the week-end, so by Monday the bay started clearing up. By Wednesday only 4 boats remained on the 30 mooring balls.
Off to explore the park with Princess!
Despite the bay of boats and the full camping site, the walking trails were uncrowded as soon as you got a few minutes away. Princess alerted me to a few deers. Since there is no hunting in the park, they're not shy.
The park is beautiful with long open views to the north and west to best watch the sunsets, and dense forests with good walking trails. All around there are white broken sea shell beaches where Princess could run before cooling down with a swim.
All in all, Montague Harbour has all the elements of a great spot for Enfin:
-Well protected anchorage
-Public dock to go ashore easily
-Plenty of beautiful trails to walk
So Princess and I are going to stay here for a while, until we start making our way down towards Victoria to pick Di up.
Days at anchor have their own routine, from waking up and jumping in the tender to going ashore for the first long walk of the day, to running the generator and all other systems. Working on the boat, checking the forecast and emails, going back ashore a few more times, lunch, dinner, more generator time, there is a rhythm to it that makes you wonder where your day went when you finally lay down in your berth!
And if all went well, Princess too will be a tired little husky.
So, we'll spend a few days here, and when the forecast is most favorable we'll start making our way south.