Lay Days

I'm in the North Channel near Manitoulin Island, warm and dry under canvas, with a rain shower doing its best to put me to sleep on a cool, wet and lazy afternoon. Persistence is anchored in a cosy corner of Blueberry Island anchorage, behind a locally-named island that is not labelled on the chart, but is found at the northwest end of Rat Portage, some three miles as the crow flies from Killarney.

Across Frazer Bay to the north and west, I can just make out the foggy outlines of the Killarney Ridge of the South La Cloche Range. The white rock outcroppings are muted; wisps of mist rise from the slopes and merge with the low cloud. The wind is light, but occasional gusts swing the boat on the anchor and make the pine trees above me on the high shores of the anchorage sigh and dance. 

Definitely what we sailors call a lay day.

Lay days are luxuries. Those with a schedule for holidays dictated by demands of work can seldom take advantage of them; they are considered wasted hours of precious holiday time. But for cruisers who can take the longer view, they are wonderful opportunities to do all those little jobs that accumulate on the to-do list -- or to do absolutely nothing.

My solo summer cruise of the Georgian Bay and North Channel is about half over, here at the end of July. While I have a general plan and schedule for moving the boat, it is not -- can not -- be fixed; variables include wind, weather, supplies, fuel, and the availability of the all-important pump-out stations. So a day like today lets me look ahead, fill in the detail of my route against the most recent forecast and get caught up on the housekeeping.

Today I have tackled the leak in the overhead port in the galley.  It has been leaking since spring launch, but we have not had so much rain that it has been a bother. And solving a leak problem is an ideal task for a lay day: it can take hours and be devilishly frustrating if you can't see it through. The proper fix is a new rubber seal, but I don't have one, so a workaround is needed. After locating the likely source of the water infiltration by sliding paper past the seal of the closed port, I estimate that a temporary shim of two layers of sandwich bag plastic will tighten the seal. A bit of adhesive and it's time to wait and see. No? OK, add some more when the shower stops and try again. I have the time. Meanwhile, nap.

And plan. Tomorrow I will wait for the rain to stop, the west winds to become light, then take the kayak two miles over to the north shore of Frazer Bay, find a cove under Frazer Bay Hill, and climb up the gentler south slope of Casson Peak for lunch. Perhaps one more night in Blueberry, then a brief jaunt into Baie Fine and maybe Mary Ann Cove for the night if the crowds are down, and then it's Little Current for refreshing and reprovisioning.

But today is a lay day.