Grounded! 06.29

I woke up at 4 this morning to the screeching of the windlass, which is the electronic winch that we use to pull up the anchor. It happens to be about 3 feet away from the head of my bed. As I’m trying to shake off the sleep long enough to figure out why we are pulling anchor about 4 hours earlier than planned, I start running scenarios through my head. Have we anchored somewhere we aren’t supposed to be? Is my watch 4 hours off? Are pirates taking the ship? Finally, Dan comes in to tell me that we are on solid ground! The depth sounder still says we had about 15 feet of water, which would be enough, but apparently the ground conditions vary enough from one end of the hull to the other that we have gotten stuck somewhere towards our stern. He warns me that “things are about to get pretty weird,” because we don’t really know what to expect. The tide is going out, so it’s going to get worse for the next 2 hours before it gets better. Maybe we’ll just end up a few feet in the air, but maybe the boat will fall over.

The tilt of the boat towards the bow is quickly becoming more and more obvious, and finally we take the dinghy to shore, where over the next few hours we watch the boat lean further and further.

There’s a lesson to be learned from all this that has something to do with how much we trust our charts, but I’m not sure exactly what it is yet…

On the bright side, we get to explore Klemtu after all! There is indeed a café, although sadly it is closed at 4 am, and at 5, and at 6, and at 7. So, we spend the cold, rainy morning walking around the streets. As we gather from some people we talk to, the community is almost entirely First Nation, and the land is all reserve land. The houses belong to the folks who live in them on a kind of temporary basis, for as long as they’re used. On one hand, there is a brand new health services facility, and on the other, the houses are kind of dilapidated. There seemed to be a little bit of resentment that money is being spent on new facilities rather than on fixing up houses in need of repair. Apparently people who want to work can, but it’s implied that most don’t. Other highlights of Klemtu: three dogs that kind of adopt us for a while, lots of bald eagles, and a woman who works for the department of fisheries who invites us to the town’s bunkhouse to get out of the weather and have coffee and tea while we wait for the tide to come up.

As the water gets higher, the boat rights itself and finally floats again. We can’t find any damage, and we’re off! Phew.