Collins Inlet – Beaverstone Island – Friday, July 16, 2010

Merrill decided to break from the group and hit some ports on their own – we planned to meet up with them later on. The gang decided to go down Collins Inlet to another island anchorage. While weather had been just about glorious during our trip so far, the morning we left Killarney to head to the inlet proved to be windy – which created some turbulence in the water. While Ruff Life was the last one out of Killarney, as soon as we hit those waves, we put the throttles down and got going! We ended up passing the other 3 boats in the group, but as everyone assures us – because all boats are different, each Captain has to find the right speed/course for his boat to make for the best ride. So, we got on top of the waves and our 4 mile ride was over in 10 minutes. We waited in the inlet for the others to catch up – they were going pretty fast too – I think WaterKraft tug is on plane…

After cruising through a narrow inlet (more like a cavern), we popped out in pretty calm water, but still very windy. We all scouted around for some protection, and ultimately anchored out on the North side of Beaverstone Island. The other 3 boats all have 100% chain for anchor, while the Ruff Life is only equipped with 20ft of chain. Ruff Life set the bow anchor and took a stern anchor to shore, and the other boats set bow anchors and swung with the wind. We were snug as a bug all night as the winds picked up a bit.

The island had a ton of blueberries! Scot and I picked about 2 cups of little berries and the begging for blueberry pancakes in the morning began!