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August 16-17, 2012  Day 97-98    Oak Bay       Total miles to date:  1769.0

On Thursday morning, we decided to leave our anchorage on South Benjamin Island and move to a new area where we would spend two days waiting on the weather.  We took advantage of a high overcast morning with one foot seas on the North Channel, knowing that wind and storms were coming. 

We went over to Hotham Island on Oak Bay, only 10 miles away, and anchored with nine sailboats. It was protected from the south and west which is what we needed.  We arrived around 10:45 and many boaters were already off their boats and out in their dinghies and kayaks exploring the area.  There are many coves here so there were likely many more boats than we could see.

By 1:30 the rain had started but no wind yet. We have guests arriving on the 25^th and Joyce worked on getting the forward cabin ready for them and finding other places to store some of the items that had found their way into that cabin!
The wind finally began around midnight and by 7 am it was at 19 knots gusting to 25 knots.  On Friday morning we confirmed our decision to stay put in our safe anchorage. We had wind here but no big waves and there were 4 ft. waves in the North Channel.  The rain had fortunately stopped during the night and the stars were bright!

We spent the day doing some small boat chores, cleaning, and maintenance, as well as watching the weather.  None of the sailboats left this anchorage either, although they would have had plenty of wind to catch their sails! Tomorrow we will move to another anchorage on the North Channel.