Squirrel Cove

Day 97 – August 15

It’s another sunny morning. We pulled out of Teakerne Arm and moved over to Squirrel Cove which was a very short run. We anchored in the bay just off the inlet to the inner cove. This is the place to go run the rapids in your inner tube, kayak, body surf, etc… So we’ll have fun both playing and watching others play this afternoon.

As soon as we got ourselves anchored; Chris went kayaking, the guys did guy stuff, and I finished mixing my batch of fresh bread, as I watched the action in the bay. I thought one boat looked familiar but could not see the name on it, so thought I’ll have to check that out with the binoculars when my hands are not covered with flour. Chris came back from her kayak cruise around the bay and said that Kenny and Cindy of Impulsive were in the bay. Yep, that’s the boat that I thought I recognized.

In the early afternoon we went for a dinghy ride over to Rosco Bay dropping the shrimp pots in route. We wanted to see what was happening over there and of course get an ice cream cone. Yes there is ice cream in our freezer but sticking to an old Dodge tradition when there is a ‘town’ or dock with the opportunity we have to get an ice cream treat. I remember when the kids were little I think they thought that every dock had an ice cream store at the top. One time years ago we were in the dinghy just out for a ride and Nicole asked where we were going and Shawn said to get ice cream of course! So Glen turned and we headed to a store.

Refuge Cove was pretty full, and lots of people were in the little store getting ice cream and other groceries. They are having a water shortage so not that we cared but nobody could get water for their tanks, do any laundry, or showers and even the restrooms were closed due to the lack of water. Kenny and Tom had both hoped to put some water in their tanks before heading to their next location.

Once back we all went by kayak into the inner cove to explore. We had to paddle against the current going in, but it wasn’t running too fast. We had a nice paddle inside in the still water. There were lots of starfish and sea cucumber in there. Sophie took turns riding in different kayaks, and even tried the back hatch on mine for a while. Coming out of the inner cove was not as easy as going in. We’d stayed just long enough for the tide to change and now we got to paddle against it again. This time the tide was running stronger and well let’s just say we got a real workout. Tom and Glen went first and even they had some difficulty. I tried next and got flushed backwards a couple times. One time I got a little to sideways and started to tip, Sophie leaned at the same time and she went splash! I grabbed a rock to keep from flipping over myself. When Sophie hit the water she looked back like ‘what did you do to me?’ I just told her she was okay and to swim to shore. She did, and after getting out of the water she started walking across the rocks toward the guys voices never even thinking about looking back. I started out again only to get flushed back into the cove. The current was getting stronger by the minute. Time was not our friend at this point.

Tom and Glen walked back over and Glen helped push Chris through while Tom filmed. I was next and got myself about 1/3 of the way through before Glen got back to help push me through the toughest section. Then I paddled my way clear of the incoming current, and out into the big bay. Tom and Glen went body surfing through the rapids a couple times. Back to the boats and time for some swimming. Amazingly the water was pretty warm, about 72 we guessed. The air temperature was in the mid 90’s. Yes, it was indeed a hot day.

Oh remember that bread I was making, well with the heat it was huge when we got back to the boat. But the yeast was pretty tired by then and it started collapsing before I could get it into the oven. It still tasted good; it just looked a bit deflated. We ate dinner on the Magic’s stern. After dinner we went over to visit with Kenny and Cindy for the evening. Kenny told us that they’d just been voted into RHYC so we congratulated them on being new members. We all decided that we could spend at least a month here with weather like this. In all it was another great evening visiting with friends.

There were only about 10 other boats in the bay when we anchored, but by nightfall there were closer to 60.