Early start in Esquimault - this is what 5 am looks like

03 July - Having checked the weather and the tides, we had to be up early to get around Race Rocks at slack (at 07:00) so we woke up around 04:30 and were underway by 05:00.  Once out of the harbour we were greeted by 15 - 25 knots wind and a short,  choppy sea.  We had the reefed main up and did try a bit of sailing with just the stay sail but as we were very close hauled we couldn't make much progress and so went back to motoring. 

We hit Race Rocks exactly on slack but with the wind still blowing around 25 knots right on the nose we decided that the prudent thing to do was to pull into Beecher Bay, a favourite haunt of ours just past Race Rocks, and call it a day.  This meant that we were anchored again, in a well sheltered bay by 09:00.  The rest of the day was spent recuperating from the early start and addressing a couple of minor issues that had reared their head with the pounding that we had received the last couple of days. (The dinghy needed lashing better and our prop seal needed to be pumped full of grease as it had started to leak)