After numerous repairs, tweeks and upgrades over the summer months, I wanted to spend a few days out on the lake to relax. Unfortunately it's forest fire season and the northerly winds are now bringing in heavy smoke.  We are also expecting to see a thunder storm this evening so I also have that to look forward to.

As I sailed south the air slightly cleared and upon arriving at my anchorage, I had a quick supper then prepared the boat for some heavy rains.  A few hours later the skies darkened and then let go with a torrential downpour.  As always the anchor held strong and I watched a movie before drifting off to sleep.

I woke to a hazy sky, soar thoat and burning nose.  Over night the winds carried in smoke from the forest fires up north.  I had a box of Covid masks onboard so I put one on and hoped that would help my sinuses (at least these Covid masks might be good for something).

The wind really picked up and the sailing was great but the smoke was starting to get rather hard to deal with.  By early evening I had made my way to the next anchorage and the sun was glowing a bright orange from the smoke.

August 1st and I awoke to another hazy sky with the smell of smoke in the air.  I was really hoping for a more westerly wind but with it still coming from the north, I knew it would be another day of burning sinuses.

While I sailed south east, I slowly paged through a book of various knots and attempted to practise tying the interesting ones.  Suddenly I heard a strange 'snorting' sound and when I looked up, much to my surprise there was a bear swimming right next to the boat.  I seem to have come directly in its path as it swam between two islands.  It was quite amazing to see and based on the distance it had to go, bears are obviously very strong swimmers.

As I continued south I dropped the Main and sailed under just the Genoa.  Since there were a few channels that could only be navigated while motoring, the Genoa allowed me to quickly and easily furl up each time the motor was required.

I eventually made it to my secluded anchorage in Whitefish Bay, just south west of Sioux Narrows.  This is a beautiful area since the water is so clear compaired to other parts of the lake.  I bbq'd up some hot dogs for supper then went to shore to have a look around.

This is the first morning I've gotten up and have been able to breath a bit of fresh air.  The wind direction has changed to more west-northwest with a promise of south west later today.  With things looking up, I took another trip to shore to do a little more exporing.

After spending a few hours ashore, I returned to check the weather forcast.  Although they continued to call for south west winds I could see this was not going to happen.  The wind continued at northwest and I set sail only to fire up the engine about an hour later with only a slight breeze.  Any breeze at all only brought more smoke.
As I arrived at my next anchorage by early evening, once again I went to shore to take a look around before returning for supper.

Due to the constant sore thoat and burning sinuses, I decided this would be my last night out and would sail home in the morning.