Mudge Island

After the beautiful sunset and delicious dinner of our first night out, we woke up happy to see that our anchor had held overnight. Still novice anchor-ers...it always slightly terrifies us. I wake up every time and brace myself for the possibility of a land view out my window. 

Our sleeping arrangement is always shifting on the Albin. As the kids grow, we adjust. It used to work for all five of us to sleep in the aft cabin. Now three is a push. For this trip, Finny and Eric are up in the v-berth and Molly, Lukey and I are in the back. The kids actually sleep sideways back there with me. 

We got a pretty early start after cereal and coffee (love our new stove!), heading up towards Mudge Island, where our friends have a cabin. Molly killed the time on our cruise up by creating a new character, Fred. 

It was a quick jaunt north, which left us enough time to stop in at Pirate Cove on De Courcy Island. It was boiling, so the kids lost no time jumping in...

We piled into the dinghy and headed ashore to explore. Unfortunately, Finny's big find was a wasp sting on the back of her arm. Very painful. She was a trooper, but that one really hurt!

She was still game for some cliff jumping, though. Lukey has really come into his own this summer. Once pretty tentative around water and jumps, he is bolder and more risky in his attempts this year. Neat to see. 

On to Mudge. Hard to describe the beauty and hospitality that awaited us at Mudge. We even got an escort through the narrows along the east side of Mudge, which were super tricky. We got dropped off at the marina and Eric anchored our boat, while the rest of us rode "Smokey" the truck to the cabin compound. The kids were so excited to ride in the back. Molly even said it felt "fancy". 

We arrived to find a glorious spread of food and drink... And even better, the company of good friends. The kids spread out across the property, paddleboarding, kayaking, scootering, ATVing and just generally having a blast. 

The property is gorgeous. The dinner we shared was fantastic (despite our early doubts when we learned that leg of goat was on offer). 

There was so much laughter that we had a very dark crossing back to our boat at nearly 10:30. Oh, that and the fact that our kids (and let's face it, us too...) would have been happy to cancel the rest of our trip and set up camp on Mudge for the rest of the summer.