We took some friends out yesterday afternoon for a sail and a cookout on the boat. We took a short trip to a nearby island (Shaw), picked up a mooring buoy and grilled some fresh King Salmon. Two interesting things ocurred. On our way over, we were sailing along nicely at about 6 knots in 150 feet of water when we slowed down abruptly from 6 to 4 knots like someone had hit the brakes even though there was no change in the wind. We hadn't heard a contact with anything and couldn't see anything in the water. We finally had to lower sail, reverse the engine hard and a huge mass of kelp floated to the surface. It's hard to believe what an effective sea anchor it was. When we got to the mooring buoy, the wind was blowing from the south and the last of the flood tide coming into Blind Bay from the North. There was kelp streaming down current and up wind from the buoy. Shibumi settled in with her stern to the wind and bow up current of the mooring buoy with tension on the mooring line downwind and up current. It wouldn't have been a big deal but it was a cool evening and we wanted to sit in the lee of the dodger. Also the smoke from the grill kept blowing down the companionway. Tried rudder hard a port/ rudder hard a starboard. Shibumi would swing around until she was beam to the current and then get pushed back again. Same thing was affecting three other boats in the Bay. Finally high water slack hit and she behaved. The Salmon was really good and we sailed home to a beautiful sunset about 9:30. Gary Wyngarden S/V Shibumi H335