Making our way

June 27,2008 Squirrel Cove Cortes Island
I believe Vancouver named this island Cortes after the Spanish captain he met when they were both doing surveys to claim the land for their own countries.
The day turned sunny and quite warm after an almost winterish day yesterday, raining and cool. We stayed in and read then as the rain let up took the dinghy and motored over to Laura Cove. The intertidal zones are a linear display of yellow and brownish greens from the kelp. There are clumps of oysters everywhere, and they far out number the mussels unlike the Oregon coast where we don’t have any preponderance of oysters. The water is very clean and there is no trash, very pristine, but many areas are affected by red tide and you cannot harvest any clams, mussels or oysters.
We went ashore here on Melanie Cove. It’s very verdant and felt much like the Oregon Coast with it’s depth of sword ferns and density of conifers, minus the Redwoods. How fortunate we are to have our towering giant Redwoods! Also make note of BC’s own variety of slug, unlike our banana slug, theirs has a giraffe’s spots!

Made a pit stop as we left Desolation Sound and actually sailed! Across to Refuge Cove on West Redonda Island. This is a year round community that is very laid back and tourist friendly. Ken thought I might want a burger (I think they call that projection so we each had a $12 hamburger that I guess was worth it. They had no internet there--I was hoping to post to the blog.
We had met some people in LUND who lived their working lives in Medford, but moved to Friday Harbor a few years ago and just joined a sailing club--their up here with some other boaters. They know Roger Vanderbeek well. Don and Mary. We chatted with them at lunch--all about boating of course.
The beauty is spectacular here--reminds me somewhat of Glacier National Park with a salty twist. Lots of boats around but not too many. The woman at the Refuge Cove store said it will really be busy in July and August. Just now I saw 2 Black Oystercatchers--no surprise they would be here! They have outstandingly prominent long reddish orange thick bills, as one would expect they would need. A family of Canada Geese and their young just paddled by. And most touching to me, I heard the brief and distant call of the Loon. I just spied a kitty cat on a cute little power boat from Oregon no less.
Ken spent quite a bit of time pouring over the charts to get us through the notorious Yuculta and Dent Rapids, which we will be leaving for at 6 in the morning. Thank God for these long days! There is no good close staging area, and so we must travel 25 miles tomorrow to be there at slack ebb at 12:45. We will have an ebb against us, and we need to do 6 knots. Stay tuned!

Anchoring 101-104

Had an unanticipated very challenging course in anchoring at Copeland Islands just north of here. We dinghied around to a very pretty little horseshoe bay just around the corner from where we had anchored on the Malaspina side of the island. There was a sailboat, tucked in the center, but when we motored around the next day it was gone. It had looked an easy place to settle back into, but as we were doing so the wind came up a bit and kept pushing us to the rocky steps at the northwestern edge of the opening. Ken took a stern line to shore and had to work hard not only traipsing over the sharp-as-diamonds barnacled rocks, but fighting the wind and our full keel to haul the boat in at a proper angle and position. No sooner did he return to the boat when the wind freshened more, and we could see that we were too far outside of the inlet. So I took the dinghy to shore and let go the stern line and we returned to the other side of the island and our previous anchorage.
There were 2 boats there now, and we pulled up in front of them and could see that neither had a stern line, so we just headed up into the wind, and dropped anchorin front of them in about 50 feet of water. We were head on to about 20 knots of wind, and the first time the anchor didn’t set but we tried it again and with about 200 feet of scope out we got a good set. Good thing too because it blew all night. On our night time potty breaks we both went on deck to check our position. We were holding fast, though I was more concerned about our swing than anything else.

I spent some time doing an eye splice on the deck line, though I’m going to need some more time to perfect it. I also whipped the ends with the French Whip, which is oh so simple as well as elegant. I’m going to whip the bobstay at the bottom of the bowsprit, as the anchor chain will eventually chafe it. Should look terrific and functional too.

We came up the Malaspina Straight, gateway to Desolation Sound, noticing vapors out of the exhaust pipe. The engine was running fine, so after Ken’s investigation at Westview (a lovely vacation spot, see photos) and consultation of the diesel for mariners book figured the Yanmar just needed a valve adjustment. We are awaiting the Yanmar mechanic here in LUND BC to do just that. LUND is the end of the road, the multinational North American continent spanning, West Coast artery road Highway 101. A block of ice costs $3.50 Canadian here, so I am ready for 5 dollar bread at Nancy’s bakery. Actually I got 6 big cinnomin rolls--day old--for 6 bucks!

Smuggler's Cove, mainland BC

On to a more natural setting, we continued north to this special hideout, Smuggler's Cove. It was absolutely gorgeous and pristine, but I think I'll be saying that a lot in the next weeks and will have to come up with some new modifiers.

This hidden anchorage was used by bootleggers to cache their spirits as they smuggled it down the coast back in the 1800's

There are other boaters around, but it is not yet crowded.

We took our dinghy on to shore to stretch our sailor's legs and get a little exercise.

Nanaimo

Nanaimo! (Nah-ny-mo) Gateway to the east side of Vancouver Island and points north! It's a lovely cosmopolitan marina haven. There is a lot of money here, big 80 foot cruising yachts with dark windows. Funny thing, you never actually see peple on the mega-yachts, I think they just sit inside and enjoy watching people walk by open mouthed staring at their monster-wealth.But down on the common docks, everyone is friendly and in good spirits. Ofcourse I unabashedly meet all the dog people. Bailey's (see photo) people were divinely guided to our dock just so I could snuggle with his sweetness. You can see from the photo that he knew his entire purpose in coming to Nanaimo and he couldn't wait to meet me!! Even Ken had a moment of doggy interest and Bailey obliged him.

Dodd Narrows and on to Nanaimo, Vancouver Island

In order to get to Nanaimo, you have to pass through one of the narrowest funnels between Vancouver Island and the BC mainland, Dodd Narrows. For boats like ours, it is imperative that we transit the Narrows at slack water, meaning the time between the flood inward tide and the ebb outward tide. The whole of the sea that moves around the southern half of Vancouver Island passes through this narrow waterway, creating turbulence and high speed flows, up to 8 knots of more. We passed through easily at slack tide.

Once we passed through Dodd Narrows, it was another 90 minute motor sail to Nanaimo. A special treat awaited us, Canada's brand new ferry, the Vancouver 2010. It was beautiful to see, but ofcourse we always keep an eye all ferries, as they move much faster than you might think for there size. In case of a collision. ferry 1, Allymar 0!

Bitches Blog: DeCourcy Island

One of the Canadian Gulf Islands, DeCourcy has a nice little anchorage called Pirates Cove. We've been here a few times before. There is a treasure chest, symbolic of the Cove's wilder past, that boaters have enjoyed decorating with costume jewlery. However when we arrived this time, the treasure chest was gone--and know one could tell us why. It was quite a dissapointment as we had saved up our bangles and baubles for the past two years! Ken brought the bag of trinklets to the Island and instead displayed them on the plaque commemorating the island as a Marine Park. Perhaps we started a new ritual! Map graciously provided by John Kimantas of WildCoast.ca

If you look closely at the map, you'll see Pylades Channel towards the top. DeCourcy is a tiny unlabeled island near there.

Getting wet

We are in Nanaimo B.C. enjoying the good weather and this fine city. Had a couple of boat jobs to do and they are finished and now to relax. The head holding tank was the messy one and the zinc for the propeller shaft was the wet one. Very important to get wet for one and keep dry for the other and I did it correctly thank goodness. Harp said to have someone take pictures of me in the water doing the prop shaft and put them in the blog. Hope they come. Although it takes up a fair amount of room to have a wet suit with us, it was worth it. The reason for the replacement of the zinc on the shaft was that it was removed by the line from the crab pot we picked up off the coast of Oregon. Glad to finally have that behind us. The zinc is used as a sacracifial metal to corrode rather than the metal of the boat itself. Salt water, stray electrical charges lead to electrical corrosion

Tomorrow we will leave Nanaimo for Desolation Sound and points farther north.

Fair winds

Ken

Finally "Canada"

Plans (all plans it seems) change with time and weather. Our plans have changed and we are finally in warm weather and do not have the wind, waves and currents on the nose. Tried to sail agound Cape Beale to Barkley Sound and up the west side of Vancouver Ialand and just could not make it with any comfort. The reality was that we could expect more of that weather and sailing conditions all the way up the outside and it made no sense to continue. Turned around and sailed down the Strait of Juan De Fuca and will now go up the unside passage and down the outside of Vancouver Island (counter clockwise). What a joy to have winds on our stern pushing us rather than thrashing into them. What a joy to go from 40 to 50 degrees to sunshine and sunscreen.

We are in Nanaimo B.C. and will push off across the Straits of Georgia for Pender Harbor and up to Desolation Sound on thursday. I spent my 60th birthday here 2 years ago and both of us find it to be a very pleasant city. Harp continues to take great pictures which I am sure she will share.

Fair winds and lemonade in the afternoon

Ken

Westport gulls

Can't have too many pictures.

The one legged gull is well fed--this platform is right next to the returning charter boat's dock. They throw him a nice fillet of catch-of-the-day, everyday!

Lighthouse is the tallest in Washington.

Sailus Interrupticus

No one knows better than those who make their living by the sea that weather rules your life and livlihood. Fortunately for us, this series of low pressure storms is just a minor inconvienence, but we are trying to avoid bordom just the same. Can't remember the last time we watched a movie before noon. If I eat one more piece of saltwater taffy I'll probably pull a filling out!

We need about 30 hours of good weather and we'll make a dash for Vancouver Island. We're shooting for Saturday, but our fate is in Neptune's hands.

Here are a few shots of Westport to keep you all entertained.

Harp