Not so excellent yet...

We left Seattle on Sunday, July 10th, took a BC ferry from Tsawassen to Nanaimo and headed for Campbell River.  Unfortunately, we burned up a wheel bearing and tire on the boat trailer south of Courtenay, BC.  Not surprisingly, no tow truck big enough to handle the trailer and boat was available on Sunday evening.  We used our Yankee ingenuity to fashion a sling for the axle from our new tow strap and limped into Courtenay, where a couple of mounties escorted us to a marine repair shop.  We boondocked in their parking lot and, next morning, the boss took a look and sent us to Courtenay Spring and Welding.  They have welded on two new spindles and are replacing backing plates, bearings, brake system, etc.  Meanwhile, we have been doing our sightseeing by land!  We might get the Bonaroo in the water this afternoon.  I will post some photos later. 
The weather is not as wonderful as it was last year - showers and cool, but we are prepared.  Looking forward to getting underway...

Heading Home

August 24

We cruised out of Hardy Island Marine Park on the morning of the 20th, after meeting some fellow Montanans who were anchored next to us.  They had an even smaller boat than ours and have been cruising to Canada in it for 8 years!  Mike has even made this trip in a 17’ canoe with a small outboard, camping ashore!  And some people thought WE were nuts.

We had more rough water, so we only went 9 or 10 miles to Pender Harbor, where we were glad to settle in early.  The next day, the seas were very calm, so we crossed Malaspina Strait and the Strait of Georgia to Nanaimo.  We called out buddies at Stones Boatyard to let them know that we made the trip north without further boating mishaps.  We spent the night at Newcastle Island Marine Park and I caught some nice sunset photos:

We cruised through the southern Gulf Islands and saw some coves and bays that we will check out next year.  We crossed back into US waters yesterday, checked in with customs, and fueled up in the San Juan Islands.  We made it through Deception Pass (wrong timing yet again) and spent the night anchored off of Hope Island in N Puget Sound.

We are now headed for Port Townsend to take the boat out of the water.  Bill and I are both a bit sad to have the trip end, but we have so much to look forward to this fall.  We will be hosting the Roving Rods’ crab gathering in Winchester Bay from September 20-30 (come on over!), and we will be visiting South Dakota, so that I can renew my drivers’ license.  It will be a good chance to see my aunt and cousins who live in and near Rapid City.  Then, it’s back to see all of our RVing friends at North Ranch.

I hope that you enjoyed reading about our trip and that I will soon have more to post about our continuing adventures.

We Made it to Blackfish Sound

August 20

We left Lagoon Cove on Saturday, the 14th.  Here’s my crabbing catch:

We didn’t go far – we tried a crabbing spot that was recommended – no luck.  We didn’t like the sound of the winds predicted in Johnstone Strait, so we stayed in a small cove in Baronet Channel.  We referred to it as Horsefly Haven!  Yikes!

The next day we were listening to the whale-watching boats on the VHF.  They were talking about humpback whales in Blackfish Sound, so we cruised on up there and got to watch three of them, blowing and diving.  The photos are not very good – digital cameras are too darned slow – but here are a few:

It is certainly difficult to show just how huge these animals are!

Then we heard that the Orcas were down near Port Neville, and we were ready to begin heading south, so we decided to see if we could find them.  Johnstone Strait was remarkable calm, so we put in a long day, but no Orcas.  We anchored at Charles Bay after seeing lots of big boats like these:

We have visited Octopus Islands Marine Park – very popular and looks like a great place to kayak – and Rebecca Spit Marine Park, where Pogo and I went to the beach.  I has a swim and he got to chase squirrels! 

On Wednesday, we left Rebecca Spit and visited Gorge Harbor – beautiful spot and I told Bill that if we do this again next year, I want to splurge and stay at the marina/resort there.  Maybe for our 10th anniversary?

We continued south and Bill asked if I wanted to visit Mitlenatch Island.  It is a seabird refuge and I figured I would see a great variety of birds, so I said, “yes!”  It is also in the middle of the Strait of Georgia.  As we were heading there, the wind came up and we pulled into the small cove on the eastern side of the island.  The waves were rockin’ and rollin’, but that didn’t bother the couple who were already anchored there:

They were snoozing in the back of the boat – didn’t even hear us come in – until we stared putting the anchor chain out!  Those were a “salty” pair!!  We spent a bumpy night and didn’t sleep well at all!

We were outta there early the next morning and fought rough seas all the way to Hardy Island Marine Park, where we spent a nice, quiet night.

For all of our friends who love to volunteer at parks and refuges, have we got a deal for you!  These are the volunteer quarters at Mitlenatch Island Refuge: 

A shack on the rocks, how about it?  Any volunteers???

We are headed home (sigh) and should be at Port Townsend on Wednesday or Thursday.  What a great trip it has been so far!!

Friday, the 13th of August

Today, we awoke to a calm, foggy morning after a very quiet night at Port Harvey Marina.  We felt as though we were sleeping on land; the boat moved so little during the night.  After the wind, the creaking against the dock, and the salmon fishers going out at all hours that we experienced the two previous nights, last night was heaven!

We followed another boat (nice folks, Cathy and John Campbell from Victoria) up Johnstone Strait to Port Harvey yesterday.  After the “gale-force” winds predicted, we were grateful to see 2-foot swells with a wind chop.  The only dicey part was when we turned into Havannah Channel and the waves were striking our beam.  Bill powered through!

We heard that there had been a pod of Pacific white-sided dolphins in the marina this morning, but we missed them.  We did, however, get to see them on our way out of the bay.  They really come out of the water and put on a show!  No orcas yet.

We took a nice, leisurely cruise to Lagoon Cove Marina today.  We had heard great things about the happy hours here, so we had to check it out.  The owners, Bill and Jean Barber, provide the prawns and everyone else brings their drinks and finger foods.  The prawns were great!  And Bill told stories of the history of Lagoon Cove and the area, as well as some tall tales.

So, our Friday the 13th was a warm, sunny day and a lot of fun.  Nice sky this evening, too:

To Go or Not to Go – Farther North

August 11

We stayed at Shoal Bay until Sunday morning.  The pink salmon were jumping all over the bay, so I had to try my luck.  I had no luck on Saturday and blamed it on the wrong tackle.  Then on Sunday morning, a family we had met were leaving and they gave me the “hot” lure and I finally caught a small salmon and got it to the net!

Shoal Bay – you gotta love a place with a sense of humor and great views as shown below:

You may not be able to read the last line, but it says, “Twinned with sister city Paris (France)”  

This is the pub.

This is the view.

Sunday morning, we went to Blind Channel Resort for fuel, to do laundry, take showers, and do some grocery shopping.  Whew!  Prices are getting higher the farther north we go!  We spent the night at a place called Beaver Inlet.  There was a beautiful yacht anchored there already and we met those folks the next morning.  The yacht owner lives in Sun Valley, having made his fortune in the coffee business in Seattle – with Starbucks!  Anyway, nice people and we traded them a salmon filet for a couple of Dungeness Crabs – yummy!

On Monday, we decided that the forecast for Johnstone Strait was too windy for us to handle.  We were headed out to Discovery Passage and south to the Octopus Islands.  We stopped at Hemming Bay – a beautiful little cove that we, again, had all to ourselves.  The harbor porpoises were working the area, as were the harbor seals.  The loons were so loud in the morning, they woke us up!  We got to the junction of Discovery Passage, Chancellor Passage, and Johnstone Strait and decided that Johnstone Strait didn’t look that bad, so we hung a right instead of a left!  In other words, we kept heading NW. 

We pulled in at the dock at Port Neville where there was one other pleasure boat and several gillnetters’ boats.  Seems they were opening the sockeye salmon season the next morning for 24 hours.  I chatted up the Canadian Fisheries and Oceans guardian who was in his VERY nice boat at the dock.  Of course, I told him that I used to be a game warden in Idaho and that gave me an “in”.  He was going up the inlet to check on the salmon run and asked if Bill and I would like to go along.  NO question!  He really opened up the throttle on his rigid-hull inflatable! 

Saw some eagles and geese, but no bears.  He showed us some pictographs on the rocks at the site of an ancient native midden:

He was a very nice guy and we learned quite a bit about the salmon fishery from him.

The store at Port Neville was run by the same family from 1894 until 1960.  They finally shut the post office down this past January.  Evidently, this was a thriving logging and fishing community at one time. 

Now there is a caretaker there who shows people around and shares the history of the place.  We ended up staying at the dock for a couple of days, waiting for the winds to calm down in Johnstone Strait.

Desolation Sound

August 6

We cruised around Sarah Point and into Desolation Sound on the evening of the 4th – woo, hoo!!  We anchored in a tiny little cove – we had it all to ourselves, so it was nice and quiet.  The next morning, we poked around in Tovara Inlet and I caught a couple of rockfish.  Then we went to Pendrell Sound and, because the wind was nonexistent, we were able to anchor along the shore of the Sound.  The water was warm and clear, so we had a great time swimming.

 

Unfortunately, we were not able to take any photos, nor were we able to see the mountains, because of the thick smoke from forest fires in BC.  Bummer!!!

Yesterday, we put in a long day.  We left Pendrell Sound and started up Toba Inlet.  The smoke was so thick that it was almost as bad as a fogbank, so we turned northwest to try and get out of the smoke.  We followed a bigger boat through a couple of rapids, but then he didn’t go toward the third set of rapids.  We were the only boat headed that way, but the tide and current tables said that it should be OK.  On we went and Bill did a good job of avoiding almost all of the whirlpools.  One kind of tossed the boat a bit, but was OK.  There were several porpoises playing in the rapids, so that was fun to see.

We spent last night at Shoal Bay, which is not unlike Polebridge, MT – for those of you who have been there.  Public docks and a pub and lots of friendly folks.  And no smoke in the air this morning after some strong breezes last night!  We are staying for another night and then we are going in search of Orcas.  Stay tuned!

Jervis Inlet

August 2

Here are a couple of photos of the Bonaroo being lifted out of the water for repairs:

 

But enough of that.

We stopped for fuel at a marina in Egmont, BC and saw this great steel-hulled boat, named Teddi Bear, moored at the dock:

Notice the helicopter on the back deck!  We talked to the owner and he told us that he had the boat built in New Zealand – took 3 years and he had to buy the company when it went broke in the process of building his boat.  Who has that kind of money!?!?

We cruised up Jervis inlet, 30+ miles of steep-sided fjord.  It was just beautiful!!  Waterfalls along the way and views of snow-capped mountains around every bend. 

Then we came to Malibu Rapids – a very narrow channel that you need to traverse at slack tide.  A Christian youth camp sits on the bank of the channel and is very nice! 

Once through the rapids, we were in Princess Louisa Inlet and, man, was it worth the trip!

Water so warm, it was swimmable!  Although the water from Chatterbox Falls was VERY cold, it mixed with the warmer water in the bay, making for great swimming.  And  what a bathing beauty!

Here’s our little boat anchored next to Chatterbox Falls:

It is difficult to describe the beauty of Princess Louisa Inlet – some have described it as entering a cathedral.  I don’t know about that, but with at least 20 waterfalls falling from the surrounding mountains  and the crystal clear water, it is truly a destination spot!!

We left Princess Louisa Inlet on Saturday, July 31st and cruised out of Jervis Inlet.  We spent that night at Harmony Islands Marine Park in Hotham Sound.  That evening, we had our first rainfall of the trip – about 20 drops.  The next morning was overcast, which added a dramatic look to the mountains and waterfalls around us.

Yesterday, we anchored in a small cove at the mouth of Jervis Inlet and Pogo and I took a short hike around the island.  Bill shot a couple of photos of the Bonaroo in this nice tranquil cove: Just dangling my feet – not warm enough to swim. 

We will stay here another night, stop for provisions in Lund, and head into Desolation Sound tomorrow, weather permitting!!

Leaving Nanaimo

July 28
Sorry, those last two posts were published out of order.

We finally made it into the water with all systems go at 7pm last evening – hooray!!  We had a setback yesterday afternoon and spent $272 for a reverse lockout kit – we only needed one spring out of the kit, but that’s how Volvo/Penta makes $$.  Anywho, we spent last night back at Newcastle Marine Park and crossed the Strait of Georgia today.  No problems and we are currently anchored at Pender Harbor on the Sechelt Peninsula.  Tomorrow, we will get an early start to make it to Princess Louisa Inlet Park.  This is supposed to be the “Holy Grail” for NW cruising with a place called Chatterbox Falls at the head of the inlet.  Will post photos.

Cowichan Bay Through Dodd Narrows to Nanaimo

July 19

We left Butchart Cove on the 17th and cruised up the west side of Saltspring Island.  We pulled into Cowichan Bay where I bought a fishing license and some crab bait, along with cheap red wine and groceries.  We then anchored in Burgoyne Bay and I caught 4 red rock crabs for dinner – Yummm!  We had to re-set our anchor a few times to get it set well, but it held overnight.  Here’s an interesting RV in Burgoyne Bay:

On Sunday, we motored through Dodd Narrows - ~150 yards wide and the current was really flowing! 

After that thrill ride, we pulled into the bay across from Nanaimo – Newcastle Island Marine Park.  Lovely spot and very busy, especially on weekends.  Pogo and I took a short walk on the island after Bill got us there in the trusty dinghy.

Today we took the passenger ferry from Newcastle to Nanaimo.  The waterfront walkway and parks are lovely and we had access to free wifi at the library. 

Trouble in the Harbour City

July 24

Welllll, we were cruising through Newcastle Passage last Tuesday on our way north from Nanaimo and trying to avoid the seaplane landing and taxiing zone, when “CLUNK” we hit the only big rock around.  Disabled the prop, so Bill had to fire up the outboard while I looked up a marine repair yard.   As luck would have it, we were only ~500 yards from Stones Boatyard and Marina.  Called them and they said they could help.  We called to some nice boaters standing on the dock to help us, as the wind and current were not helping us with our docking attempts.  We all managed to tie the Bonaroo to the dock without harming it or hitting any other boats – whew! 

To make a long story short, we have been sitting up on blocks in the boatyard almost ever since.  The folks here had the prop fixed, put a new pin in the lower unit and put us back in the water Thursday evening.  No go!  Still had no forward or reverse.  Lifted us out of the water on Friday morning, called a Volvo/Penta specialist who thought he had the problem spotted.  Unfortunately, it was worse than he thought – the shaft on the lower unit was broken.  The lower unit is now in Campbell River being repaired.  It is supposed to be here on Monday.  $1000 and counting…

On the bright side, we got a great deal on a rental car, so on Friday we drove north to Qualicum Beach (warmest seawater north of Mexico) and had a seafood lunch.  A Canadian fulltime RVer who spends his winters at “The Slabs” told us about a couple of natural sights to see.  We went to the Little Qualicum River falls and Cathedral Grove – the last remaining stand of old growth forest on Vancouver Island.  Impressive Douglas firs and cedars – over 800 years old.  Then we drove on to Port Alberni, which connects to the west coast of Vancouver Island via a VERY long inlet.  It was a fun day and great to get away from the boatyard. 

Today, they held the 44th annual World Championship Bathtub Races in Nanaimo, so we walked to town to watch the start.  To call these things bathtubs is stretching it quite a ways!  They have three divisions:  modified, super-modified, and stock.  They look like a small fiberglass bathtub on top of a fast sled!  Here is a photo of one of the boats stuck on the beach and other photos of the start: They used to race these things to Vancouver!  But now, they go out of Nanaimo Harbour, up around the Winchelsea Islands, and back into Departure Bay.  A total of 56 km!!  Takes the winner about an hour.

Oh, and I did put my kayak together yesterday and took it out for a couple of hours:

Needless to say, Bill has been beating himself up pretty heartily for hitting the rock, but the important thing is that we are OK and the boat is fixable.  Guess I’ll have to sell lots more of my beaded trinkets to pay for this unexpected expense!!!

Hope you all are having a great summer and have wonderful stories to tell!!

Butchart Gardens

July 17

We couldn’t leaved the Victoria area without a visit to the famous Butchart Gardens, so we left the beautiful Inner Harbor and headed for the Sydney Spit Marine Park.  We anchored out off of the sand spit and enjoyed a quiet evening and no problems the next morning when we pulled the anchor – we’re getting this system down!

We pulled in to Van Isle Marina for fuel and a pumpout.  The crew there was extremely efficient, helpful, and friendly.  We cruised through Satellite Channel to Butchart Cove and anchored in the quiet cove.  We had some lunch and dinghied to the Butchart Gardens dock.  After paying our $31/head, we took out time strolling through the gardens, which were as impressive as expected.  Liz Burke would have been in heaven!! 

 

 

Victoria, BC

July 14

We made it!!  Nice, smooth crossing of Haro Strait yesterday and no problem with customs.  We are docked right in front of he Empress Hotel on the promenade.  Beautiful buildings and floral gardens everywhere!

As you can see, the Bonaroo is dwarfed by some of our neighbors, but we’re having as much fun as they are. 

On our way into Victoria Harbor, we passed this picturesque lighthouse:

   We walked around downtown and did a little shopping yesterday.  We enjoyed some of the street entertainers on the promenade and Bill found a great hot dog and ice cream float shop.  More walking and people-watching last evening and then enjoyed seeing the parliament buildings after dark:

July 15

Bill went to the Royal BC Museum yesterday while I dog-sat.  He enjoyed the exhibits very much, especially those dealing with the native cultures.  Earlier in the day, I went to Miniature World – very well done – went to a high-end grocery (Yikes!  how do people afford to live here?!?), and found a bead shop!  I was looking for unique beads but found none.  I did, however,find some beads that I need to complete a project – score!

It is just wonderful being in the heart of downtown Victoria!  Such a metropolitan city; full of tourists, to be sure, and many friendly boaters.  We plan to head to Sidney Spit Marine Park at around noon – going with the tide.