July 30, 2009

Our boat in the fog


Fran and Jeff's new boat


Were gathered together here at Garrison Bay with the impromptu yacht club gathering before the Colors Cruise.
Last night we were at Sydney Spit with Glen and Liz and Don and Jane Janice. Nice place but plenty exposed if the winds were to come up. they did but no big deal as the currents counteracted the wind and we sat as if there were no wind or current at all.

Plenty hot yesterday, high 90's on the water. Unfortunately the water was only 59 compared to the 78 at Tod inlet the day before.

We still were able to get in and get cooled off.

I have added some photos now that we are back in the states and I no longer have to pay the roaming costs for the aircard.

July 25, Annette Inlet, Prevost Island

Just before the storm in Montegue Harbor

July 25, 2009

Yesterday was quite a day. Did I tell you that the night before, Chris and I took an evening walk down to Conover cove from Princess cove. The wind had been blowing a bit but we were holding fine with our stern tie so I thought nothing of leaving. As we approached the dinghy dock a young fellow approached us and asked if we had a sailboat. We told him know and asked why and he said a sailboat anchor had broke loose and he was being blown against the rocks and no one could find the owners. They too had taken a hike.

I thought, good, not me at least. We casually continued to our dinghy and motored back to our boat only to discover that the sailboat that had broken loose had blown into the sailboat next to him and thus pushed that sailboat into us and our anchor had drug to within five feet of being on the rocks with all the added weight. It turned into a goat rope in the dark as the two sailboats re achored in the middle of the bay and after two tries I was able to set the hook and get a stern tie to shore without wrapping anytning around my props and managing to avoid the other boats in the close quarters of the bay. I slept up in the fly bridge just to be sure everything held. After the wind died down I went below only to be woken about two hours later by the flags flapping in the wind and now it was coming from the NW which was completely opposite for which I had set the anchor. Luckily it all held and the wind eventually died completely and I got back to sleep.

We were not sure if we were staying or going until I called Fran to check on their status and she said they would be leaving Vancouver by noon for Porlier pass and Poets cove. I said great, we will hang around and meet you at Porlier Pass and go south with you.

We departed Princess cove and went up to Clam bay for the afternoon, dropped a crab pot, should have known something was wrong cause there was not another pot in the entire bay. Yep empty when I pulled it a few hours later.

I rescued a 40 foot sailboat that ran aground on the Reef at the mouth of the bay. Ran right up into the kelp bed marked by the red bouy at full speed. Sounded pretty bad from a mile away. I ran out in the dingy and was able to pull him off by pulling on the halyard from the mast and Kedging him over on his side. He said thanks and motored off as if nothing serious had happened. I did make him verify that he was not taking on water before I pulled him off.

Fran called and they decided to head for Active Pass since they would arrive at Porlier at max flood of 8 knots and they had a top speed of 8.1. they opted for the longer route to Active and I suggested they stop at Montegue where Don and Jane Janice and Sandy and Dave Hertz were hanging out. They agreed since it was getting a bit later in the day and it would still be several hours of cruising before we saw them.

I se the anchor in Montague in 40 feet of water in the South end of the bay out of the wind or so I thought. When Jeff and Fran arrived I helped them anchor nearby but the first attempt at that ended up with them too close to another boat so we pulled the anchor with highly exciting high speed windlass. Ever see a 40 lb bruce full of mud slingshot out of the water, It is a sight to behold if your nearby and close enough to be showered by the mud as it rains back down on the bow..

We decided that since there was no wind that we would raft together, I though my 160 feet of chain out would be adequate for the two of us. We had a grand dinner that Chris prepared to celebrate the new boat. The sunset was amazing as a large thunder storm built over us and as the rain came down hard, the lightening lit up the bay and the sun turned the clouds blood red the winds came. 30 knots for about 15 minutes made things pretty exciting. The anchor held fine, but we were stretched out the full length of that 200 feet and you could have played a tune on it as it was very tight.

A few boats did drag anchor in the tempest including the bakery boat which had to up anchor and reset in the middle of the channel.

We woke the next morning to fog in the bay and sun overhead,

Fran and Jeff with their friend Pete left about 0800 to try and get across the boarder with their new boat. It is a beautiful 40 foot Catalina Sailing boat, way to go and congratulations on being owners of a great vessel. We look forward to many more fun evenings together.

Were off to Annette inlet on Prevost to meet Glen and Liz who are hopefully crossing the boarder today. We shall see if we can fit four of us in there.

James Bay Prevost Island

July 23, 2009

No photos, I am roaming with my verizon card and so its too expensive.

Left Winter Cove about noon for another lazy start to the day as usual. We cruised by Otter Bay marina, nice place, again half empty, will have to stop by one day with the grand kids.
We stopped at the north end of Prevost and looked at Selby Cove but there were three boats in there already and it was blowing about 25 knots through the gap so we backed out and decided to drop anchor in James Bay where the wind is only about half as strong.
Wind just does not want to die off, staying about 10 to 15 knots out of the SE right over the top of the trees and into the bay. Were Ok, seems like we have a good bite with the hook so we should be fine. Anchor is hanging pretty much straight down with 200 feet of chain out we should be good to go. This is a very exposed anchorage if a northwest wind were to come up, we would not be able to stay here cause the fetch is fairly significant from the NW but all wind forecasts are for winds out of the S and SE and I am surprised this does not give better protection from those winds.

Just watched our neighbors on a sailboat rescue their dog. The dog fell off a cliff and they had to figure out how to get down to him and lead him back to the trail. Dog was fine and all returned safely to their boat.
I am amazed at some of the contraptions people have for shore boats. This guy took about 30 minutes trying to get it off the front of his sailboat and into the water. It’s a regular hard sided rowing dingy but its more effort than its worth to get it on and off the boat. Night before last we watched two adults try to squeeze into a 6 foot inflatable. It was all elbows and butts and not much room for anything else and on top of that it had a 2 hp motor on it and at top speed the person on the bow got their butt wet. I will say it was fairly light weight so they had no problem carrying it above the high water mark once they were able to crawl out of it on shore and somehow did that without getting too wet.

It looks like we might have a thunder storm tonight with a big buildup of clouds to the south. It is quite a bit cooler tonight but that is mostly due to the wind.

July 22 update, Winter cove, Sucia Island BC

July 22, 2009
Left Bedwell harbor at low tide. Decided to go around rather than through the cut, supposed to be able to go through at any tide but its only 3 miles more to go around.

We pulled into Winter Cover which we have never been to with our boat. Apparently this is where they hold the Saturna Lamb Bake on July 1 every year for the last 50 years. I was here with my folks about that long ago for one of the first Lamb Bakes and this is nothing like I remember. Surly I would have remembered Boat pass but I don’t. We ran through by dink at peak flow, it was just like running a class 3 river rapid. Explored the outer islands and came back through Georgeson passage against a strong current. Amazing what 50 years does to memory and geography.

We have a beautiful view through Boat Pass right out across the Straits fo Georgia. Just amazing

July 21

This is a tough life.
Chris and I are having a great time. Just the two of us and we have no plans, no destination, no agenda. We go when we want and where we want. Today we traveled a whole 4 miles in the big boat. We left Prevost Harbor at about 130 and ran four miles to Poets Cove. We decided to grab a park Buoy and hang out for the day.

Before we left we took the McGyver Dink and ran it through Johns pass over to Reid Harbor to check out the crowd and do a little exploring. We decided we liked Prevost better than Reid just because of the crowds and size. We checked out the south entrance to the harbor, I would not try that in the big boat, it has some nasty rocks in there and even in the dink I cut the corner too short coming back in and it got shallow quickly.

Check in through customs was quick and easy. All done by phone. You can tell Canada does not believe it could ever be the target of terrorism. They do little to prevent infiltration by a bad guy. Its highly unlikely they would be coming into Canada anyway. Once their in the US their staying.

We picked up fuel for the Dink, now that it can be run on a string I have run through a full tank of gas so it was time to top it off.

We grabbed an Ice cream and Chris grabbed a drink while I handled some business by phone. We then ran through the narrow cut between North and South Pender Islands. It is a manmade cut that is not very wide that connects Bedwell to Port Browning. We checked out the Port Browning marina and it is nice but not a place we will probably hang out at. It was not full, as we have found with most of the Marinas and anchorages. Maybe its just because its mid week but I have to think lots of boaters are not going out as far this year due to the economy.

July 20

Were in Prevost harbor tonight. We got up to strong winds in the bay at Sucia Island. I looked out over the straits and saw nothing but white caps so I thought we might sit tight for the day. Little did I know that I was looking at a rip tide and everywhere else it was just barely rippled. It seems like we are the center of every wind event and everywhere else is calm?

I had a brainstorm about the dink and decided to McGyver it. I disconnected the throttle linkage and hooked a 3 foot length of string to the throttle mechanism and ran the end up to the throttle lever and put a thumb loop in it. Now I can shift into gear and my moving my hand a few inches forward I can accelerate to full throttle and when I move it back a bit I slow down. Pretty cool, we went exploring the island and discovered there was no wind anywhere but our bay.

We decided to head for Stewart Island and after a short run on calm seas we grabbed a spot on the linier float. Plenty of room to anchor but why bother when it is just as easy to grab a secure moorage and since I have the park pass it’s free, or I guess its paid for, not really free.

Beautiful day and not too many folks here in the bay.
We ran the dink out to Turn Point Light house and found a secluded little beach to play on for a bit, it was private after all but no one was around and we did not find the private property sign until we got to the other side of the island.

Well, the control box got shipped today and should be in the office by Tuesday. The dilemma is what to do with it. I could ship it to Friday Harbor but that means another day down in the States. I think since the jury rig is working just fine I will head north into the gulf Islands and let Glen bring it up with him when he departs. That saves another overnight shipping charge.

Glen was also going to look for a couple new cables and so he could bring the whole shooting match with him when her comes. Will have to decide by tomorrow.

We are out of Verizon range, were roaming now and I am not going to run up a large bill this time around so the Blog stops till we get back in reception

July 19, Sucia Island

Were sitting on a bouy at Sucia Island state park enjoying a perfect evening. we kayaked to shore when we arrived (Dinghy is DOA) and spent five hours hiking and exploring the island. Not sure how it can get much better than this. Beautiful weather, great scenery and except for the dink, everything is working, so far! Well almost everything is working. The aft bilge pump automatic float is not working for some reason and there is no way i am getting my hands into that small space to work on it, not sure how in the world they ever got it into that spot at the factor. They must have built the boat around it because its about 2 feet below the bedroom floor, in the keel, yep 5 inches wide at the most and access is through a 6 inch by 10 inch floor hatch. Blocking the way is four other hoses and some wiring and you have to squeeze between the bed and the wall to get to the hatch. This is a one handed blind operation to get the float out, I guess it will have to wait, hopefully I don't spring a leak cause it won't come on automatically.

I saved another boat. Rhonda and Ricks boat was going down stern first at the dock in Bellingham. Another boater there commented that he thought something was wrong because Ricks swimstep was under water. Sure enough he had about 3 feet of water in the bilge and the bilge pump was not working.

So I jury rigged a water pump I had, god knows why, and hooked it up to his battery which was just inches from going under, and in about 90 minutes we had most of the water out and the swim step was back up where it belonged in fresh air. I left the pump there as their was still plenty of water to get out and Chris and I wanted to be on our way and we still had to fuel up.

So I will have Rick ship the pump back to me later, Cheap salvage operaiton.

Smooth run over after getting out of Bellingham. that must be the only windy place in Washington right now. It just never stopped blowing while we were there but once out of Bellingham bay it was flat calm.

July 2009

Quick update on ur boating activity of late.

July 2nd found me in Chicago trying to find an airplane home since the airlines sold my ticket to a standby passenger when the computer did not show that I had checked in on time even though I was there four hours early. Ever try to find a flight late at night just before the start of a four day holiday. NOt good. I got my seat back, they threw off the standby passengers but by the time they figured out what to do we were 90 minutes late and my conncection was surly gone from Minniapolis. Whe we got there surprise surprise, the flight to Seattle had not left yet. I got on the plane only to be told that eveyone had to get off due to mechanical trouble and they would find another palen. They did but it took another 2 hours to get that one loaded and preped for the flight to Seattle. It was also smaller so 30 people did not make it onto the plane. I did.

Got home late and crashed for a few hours before driving to poulsbo. Glen had comed down and picked up the boat for me so all I had to do was drive up. We set up a wagon wheel of 32 boats in the bay to watch the fireworks.

perfect weather for the entire four days. Lots of water games and fun in the sun. One of the best wagon wheels ever. Glen and Liz and Chris and I hosted the event serving two breakfasts and a dinner to over 80 people.

On Wednesday we headed north after work. Stopped at the outstation at Kingston for the evening. Squeezed in behinc Ralph and Lois in their powercat.
Next day ran all the way to Spencer spit via the inside route due to winds forecast for the straits. We would have had a good push but instead we bucked the current all the way north. We were down to four feet of water in the slew at the south end. a sailboat was aground in the middle of the channel waiting for higher water to refloat them.
Nothing we can do to help them so we pass them by and keep going. Should have picked up fuel at LaConner but I figured I had enough.
We had reservations at Genoa bay for the Mainship Rendevouz for thursday but since we took the longer route north we called and let them know we would not be in till Friday. We pulled in to spencer spit and grabbed the last remaining bouy for the night. Beautiful calm evening.

Picked up first thing Friday and ran through the islands to Sydney where we checked in through customs. NO problems there and were off to Genoa Bay. We were the biggest boat there, all the others the smaller sedan trawler models. Not much there for us to see and we did'nt have much for them to see since the models are so very different. We had a good time, met a few folks and surprise surprise, we found bob and Sheryl. We were running around in the Dinghy to cool off and I saw a boat anchored in the harbor that looked familier. Sure enough Bob and Sheryl were there at the end of their month long trip up north. We visited with them for quite a while to catch up on all the happenings.

Sunday July 12th we left about 0930 with building winds and headed 50 miles to Bellingham. We had to cross Haro strait and San Juan Channel and then Rosario strait which were all open to the 25 knot south winds with opposing currents. We bounced around a bit but all in all it was a fairly easy run. We left the boat at the Surfside marine docks where we had the hard top added. They offered us free moorage and we definitely took them up on that offer. We goofed when we stopped in to there to clear customs however as Bellingham is not a port of entry. IT worked out but I guess I out to check those rules out a bit more carefully before making any assumptions. We got a warning not to do that again.

we will be back up at the end of the week to start a two week vacation.