Were at Rosario. I have not been here since I was 10 or 11 years old. Pretty much the same great place for kids that I remember. We spent all day in the pool with Chloe. Will have to try shuffle board later. were here for tonight and tomorrow, will take Becky and Chloe back to the ferry on Tuesday and Join the club at Fisherman's bay that afternoon. Weather still great, sunny and warm with a slight breeze.

had a great day at Deer Harbor with Becky and Chloe. We set up the sailing dinghy and sailed all over the bay, got one crab in the pot all day so crabbing was not that great. We went up to the beach and Chloe and I built sandcastles and went wading in the shallow water. after her nap we took her up to the pool and she had a blast swimming all over. Her little swim floats allow her to swim in the deep end and she is able to dog paddle and tred water for a long time. We had a fun dock party with Bill, his family and friends. Dave and Sandy Hurtz came in earlier in the day and I invited them to join us. As it happens they know some of Bills friends. It is a small world.

Deer Harbor today, brisk wind out of the south but no issues getting into the slip. Friends from way back in scouting are here with friends. they are staying in a nice cabin on shore. Bill Rengstorf and his wife Kathy and their daughter, her husband and their daughter are all here. Met another old friend from the Sheriff's department, Wayne Zinter and his wife Lucy. I have been following his facebook page and knew he was in the area so I gave a blind call on the VHF and he answered right up. They were coming to Friday Harbor for the day so we hooked up and talked for a couple hours about what we've been up to since retiring. He has a 32 Bayliner. Becky and Chloe arrived on schedule on the 1pm ferry and we met mom and dad at the head of the marina dock so they could visit with their great grandaughter for a while. Had fish and chips and then grandma took chloe up to the toy store and bought a bunch of stuff. She never had girls to buy for since she had us three boys so she enjoys the opportunity to spoil Chloe.

July 27th Crossed back over the boarder to the US side. Checked in at Roche, no wait no hassle. did not charge us duty on the extra liquor on this side. We charge a tax on the overage, Canada charges the estimated cost of unopened bottles. US counts all liquor not just unopened bottles. Cost of doing the paperwork on the US side outweighs charging us the $5 we would have owed on the extra we had. Dropped the crab pots in Friday harbor, crabs stole one pot and at all the bait in the other but I managed to catch 2 keepers, had to throw the other dozen back as they were all female. Becky and Chloe are coming in on the 1 pm ferry from Anacortes. Will head over to Deer Harbor this afternoon, they have a beach and pool for Chloe to keep occupied. Then headup to Roche tomorrow, hopefully to grab the outstation and then down to Fishermans Bay on Lopez on Monday to hook up with the club cruise.

Zip line adventure today. We had a great time. Had to take the bus 20 miles to Sooke but their bus system up here puts anything we have to shame in Washington. The zip line tour lasted about two hours or so. To get to the top they put you in a large all wheel ATV that winds its way up a track, its not worth calling it a road, through the woods. That might be one of the best 4x4 rides I've been on. Their are about 8 zip lines, the longest is 1000 feet. Chris was white knuckled the whole first half of the adventure, simply terrified but she was a trooper and made it all the way down. Of course once you start its pretty hard to quit half way since the landings are all 50 to 150 feet high in the trees and their are no ladders to the ground. Video to follow.

Clueless boaters Witnessed an amazing act of seamanship yesterday on the way in to Victoria. I took a shortcut through a narrow pass called Enterprise channel between the tip of Vancouver Island and Trial Island. It is bordered on both sides by shallow reefs marked by kelp and one red buoy. As I slowed to go through I noticed a 50 foot Sunseeker style boat coming behind me at high speed cut inside the buoy on the Vancouver side and head straight into the kelp beds where the water gets as shallow as two feet in spots. He made it half way through before he slowed down, stopped, turned towards me and continued at idle speed to deeper water. He then followed me for a bit then veered off to the other side and idled across the next reef with depths of 10 feet or less. He made it to deep water but it was obvious something was wrong so I went around to see if I could help. Steam was pouring out of his exhaust now and when I asked him if their was a problem he said his engine alarms were blaring and could not turn them off, said he was overheating. I suggested he ingested kelp into his strainers and he said he would check that. That was apparently the extent of the damage, very lucky for him as he idled along for awhile then pushed it back up to full speed and was gone in a flash with his boatload of children and friends or family on board. Clueless and lucky this time with a brand new boat.

July 24 Were in Victoria tonight. Love this place. Last year when we came through with Jeff and Fran the Buskers festival was in town, it was so successful they brought it back again this year and were here just in time for it. Buskers are street entertainers and they are fun to watch. We have reservations for two nights, today we just walked around town and played tourist and then took the dinghy up into the upper harbor. It goes for miles until it ends in a shallow bird sanctuary. The waterway is very narrow in places with beautiful homes and parks along the way and a fantastic running trail that follows the waterway. Their were probably over a hundred people in kayaks, canoes, rowing sculls and dragon boats paddling around up there. Their are several rowing clubs located along the waterway and it seems to be a very popular activity for the locals. tomorrow we may break out the bicycles and ride around town or we may sign up for the zip line tour. More on that tomorrow.

July 23 Sydney Spit We spent the previous two nights at North Saanich YC reciprocal. I would recommend it to others, nice place, nice facility, very busy and really bad 15 amp power. WIFI on the club house deck and a short dinghy ride to Sydney and shopping. Were at Sydney Spit where we spent last night. It’s been quite windy here, but sunny. We have the place pretty much to ourselves. There are maybe 6 boats on buoys and their was just one boat at the dock when we arrived, now there is us and two others on the dock. No one in the park to speak of. Crabs are winning. Nothing worth keeping in the pots the last two days. At least nothing legal. Were headed to Victoria tomorrow and Wednesday. We have reservations at the dock in front of the Empress Hotel. Talking to other boaters the winds have been pretty continuous up north, several people said they gave up trying to cross the Georgia straits to go to Desolation Sound. HMMMM! Hope it gets better soon. That was not our experience last week when we were out their, it was flat as I have ever seen it. But according to the weather reports their has been high wind warnings north of Nanaimo every time I have looked. Does not bode well for our trip north in August but lots can change in that time. We took a long walk around the island today to get our exercise. Very nice trail system and of course at low tide you can walk all the way to the light at the end of the spit which is a bout a mile long.

Ok, we were up until the wee hours of the morning tracking down the leak. I think we finally found it. The pump for the reverse air was leaking. I was lying on the bedroom floor peering through the small hole I drilled in the floor boards in the aft bedroom when I heard dripping. It took a while but I finally figured out where it was coming from. The reason it was so elusive is it is located in the forward part of the engine room, it was dripping down onto its mounting board and running behind the far starboard stringer then seeping back to the rear of the boat where it finally found its way into the shaft well and then into the keel and the aft bilge pump. I took it apart today and ran into Sydney to see if they have a new O ring but alas no one has one the right size. I also found a cracked hose so now I am hoping it is just the hose and not the O ring cause I can fix the hose, I can't do much about the O ring. we can live without the reverse air until I can find the right O ring. Were sitting in Sydney having lunch, will head back and try to put the boat back together and drop the crab pots to get some value out of the Canadian fishing license.

Rained hard last night and woke up to a very wet morning. My leak is back!!! I am quite vexed. Just not sure where the water is coming from. Is it rainwater? If so where the heck is it leaking in at? I shut off all the pumps to see if the inflow is reduced any and of course at the same time the rain stopped. I pumped out the collection point three times and the third time no more water came in? Its dry now. I bored a hole in the floor in the back bedroom to see if there was water collecting in that space but of course the spot I chose to bore the hole is blocked by tubing and hoses so I really can't see much but it does look relatively dry. The Mainship Builders and designers should be ashamed of themselves. They laid carpet and then built the bed the cabinets and put the aft shower and head insert right on top of the carpet. No way to pull it up to access the floorboards without cutting the carpet and padding. Oh well, Chris wanted new carpets anyway. I will have to enlarge the hole and add an access hatch in that section of the floor to see where the water is pooling and running from and to. Steve and Michelle headed back across the boarder today, Chris and I are at the North Sannich Yacht Club Reciprocal dock. It is located in Tsehum (pronounced SEE um) Harbor in Blue Herron Basin. Its a bit tricky getting in, lots of day markers marking multiple different channels going into no less than four different bays and marinas but Green markers must be kept to your port as you enter or it gets real shallow. The dock was full up when we arrived and we were starting for plan B when we saw a sailboat casting off so we lucked out and go their spot on the dock. A short while later another sailboat arrived and is side tied to us. Their is 260 feet of dock space but only 15 amp power. We had a little problem with our plugin, a bit of a loose connection in the box but we getting a charge on the batteries and that's all we really need. The Reciprocal guy for NSYC says its really more like 10 amp power than 15 so it does not take much to blow the circuit breaker. The dock is very nice, very wide concrete floats that double as their youth sailing facility. their were 25 kids down here most of the afternoon for a summer sailing camp. Looked like tons of fun. Tomorrow we will explore Sydney and relax a bit, we have two days of moorage here for just 5 bucks a night. The NSYC club house is quite nice with a restaurant that gets good reviews. It's not open tonight because of a wedding rehersal dinner party but we may try it tomorrow night.

Looks like a tropical setting but were only a few miles west of Vancouver BC

July 19th Annette inlet, Prevost Island We left Montague and motored all of half hour to Annette Inlet and anchored in the back bay with Steve and Michelle. Crab louie for dinner and crab benedict for breakfast. Still using up the 8 crab steve caught outside of Roche. No one was catching in Garrison Bay apparently so they moved over to the small island across from the marina and caught 8 big ones before they came across the boarder. We ran into Ganges yesterday by dinghy for resupply, fresh raspberry and ice cream for dessert. I have had a vexing problem since we left, taking on water somewhere and I have tried everything to find it. Thought it was leaking shaft packing since that is where the water was accumulating but way too much for that, and when I tasted it it was fresh water, HMMMM! That is a clue. I finally found the source when Chris took her shower this morning. The hose from the shower pump was leaking around the fitting at the hull where it discharges and draining back into the bilge at the outer rib of the hull where I cannot see it. It then slowly works its way to the bilge pump under the back bedroom floor where I have no access and when underway it sloshes around until it drains into the engine room under the drive shaft and then into the bilge pump well. Of course it takes a skinny midget to get to the fitting, behind the fuel tank, above the exhaust system and of course the one at the back behind all the other plumbing fittings. I can just reach the fitting but have to work blind since I cannot raise my head enough to actually see the fitting at the same time I am working on it. I tried tightening the hose clamps, no luck, I changed hose clamps no luck, I had a spare fitting that was not in use so i swapped the hose to that one, no luck, not enough hose to reach. I spliced another hose onto the leaky one, (jury rigged) did not work. So another trip to Ganges by dinghy for the right parts and another trip into the cramped space and presto, no more leak. After pumping out several gallons of accumulated water from multiple showers, hopefully we have fixed the main problem. Fixed two other small leaks, one on the fresh water pump and one on the raw water pump and I am crossing my fingers that were back to a dry bilge. Picked up a Canadian fishing license at Ganges and dropped a couple pots with fish heads for bait and we will see how we do. Were staying put for another night here, too nice to leave, we have it all to ourselves. I did my good deed yesterday. At Montague the wind was blowing hard as it usually does there and I saw a shade umbrella pick up and blow off of the back of a sailboat anchored a few hundred feet away. The owners were not on deck so it appeared they were unaware they had lost it. I jumped into the dinghy and rescued it for them. They were unaware it had blown off but saw it drifting by but until i brought it to them they did not know it was their umbrella. They were most appreciative and brought us a bottle of wine, they are winemakers so hopefully its a good one.

July 16, 2012, Cabbage Island Anchorage We left Garrison Bay after just two crab crawled into the pots.w Don’t feel too bad, Steve and Michelle got skunked last night. Lots of pots out but I did not see a lot being caught. Entered Canada via Poets Cove, Bedwell Harbor. We were over on our allotment of booze. Cost us $80.90 to get Chris’s 5 bottles of wine across the boarder and one bottle of Baileys. They don’t care about the open ones, we had lots of that but the unopened ones were costly. So the secret is to open everything and call it bar stock since there is little likely hood you will be selling it on the black market if its an open bottle. It’s like buying the stuff twice. I think most of the bottles we won in raffles or we would have never had it in the first place. Your allowed 1.2 liters per person and they were generous in they gave each of us a 1.7 liter bottle without duty but everything else cost big time. I truly think it was more than the stuff was worth in the first place. There was no waiting to cross the boarder, we pulled right in and phoned in our information. I was surprised when I was all done and walking back to the boat to see two customs officers getting off another boat that was ahead of us. Hope I wasn’t supposed to wait for them but the customs officer on the phone didn’t seem to mind and didn’t tell to me to see the officers that were already at the docks. We decided to try a new place, never been there before. Cabbage Island on Tumbo Channel which is right on the south end of the gulf islands and on the western edge of the straits of Georgia. Really cool place and has a feel of being very remote. It is very exposed to a northerly but the next three days the weather is supposed to be virtually calm. There are 10 mooring buoy’s here and we grabbed one for $9.80 a night. We took the dinghy to shore and walked around the island. It’s about a 10th of the size of Blake so it’s a fairly short hike but quite interesting. Each side of the island is distinctly different. The west side is sand or pebble peaches with sandstone ridges. The East side is conglomerate, like concrete. Lots of potential for fossils I would think over there. The south side, it’s a triangular island, is sand and grass. We spotted one deer on the walk, he spooked when Sophie got wind or her but didn’t run far. There are several sail boats and couple other trawlers in here with us and a couple guys who rowed a wooden boat are camping on shore. There were a bunch of folks who were enjoying the sandy beaches that had dinghy’d down from Winter Cove and it looks like this is a favorite spot for locals to hang out on a good day. We fished with Jeff and Tam just north of this island along the reefs that protect the anchorage, for lingcod on Saturday. . Right now as I write this, the water is like glass, the sun is beginning to set, temperature is in the high 70’s and we can see across to the city of Vancouver. Were watching the ferry’s cross from Taswassen to Active Pass and a steady stream of shipping to and from the Port of Vancouver. Chris just brought us a crab cocktail and were sitting on the back deck on the new love seat she bought before we left having appetizers and drinks before dinner. Were watching a family of three sea otters playing around the boat, a momma and two baby’s. Sophie is learning to use her fake grass pad on the front of the boat but whenever she finds real land she goes nuts. The starboard shaft packing is beginning to leak now, the aft bilge pump is running on a regular basis so I tightened it up and hopefully will cut down on the bilge pump cycling. Went 5 years without that thing coming on once now it comes on a bunch. The left trim tab stopped working, gotta figure what went wrong. It was working when I put it in so will have to check the wiring to make sure something didn’t come loose. Chris saw a boat like ours several years ago, with wood trim around their windows in the salon and liked it so I picked some up on our way to the boat and have done two of the front windows and one side, it looks good. Ran out of material so will have to pick up some more when we can find it to finish the job. What a sunset, we just watched the sun set below the horizon and it was one of the most spectacular sunsets I have ever seen. Photos to follow! July 17, 2012 Got up this morning to another perfect day, not a cloud in the sky and not a breath of wind. Apparently the northern lights were out the night before and WE MISSED THEM!!!!! Argh! We would have been in the perfect place to see them and we slept through one of the rarest events ever for these parts. Bummer! We had a leisurely morning with breakfast on the back deck then a kayak trip around the bay. I finished that with a quick swim and back deck shower to clean up before loading up and slipping our mooring buoy. We decided to head up to Montague Harbor where Steve and Michelle and JJ and James were anchored. Arrived early afternoon in a brisk wind after bucking a full flood tide through Active Pass. I was able to work the eddies on the north side and kept up my speed in spite of the 5 knot current for most of the pass, crossed over to the south side for the second half and only lost a couple knots of speed. Once we got anchored just behind Steve’s boat Chris saw Steve rigging his sailing dinghy and wanted hers set up as well. So for the next hour or so she and Steve sailed all around the harbor. At least four other small sailing dinghy’s joined the party and they had a regular sailing regatta in the bay. Winds died off a bit but they still had a lot of fun. The little walker bay does just fine in a 15 knot wind. JJ and James joined us for an afternoon appetizer and I ran over and picked up Michelle from her boat. Had a very pleasant afternoon with family.

July 15th opening day of crabbing in the San Juan’s We woke up to clouds and rain this morning. What a change from yesterday. Hot without a cloud in the sky to 50 degrees and heavy mist. Put down a couple pots in the bay but no keepers. JJ and James arrived last night and anchored for the first time in their McGreggor sailboat. They survived the night. We had fresh lingcod last night with Steve and Michelle Jeff and Tam. Very good, very fresh since we caught it just hours before. Chris rowed all around the bay while we were off fishing yesterday, she got in a good workout. We pulled anchor about noon, decided to head over to Garrison Bay to do some crabbing before we cross into Canada. The rain stopped but its still cool and cloudy. A few showers all day. Garrison was not too crowded, less than I thought for opening day of crabbing. There are copious numbers of pots in the bay however. Steve and Michelle got lucky and got into the outstation. He needed to pick up water so even though we left before he did and could have grabbed it I wanted to be an anchor another night and really don’t much like Roche because its so busy and so crowded. We got one large 7 inch crab in the pot, hope for more in the morning. 3 pots out, hopefully they are full. Tomorrow we will run into Roche so I can get on line for a conference call with Lokey and company. Once were done with that Chris and I are headed across the boarder for a few days. July 16th Woke up to some fog, warmer how ever after a night of very heavy rain. Ran into Roche for breakfast and the conference call and are headed back to check the crab pots. Fog has burned off and it’s a beautiful day. Will check in when we can find free wifi.

Friday, July 13, 2012, 1000 PM, WX report, Chance of Thunderstorms What an understatement! The weather report was for at 1000 pm for the San Juan Islands was for a chance of thunderstorms. We have been sitting in Reid harbor with Steve and Michelle and Jeff and tam watching thunder and lightening for over 4 hours now. It has been an amazing display of mother natures awesome power. Sitting at anchor in calm waters, no rain but lightning bolt after lightning bolt all around us. This is just one of the most amazing storms I have ever watched. Atone point we had sun to the west, rainbows to the east and lightning on North, South and East. Now it’s anywhere you look and every 10 seconds the sky lights up with a brilliant flash of light. The Dog is petrified, we had to drug her she was so scared. Glad I am in a snug anchorage. Saturday, July 14, 2012, Fishing, little catching Today was glorious. After last nights storm we woke up to a beautiful day, some morning clouds but by afternoon it was clear, warm and windless. We left in Jeff’s very fast Grady White (49.3 mph) to go fishing in Canada. But first we all had to run over to Friday Harbor to print off one day fishing licenses. After a balky printer at the lodge we managed to get all of us legal. We sped across Haro Strait into Canada and a secret spot for catching lingcod. Things started out with high hopes. On my first drop to the bottom something big took my lure, yep took it all, it was gone in a flash. 10 seconds later Michelle yelled ‘I got a problem”. She thought she had the bottom but she had a nice sized Ling Cod, which I nearly lost in my rookie attempt to net. At as were reeling up Michelle’s fish, Jeff yells fish on! We had three fish in less than 30 seconds and landed two of them. And that was the sum total of our catching. For the next 4 hours we had 5 poles with lines in the water and other than a few errant rock fish not another Ling was caught. Oh well, any day spent on the water is better than a day in the office. Oh yea, I don’t have an office.

Day 2 Kingston to Roche Harbor

We left Kingston this morning about 9 am in pea soup fog, quarter mile visibility. Stayed that way all the way to Smith Island half way across the straits We stayed on the west side of the shipping lanes all the way to Port Townsend, many ships passing within a half mile never seeing them but hearing their fog horns. Not many other pleasure boats out with us so the water was not very crowded. The fog finally lifted in time for us to stop and watch J Pod of the local Killer Whale population off Lime Kiln Point. We got the obligatory courtesy stop by the whale watcher watchers. They were nice and just wanted to make sure we knew the new rules for whale watching, stay 200 yards away and you can’t chase them or stop in their path of travel. He said they had not seen us do anything wrong and thanked us for being whale aware. It was a long day but everything worked like it was supposed to and we met Steve and Michelle and Alan and Sue when we got to Roche Harbor. We anchored out in the bay after attempting to anchor near the Henry Island SYC outstation. Could not get the anchor to set in 12 feet of water off the docks so I pulled it up to reset and had about 100 lbs of eel grass stuck on it. Cleaned it off and moved to deeper water and set the first time. Was wandering around the grounds at Roche when I ran into Eric Waters and Pat from GHFD #5. They had decided on a whim to fly up to Roche for dinner. We sat and talked for a while before Chris and I took our leave to have dinner on Sue and Alan,s boat. They are headed south tomorrow fog permitting. Day 3 Roche Harbor Lightening storms all night. NO wind but hail and heavy rain. Today Alan and Sue were planning on leaving but a line of thunderstorms across the straits and heavy fog starting at Mosquito pass caused them to rethink that plan. Saturday looks much better for crossing to the south. Were hanging out waiting for my parents to drive up from Cattle Point where they live to have brunch with the at the Roche Harbor Cafe. Great looking breakfast but were going to miss that as they stop serving at 1100 so lunch fare will have to suffice. If they make it at all, they got several inches of hail at their house, apparently, mom said something about icicles, I think not but hail, icicles, i guess it could be considered the same thing in mom's thinking? Temperature has dropped 10 degrees in 10 minutes as the storm front moves south of us but it should miss us.

Were off!

Ok, we are finally ready to head out on the boat for the rest of the Summer. Had to haul the boat to fix a vibration in the Port shaft that has been their since I bought the boat but has steadily got worse until I decided I needed to fix it before it broke something. Hated to delay our trip but the soonest I could haul the boat was July 5th. Good thing I hauled it. The prop was bent,two blades out of tune and the shaft was bent. But that was the least of the problem. The shaft and the coupling, the bronze piece that the shaft slips into and connects to the transmission, were never properly attached. Apparently the nut that holds the shaft onto the coupling was bottoming out before the shaft was fully engaged in the coupling which allowed for movement which had caused the key, which keeps the shaft from rotating in the coupling, to nearly shear off. This would have been very bad indeed. The guy at Tacoma Propeller said the key and keyway were way too small for such a large shaft so he enlarged them. The fix however caused more problems and a second trip to the propeller shop to shorten the shaft by 1/4 inch to properly mate with the transmission plate. Can't say enough about Tacoma Propeller, they were great to work with. While the boat was out I had the guys at the yard paint the bottom and I upgraded the trim tabs and lo and behold when we put it back in the water their were no leaks and no more vibrations, both good things. I spent all afternoon loading food water and other stuff on the boat. We had unloaded a bunch of stuff to lighten the boat as it is at the upper end of the boatyards lift capability. the last time I hauled it we had a full load of everything for Alaska and I am pretty sure we stressed the four lift straps just a bit. It was a bit nerve racking for everyone involved. Chris got one last day with Chloe, we will definitely miss our one day a week we get to babysit her but are hoping that they can make it up for a few days to visit us. We have no fixed agenda or schedule, wherever we end up each day is our destination.