Vancouver Island - Day 2

JULY 1. As I write this installment, it’s about 4:30 in the morning. A Raccoon woke me up and I’m waiting for first light to depart.




0740 hours, July 1, 2011. Position: 49.18.402N 124.07.167W. Skies cloudy, seas 1-2 feet. Wind from the south at 5 knots. Raining slightly.



We left Nanaimo at 5:30am this morning with glass calm water. We hoisted the main as a preventative measure for the straits, and that would prove to be a good move. The straits weren’t particularly rough, but with uneven lumpy seas the boat would have rolled quite a bit had it not been for the dampening effect of the mainsail.



We have two laptops going in the cockpit. One is working the navigation with cartography driven by the GPS, and I’m typing on the other one. Far cry from 33 years (a third of a century) ago when we sailed the Dragon to Alaska armed with no electronics and nothing more than a lead line and a compass. This morning we’ve got the radar, GPS, a VHF, a nice color fathometer the news is streamed in via Satellite radio and the auto pilot steers the boat Wonders never cease.



Today is the 2nd of 3 long days and takes us 70 miles, straight up the Straits of Georgia. The straits are large body of water and the northern part of what is now known as the ‘Salish Sea’. The sky is gray as is the water and we’re just plodding north at just over 6 knots. I’m hoping the wind will fill in from the South and offer a nice sail later in the morning.



0844 hours, Position 49.22.850N, 124.14.950W. Wind has not yet filled in. Rolling a bit even with the main up. Tried the Jib, but there just isn’t enough wind yet. Very little boat traffic.



1000 hours. Finally the wind has started. Unfurled the jib and sailed for a bit. Breeze freshened to about 20 knots. Unfortunately it’s dead astern which means we need to take an indirect course to keep the wind from being dead astern. Instead of jibing, I opted for a ¾ tack. At which point the jib sheet wrapped around a pole used to aid in docking. While untangling that, the jib wrapped around the headstay. Long story short, we provided some entertainment for the single boat we could see. No damage done (except to the ego).



1400 hours. We’ve been motor sailing for seemingly days. The wind is still dead astern and it simply isn’t blowing hard enough to maintain the speed we need. We were fighting the current most of the morning making poor time, but have picked up a bit in the last hour. We keep looking for whales and haven’t seen a one yet. And it just started raining again. Hopefully the weather will break soon.



1440 hours. Well the current is turning again fought the ebb in the morning and now beginning to fight the flood. In the southern part of the straits it ebbs south, but as we approach Cape Mudge, it floods south. Meaning the incoming water from the Pacific pushes the currents here south, coming over the top of Vancouver Island.



I am struck by the absence of other boats. We saw a few early morning small fish boats, 4 other cruising boats and 2 commercial fish boats. A few larger vessels on the horizon, but that’s about it. I recall a lot more traffic, commercial and pleasure, a few years back.



As we approached Cape Mudge, we could see a line of whitecaps ahead of us. According to the Canadian Hydrographic Service, “between Cape Mudge and Willow Point there is a heavy race on south going streams which, when opposed by strong SE winds, sets up short steep swells which can be very dangerous.” Hmmm. Well, the wind wasn’t blowing THAT strong, how bad could it be?



We were ‘entertained’ by some pretty impressive waves for a while. Auto pilot off, feet planted wide apart, gripping the wheel, trying to keep Cambria going generally the right direction. I called it the Cape Mudge madness.



It was relatively short lived and before long we were at April Point, our destination for the evening. We anchored in 23 feet of water behind the marina. It was calm, protected, and had a good hlding ground. Perfect – and close to the April Point Lodge where we had dinner. The lodge is right on the channel and has a gorgeous view. Just has we sat down, a huge – gigantic – cruise ship went by.

Vancouver Island - Day 1

Thursday June 30, 6am. It’s early morning in Friday Harbor. Boat is loaded and ready. Yesterday we missed the 4:45 ferry by less than 3 minutes and then had to wait for the 8:25 ferry. Turned out OK. Good dinner in town and it forced us to relax a bit.




Last night the wind blew and made a racket through the rigging. It’s amazing how much noise sets up between the rigging, life lines, fenders, then the boat pulling against its lines.

After a quick run out to the Cabin, we left Friday Harbor mid morning and headed north. The wind was from the south, so we unfurled the Jib to get some assist and power sailed. Up San Juan Channel, caught the remaining ebb through Speiden Channel, then sneaked through John’s Passage and saw all the Tee Pee’s at what is now Camp Norwester at the old sheep farm on John’s Island.



We crossed the border and checked into Customs at Bedwell Harbor. We were in and out of Customs in less than 5 minutes and on our way again around South Pender Island and finally into Trincomali channel.



We had the benefit of a flood current pushing us north and between the flood and the assist from the sail, we made pretty good time, while running the engine at about 1800 rpm.



At this point it’s later in the afternoon and while we hadn’t really planned on getting all the way to Nanaimo, but it was such a lovely day we decided to press onward. Around 5pm we fired up the BBQ on the stern and grilled Jodi’s rosemary chicken while still underway. Dinner in the cockpit was great and just as we finished we approached Dodd Narrows. We missed the slack by about 2 hours, and Dodd is the only narrows I’ll challenge at times other the slack.

We worked the backeddy on the eastern side and the speed stayed up at 6 to 7 knots then swung into the main channel as it narrowed. The current was running about 3 to 4 knots against us and we slowed down to about 2 knots and we crept forward against the current. A few eddies pushed us around a bit, but we managed to get through and our speed gradually increased as the channel widened and the current diminished.

Around Jack point and there was Nanaimo. Jodi was struck by the high rises. I think she was expecting a smaller town, but Nanaimo is a bustling place. We found dock space at Newcastle Island and took a pleasant stroll on the island. Need to have more time here, to go fully around the island and in retrospect we should have unloaded the bikes to cover more ground. We saw at least 15 deer on the island, and many of them were young bucks with fresh antlers.



When we got back to the boat, there were some researchers studying the Purple Martins that inhabit the dock. Seems these birds are at the extreme Northwestern part of their habitat and there’s been quite an effort to make nesting boxes perched on pilings for the birds. There were less than 60 nesting pairs of birds in the early 80’s and that number has swelled to over 600 now, thanks to the efforts of volunteers building these nesting boxes.

We saw another inhabitant of the dock and one that would awaken us from time to time throughout the night. Raccoons patrolled the dock at night and they clambered aboard, skulking around the decks looking for food.

North Cascades Weekend

What a golden weekend!! On Tuesday Jodi had the great idea to go camping. Originally we were headed towards wine country, but as plans evolved we decided on Winthrop and the Methow valley. Jodi had read about a campsite, the ‘Lone Fir Campground’ and that became our first destination.




We loaded up the car, ducked out of work a couple hours early and headed for the North Cascades Highway. By 7pm we had set up camp and buffalo burgers were on the grill.



The campground itself is unremarkable. It was vacant except for a pair of back country skiers. The sites were well laid out, it was next to Early Winters creek, it was convenient, but just didn’t tickle the fancy. But we were there, settled and it worked. We started a nice campfire, saw Saturn and a bunch of stars and relaxed.



The next morning dawned cold. We were still at 3500 feet and the snow was still receding. Winter was only reluctantly giving way and at that altitude there was a definite chill. Fired up a cup of coffee, folded up the tent and away we went to find the Winthrop Bakery. Which we found. Hot coffee and baked goods. Roughing it on a camping weekend.



We also checked into the local sports / outfitter store. We were their first customers of the day and got some good tips on where to take a day hike and where to find a decent campsite. We bought a couple maps and headed out for a hike.



Jodi had scoped out the trails around Sun Mountain and we focused in on Patterson Mountain as the gal at the outfitters shop liked the views. We weren’t disappointed. A 2 something mile looping trail, with fairly decent elevation gain, Mount Patterson offered views of the Valley. It also held its share of wild flowers. Snow berry, Bitterroot (Rock roses), Bitter Brush, and far more that I can’t name. The hike was wonderful.

Back through Winthrop, we decided to set up camp at a place called ‘Flat’ on the 8 mile creek. “Lone Fir” may sound better than ‘Flat’, but ‘Flat’ beat the snockers out of Lone Fir. Flat was just one of many Forest Service campsites up the Chewach valley, but we found a sweet spot right by the creek and it felt just right. More inviting than Lone Fir.

We set up the tent and relaxed for a bit. One thing nice about this type of camping is that the car is handy and town is close by. It’s far different from backpacking. So when hunger strikes, you’re not limited to what you brought in on your back. You can go out for dinner. You can go out to a nice dinner, which is exactly what we did – to the Sun Mountain Lodge.



Coming right in from a campsite to the Sun Mountain Lodge takes a bit of an adjustment. But after an appetizer and a cold one, we fit right in. The entertainment was a lounge act, but a really good one. Good voice, great guitar work, and a wide repertoire. Perfect.



Then back to the campsite for a nice campfire then retreat into the tent for the evening.



Sunday was much warmer and the coffee hour was more leisurely. For plan for the day was to swing by the bakery (gotta love this style of camping), then get over the pass and head to Ross Lake for a day hike.

The trip back was more scenic than the trip over. There may be better scenery in other parts of the world, but being a few hours away from home, this was just fine.




We stopped at the Ross Lake Trailhead and started down to Ross Lake, not really knowing what to expect and we didn’t have a hard destination in mind. We just wanted to stretch the legs a bit.

From the map, it was clear that the trail crossed the lake, but it was unclear just how it did it. We found out. The Ross Lake Dam. It’s huge and the trail pops you right on top of it. One side is Ross Lake at an acceptable look over the side drop, but the mind rebelled at looking over the other side with a drop that is over 500 feet down.

There’s a small floating resort a couple of miles beyond the Dam, so we set out to try to get to it. The trail seemed a little longer than we had thought and we were just about to turn around when we spotted the cutoff to the resort. As we dropped down I wasn’t really thrilled about hiking all the way back.



The lake was low, and we found out later that it was rising at a couple of feet per day, but the low level of the lake combined with the floating resort made it a bit of a scramble to get down from the trail to the resort. We finally made it and the first impression of the resort was a bit spooky, but that was quickly dispelled when we found the office and found that a ‘ferry’ ride back across the lake was only $2 each and dogs rode free.



By that time Rex had befriended the resorts chocolate lab, Rosie, and even the resort pug, Lucy, was warming up to Rex. The ferry turned out to be a fast 23 aluminum boat and as we started towards it, Rosie and Lucy jumped in, followed by Rex and the Skipper. Lucy jumped up on the dashboard and we screamed across the lake, eliminating an hour of hiking. Perfect.



Jodi made lunch and then it was back in the car for the final leg home. A quick unpacking, shower, then off to the Roanoke for a steak sandwich and a cold beer. A perfect ending to a very decent weekend.



A Westfalia would have made that trip a little easier…….

Images from an Island Weekend

A great morning

Fixing leaks, a refridgerator, window box, and scubbing toilets don't make for great pictures, but in between there are some opportunities.

A compass that dates way back still works...we used more modern machinery and got to see the rings of Saturn...

Coffee on the deck

Raclette and Dessert...

morning walk

Winter cruising

Down below the cabin is warm. Almost too warm. The diesel heater is quietly at work, radiating heat throughout the boat. On deck it’s bitter cold. Down coats, layers, hats and gloves are needed to be comfortable.


The cockpit is between the two, alternating between almost too warm in the sun and just a little cool when the wind blows, finding small gaps in the cockpit enclosure.



This is our 2nd winter cruise and again the weather is just about perfect. Cold and clear.



After some initial problems with the house batteries and a self inflicted cooling problem, we spent 3 days in the islands, visiting Rosario and Deer Harbor with a brief stopover at West Sound.



The trip was sandwiched between 2 low pressure systems – the first bringing quite a bit of rain just before we left, the 2nd bringing what I hope is the season’s last snow a few days after we tucked the boat away.



With wind out of the North at over 20 knots, we motored out of Friday Harbor. This was our second departure of the day, the first departure curtailed by the high temperature alarm.



We took the longer scenic route over the top of Shaw island, and saw the new ‘over the top’ house on the south side of Bell and the lovely old red roofed house near neck point on Shaw. That’s the house I remember as a kid nearly 50 years ago signaling we were almost to San Juan Channel when we traveled westbound on the ferry.



Tom and Tessa had reported Killer Whales in Eastsound, but the morning’s engine fire drill had sufficiently delayed us so we didn’t see them. Tom and Tessa also had a chance for a workout and a hottub before we finally pulled into Rosario.



We shared the dock with only 3 other transient boats. In addition to Tom’s ‘Docktails’, there was a larger, poorly modified Hatteras and a Peterson 44 from Brisbane, Australia.

First Hike of the Year

Saturday dawned with gray and rain. We had hoped for better, but the drizzle became a driving rain by the time we started hiking. Si and Teneriffe disappeared into the clouds.

The trail starts on a logging road. That road continues on to a “Y” which can be used to get to Mount Si to the left or Mt Teneriffe to the right. The Kamikaze Falls trail branches off to the right after about a mile from the trail head. The route follows another, older logging road for roughly another mile until a new trail cuts sharply to the right and climbs towards the falls.



This was our first real outing of the year and we both were interested in how the walking and running would prepare us for hiking. We had not had any elevation gain to speak of in a couple of months, but Jodi has been running and taking long walks and I’ve been running and biking to work.



To our pleasant surprise, the 1,300 feet of vertical elevation seemed easy. It’s not a particularly tough trail, but still there was a lot of ‘up’ and the legs took the grade easily enough. Jodi even ran a little of it.

The trail kisses the stream in a couple of places then switchbacks veer away from it until the end when all of a sudden you are ‘there’. The falls rise vertically for well over 100 feet and the view is pretty cool.



A good start to the hiking year. January and the legs seem to be ready for more….

Rex (aka the ‘fur’) had a good outing as well. He too is getting back in shape and did well on the hike, but crashed on his bed when we got home. We then went to our new favorite pub – the ‘Noble Fir’ – leaving at home a very immobile ‘fur’.