9/9 La Conner to Lake Union, 52.8 nautical miles

La Conner's Rainbow Bridge from our moorage

The channel through La Conner carries quite a bit of current, sometimes northbound, sometimes southbound. The currents just south of La Conner can be substantial as well, remnants of all the water that passes in and out through Deception Pass with the tides. We’ve been cruising a little slower, at about 7.5 knots, to baby the engines with their various problems. We’ve found that at this speed, port doesn’t overheat and starboard doesn’t consume quite as much oil. Because of our speed, we’re paying a little closer attention to take advantage of the prevailing currents rather than oppose them. The navigation software has a handy feature that makes this easy – it links all the nearby current reporting stations to the waypoints on our course, and, given our boat speed, calculates the best (and worst) departure times in a given time period. Depending on the route, sometimes the difference in time can exceed 2 or 3 hours. Our best departure time for today was calculated to be just after 11:00 am, although I was shooting for about 10:00.

I used the last of our spare motor oil this morning topping up the starboard engine – port hasn’t lost any oil through the entire trip. I was pretty sure we’d be okay for the long trip home, but I’m not inclined to head out without any spare oil, so trudged over to the marine store that was situated between the north and south basin marinas and bought a case of 12 quarts to take along.

Goat Island at left - Swinomish Channel

We got away from the dock about 10:30, cruising out of town and through Hole in the Wall, where the channel meets the north fork of the Skagit River. This area is all river delta, and the channel has been dredged to the west towards Goat Island and beyond as we head west towards Whidbey Island. The channel is well defined with buoys and markers on either side, and also range markers near the Whidbey shore. The range markers are two vertical panels, one taller and behind the other by quite some distance. When one is visually directly above the other, you are centered in the channel. Despite all these aids, we frequently see boats that have strayed or taken a shortcut behind a buoy at the end, only to end up aground in the shallow mud flats awaiting high tide.

The range markers near Whidbey Island

We did indeed have a favorable push with the currents on the way out of town, traveling at 9.5 to 10 knots for the first hour or so. That favorable current subsided a bit as we rounded Strawberry Point and headed for Camano Island, but we continued on along the Camano shore at over 8 knots. The weather was cloudy at first, but we had quite a bit of sun, not much wind and no rain. Good conditions for a long ride.

 

We’ve seen quite a bit of wildlife while on our trip – dolphins, seals, eagles, otters, swans, mergansers and all sorts of other seabirds – but we had the most unusual sighting today as we were cruising south of Whidbey Island towards Edmonds. In the distance just off to port we saw what first appeared to be a deadhead – it was protruding a couple feet above the water but not bobbing at all. As we got closer we saw that it was the unmistakable snout of a male elephant seal. He eventually slipped under the surface as we passed by about 100 feet away.

 

ship pushed into large lock by 2 tugs

We were hoping for a relatively quick transit through the locks as we approached Shilshole, but that wasn’t to be the case. Going in ahead of us was a large commercial ship being maneuvered by two tugboats. It was proceeding very slowly and would have to wait for the railroad bridge to raise, so we passed on by to go to the waiting area for the small lock. Ahead of us there was a purse seiner fishing boat. We tied to the waiting wall and killed the engines. Behind us I could see another fishing boat approaching and knew we were out of luck on the next locking. All commercial traffic gets priority over pleasure craft at the locks.

We were tied up just east of the railroad bridge, and Tribble, who had been curiously looking around at our surroundings, headed for the cover of one of her “safe areas” when the first Sounder commuter train clacked overhead. The fishing boats and a small holding tank pump boat were taken in the small lock while we waited. I had turned the radio to channel 13, the locks and bridges channel, to listen in on all the commercial traffic, as all this was going on against the red light for us lowly pleasure boaters.

It was high tide, so the actually locking didn’t take that long, and the small lock gates soon opened again for eastbound traffic. By then a small tugboat had appeared, and was given the go ahead to enter the lock. By now, the large lock had emptied of its westbound traffic and the tugs were maneuvering the big ship, which I heard on the radio displaced over 1000 tons, towards the lock, creating quite a propwash as they pushed it along. It was eventually secured, and an announcement was made for all boats to enter the large lock.

behind Westward in large lock

About then, we saw the Westward, the 86 foot classic we had toured up in Ganges a couple weeks ago, heading into the large lock behind the ship. We followed, and tied to the wall behind Westward. We had a nice chat about where we’d been since with Hugh and Teresa, the owners of Westward. We enjoyed the sound of their old Atlas Imperial engine idling at about 80 rpm – whoosh, whoosh, sput, whoosh, whoosh, sput…

Lake Union & Seattle skyline as we head to our slip

So, after an hour and a half, we were finally through the locks and cruising in fresh water on the way to our slip. It was getting on towards dusk so we turned on our navigation lights and bypassed our usual “victory lap” around Lake Union, instead heading directly to the dock. Ray and Mary arrived at our moorage not long after we had tied up, and we offloaded just some of our stuff – laundry, cameras, computer and of course the cat! Tribble came into her own as boat cat this trip, not even diving under the sofa once. She became accustomed enough to the engines starting to know that it was time to cruise, and she’d run up the steps to the bridge to take one of her places where she could look out and watch the water go by. At anchor she’d get out on deck and carefully walk the perimeter of the boat. We kept a close eye on her, and although she would peer down at the water from time to time she never decided to test walking on it.

We had a great trip, and despite the problems we had babying the engines a bit, they never failed, just kept chugging along. We’ll be back to the boat on Friday to pick up more stuff and wash off the salt layer. In the next evening or two I’ll add a few more photos to complete the blog, now that our Internet connection is stable.

9/8 Blind Bay to La Conner, 26.4 nautical miles

We seem to be back in the graces of some good weather, as we had sunshine and blue sky, punctuated by a few fluffy white clouds. Yesterday, as part of a plan to keep us on our mechanical toes, the starboard engine decided that its new idle speed would be 1100 rpm – way to fast for taking it easy on the gears while shifting. This one was easily fixable – after moving furniture and carpet out of the way we raised the forward hatch and I found the idle set screw. Actually, it was a small bolt with a jam nut that acts as a stop for the throttle. The nut was an odd size, but the little 4” crescent wrench in the boat’s toolkit did the job nicely and I set it to about 700 rpm.

We didn’t leave the bay until a little after noon, taking a northerly route through Obstruction Pass. Obstruction Island is situated between Orcas and Blakely Islands, and is navigable on either side – Obstruction Pass to the north and Peavine Pass to the south. Both lead out into Rosario Strait. Instead of heading for Anacortes, we went slightly north across Rosario to round the northern end of Cypress Island, and then crossed over to the east side of Guemes Island, following its shoreline in a southeasterly direction through Padilla Bay. We passed Saddlebag Island, where we have crabbed many times in the past, and headed for the entrance to the Swinomish Channel that is east of Anacortes. We had smooth water and favorable currents all afternoon.

The channel is a dredged passageway from Padilla Bay south through La Conner to the north fork of the Skagit River. From end to end it covers about 11 nautical miles and is well marked with buoys and range markers. Nevertheless some folks try to take a shortcut by cutting a buoy at one end of the other and end up aground, waiting for the rising tide. The channel provides a well protected alternative from heading down Rosario Strait to Deception Pass or across Juan de Fuca Strait to the Port Townsend area and beyond.

We arrived in La Conner about 4 o’clock, and took one of the city docks along the main section of town rather than stopping at the marina a bit to the north. There are no hookups at the city docks, but we don’t need them. The view is great and the rates are right too. The dock we’re on has a ramp decorated by a two headed fish made of stainless steel rods. You walk through the maw of this fish to get to shore or back to the dock. Inscribed into the wooden walkway is the motto: “Some days you eat the fish; some days the fish eats you.”

As soon as we were secured to the dock, Erin went ashore to browse through a few shops before closing time, while I remained behind to do … well, mostly nothing. But I did find some unsecured wifi connections to post yesterday’s and now this update to the blog.

We decided to go out for dinner, to the La Conner Tavern for fish & chips. Except, by the time we got there we apparently weren’t in the mood for fish. Erin by then had her heart set on their taco salad, only to discover a new menu with no taco salad listed. We asked if it was still available, but the waitress didn’t even know what a taco salad was. I ordered a bacon cheeseburger which came with no bacon, and Erin had a plate of nachos. They were both good, but we could have done with just one or the other, as we brought most of the nachos back to the boat with us.

The weather forecast calls for another rainless day and we’re going to head all the way back to Seattle tomorrow – unless, of course, we don’t for some unforeseen reason.

9/7 Cowichan Bay to Blind Bay, 32 nautical miles

This morning the weather was every bit as dreary as yesterday, with gray skies and rain, and with clouds low enough to obscure the view across the bay. But, we’d been here long enough and were ready to move on. We’ve developed a small fuel leak in the past few days, and I’ve mopped up some fuel from the bilge a couple times. This morning, in an attempt to find the source, I crawled around in the engine room with the engines running, one at a time, trying to find a drip somewhere. I found no fuel leak, but I did find that the hose clamps securing the port exhaust hose to the mixer elbow were loose, dripping some raw water and probably exhaust into the engine room. Those got tightened up, so it was a worthwhile exploration.

After a short excursion ashore to dump garbage and buy some more absorbent oil pads to replace those I’d used, we pulled away from the dock – about 10:15 or so. It was drizzling and dreary with visibility of a mile or so – we turned on the radar, hopefully just to give it some exercise. One difference between today’s weather and yesterday’s was the wind – there wasn’t much at all and the seas were calm. We like that.

We crossed Satellite Channel on a diagonal line headed for Colburne Pass. This is a group of islands that form Swartz Bay, a major ferry terminal for BC ferries heading to and from Sidney to other ports in the Gulf Islands as well as across the straits to Vancouver. As we approached we saw three ferries, two smaller ones and one of the jumbos, heading out of the pass and figured maybe we’d be spared encountering one as we passed the ferry dock. That wasn’t the case, as yet another jumbo ferry came in towards us as we were passing through. It creates a good sized blip on our radar screen.

We continued on through John Passage, between Goudge and Coal Islands. This is a smaller passageway with a couple of well marked rocks in the middle. It’s more scenic and has less traffic too. If we were headed to Sidney, it’d be a straight shot south from this pass. But, we were on our way back to the states, so we rounded a small group of islands and headed towards Sidney Spit, which we could barely see in the distance. As we neared the spit, a nice provincial park, by the way, the clouds parted, the rain stopped and we could see all the way to America. Well, okay, it was only about 5 miles across Haro Strait, but it was by far the farthest ahead we’d been able to see all day.

Haro Strait was just as calm as the rest of our ride, with the only bumps being the wakes of the occasional boat passing the opposite direction. We cruised on into Roche Harbor and headed for the Customs dock, which usually involves jockeying for position in a floating queue for some time. As we approached, two boats were leaving and we pulled right up to the dock, along with a sailboat that was ahead of us.

I gathered up our documents and headed into the Customs shack, where there were three agents helping other boaters. “Are you arriving from Canada?”, one of them asked. “Yes I am”. “Well, you can take a seat there or wait outside until we call you”, she said, implying there would be no standing while waiting inside, although it was permitted outside. I was called soon enough, and handed over our passports, boat document, cat rabies certificate and Canadian clearance number from our entry into Canada two weeks ago. I also ‘fessed up to not having our Customs decal this year, whereupon I was given a form to fill out with my credit card number while she keyed in our other info. Vessels over 30 feet long have to pay an annual fee for the privilege of returning to the U.S. through Customs.
“Do you have any alcohol, tobacco or firearms?”
I declared 2 liters of whiskey we’d bought in Canada, but before I could finish she interrupted, telling me that she needed to know all the alcohol on the boat – that any alcohol we took with us from the U.S. into Canada lost its U.S. citizenship and would have to be declared.
“Well, we have a couple bottles of wine and a few beers that have been riding back and forth on the boat for 5 years or so…” She rolled her eyes at the 5 years – “and we have half a bottle of rum in the galley that we use for cooking…”
“It’s not Cuban, is it?”
“Oh no, the recipe called for the cheapest rum available”.
“Okay,” she said, “and you purchased two one liter bottles of whiskey?”
“No, actually I purchased three 750 milliliter bottles, but we drank some from one bottle to bring the total down to 2 liters.”
“Well, aren’t those the same as one liter bottles?”
“No, the 750 milliliter bottle is three fourths of a liter, so two of those equal one and a half liters. We drank the third bottle down to 500 milliliters for the total of 2 liters to be within…”
“Okay, I guess I’m going to have to study up on how those add up. Do you have any vegetables?”

She gave me back all the documents except for Erin’s passport, which she would use to compare faces as we headed out to the boat. I think she wanted to get on board, but she was short and we didn’t have our ladder out. She peered through the side door, spotting the plant next to Erin’s chair.
“That looks like a real plant…”
“Yep, we got that at Home Depot…”
“You can’t transport plants or dirt across the border, but I’ll let it go this time.”
“Where’s the galley”, she asked and I pointed it out. She could see the bananas and onions I had declared on the table, and I’d already told Erin to gather up our potatoes. I think volunteering the avocado convinced her we were just honest folk on our way home. So, in the interest of Homeland Security, we surrendered the potatoes, some bell peppers, one tangerine and an overripe avocado. Our bananas and onions were deemed not a threat, and we were given a clearance number and sent on our way. In hindsight, we should have been thinking and boiled our remaining potatoes last night like we usually do – then they would have been keepers.

We decided to continue on to Blind Bay, an anchorage on Shaw Island that we enjoyed on our way north. We had a pleasant cruise through Spieden Channel, with a favorable current pushing us along at up to 11 knots, although that didn’t last long. We continued retracing our route north, passing through Pole Pass on the way to Blind Bay.

We had no potatoes, so for dinner we had rice with some orange chicken that’s been riding around in the freezer the entire trip. We’d better eat the rest of that crab tomorrow.

9/6 Cowichan Bay

It began raining off and on around 11 o’clock last night. This morning it looked pretty dreary with clouds down to about 50 feet off the deck – or water. The weather forecast called for more of the same today, with partly sunny with scattered showers forecast for tomorrow. That all added up to a good reason to stay put for today.

When I went up to the harbormaster’s office to pay another day of moorage, I asked about Internet service, since I could find no unsecured connections. They had a secured wifi setup for the Fisherman’s Wharf, and he said if I could receive it, then I could have the code for a mere $3.36. That seemed fair enough to me. I found the signal, but it was too weak for a good connection. Bringing the computer up to the bridge seemed to solve that problem, so I went back to the office and paid for the code. When I tried to connect a little later, the signal strength was no longer good enough, but lo and behold, an unsecured site popped up and has been working all afternoon. I’ll save the code for next year – I don’t think they change it very often.

There’s an ice creamery on the main drag here called The Udder Guy’s. Erin is a big fan of licorice ice cream, and they have a flavor called ‘Not Black Licorice’ which she first sampled when we were here last year. It's a light tan in color.  This year she treated herself to a double scoop cone, and also an additional packed pint to put in our freezer. I’m not a licorice fan – I went for the wild blackberry cone.

Despite the rain, the local dragon boat crew was out in the harbor most of the afternoon practicing. There must be a race coming up. The dragon boats have a crew of about 20 paddlers sitting 2 abreast. At the stern is a tiller man, and up front is what would be the coxswain in a racing shell – only she faces the paddlers and beats out the cadence on a huge drum. They made several passes past our dock, where they’d swing around 180 degrees and head back through the anchored and buoyed boats. As evening approached, they had on their red and green navigation lights and stern light. There’ll be a video clip in the movie version of this tome.

Across the dock from us are two small tugboats – the Falbro and the Georgina. They have rough sawn lumber rear decks, and I surmised they were used for logging operations and the decks were chewed up from corked boots. A bit later in the day some people came and fired them both up – they were getting ready to go out on a job. I chatted a bit with one of them and confirmed that they did indeed tow logs to the local mill. Then he asked me “you like crab?” Of course I did, and he proceeded to pull up a line tied to the dock. At the other end was a milk crate type basket half full of Dungeness crabs and he pulled out three for us. “You want ‘em dead or alive” he said. “Alive’s fine”, I responded, “we’ll take care of them this evening.” So we had a crab dinner this evening, with enough left over for dinner tomorrow.

Tomorrow we’ll head back to the San Juan Islands, probably clearing customs at Roche Harbor. I didn’t buy our customs sticker ahead of time this year, so I’ll have to pony up for that at the customs dock. At Friday Harbor I’d have to hike up to their office on the hill above the harbor, so Roche Harbor will definitely be easier for this one – other than the usual jockeying for position at their dock.

9/5 Telegraph Harbour to Cowichan Bay, 17.4 nautical miles

Erin heard a thump at oh-dark-thirty this morning and woke me up, thinking we’d run aground or hit something while at anchor. I got up and checked our depth – we were still at 9 feet, although the tide had a few more hours to go out. All looked well and we assumed it was Tribble jumping down from the bridge making the thump. She sometimes likes to play and prowl at night.

When we got up for real in the daylight hours of morning, the tide was out and we were still afloat, although I could clearly see the bottom and the clam shells thereon. I turned on the depth sounder, but we were apparently too close to the bottom and/or the close proximity plus the bottom being muddy prevented it from getting a reading. I could tell we were completely afloat, though, because we were swinging gently with the breeze and current. For good measure, I reeled in about 15 feet of chain as we could still swing a bit more perpendicular and therefore closer to shore. The entrance to the boat canal over to Clam Bay was completely dry. Anchored behind us, closer to Thetis Island Marina, was a yellow sailboat named Big Bird. They were slightly askew, tiling about 10 or 15 degrees as their keel was on the bottom. We had passed over that area on the way in, and it was a foot or two shallower than our location. The sailboat has a keel that draws at least two or three more feet than we do as well. They had no damage, although they had a wait of two or three hours before they could leave.

We didn’t plan on leaving until early afternoon, as the tidal currents through Samsun Narrows in the morning would nearly double our travel time. Erin made us egg sandwiches with turkey bacon for breakfast, and I did a couple of maintenance chores in the engine room. The starboard engine was down a quart on oil – although it has always used more oil than the port engine it seems to be using it a bit faster. In some sort of diesel sleight-of-hand, the port engine seems to be blowing out the smoke from the extra oil the starboard engine is using. Actually, I suspect the smoke is from unburned fuel. I also added a gallon of coolant to the port engine, which could be an indication of a bad head gasket, which in turn could cause low compression which in turn could result in some fuel smoking out the exhaust. The coolant could also be low from the overheating, or from a leak somewhere in the heat exchange unit. Lots of possibilities and not much I can do about it at the moment other than keep all the fluids up to snuff.

About an hour or so before we left, a mid-sized Bayliner came in and anchored in front of us, lowered their dinghy and headed ashore. When we were ready to leave they had swung around to where they were about 20 feet in front of us, most likely over our anchor. Erin usually takes a boat hook up on the bow while doing anchor duty anyway, so I told her to be prepared to just push them out of the way if we have to. As it was, we didn’t quite have to do that – the wind swung them around a bit, and we were beside them as our anchor broke the surface.

We left Telegraph Harbour around 12:45 and headed towards Sansum Narrows and Cowichan Bay at a leisurely 7.5 knots. As we approached Maple Bay, a harbor on the north side of the narrows, we could see a number of sailboats in the distance, many with their spinnakers up. We suspected that an organized race was going on, and that was indeed the case. The course was marked with large yellow inflatable buoys, and the boats sailing under spinnakers were headed towards the buoy closest to us, which was situated just a couple hundred feet from the Saltspring Island shore. The shoreline is steep here, and we passed by on the shore side of the buoy as a couple of sailboats came from the other direction, rounding the buoy and coming about for their next leg. We got a good close-up look at the crew of a dozen or so people as they hustled to set and trim their sails while coming about. We just motored on into the wind.

Cowichan Bay is a fun little town which we visited for the first time just last year. At first it didn’t look like there would be room at the marina, the Cowichan Bay Fisherman’s Wharf, but when we radioed them, they told us to come around in the other direction and we’d see an empty dock. After getting hooked up and settled a bit, we strolled through town, visiting a few shops before they closed, and then taking a quick tour of the maritime museum. Next on our agenda was to have fish & chips at the Rock Cod Café. We dined here last year with Ray and Mary and the fare was excellent. We had a calamari appetizer, followed by our main course. Each plate had two huge slabs of cod, and one order probably would have been more than enough. We did return to the boat with three pieces of fish left over, so dinner for tomorrow is definitely taken care of.

This evening we walked the docks to check out the other boats. The majority of the boats here are local working boats, but there were a few other pleasure boats as well.

9/4 Nanaimo to Telegraph Harbour - 18.4 miles

The wind was still blowing this morning with gusts up to 20 mph, but if we were to leave we’d wait until early afternoon anyway to catch Dodd Narrows at close to slack. The morning slack was at 7 o’clock or so and we weren’t interested in that, even if it had been calm. We decided to just wait and see what the conditions were around 12:30/1:00 o’clock.

Erin fixed a great breakfast that started out as a frittata, but ended up being scrambled eggs with fried potatoes and a couple strips of the turkey bacon. We listened to the dock and lines creak and groan with the wind as we ate breakfast.

We made one more walk around the harbor into town, or more accurately, to the deli along the waterfront where Erin got an iced latte. After that we busied ourselves with some reading, alternating with a little harbor activity watching.

Around 12:30 we decided we’d get going – the wind gusts hadn’t exceeded 14 mph for an hour or so, and we were pretty sure once we turned the corner out of Nanaimo and got squared away in Northumberland Channel we’d be out of the lumpy stuff with the wind at our back. We readied our lines for departure, stowed the power cable and got away from the dock, in a similar fashion as when we left the customs dock, sidling away into the wind.

We were right about the lumpy area, but it wasn’t too bad. Tribble has now become accustomed to the engines starting, and usually joins us on the bridge right away for the ride. We’ve discovered, though, that if the seas get a little rough, she goes down to the main salon and sits on a small square of green carpet until it calms down again. Once we were past Gallows Point we had the wind and seas from the Georgia Strait at our beam so quartered the waves for a little better ride until we were out far enough to come about and head for Jack Point. Once the weather was at our stern the ride got better, and the further we went towards Dodd Narrows the smoother it got. Tribble came back up on deck, only to scurry back down momentarily when a power boat zoomed by throwing some wake.

We entered Dodd Narrows behind three sailboats, who all slowed down to 5 knots in the channel. It was too narrow to pass for awhile and we slowed down as best we could, to 5.5 knots, our idle speed. I wasn’t going to put it in neutral as I needed the thrust past the rudders for steerage, so we loomed pretty close behind the trailing boat, pulling out to pass as the channel got wider.

We were back in the Gulf Islands with beautiful weather, calm seas and… smoke. Our port engine was putting out more exhaust smoke than usual again, made painfully noticeable by cruising at 8 knots with a 9 knot tailwind. I increased our speed, not necessarily to outrun it, but to warm the engine up more in hopes that it would improve combustion wherever it wasn’t happening properly. The port engine has also had intermittent overheating problems over the years, so I was watching the temperature gauge closely, or so I thought. It was registering just below 200 degrees but it didn’t seem right. A couple taps on the temp gauge changed the reading to 220 and we backed right down to 7 knots, where it gradually cooled down to about 180 again. We have run several degrees off course many times to quarter the waves for a better ride, but this is the first time we did that maneuver to let the smoke go off to the side. Not sure what’s going on, whether it’s a bad injector, or low compression in a cylinder or what – but it’s another notch in the ‘need to repower’ belt.

We decided that rather than cruise all the way down to Cowichan Bay we’d stop at Telegraph Harbour for the night – about half the distance. Because of the late start for the narrows, we wouldn’t have arrived at Cowichan until after 5, and with it being Saturday on a popular weekend we weren’t so sure we’d find moorage. Telegraph Harbour is busy as well, or at least the marina at the head of the bay is. They’re always holding rendezvous’ or yacht club events and this weekend is no exception. We decided we’d anchor if that nice spot in front of the canal entrance was open, and it was – so here we are. The bay is pretty shallow, but this area is maybe a foot or two deeper than some others, and I calculated we’d have about 6 feet under us at low tide tomorrow morning.

The other marina halfway into the bay, Thetis Island Marina, doesn’t seem to be nearly as busy and we speculated that they didn’t have as good a business model. They do have a wifi connection, though – and although a password is needed, they give out a freebie trial, so I’m hoping I can connect to post this and check emails. I won’t even attempt to upload any photos at this time though.

Tomorrow we’ll continue on to Cowichan Bay – or go over to Genoa Bay to anchor if we don’t find moorage at Cowichan.

9/3 Nanaimo

We thought we’d lost one of our crew this morning. Our cat Tribble went missing while we were sipping our morning tea and chai. She has a few favorite places around the boat where she can hide or take her naps, and she usually takes a nap in the morning after prowling around the boat half the night. She was there sitting on the top step of the ladder when I got up and started a pot of tea. When Erin got up she wasn’t there, but we assumed she was napping out of sight. After about an hour we looked where we thought she was, and of course she wasn’t – nor was she in any of her other spots. We searched the boat from stem to stern, and no cat.

We had opened the side doors and, although we hadn’t seen her go out, we thought perhaps she’d gotten out on the dock and was wandering around. Although curious, she’s a very timid cat and easily spooked, not only by strangers, but by any object that isn’t in its proper place. We weren’t sure what she’d do if she were to get onto the dock – run or hide. We hadn’t heard any splashes, but of course our worst fear would be that she decided to take a walk on the water.

Our search up and down the dock was fruitless, and we returned to the boat fearing the worst – that she may have gone overboard. We had already searched through the cupboards but Erin, remembering a story that our friend Craig told about their cat getting into some remote places, began pulling out the drawers under our bed. That revealed no cat, but as she was leaving the stateroom she thought she caught a glimpse of something gray. Turns out Tribble was back behind the drawers, and once Erin opened them was trying to get out by climbing over the back panel of the drawer. We’re not sure quite how she ended up there. She may have crawled into the roll-out storage tray in the galley that I had opened to retrieve Erin’s tea. I didn’t think there was access through all the bulkheads to the stern of the boat, but perhaps there are.

Looking over at Protection Island from Newcastle

Our initial plan was to leave Nanaimo today and head south towards Cowichan Bay, but last night Caleb, a friend of ours who was up north boating, sent an email asking if we were still in Nanaimo, as he would be heading south and crossing the Georgia Straits ahead of an approaching blow, arriving sometime today. We decided to hang out in Nanaimo another day to visit before heading south.

We got another email and a voicemail around 11:30 this morning from Caleb – he was at the dock at Newcastle Island, across the harbor from us. Although we’ve been to Nanaimo many times, we hadn’t done any exploring at Newcastle Island, so we decided to head over there in the dinghy to visit. We tied the dinghy in front of the bow of Caleb’s boat, the Wooka, and found that Caleb’s friends Gavin and Karen were also there in their boat. We had met them a few years earlier, when Caleb and Laura and Gavin and Karen rafted their boats on either side of us in Princess Bay and we had dinner. Gavin and Karen left later that evening, but Caleb and Laura stayed for the night. Early in the morning a strong wind blew in and for the first time we drug anchor. We managed to extricate ourselves from that predicament, and even rescue another boat – but that’s another story.

Looking out towards Georgia Straits

We were glad to see Gavin and Karen again, as well as Caleb. Laura had already returned to Seattle earlier. Newcastle Island is a Provincial Park and it, along with Protection Island, forms a barrier between the Georgia Straits and Nanaimo Harbor. There is a dock for both moorage and for a passenger ferry that regularly travels across the harbor between a couple different docks in Nanaimo and the island. On shore near the dock is a dance pavilion that was built in the 1930’s. It was lined with old photographs and displays of some of the island’s history. It once was a sandstone quarry and provided material for the construction of the U.S. Mint in San Francisco. There are also several old coalmine shafts on the island, many going deep below sea level and under the town of Nanaimo.

Caleb and his dog Sheila out on the rocks

We decided to walk one of the trails along the beach over to the other side of the island to check out the views. And, everywhere you look there is an incredible view. The day and weather was perfect – the predicted windstorm had yet to arrive and we had blue sky and sunshine. We made a mental note to ourselves to come here and moor our boat the next time we’re headed north. With a short walk, you can be on the other side of the island and see for yourself what’s happening out in the straits. Today they were flat calm – the calm before the storm – ideal for crossing in either direction.

coal mine entrance, welded shut

Along the way we came upon one of the old mineshaft entrances. From a distance it looked like an old metal tank standing upright. Closer up, we could see a steel door in the side. The door had been welded shut with lengths of rebar. Coal was discovered here over 150 years ago, and in fact Newcastle Island was named for the English coal-mining town of Newcastle.

After two or three hours of both trail walking and beach sitting, we headed back towards the dock. The nearby dance pavilion also houses a café, and we all got ice cream cones there and spent some time enjoying them before going our separate ways.

Enjoying some ice cream cones

The predicted windstorm that sent Caleb, Gavin and Karen scurrying across the straits before its arrival has now arrived as I type this. We’re still safely tied to the dock behind the breakwater with both Newcastle and Protection Islands between us and the straits, but we are recording wind gusts of up to 25 mph at the moment. It’s supposed to subside by morning, but if it doesn’t we’ll probably stay another day.

Nothing exotic for dinner tonight – it was a purge the refrigerator of leftovers type of evening.

9/2 Nanaimo

We had some great apple strudel for breakfast – it was one of the items in our $50 grocery bag from yesterday’s trip to the store. One of the other snacks we picked up yesterday was some garlic sausage. In the early days up here, the garlic sausage was in open bins in big coils. There was a knife on a string, and you could cut off whatever size you wanted and bag it. Now it’s all tidily wrapped in plastic in sizes someone else cut. I suppose it’s for the better as I’m sure fewer flies have walked on it.

Erin with "Black Frank", a former Nanaimo mayor
and local celebrity

We had a relaxing day today, doing some reading and walking about a bit. We both watched the daily ceremonial cannon firing at noon. A bag piper plays for about an hour, then they go through the ritual of loading the cannon with a wad of powder and a wad of paper in place of the cannon ball. There are two cannons, both kept in immaculate shape. They alternate which one they fire, as I’ve seen them do both. They were initially installed to protect the harbor but have never been fired in anger.

folks fishing for pinks

Later in the afternoon we went for a longer walk, about 3 miles total along the waterfront promenade past the tide pool, following the path as far as the marinas on the other side of town where one would enter the passageway to Departure Bay. A river runs into the bay here, and there were several people fishing for pink salmon. Most were standing out in the water – some with hip waders, others just in shorts. We noticed some older and wiser folks standing on the shore casting their lures. We didn’t see a lot of action as we passed by, but on the way back we watched two people reel in their dinners for the night.

A local has dinner for tonight

Our dinner tonight consisted of barbecued hamburgers and baked beans.

Along the promenade north of town
If you knew where it was you could see our boat in the distance

Sunset over the harbor

9/1 Telegraph Harbour to Nanaimo 18.3 nautical miles

Waiting one day made all the difference in the weather. We awoke to sunshine and lots of dew on deck. We had a few morning chores to do, checking oil, taking out the garbage and so forth. I took a few photos of the boat canal this morning when the tide was lower, but it wasn’t nearly as low as it was when we were last year and I could walk across it.

Approaching Dodd Narrows as seen by computer

We got away from the dock a few minutes after nine in the morning for our run up to Nanaimo. We followed a trawler out of the harbor, and since he was going about 3 knots in the narrow channel, we stayed behind by shifting into neutral half the time. Our speed at idle is just a tad over 5 knots. We idled around him at the first opportunity, and as we rounded the light marking the rocks off Foster Point we set our speed at a leisurely 7.5 knots. We also had about a 7.5 knot tailwind, so the flags were at dead calm. North of Thetis Island, as we entered the more open section of Stuart Channel we picked up quite a headwind and some chop to go along with it, but only our lower windows took any salt spray.

Another boat enters southbound as we exit Dodd Narrows

As we approached Dodd Narrows, we encountered at least 25 or 30 boats of various varieties heading south through the Narrows while the current was near slack. There weren’t any boats behind us heading north – I guess we were the oddballs for this slack. Our navigation software shows the tide and current of nearby stations in an information bar below the chart, and I had it set to Dodd Narrows. In the hour before our arrival we saw the current change from 2 knots in our favor to just over 1 knot against us as we passed through. Our software is now 8 years old, but thanks to the sun, earth and moon behaving themselves during that time, the predictions are still right on.

Our front row seat to the harbor activities

As we entered the Nanaimo harbor I radioed the port authority for a slip assignment. I asked for the Cameron Island docks, which are out at the breakwater. We are at the very end of the dock where we can watch all the harbor activity and enjoy the fresh breezes. Right now as nightfall approaches there is only one other boat near us, a sailboat that came in a couple hours ago. The boat basin in the old harbor has plenty of space as well, although there are quite a few more boats in there than out here. The only downside to this location is it’s about a half mile walk around the boat basin to get into town – but we can use the exercise.

After getting settled we walked around to the waterfront shops for a little window shopping and sight seeing. Nothing struck our fancy enough to buy, so we continued our walk past the seaplane terminal and out to the public fishing dock, where we found folks having mixed results. Some had a few crabs in their buckets, while others were empty handed. I think that dock gets pretty well crabbed out by the locals.

We backtracked our route and headed up to the Thrifty Mart to pick up a few odds and ends. We’re still pretty well stocked, so didn’t need much. We filled one paper grocery sack and it ended up costing us $50.38. Wow!

The condominium complex just north of the seaplane port is finally finished. It has been under construction for quite a few years – at times it looked like work had stopped on it. Of course we only came to see it once a year, or every other year, but progress was slow. The waterfront around the port has changed quite a bit since I first saw it over 30 years ago. The Cameron Island complex and this breakwater dock where we’re moored didn’t exist, and neither did any of the shops along the walkway north of the marina. In fact, all that was there was a dirt trail through some blackberry vines. They’ve done a nice job through the years of developing the area.

I went for another walk through town while Erin worked on an art project. She says she spotted me heading this way with her binoculars so knew it would be okay to start dinner, which was pork chops and potatoes with gravy and some corn. Yum!

Right now we’re connected to the Internet courtesy of an unsecured wireless router somewhere in town. It may be good enough to post some text but not so sure about photos. If they’re not here they’ll appear later.  We'll stay here in Nanaimo for a couple days before heading south.

8/31 Telegraph Harbour

I shouldn’t have written that first sentence about the weather yesterday. We were awakened about 4 o’clock this morning by a squall blowing through, with driving rain and winds 18 to 20 mph here in the harbor. Not terribly nasty, but bothersome nonetheless, as we have some leaks on the topside that need attention, especially since this is the first rain the Potentate has been exposed to in nearly a year. We’ve also been a bit leery about wind in the middle of the night since dragging anchor in Princess Bay a few years ago. Granted, we had another boat rafted to us at the time and the winds were even stronger, but once bitten…

We placed some drip bowls at the usual sites, and I noted our position relative to some landmarks to make sure our anchor was holding, which it was. It probably would have been prudent to run out some more chain, but it was nasty out and holding as it was, so we left it. Later in the morning, after daylight appeared, Erin fixed a nice breakfast of hash brown potatoes, bacon and scrambled eggs with cheese. That was a treat after our early awakening.

Our cruising plans for the day were to head up to Nanaimo, but plans are made to be changed. The last 5 or 6 miles into Nanaimo, after transiting Dodd Narrows, can be nasty when the weather’s blowing in from the Georgia Straits. We’re being fair weather boaters this trip, so we modified our cruise plans somewhat. We raised our anchor and cruised at least 500 to 600 yards down the harbor to the Telegraph Harbour Marina, where we plugged in to spend the day.

A sailboat transits Boat Canal between
Telegraph Harbour and Clam Bay

It wasn’t our lucky day with boat equipment either. Erin started a load of laundry in our washing machine, and for some reason it has decided that its 40 minute wash cycle should take about 45 seconds. We manually set it to rinse and then spin, with basically the same results – it didn’t want to spend much time at any step. Although it was turned off at the time, maybe our little brown-out the other night goofed up something in the circuitry. It’s on our fix-it list now.

Other than the morning excitement we’ve had a pretty lazy day, just taking a few walks to look at the boat canal and visit the store. We’re in the same spot on the docks as we were last year when we were here for the Chris Craft Rendezvous. We didn’t come for the one this year, but the harbormaster told us they’d already arranged for a repeat in 2011. He said it was his favorite rendezvous here with all the classic boats that show up.

Tomorrow we’ll take another look at going to Nanaimo.

8/30 Glenthorne Passage to Telegraph Harbour 18.2 nautical miles

It’s another beautiful day in paradise. We’re having a great run of good weather – hope it holds out for awhile.

Diane and an Olympus crewmate came by in their skiff a bit after 9 this morning. She tossed us a couple pieces of coffee cake and let us know that, if we’re interested, a tour of the sheep farm on Prevost Island would start at the dinghy dock at the head of the bay at 10 o’clock. Although this has been one of our favorite anchorages for many years, we haven’t had the opportunity to do any exploring as the island is privately owned and posted with no trespassing signs. So of course we were interested and showed up at the dinghy dock promptly at 10, along with a couple dozen other people. For some background, here’s a brief history of the island farm from the guide book “Exploring the San Juan and Gulf Islands – Cruising Paradise of the Pacific Northwest”.

Prevost Island was acquired by Digby Hussey de Burgh in the 1920s. An Irishman of noble lineage, whose family owned an estate in County Limerick, de Burgh raised sheep, goats and cattle on Prevost’s pastures. His son Hubert took over the island property in 1938. His four daughters grew up on this isolated island – one becoming a concert pianist. Upon Hubert’s death, his widow Jean, two of their daughters and a son-in-law continued living on Prevost and much of the island remains in the family’s hands.

 

Curt had arranged the tour with the family, and our guide was Sheila, one of the daughters who still works the farm to this day. As we went ashore from the dock, one of the first items we saw was an old boat built by her grandfather. It’s not the first time we’d seen it, though – it’s visible from the water and we’ve seen it many times during our dinghy rides around the bay through the years. We continued up a path around the back of the bay to a small cabin. Sheila told us that she and her husband had lived here for 5 years back in the early 1970’s. The cabin was nicely preserved, with a made up bed at one end and a sofa along the wall. To the left of the sofa was a window with a view out into the harbor – today that view included our boat the Potentate at anchor. Across the room from the sofa was an old propane cook stove and a Franklin style stove for heat. The kitchen area was completed by a small countertop with a kitchen sink, with a single faucet. There were some outbuildings for storing wood, and also a guest room adjacent to the cabin that had another bed as well as a fireplace.

We continued on our trek past the back of Annette Inlet, the next body of water beyond Glenthorne Passage. There was a small meadow here, and every so often we’d come to a fence line with a gate. The last person in the group would close the gate as he or she passed through. Along the way we encountered two donkeys, who came over to greet the crowd and hope for handouts. Sheila told us they were pretty young, about 5 years old. Diane had brought along a bag of carrots, much to the pleasure of the donkeys. Diane tried to get the youngest member of our group, 3 or 4 year old Jeremy, to feed the Donkeys but he was having none of that.

Further down the trail a herd of sheep saw us coming and they all came over, expecting to be fed. Of course we were just passing through, and someone in our group explained to the sheep that it was a false alarm - we had no food. Apparently the lead sheep figured that out and headed back up the hillside – with the rest following along like … well, sheep. Off in the distance we could see some cattle, and Sheila told us they currently had 47 head, unless there was a calf or two that they had missed.

There was a spring-fed pond at a high point on the island, and the family had earlier built an earthen dam, which converted the pond into a small lake. It is used for irrigation and their home water supply, with gravity feed. We hike up a sloping meadow and over some tractor ruts until we came to the edge of the pond, which was lined with cattails. One member of our party who had been to the island before told us that the shoreline was just thick with frogs, and that she had seen a turquoise colored one the last time she was here. Just then I spotted a blue frog on a leaf – and she said “that’s the one!” Several people, including myself, took photos of the frog. Now that I have those photos downloaded to the computer, I can see that the blue frog was accompanied by 5 green frogs that blended more or less into the leaf from a distance of a few feet.

At this point Curt suggested we head back, via a different route, as we had a long way to go back to the dock. In all, I would guess we hiked 4 or 5 miles at least. On the route back we were invited to the sisters’ current residence, where we were served cookies, ice water, lemonade and coffee. Sheila’s sister Susan was there – she’s the one who is a concert pianist, and she plans on giving a concert in Ganges next spring. We met her yesterday at the crab feed at Curt and Marsha’s cabin. She didn’t go along on the farm trek as she is awaiting hip replacement surgery soon. Their home was beautiful with a large deck and greenhouse area, where we all relaxed from our hike and ate the wonderful almond shortbread cookies. I could see a view of the water through the trees, and I think it was either Diver Bay or Ellen Bay, on the other side of the island from our anchorage.

Sisters Susan (seated) and Sheila

Before we left Sheila brought out a guest book for all to sign. I hope they enjoyed our company as much as we enjoyed the tour. When we left we still had a mile or two to walk before getting back to the dock. The CYA flotilla was planning on going to Montague around 12 or 12:30, and we were planning on splitting off from the group and heading for Nanaimo. A noon or so departure would get us to Dodd Narrows at just past slack current, with a bit of a current in our favor. By the time we were back on the boat it was an hour past that and we were bushed and not ready to leave immediately to make the narrows. A later departure to Nanaimo would have been okay too, as even if we were to arrive at maximum flow it was only 4 knots and in our favor. But, we didn’t want to hurry along and chose our secondary destination, Telegraph Harbour. We spent a couple days here last year at the Canadian Chris Craft Rendezvous and enjoyed it.

This evening we’re at anchor instead of at the marina. There are two marinas in the harbor, and they both had plenty of dock space but we had no need for the facilities. The back of the bay is very shallow, and there are a lot of local boats on mooring buoys. There’s an area in front of the canal to Clam Bay, but there was a sailboat right where we wanted to anchor. So, we headed back out the channel a bit and are anchored just beyond the Thetis Island Marina. It’s plenty deep here – we’ll still have 8 or 9 feet under us at low tide in the morning.

8/29 Ganges to Glenthorne Passage 5 nautical miles

After last night’s little power brown-out, we left things plugged in overnight, and the battery charger was still going to town in the morning. It’s a 3 stage 40 amp charger especially designed for our AGM house batteries – it runs full bore with its cooling fan going for 15 minutes, pauses for 30 seconds to check the state of the batteries then cranks up again. We have eight 200 amp 6 volt batteries wired in series/parallel to make two sets of four batteries, each putting out 12 volts – so 800 amps total at 12 volts. We actually recharge at a higher amperage when underway – the port engine has a 100 amp alternator with a 3 stage regulator. But, if you’re only cruising across the harbor or less than an hour a day it’s not going to keep up. Enough about that.

I never did find the harbor office unlocked to pay our moorage yesterday, so went over there at 9 this morning, where I caught them opening up. I fessed up that we used their power overnight, which is an extra charge – but our two nights’ moorage at the city’s dock was still less than one night at the marina next door.

The CYA flotilla was scheduled to get underway by 11 o’clock to head over to Glenthorne Passage. It’s not very far, about 5 miles from here, across the channel. Glenthorne Passage is one of our favorite anchorages and was on our list of likely places to go to anyway, so this fit right in with our plans. We pulled away from the dock around a quarter to eleven and headed out of the Ganges harbor at an idle. We didn’t pick up speed much once out of the harbor, either – accelerating up to the breakneck speed of 6 knots.

Glenthorne Passage, although we think of it as being on Prevost Island, is actually between Prevost and Secret Islands. Our hosts today, Curt and Marsha, have a cabin on Secret Island, facing into the passage. They had arranged for the use of several of their neighbors mooring buoys, and as we approached, Curt was out on his dock telling us to take an empty buoy or go ahead and anchor anywhere in the harbor. For us it’s less trouble to just anchor, plus we could head to our favorite location, which looks out through a small passageway on the south end of Secret Island. We anchored near a rock face, and just like when we anchor next to other boats, it always looks like you’re too close. Whenever we think that, we take a ride in the dinghy – the perspective is different, and you can then see you have all kinds of room.

The Olympus came in just a few minutes behind us. They are 92 feet long, and their procedure was to set their anchor, then tie their stern to the mooring buoy in front of Curt and Marsha’s cabin. When the Westward, the other big one, arrived, they set their anchor in the opposite direction from the Olympus and tied their stern to the same buoy – so the two big boats were anchored facing away from each other with their sterns essentially tied together, with the mooring buoy in the middle just holding up the lines. It was a good technique to keep a couple of huge boats from swinging around in a relatively narrow harbor.

The Olympus has a classic tender called the Junaluska – a little inboard runabout with a story of its own. It was the original tender to the Olympus back in 1929, but the two were separated for many decades until the present owners located it in a barn and had it rebuilt. Anyway, Diane and one of her crew members came by in the Junaluska to tell us that the crab feed would start around 4, but to come to the cabin early to explore the island.

We’ve been marinating some flank steaks for nearly 5 days now. We were going to have them last night in Ganges, but decided on the fish & chips instead. Now we’re being fed again this evening, so we got out the barbecue and cooked the steaks early this afternoon. Once thinly sliced it’s good pickin’ food, and we’ll snack on it in the coming days.

We headed over to the cabin a bit before 3 o’clock in the dinghy, and after a few introductions between various guests, we headed out on the footpath. The island has a ridge down the middle with a path along the ridge. There are about 3 dozen lots on either side of the path, most of them with homes or cabins. A few were vacant, or had just a wooden platform for pitching a tent. We’ve been anchoring in here for many years but had never had the opportunity to explore ashore, as there is no public access. We walked to the south first, eventually coming to the backside of a cabin that’s at the very end of the island – one we’ve taken many pictures of in years past as we cruise by. Heading back in the other direction, we saw cabins and buildings of all shapes and sizes. We learned from Curt that none of the property owners here are full time residents. We met one lady further down the trail who was out collecting rocks or shells. She and her husband live on a lake near Abbotsford, have a seaplane and can be at their island retreat in 29 minutes. Turns out they were invited to the party and we met here again there later in the afternoon. At the very end of the trail to the north was a small beach of white shells and sand – a beach I remember rowing over to over 30 years ago – probably in the dinghy of the Ojos Verdes. The locals here believe that beach is part of an old Indian midden.

Power Margarita Blender

Turns out the crab feed didn’t start until 5 o’clock, but there were hors d’ oeuvres aplenty in the cabin, and upon our return from our hike we were both provided with power margaritas, courtesy of Curt. I say power margaritas because, as this is an island with no electricity service, one has to be resourceful to power their blender. Curt’s blender sat atop a small gasoline engine, perhaps from a weed whacker or small chainsaw. With a few pulls of the starter rope, we heard that familiar 2-cycle motor sound as he revved it up with the blender on top. The margaritas were prepared in no time at all, and were top notch. I didn’t have our video camera, but I did put Erin’s Sony camera in video mode and take a shot of it. Once we’re closer to civilization again, maybe I can upload it to the blog or to YouTube.

Dinner time approached, and a couple ice chests full of cooked crab appeared. The crab were all caught locally, right here in Glenthorne Passage over the past few days. We each took a half crab and retired to our seats, at a table under a gazebo-like structure with an active fireplace at one end. The crab turned out to be just the first course – soon racks of ribs appeared and took their turn in a large stainless barbeque, next to the fireplace. Baked beans and coleslaw were served with the ribs.

We left the party a little early, I suppose, but we were both ready to head back to the boat. After all, we can only do so much socializing, especially while on vacation.

8/28 Ganges

We’re having outstanding weather this trip, and today was no exception. We had a beautiful view of the harbor this morning. Our spot here on the breakwater dock is ideal with unobstructed views all around as well as close access to everything in town. Of course, if the weather was blowing up a storm we’d be singing a different tune here on the outside of the breakwater.

Every Saturday through the summer the town of Ganges holds a “Saturday Market” where all sorts of arts and crafts, as well as produce, preserves and other goodies are displayed for sale. We were just getting out of the boat to stroll into town to browse through the market when Diane Vanderbeek and a couple of her friends came to the boat. Diane is Rear Commodore of the Classic Yacht Association and owner of the M/V Olympus, a 92 foot classic from the 1920’s with lots of history. The Olympus was leading a group of CYA members on a “Gunkholing through the Gulf Islands” expedition and their itinerary included stopping at Ganges for the Saturday Market. We had joined the CYA last year and attended a couple of their rendezvous’ so we were invited to their happy hour and dinner event over at Saltspring Marina this evening. Their cruise itinerary continues on tomorrow through the next weekend, culminating in the Classic Wooden Boat festival at Victoria. We’re also invited to join the flotilla for any or all of this outing, and since their next destination is Glenthorne Passage, where we were planning on going when we leave here anyway, we’ll tag along and enjoy a crab feed at one of the member’s cabin on the island.

Once we had all that squared away, we got back to our original plan of checking out the Saturday Market. It seems like everyone on the island comes to this, as it was really crowded. The perfect weather may have had something to do with the attendance as well. There was a wide selection of various items to consider, and when we saw some glass items we thought about buying we decided we should take a trip down the block to the cash machine to stock up on a bit of Canadian currency. Well, we weren’t alone on that idea. There were two cash machines about a half block apart, and each one had a lineup of 8 to 10 people waiting to line their pockets. Not the best timing on our part, but we bit the bullet, waited in line and got some spending money.

We had our sights set on an oil dispensing bottle – the one we use at home for olive oil has a leaky cap – and a salt and pepper shaker set to match. We made that purchase and continued our wanderings. Of course there were plenty of rings, earrings and other jewelry for Erin to look at, but she restrained herself very well. In the food section we picked up some salmon candy, a loaf of almond/apricot bread and a fancy red onion. I’m sure they will be transformed into gourmet treats in the coming days.

Erin wanted to bring something to the CYA dinner this evening, so she made a pasta salad using a recipe from one of her friends at work. It’s called pot sticker salad, although it uses ravioli, not pot stickers. It’s mixed in a sauce made of sesame oil, soy sauce and some other stuff. We called it Potentate Potsticker Salad. It’s very good, and I was hoping there would be some leftovers to bring back after the dinner.

Saltspring Marina is on the other side of the bay, and although it would have been a short ride had we launched our dinghy, we decided the walk around the harbor would do us good. We enjoyed meeting some people, and had a tour of the classic yacht Westward. It’s almost as big as the Olympus at 86 feet and probably of the same vintage. It still has its original Atlas Imperial diesel engine, which runs at up to 300 rpm turning a 50” propeller with 48” of pitch. Lots and lots of torque in that setup. Teresa and Hugh, the owners, have circled the Pacific Ocean in it, cruising the southern hemisphere as well as making a lengthy stop in Japan. The boat was in charter service in SE Alaska until 2004, and in fact we encountered it at Ford’s Terror on our Alaska trip in 2003. We also spent some time talking to Curt and Marsha, who will be hosting tomorrow’s crab feed at their cabin in Glenthorne Passage. As fate would have it, we had also met Curt three years ago while we were anchored in Glenthorne Passage. We were on a dinghy ride, and he was ashore working on the cabin, which we now know they had recently purchased at that time. We were admiring their boat, the Gwendolyn – and still admire it! Tomorrow we’ll get to go ashore, feast on some crab, see their place and take a walk on the island.

The hors ‘d oeuvres, dinner and dessert were all excellent, by the way, and although a serious dent was made in our salad we did bring home a small serving for the near future.

We just had an electrical “flash” while I was typing away here. Our inverter, which supplies 110 volts to the boat from the 12 volt house batteries, decided to shut down, leaving us in the dark. I think what happened is the icemaker kicked in, temporarily drawing quite a few amps, and the battery voltage momentarily dropped below 12v. This caused the inverter to shut off, which of course brought the voltage back to 12.5v and it turned back on, which started the icemaker, which… You get the idea. I had left a 12v light bulb on in the engine room all day from when I was checking on things, and those 12 volt bulbs actually draw more current than the fluorescent 110 volt bulbs running through the inverter. Anyway, our batteries were a little lower than usual. Fortunately, there is one power post here on the breakwater dock, and we had enough shore power cords to reach it. We’ll get things charged up overnight and be good to go.