Stuck on Quadra Island

On our way south, two days ago we came into Rebecca Spit, a marine park near Heriot 

Bay near the south end of Quadra Island. We were positioning ourselves for the run across the Strait of Georgia, intending to go to Comox. The weather has intervened, and two days later we are still here. Both yesterday and today, the predicted winds were 15-25 knots in the Strait. The seas in the Strait can be particularly nasty--a short chop that has you doing more up and down than forward. We have also had rain since yesterday afternoon.

We stayed at anchor for two days, and today moved to a nearby marina to give ourselves a shower and the opportunity to walk to a restaurant for dinner out. The prediction for tomorrow is for light winds until the afternoon, and we are planning to go as far south as we can manage, putting in a 12 hour or more day if the conditions allow us. We hope to make it to schooner Cove, which is a little ways north of Nanaimo. From there we can pretty well get the rest of the way south with some islands to protect us most of the way, even if there is wind.

So here is a picture of a grey day at Rebecca Spit. The first picture is of the bay enclosed by the spit--a nicely protected anchorage when the wind is up. We were anchored down where the small sailboats are in the right of the picture. The second picture is of the docks at Taku Marina looking out at Rebecca spit and the bay. Tamarisk is hiding behind the two large power boats on the right. You can see h black forestay with the genoa wrapped around it.

Helga, Shoal Bay Dock Chowder Champion

Here is the chowder pot, along with Helga, supreme organizer of the dock chowder. It was just as delicious as it looks, and there was plenty to go around, and even to send home with us. 

We had our leftover portion for supper last night.

Dock Chowder at Shoal Bay

A three year old tradition was sustained last Friday when one of our boats organized a "dock chowder." Helga, the organizer, came prepared with some basics like chicken broth and tomatoes, plus some canned clams and sausage plus miscellaneous herbs. Other boats on the dock contributed what they had, like corn, mushrooms, potatoes. The fishermen in the group came up with crab, ling cod, rockfish and prawns. All this went into the pot. A couple other boats contributed fresh bread rolls and a salad. At 6pm we gathered to enjoy it--this year with the sky sprinkling rain drops. Not enough to dampen the enthusiasm. The crowning contribution was the boater who showed up with a bottle of gin and vermouth, along with olives and 10 martini glasses and offered to make Martine's for all who wanted them!

Here is a picture of the group on the dock, and then of the martini making.

Cordero Lodge

We stopped last night to stay at Cordero Lodge, a marina and restaurant with a few rental rooms that has been here quite a while under ownership of a German couple, who recently sold it. We are checking it out and like what we found. the menu used to be all German dishes, but now has onE German dish and other dishes to select from--much more to our liking. We had a nice scallop dinner and a delicious apple crumble for dessert. We also met a couple on an all aluminum power boat and had a great chat with them during and after dinner. That's the fun of marinas--meeting interesting people. The big surprise for we two women was finding that we both got our doctorates at Fielding Graduate University. The two men got along great after discovering they were both in the navy.

Here is a picture of the newly refreshed Cordero Lodge. We will come back again!

Another peaceful Johnstone Strait Run

The predictions for today were patches of fog, NW winds 10-20 knots and a current going with us in the morning. So we left the dock at 8 am in order to catch the tide just right, and g eat out on the Strait before the wind got too bad. Actually, we wanted some of the wind so we could get a sail in, having had the sail up only once so far. 

Wonderfully, when we woke in the morning, there was no fog (yeah! We spent several hours navigating in the fog yesterday, never fun). Also no wind, at all. And even though the current was going with us, there is a counter current in Johnstone that seems always to run north, so since we were headed south, it was against this counter current, and SLOW.

But, we are always glad to have a quiet passing in Johnstone Strait. Here are pictures of the water we saw in the Strait at the start of our trip down, and what it looked like at the south end of the Strait. You could see the reflections of the surrounding mountains and clouds in the water!

Approaching the Strait coming out of Port Harvey. You take a left turn on the far side of those little islands and there you are, in Johnstone Strait.

Down at the south end of the Strait, we turn up into Sutherland Channel and exit the Strait. Here's what the water looked like there. The little island to the right is Fanny Island, where the wind reports for Johnstone come from.

Dock Life at Jennis Bay

When we are in a marina, one of the enjoyments, especially for Mr. Social Phillip, is talking with people on the dock. Sometimes I join him in conversations, but often I am going about some of my tasks, like catching and cleaning crab. Here are pictures of each of us indulging in our respective dock sports.

Defensive measures

We are in mosquito territory and weather. Here is this years defense against them--several generous yards of mosquito netting draped over the entry to the aft cabin where we sleep. So far so good. The only mosquitoes we've had are the ones that got in before the net got put up. Sometimes the simple solution works!

Jennis Bay in Drury Sound

We are tied up at me docks of Jennis Bay, a relatively small marina in Drury Inlet. This is our northernmost stop for the year. It is one of the few marinas in the area that actually is attached to land, and the people who run the marina live on land. There are trails from here to a couple lakes, so people like it because they can walk (just watch out for the bears.)

This afternoon we had an impromptu pasta making lesson from Karen, aboard the Scoop, from Vancouver, who had just spent two weeks in Italy attending various culinary workshops. 

Here is a picture of the buildings and docks at Jennis Bay, along with a picture of Karen making pasta. I was able to process hr second batch of dough. The process is actually fairly simple, though I don't think I'll be running out to get a machine to help me make pasta anytime soon.

Sullivan Bay Flowers and Tanks

Here is one sample of the huge flower baskets and hand painted propane tanks you find around the docks at Sullivan Bay.

Sullivan Bay Flowers and Tanks

Here is one sample of the huge flower baskets and hand painted propane tanks you find around the docks at Sullivan Bay.

Sullivan Bay

We stopped for one night at Sullivan Bay, the largest marina in the Broughtons with the best store. Most urgent was getting some milk, which I was unable to do at our last provisioning stop at Echo Bay. Up here, if you arrive too many days after they have refreshed their provisions, you may not get what you want. Sullivan Bay keeps a pretty complete store, so I was able to get most of what I wanted, including a fly swatter for the deer flies that are pretty numerous here.

Sullivan Bay is also a charming stop because of the cluster of red buildings around the "commercial" part of the docks, where the store, gas dock and restaurant are, and also because of the profusion of flower pots and hand hand painted propane tanks on the docks. There are a number of private float homes which people use as their summer cabins, including one with its own float plane and another with a helicopter. Apparently one of the residents gets a good number of large planters along with plants, and at a weekend in May, a bunch of women come up and plant and hang all the flowers. The flowers make it a lovely oasis in the wilderness.

Here is a picture of Sullivan Bay docks. In the next post I'll share a picture of flowers and propane tanks. The Internet here seems not to want to publish two pictures at a time.

Tamarisk is Dwarfed

We are at the docks in Sullivan Bay, which has a large length of dock space, along with fuel and a good store, and a restaurant. As a consequence it is a popular stopping places for lots of boats, including a lot of very large ones. Here is a picture of the boats at the dock this morning. That's Tamarisk, all the way to the left, a bit dwarfed in both height and length by the large motor vessels around her. 

Good Eating!

We are at Shawl Bay, home of the pancake breakfasts. This morning we dove into this pile of pancakes, along with all the other boaters. Three platters of pancakes later, the crowd was finally sated--though Phil and I limited ourselves to two each. They are really thick pancakes, and boy do they soak up the syrup!

Later this morning one of our neighboring boats took me out to our prawn trap, so I could use his trap puller. With our dinghy and 2 horsepower motor, the only way to get a prawn trap up is to pull it by hand. With 300 plus feet of line down, that's a real chore. But with his electric trap puller, it was a snap. Better yet, when the trap surfaced, it even had prawns in it! Thirty-one prawns, more than enough to make a meal. So I have some success at last with the prawning.

Here are pictures of pancakes and prawns.

Broughtons Scenery Big and Small

Each summer I am and again by the spectacular scenery that rolls by as we move about on our boat. The mountains rise dramatically out of the sea and frame our views as we slowly motor up nd down the channels. Mu first picture is of the mountains around Bond Sound, which we saw as we motored up Tribune Channel to the Kwatsi Bay marina.

My other love is to row slowly around the perimeter of our anchorages and admire the interesting rock and tree formations at the edge of the way. My second picture features a lovely piece of log lodged on the shore of Cypress Harbor, where we stayed last night. Nature provides lots of wonder here, and we love to admire it.

Please ignore the dark spot in the upper right corner. My camera went to the shop to get a couple of splotches removed but has now surfaced a new one. sometimes I can arrange the picture so it's not obvious, but not in this one.

Lagoon Cove dinner and sunset

catching up on pictures for the last week, since. Are now in a place where we can post them, I hope. Here is a picture of Phil at a dockside table enjoying the hamburger he cooked. The second picture is a sunset at Lagoon Cove. the airplane trails make interesting patterns that catch the dying sun.

Up the Johnstone Strait and into the Broughtons

On Tuesday we braved the reports of 15 knot winds at the south end of Johnstone Strait and left our overnight moorage at Forward Harbor at 5am, hoping to catch both a north going tide and the Strait before the wind reached its afternoon predictions of 25 knot winds. When we reached the Strait about 6am, we found about 5-10 knots of wind, a bit of a lumpy sea, but quite tolerable, so proceeded north. About a third of the way up our passage, the water flattened out and with the tide helping us, we made one of the quickest passages ever--a total of about four hours from Forward Harbor. As always, it pays to go out in the Strait in the early morning and check the actual conditions.

Our first stop was Lagoon Cove, a cozy marina about 11/2 hours off the Strait. Its regionally well known owner, Bill Barber, died this spring and we wanted to check in and support his wife, Jean and the great couple they have managing the marina. Bill was famous both for his stories, in particular wild bear stories, and for the generous prawns that he supplied for happy hour every night. This year the prawns are still coming, with the help of volunteers who are going out and pulling the traps. And the marina was doing well, we were glad to see. The night we were there was made even more moving by a bagpiper who played in the evening as a tribute to Bill, ending with Amazing Grace, to which we all threw flowers in the water in memory of Bill, who always stood on the dock to welcome us and remembered everyone's names. We will miss him.

Today we in Kwatsi Bay, another marina with a stunning setting--a small sheltered cove surrounded by high mountains. We had a potluck dinner last night and lots of great food, along with chats with several of the other boaters. These get togethers are always good sources of interesting information about boating, anchorages, and where to drop your crab and prawn pots. We are also now in limited internet bandwidth territory, so no pictures for this post. I will post them when I can.

Got my first crab at Lagoon Cove--my limit of four. We will have a crab Louie salad tonight. We also set our prawn trap outside Kwatsi Bay in a spot we were told about. We shall see if it produces and if we managed to get it on the bottom. Another boat at the dock here has two traps out in a different spot and brought in a large bucket full of prawns yesterday, so hopefully we will get some. I am using a different trap this year--but people say its not the trap, it's the bait and where you drop it. 

We are off to spend a couple nights in an anchorage near here where we have not been, but which was recommended to us. We always like to try one new place each year. We will try to anchor without finding any rocks or getting ourselves stranded on a beach--that's our objective for this year. No beachings and no rocks.

Shoal Bay Pig Roast

Today the weather turned beautiful again after a few hours of morning overcast, and was sunny and warm the rest of the day. Just in time for the Sunday pig roast, which we enjoyed this evening. Here are pictures of the view from the pub, showing the docks and the mountains around Phillips Arm, the inlet opposite Shoal Bay. Tamarisk is the white mast to the right of the picture, on the end of the dock. A second view shows the convivial crowd drinking and cnversing before dinner and the last picture shows us chowing down the pot luck dinner that boaters contributed to go with the roasted pig. a great evening!

First Fish

I have to document the first use of my Canadian fishing license, a rock fish that managed to hook itself on my fishing line. Not a very big one (note my glove for size)--about 12 inches. But gib enough to provide a small filet for each of us, and delicious too! I managed to find oysters the next day, too, so we fasted off the sea two days in a row.

First stop at Shoal Bay

We arrived yesterday afternoon at Shoal Bay, located on East Thurlow Island. We are gone through the first set of rapids that keep a lot of people from venturing this far north, Yuculta and Dent Rapids. Like most rapids, a piece of cake if you go through at slack water, as we did. Shoal Bay is a government dock, attached to land so that you can go ashore, a combination that gets more rare as we go further north (many of the marinas in the Broughtons are completely on floats, with no land access). On the land end, there is a small pub (a cabin, actually) which serves alcohol, beer and wine. Owner Mark McDonald us the cheerful proprietor, always with loads of work projects going on on the property. He and his wife Cynthia live in a separate cabin on the property, and keep a great garden where boat owners can get lettuce and usually things like a squash. They also have a pizza oven and a raosting pig. We will stay here four nights, enjoying a potluck pizza party on Saturday and a pig roast on Sunday. it's lots of fun to meet the different boat owners. I can also get my laundry done, which is what I'm doing while doing Internet work this morning.

Here is a picture of the pub and grounds.