Oops!

When Tamarisk emerged from the water, Phil (who was still on the boat, while I was on the ground) asked me to check the keel to see whether we’d suffered visible damage from our trip on the reef. Indeed we did. Here’s a shot of some of the damage. There are three different sections of the keel that had the gel coat ground off and some of the underlying fiberglass torn away. It was not as gentle a grounding as it felt. Fortunately, we have a very sturdy keel, with thick fiberglass, so no water got into the boat. Another winter repair job! The end of one season and the beginning of the repairs for another!

Overall it was a good cruising summer. Pretty good weather and we got to all the places we wanted to go. The only disappointment was that we got almost no sailing – probably under two hours total for the whole trip. I think that’s the least we’ve ever done. Fortunately, that motor was well repaired and performed beautifully throughout the trip.

We’re home for a week and then off to Utah to visit Phil’s brother Howard and participate in the Escalante Canyons Art Festival. More posts when that trip is under way.

High and Dry

Tamarisk is back out of the water, secured in her winter storage spot so her owners can go play at other things in peace. The process of pulling her out of the water is interesting, and I’ve included a couple shots of it. The trailer that pulls her out has two inflatable pontoons that she rests between. Phil has to drive the boat into the trailer while it is partially submerged, center it following the directives of the guy driving the trailer. Once she’s positioned, he backs the trailer out of the water and drives it down the streets to the yard where we store it, which is roughly two blocks away. For close maneuvering into the storage space, the “driver” dismounts and guides the trailer with a remote control module. In the second picture, you can see the “driver” to the left of the boat, walking along behind it and guiding it.

Connecting with Friends

We have returned to Lopez Island, where our friends Nancy Taylor and Fritz Levy, who graciously lent us their cabin during our engine woes in July, are now enjoying their cabin themselves. We’re pictured with them having one of our favorite breakfasts – cinnamon rolls at Holly B’s Bakery on Lopez. Picture WARM cinnamon rolls drizzled with butter that you apply from a crock on the counter. It’s a treat we look forward to every summer.

After predictions of rain, we were pleasantly surprised with great weather yesterday – but still no sailing on our transit from Parker Island to Lopez. Today the promised rain has arrived. Yesterday we joined a marina full of boats at the docks of the Lopez Islander Resort – two different yacht clubs make this their Labor Day weekend jaunt, and they were partying. Fortunately, they were also old enough to go to bed at a decent hour, so the docks were quiet by 9 pm and we slept well. That was a relief after the two previous nights when we’d had wind during the night blowing hard enough to rock our boat a lot. It’s very unusual to have wind at night, so we didn’t sleep well even though we were tied to a dock. We’d have gotten even less sleep if we’d been at anchor!

Tonight we’re having dinner at the Bay Café on Lopez with Nancy and Fritz. Tomorrow we make our way back to Anacortes, where we’ll be in a moorage slip overnight and then hauled out on Wednesday. We’ll take a day to pack things up and winterize the boat and be back in Seattle on Thursday. We’re slowly slipping back into the world of news and ready communication. We’ll miss the quiet and being away from it all—one of the things we enjoy about our time on the boat.

Continuing South

The weather calmed down and we motored down to Schooner Cove, just north of Nanaimo, yesterday. We were hoping for a little wind so we could sail, but it seemed to all have been used up in the previous day's storm. Today it is sunny and beautiful, and we'll continue south into the Gulf Islands.

Today's picture is one of Phil's favorite positions. It LOOKS like he is reading, but it's a clever disguise. He's actually napping. Note that he still has the book in his grasp. What a talent!

Happily Tucked Away in Comox

Today we’re happily tucked in at the Comox Municipal Marina, sheltering ourselves from the 30 knot winds that are blowing outside. Today’s picture attempts to capture a bit of what it’s like – even inside the marina behind the breakwater the tops of the waves are breaking.

Our plan had been to cross the Strait today, but yesterday while we were motoring our way in glassy calm seas from Von Donop Inlet to our destination at Gorge Harbor, we got the weather prediction for 30+ knot winds today. After a few moments of consideration, we changed plans and decided to skip Gorge Harbor and keep motoring across the straits while it was calm. THIS spontaneous decision was a good one. We got in about 6 pm last night after a totally uneventful day and are now securely tied to the dock. All of the fishing boats tied to a neighoring dock next to us are also staying home. No one wants to be out in wind like this.

Tomorrow it is supposed to calm down and we will continue our way south. Meantime we’re enjoying a day of staying in place, getting laundry done, taking showers, shopping for groceries and exploring the town of Comox, which has prettied itself up considerably since we were last here several years ago. We’ll eat out tonight at one of its several good restaurants and then be happily on our way.

Hunting for food

Here's a picture I wanted to post earlier, with the dinghy loaded for setting crab traps and fishing. A typical day in the life of the provisioner!

A First for Viner Sound

Two nights ago we anchored in one of our favorite coves, at the end of Viner Sound. There are two small coves you can tuck into, each with two buoys. If you don’t get a buoy, you have to do a stern tie because there isn’t enough room to swing. We have never been there when there was an empty buoy, so were speculating on whether we’d be lucky enough to come up with one.

Miracles do happen! Not only was there a buoy, there was no one else there at all, so we had our choice of buoys. We secured ourselves to the one that’s furthest from the channel and spent a very peaceful night, all by ourselves.

Viner Sound is also a good crabbing spot, so I set both my pots and unfortunately had another first for Viner—no crab at all. However I had a crab in the refrigerator that we enjoyed for dinner that night, and we had a delicious ling cod dinner the night before with a piece of cod that was given to us. We’re certainly not hurting for seafood.

Many boats are headed home this time of year, as we are, so the crowd thins out quite a bit. Yesterday was our “do or die” day to get down Johnstone Strait. We were hoping for the predicted 10-15 NW wind, but it was flat calm, as it has been on most of our transits. We now back at Shoal Bay, gazing up Phillip’s Arm, where we’ll stay for another night before heading to Von Donop Inlet (on the northwest side of Cortes Island) in Desolation Sound. There’s definitely the nippy feel of fall in the air mornings and evenings.

A Woman's Work is Never Done

Yesterday, after dropping a shrimp pot off the Tamarisk, after we anchored I loaded my dinghy with two crab traps and my fishing gear. Despite careful rowing back and forth my fishfinder didn't find any fish shapes and the two times I dropped my line confirmed that. So no fish.

I picked up the traps this morning. My shrimp pot yielded two starfish, one baby crab and one prawn—all of which went back to where they’d come from. One crab trap was empty. The other had several female crabs (which you cannot keep) but also one nice-sized male crab, now resting in my refrigerator.

So that's roughly 500 feet of line pulled up for one crab. Keeps one fit!!

(I have a nice picture, but haven't had much success recently getting my pictures to load so you'll have to do without them until I can get to a place where I can upload them)

Boat Work

This picture demonstrates the interesting exercise one gets on a boat—skewering yourself into small places in order to fix things. Here Phil has leveraged himself into the small locker in the bow to secure an extra reel of line out of the way. Don’t you wish you were here to do that?

The First Fish

This morning I got in my first fishing expedition. I had a recommendation that where prawn traps are set is a good place to fish for bottom fish. Apparently those bottom fish like to feed on prawns! Shawl Bay, where we spent the past town nights, is a popular prawning spot. Yesterday a guy on one boat caught a beautiful 2 foot red snapper. Definitely stirred my interest, so I determined to get myself out to fish.

Each year when I start to fish, I have to learn all over again how to tie the knot that secures the hook, how to arrange my gear, and how to make my little fishfinder work (after being reminded how to start the little engine we have for the dinghy—I’m a rower, not an engine person). After a half hour of gathering gear (fish pole, fishing gear box, gaff hook to bring the mighty fish aboard, a baby bathtub to put the fish in so it doesn’t flop all over the dinghy, a piece of pipe to serve as a fish bonker, a net (just in case—but not advised for bottom fish, which tend to tangle up the net with their spiny top fins), my gloves, and my lifejacket, I was finally ready to go.

I motored out to the fishing spot, dropped my line in about 150 feet of water (about 100 feet less than where the guy yesterday had fished, but my fishfinder was telling me there were fish down there), and within a minute I had a bite. NOT a nice big one, and NOT a red snapper, but a pretty little bottom fish a little over a foot long, big enough to feed the two of us. I could probably have just hauled it aboard with the pole, but used my gaff hook for practice. A successful expedition--my criteria for success is whether the fish can feed both of us.

My prawn haul at Shawl Bay was also not impressive, but in two pulls I garnered a dozen prawns—enough to make a dinner for us. Now I am in that place I often find myself while in the Broughtons, with a backlog of several meals of fresh seafood (1 crab, one dozen prawns, and 2 fish fillets) to be eaten. That frozen meat in our freezer will just have to wait. Such a problem to have, eh?

Relaxing and watching the scenery

One of the things I enjoy about our coastal waters is the lovely scenes that greet you at the edges of water and land. I love rowing about slowly with my dinghy to catch the interesting shapes and colors with my eye, and sometimes with my camera. Here is one of those images – a wshot of Tamarisk framed by an interesting log on shore, all by herself in Simoom Sound, a large inlet opening off the even larger Kingcome Inlet.

We anchored in Simoom two nights, and today moved to Shawl Bay, one of our favorite marinas, where things are very informal. We’ll gather at 5 pm for pot luck hors d’oeuvres and meet people from the other boats. Tomorrow evening there will be a pot luck dinner centered around a deep-fried turkey done by the marina owners. This marina is a good place to do laundry, plus stock up on freshly-made bread. The marina owners, Lorn and Shawn and their son Rob also serve up pancakes and coffee for everyone. Hard to beat!

In the Broughtons at Last!

Yesterday we made our way up to the Broughtons, at long last. The Johnstone Strait was finally quiet and we made an easy passage with a helpful current, arriving in record time at our first Broughtons destination, Lagoon Cove. We enjoyed the great cocktail hour Lagoon is known for, with a generous platter of freshly caught shrimp provided by the marina owners. Every day Bill Barber, the owner, goes out to retrieve several shrimp pots and brings in a huge bucket-full of shrimp. This morning we watched him cook them in salt water, scooping them out as they floated to the top of the boiling water. They cook very quickly – just 2-3 minutes--and are absolutely delicious, as is the sauce he makes to go with them.

This afternoon we moved to Kwatsi Bay. I couldn't get my picture to load so you will have to imagine our lovely setting in a quiet bay surrounding by high mountains. It's one of the most lovely settings in the Broughtons. We are the only sailboat on the dock, in company with several 50" foot power boats, almost all from the US. This evening we enjoyed another shared hour of appetizers on the dock—everyone brings a appetizer contribution and their own drinks, and we meet the other boaters. It’s the tradition up here in the Broughtons, and a very nice one.

Tomorrow we’ll move to a place where we can swing at anchor for a couple days. We’ve been at a dock for the last six nights—unusual for us. Our new solar panels are doing a great job of keeping our batteries sufficiently charged that we don’t need dock power. And lucky us, we arrived in the Broughtons with some sun—the first they’ve seen in over a month. That’s helping the solar power production as well. So far we’ve had really great weather.

Enoyed crab cakes tonight, finishing off the crab I got in Pender. Got one more crab at Lagoon so we have more, plus some shrimp. We’ll take a break from seafood tomorrow night to have spaghetti with hamburger. After eating seafood for a week, one actually gets a yearning for a little meat!

Living off the Sea

We have made our way to Shoal Bay, one of our favorite cruising stops. Shoal Bay is located on the northeast side of East Thurlow Island, with a lovely view looking up Phillip’s Arm. There’s a government dock run by Mark McDonald, who owns the land to which the dock is attached. Mark has a small cabin that serves as a pub and gathering center for people on the boats tied up and anchored in the bay. So each evening there’s a group gathered on the front deck (in nice weather), often listening to musicians off some of the boats who bring their guitars and whatever else they play. Last night we were treated to a bluegrass group all traveling on one boat – a trio of mandolins and a banjo. The view across the bay pictured above is what you see on a sunny day.
There’s also usually a project of some kind to work on—this time it’s an outdoor platform for gathering. They’re having a music festival here in a couple weeks and want a performing and gathering space. So yesterday I joined in the hammering to get the deck planks fastened down. Other nifty things available here, in addition to good company, include internet access, a burn barrel to take care of accumulated paper, a compost pile to take care of accumulated food scraps, and a place to leave bottles and cans for recycling. Those are all hard to find, and important to boaters.

We’re also into our third day of living off things that I am harvesting from the sea. After our beautiful oyster lunch at Pender, we’ve had a clam chowder from clams also gathered at Pender, and last night a crab dinner from the crabs I caught at Pender. Tonight we’ll have oysters again, and we have another crab to eat. I also have a shrimp pot out—one of the regulars who stays here for months at a time told me about a spot where he regularly gets prawns. We’ll see if I have any luck there.

A Happy Chance Meeting!

We’ve just experienced one of those “chance” events that you think must have a guiding hand behind it. Last Friday in Pender Harbor I sent a message to our friends Earl and Kristin Lasher, with whom we did lots of boating when their and our children were young. They sold their sail boat about 13 years ago, but this year bought another boat (42’ Grand Banks, so they moved from sail to power). My message was to find out if by any chance they would be cruising any where near us this summer. The next morning we were hailed by Earl Lasher from his boat, which he and Kristin were picking up in Pender Harbor! They had just gotten my message the night before and were looking for us as they left the harbor. They were on their way to Desolation so we agreed to stay in touch.

Then the weather helped give us a day together. The Lashers went out into the channel and discovered that the wind and seas were way too boisterous for them (and for us, we decided). They returned and we both decided to put off moving north for better weather. We spent a great day together, sharing a fresh oyster lunch from oysters I’d picked from our friend’s beach (which you see in the picture), taking advantage of their moorage at the Seattle Yacht Club outstation to do laundry and take showers, and then enjoying a lovely dinner at the Painted Boat Restaurant.

On Sunday the weather calmed down and we both headed off north—they to pick up grandchildren in Desolation Sound and we to stop at Lund to visit friends. We spent last night in Lund enjoying a great supper with our friends Barbara and Warren Chapman and today we’re heading through Desolation to run the Dent rapids about 5:30 and tuck in at Shoal Bay, on the northeast corner of East Thurlow Island. We’ll stay there a few days, and since they have internet, my next posting will be from there.

Our First Great Adventure of the Cruise

After a smooth start to our voyage with our engine ticking along beautifully, on our second day out Phil sponsored our first big adventure of the season, putting us aground (actually “arock”) on a rock reef. How did our experienced captain manage that?

We were coming into Ganges Harbor, which has a chain of islands separating the main harbor from the smaller harbor where we planned to anchor. We have crossed between those islands many times, carefully, because there are lots of rocks scattered about, in the places where the chart shows there’s enough water. On this particular trip, we were almost at the pass that we had planned to take when Phil saw a large, older sailboat come slipping across a passage that was nearer (and fuller of rocks than most, according to the chart). He made a sudden decision to go through where the other boat had gone, and found to his chagrin that the other guy knew where to go much better than he did. We slid up on a nice reef of rocks and came to a halt, with a slight list to starboard. Not a big list, and we were still afloat fore and aft—just stuck in the middle.

If you note the two pictures, you will note in the first one that you really don’t want to be able to see rocks that close as you look through the lifelines over the railing. In the second picture you can see that we’re listing a bit to starboard.

Several helpers appeared right away, first to be sure the boat and its occupants were all right (we were, though with an embarrassed captain), and then to offer advice and help. Two good things had happened—(1) the rock was smooth where we hit it so we had not suffered any damage and even moreso (2) it was low tide and we had several hours of incoming tide to help us get enough water to get off. After one helpful person took an anchor out to secure us and keep us from sliding further onto the reef, we fixed cocktails (it was 5:15 pm) and sat down to wait. In a very short period of time the water had come in enough that we were heeling less. About that time another pair of people came by to offer help, one of whom put a line on our bow to pull us while the other gave us a sideways push to keep us from sliding further onto the reef. After a couple of tries, we were free. We gathered in our lines and gave hearty thanks to all involved, then proceeded to get ourselves properly anchored.

After all that ado, we decided to treat ourselves to a dinner in Ganges Harbor—quite a nice one at a restaurant we hadn’t tried before. Biggest lesson learned (other than BELIEVE THE CHART) is “don’t make spontaneous decisions.”

We hope that’s our season’s grounding and we can get on from there without any other major mishaps. We seem to have to do something like this once a season, just to humble ourselves. Since Ganges, we have spent an uneventful night in the northern Gulf Islands (Ladysmith Harbor) and are currently anchored in Pender Harbor where we are visiting with our friend Jack Charlton, who has a cabin on Mary Islet in the middle of the harbor. After a day of rest, we’ll move on north to Desolation Sound, possibly stopping at Lund.

The Tamarisk will cruise at last!

If you look closely at the two pictures you will see Tamarisk’s engine minus its head in the first picture, and sporting its pretty blue refurbished head in the second. We had a successful install of the “new” head this morning, the engine ran like it’s supposed to, and we are scheduled to launch on Monday at 2:30. So we will see our cruising grounds after all. We’ll get over to a bay in the San Juans on Monday and then Tuesday head to Canada to clear customs and begin making our way north.

We’re celebrating this evening by going to a well-known small café near the little town of Edison—The Rhododendron Café. We’ll toast the new engine and all of our patient friends who have been waiting and hoping to see us off. Over the weekend we’ll turn our project boat back into a proper ship for cuising and be happily on our way Monday. Stay tuned for the real cruising adventures to come.

Exploring around Anacortes (& a new head for our engine)

It's Tuesday the 27th and we're still in Anacortes. The engine head is indeed cracked. Since our Perkins 4108 boat engine is no longer in production, we are getting a refurbished head done by a shop in Seattle that specializes in used Perkins engines. We pick it up in Seattle tomorrow, stay overnight to touch base with friends and return to Anacortes on Thursday where Phil will get started putting the engine back together. Hopefully Friday the mechanic will join him to complete the job and give it an overall inspection. Then we’ll test it and see if it works!

If all goes well (and at this juncture I’m not holding out too much hope), we’ll try to get in the water early next week and be on our way. We now hold a personal record for time spent in the boat yard. It will be a month this weekend.

On Sunday Phil declared a “no work” day and we drove to Bellingham along beautiful Chuckanut drive, enjoying the scenes of water and trees. We spent the day exploring the Fairhaven district of Bellingham, which has taken the original old town buildings and rebuilt them. It’s much more upscale than it was on my last visit, with LOTS of coffee shops, restaurants and shops. Our favorite find was a great used book store called Eclipse, which has so much inventory that in additional to what’s on the shelves, there are stacks of books (organized by subject area) all over the store. Today’s picture gives you an idea of what it looks like. I found a couple books on Vietnam and one on the Philippines, to provide background for next January’s trips. And Phil found a couple books too. Altogether a very nice day.

Tamarisk Cruise Summer 2010 - The Beginning

I ought to be sharing a pretty picture of a cozy harbor somewhere in the San Juans or Canada, but instead we find ourselves camped out in the Anacortes boat yard where we store the Tamarisk over the winter. Notice the lovely surroundings for our evening dinner!

Why are we camped here in our boat? Because the engine has a problem that Phil discovered two weeks ago, just a couple days before we were to go in the water and leave. The mechanic we called looked at it and diagnosed a problem with the head—either a crack in the head or a split head gasket. And a week and a half wait before he could get to it!

So we’ve been waiting. We spent several days doing boat work (there’s always plenty to do), then went over to Lopez Island for six days, using the cabin of our friends, Nancy Taylor and Fritz Levy (see second picture, if it posts). We returned to Anacortes last Tuesday, ready for our mechanic to appear on Wednesday. He didn’t come. He didn’t call. Didn ‘t come on Thursday either. Finally called Thursday night, just as we were lining up other mechanics to contact, to say he’d be there Friday morning. And this time he did show.

The head is now being closely examined for a possible crack, and we are waiting to see how much longer we will enjoy the gravel boat yard with its splendid porta potty facilities. I have just completed a first coat of paint on the cabin sides, after spending 3 days in preparation. Why is it that it always takes five times as long to prepare for painting as it does to actually paint (especially masking everything and removing all the little fittings that boats have)? We are also sporting a new coat of paint in the cockpit, covering up the repairs that were done there to remove some dry rot.

The balance between boat work and pleasurable boat use has tipped a little too far towards the “work” side this year and both Phil and I are beginning to suffer from the deprivation. Hopefully our patience will last a little longer. Will keep you all posted when there’s news to report.