Campbell River

The tricky thing about traveling to or from Campbell River is the current in Discovery Channel. The current always seems to be against us. In a big way. Today was no different. We could have arrived before 10 am and the current would have been more reasonable, but check-in isn't until 2:00, which would have meant a lot of hanging out waiting. Or we could have arrived after 6, too late to get stuff done before dinner. Arriving at just after 2:00 meant fighting 6 knots of current for an hour or more, burning a lot of fuel.

None of those options were very good, but since it was just an hour we chose to battle the current. What a battle.

We had full throttle for most of the hour and managed less than a knot of speed over ground, maybe eight knots speed through the water. Slow boat, fast water!

Eventually we made it into the marina, stopped at the fuel dock to top up, then found our slip. We set to work scrubbing the decks, filling the water tanks, emptying the garbage: the usual order of business.

Where do you suppose the crew opted to go first to slake their appetites? A bakery/coffee shop and an ice cream shop. After which no one has much of an appetite for an early dinner. So a later dinner It is.

Tomorrow we'll re-provision and do laundry.

Will introduced himself this afternoon. His buddy is in town and has a problematic windlass. We might not be seeing much of Will tomorrow, but he'll join us before we depart on Monday.

We go through the Seymour Narrows on Monday. There is no missing slack in those waters. Max current gets up to 12 knots with turbulence. Many people have died in those rapids, so we'll treat them with the respect they deserve. The moon is new on Monday, so the spring tides are at their fullest: Lowest low tides, highest high tides, and fastest currents.

With care we'll hit the narrows at slack and the crew will wonder what all the fuss was about. It'll feel like motoring across a lake.

The Stargazer

We enjoyed some upwind sailing today. We unwound our way between islands and out of Prideaux Haven this morning. As we popped out from behind a small island and into the larger strait, the wind suddenly had room to move. It went from 4 to 12 kts. We unfurled our sails and had some fun. It was perfect: 12-14 kts of wind, sunshine, and room to move.

Today is the warmest day so far. Our last night of the first leg. Bec will sadly depart in Campbell River and be (gladly) replaced by Will, who will be with us to Port Hardy.

Sunsets won't be the same without Bec, patiently waiting for the stars to come out.

Resource Depletion

The crew made french toast for breakfast this morning. I love the initiative. I guess there's a limit to their tolerance for hot cereal. Until today we've been eating oatmeal, cream of wheat, and granola in rotation with fruit, walnuts, and yogurt. The fresh fruit has been eaten, so we've been adding canned peaches and raisins instead. Now the yogurt is gone. Fresh milk is almost out. We'll open boxed milk soon. It's a good thing we'll be back in Campbell River the day after tomorrow. We're low on water too.

We have plenty of drinking water. And we can make (desalinate) more, but the tanks are almost empty.

The crew is swimming around the boat at the moment. The quick rinse afterward will use most of the remaining tankage. Water is comfort.

I'm making tacos for dinner tonight. Not much water needed for that. Tomorrow it's mushroom risotto. And then the first leg is done.

The more avid of our Quijote followers will notice that the boat's track did not appear to move today. There's a reason for that. The boat didn't move today. We have an extra day built in for weather delays that didn't get used. So rather than anchor close to town, people, and boat traffic, we'll chill here for a second night.

Tomorrow we make our way to Squirrel Cove. I have no idea why they named it that. There won't be many squirrels in the cove. I wonder if the outline looks like one. I'll check.

Um... not obviously. Perhaps if psychedelics were involved...

Speaking of Business

We're in Melanie Cove tonight. It's in the heart of Desolation Sound. Yoshi was impressed by the number of boats in here. I gotta say, this ain't nothing. MaryLou, Knute and I were in here a few summers ago when they were stern tied gunnel to gunnel all the way around the perimeter of the bay, dozens of boats shoehorned into the small cove as if there was nowhere else to go. We had no interest in messing with all those boats and people, so we turned the boat around and went out the way we came in.

This time there so many fewer boats, there was no need to stern tie to shore. There was ample room to drop our anchor in the middle of the cove and swing around it.

We had no sooner set the anchor than a minor crisis arose. The toilet pump stopped pumping. It was a minor crisis rather than a major one, only because Quijote carries a spare. We removed the old, installed the new, and we're back in business. So to speak.

Crew Reports

We did a morning hike today. What a glorious morning it was. The trail was green, mossy, lush. It opened up to a beautiful little lake that looks like we should be able to see moose foraging along the shore. The forest and marsh rolling up to the lake have an ancient visage. Prehistoric.

Mick was tempted to swim in the lake, but opted to swim from the boat instead. The lake would have been fine, a little brackish perhaps. The harbour was colder and saltier, but clearer. Mick and Bek went for a swim. In that order it was either "not so bad, you get used to it" or "Oh my God. This is cold!"

Yoshi and I cleaned ourselves out of a bucket. With warm water. Clean hair, clean face and clean arm pits. That'll do until we can take showers in four days.

After our rinse, Yoshi whipped up a little leftover lunch, we pulled anchor and were on our way. Five miles to the next stop: Susan Islets.

On the chart they're abbreviated "SUSAN ITS." I find that curious. Was not abbreviating islets an option? It's not like "SUSAN ISLETS" is very long. Or do they abbreviate as a way of subordinating the word to the name? A quick chart perusal reveals that PT, RK, and ITS (point, rock, and islets) are always abbreviated. ISLAND, BAY, and INLET never are.

I'm going to guess that all of the above are part of the chart's vocabulary. Whereas inlet, islet, and even ISLET are not. ITS is the only word the cartographers will ever use to indicate islets on a nautical chart.

We found one other boat tucked in behind these ITS, a catamaran.

Mick is making Rigatoni Bolognese for dinner tonight.

Bek reports that bar soap and sea water don't clean hair well. Shampoo is better.

Yoshi says he finds my work experience interesting.

Mick reports that the rigatoni bolognese is coming along very well and, being Irish, he can't guarantee there won't be potatoes involved.

And the captain reports we are down to our last pie. I haven't told the crew this yet, but we'll have to start strict pie rationing soon. I may have to resort to subterfuge and guile to survive the inevitable mutiny.

Rain and Wind

Wet, wet, wet. That about sums up the day. Oh, and windy. We motored in and out of the anchorages, but otherwise sailed all day. Wind speeds were in the mid-teens (perfect), gusting to mid-twenties (a little heavy for my taste, but fast). The gps reported speeds in the six and seven knot range under sail for most of the day. Wind speeds in the mid twenties gave us boat speeds over 8 kts. Fast!

The downside of such superb sailing weather? It came with rain. We were cold and wet by the time we'd set the anchor. In August! Thankfully the boat has an excellent furnace. Boat and crew warmed up and dried out quickly.

Tomorrow the wind does its shift and starts blowing from the north. That's okay. We won't be going any further north until we leave Campbell River a week from today. We have five nights in Desolation Sound and two in Campbell River before we transit the Seymour Narrows and make our way toward Port Hardy on the north end of the island.

I hear dinner noises coming out of the galley. It's time to eat. Yoshi is making walnut chicken on rice. Washed down with a wee slice of berry pie, of course.

Stern Tied

Today was a long day. Forty-seven miles over eight hours. The wind started off light but built in the afternoon to around fourteen knots. It's finally beginning to exhaust itself at 8pm. Tomorrow afternoon is forecasted to be more of the same… wind out of the south in the afternoon. After that the picture looks very different. The wind will come from the north on Tuesday, so it'll blow against us. That will motivate us to make our northerly intentions happen tomorrow, rather than on Tuesday, as we probably would have done. We have two extra days to burn, so we have options.

That's different than last year's situation when we were held for several days at the south end of Georgia Strait by big waves built up as they were pushed from north end of the strait to the south. This year we're already near the north end, so the waves don't have as much fetch to grow. Last year we burned our extra days waiting for the sea state to improve. This year we won't have to do that. The sea state at the north end won't deteriorate as badly as it does at the south end for the reasons stated.

Arriving at our anchorage at 5pm tonight, we went to work on a stern tie to shore. I have five hundred feet of polyprop line for just that purpose. Polyprop line floats, so it won't get wrapped in the prop. Mick and Bek (sound like a comedy duo) rowed the dinghy ashore and wrapped the line around a tree. Then Yoshi and I hauled on the tag line to pull the end of the main line back onto the boat. The result is the line tied to the boat that goes to shore, around a tree, and back to the boat. In the morning we just pull on the line to retrieve it without going ashore.

I marinated and bbq'd 2 lbs of salmon for dinner tonight with rice and broccoli. It turned out well and we ate it up. We have a lesurely start tomorrow. I'm not doing a very good job of keeping to my own itinerary. We're two days ahead and not staying at the same anchorages. Oh well.

Missed Opportunities

It rained hard this morning, but cleared to a warm, sunny afternoon. We could have sailed a bit this morning, had the crew been more enthusiastic about operating in a driving rain on choppy seas. Maybe we should wait until the rain lightens. The wind lightened.

We arrived around 2pm, half an hour ahead of a stream of boats pouring through Dodd Narrows at slack. Pirate Cove is tight, even tighter than Silva Bay. So we gratefully took the last of the anchoring space.

There's a trail around the island to give boaters a little exercise. Quijote's crew was curiously indifferent to the opportunity.

We spent the afternoon sleeping like cats, trapped in a sunbeam.

Bek made dinner tonight. Thai fried rice with shrimp. She did an excellent job of it. The recipe is one of my favorites.

We're not hoarding leftovers the way we usually do. The meals are ample enough for five, so there's not much left with four of us gorging on them. When Mick and I are the only ones remaining for the final leg, we'll only have to cook dinner every other day alternating with leftovers.

Tomorrow we start with Gabriola Passage, a narrow, winding channel that will spit us out into the Georgia Strait. We have to time our Passage for slack, which comes at 9:15am, according to the tables. Anchor up at 8:30.

Tomorrow will be a long one. We have 47 miles to do and the narrows won't let us start any earlier than 8:30. We should get there before 6pm if we can keep our average speed up.

Customs cleared, weather not

It rained off and on during the passage to Bedwell Harbour today. Mostly sprinkles, with a few periods of steady rain. Winds were light and against us. Tomorrow is forecast to be more of the same. We won't see the sunshine until Tuesday.

There was a steady stream of traffic flowing in the opposite direction today. Boaters heading home after vacations on the water. It's August, but late August, so I'm hoping that will translate to fewer boats at some of the more popular anchorages. Tomorrow's anchorage comes to mind. Pirates Cove is always chockablock full in summertime. Late August? We'll see.

We got our blood pumping this afternoon with a hike along the shoreline trail. The trail passes a sign that says: "end of trail," eventually popping us out onto an asphalt road. There was nothing for it except to dive back onto the trail and go back the way we came.

A while later we were back on the boat scrubbing the sand and dirt out of our shoe treads.

Mick made jambalaya for dinner tonight to rave reviews. The crew even condescended to eat apple pie with me afterward.

First night - Alex Bay

It was a routine Passage from Shilshole to Alec Bay in the San Juan's. About fifty miles in a little less than nine hours.

We arrived shortly before 3pm and set to work inflating the dinghy. Crew usually enjoy exploring the shore line or paddling in to walk along the beach. Nobody cared to do that this time. Instead reading and relaxing were the order of the day.

Yoshi volunteered to cook our first dinner, beef stew. It's always a hit and tonight was no exception. Mick made a salad to go with it and we sopped it up with a loaf of French bread, warm out of the oven and slathered with butter.

The crew was stuffed before we had it all eaten, so we might be having stew for lunch. We voted to forgo the apple pie set aside for dessert and save it for another night.

Tomorrow we'll continue north and clear customs in Bedwell Harbour on Pender Island. We might even get some hiking in.

With a little help from my friends

The provisioning is done. The boat is waiting for tomorrow's early morning departure. The crew is ready to rumble.

Tomorrow evening, the weather begins to blow for a couple of days. We're going to make a run for it and get across the Strait of Juan de Fuca before the seas kick up.  Last year we were stuck in Silva Bay for four days waiting for the wind to back off. This year shouldn't be that bad for a couple reasons. First because the wind is only forecast to blow for a day or two. Second, it will come from the south and blow in the same direction were moving, which makes a world of difference. We'll surf those waves under sail rather that bash head first into them all day.

We have Mary Lou and Knute to thank for our slip tonight. They're out galavanting through the San Juans this week and next, so they kindly offered up their slip for our use.  Mary Lou and Knute have crewed on Quijote a couple of times in the last few years, including last year through the Broken Group in Barkley Sound. Thanks Mary Lou! Thanks Knute!

Aother notable character providing moral support for this afternoon's adventure was Bob. Walking down to the boat as we went through the locks, he gave us a friendly wave and a took a few photos. Thanks Bob!

And lastly, Thanks go to Tina for transpotation and provisioning support.  Thanks Tina!

Entering the Ballard locks. Photo by Bob Bennett. 

Beginning a New Adventure

It’s summer, so Quijote must be heading north again.  We’ll circumnavigate Vancouver Island in four parts. Campbell River, Port Hardy, and Tofino divide the time and distance into approximate quarters.  

We’ll go nearly two months later in the summer than we usually do, owing to conflicting obligations and travel planning. Our departure date from Seattle will be Aug 22 and we’ll endeavor to return Quijote to her slip on September 30.

On August 21, the day before departure, we’ll move the boat through the Ballard Locks to Shilshole. The lock transit takes an hour or two, depending on traffic and bridge operator responsiveness. A Shilshole start stages us to get as far as Alec Bay in the San Juans if weather in the Strait of Juan de Fuca dictates.  We’ll have two days to choose from for making the crossing of the Strait.  If weather isn’t a factor, we’ll have the luxury of a leisurely start on the 22nd and a destination of Port Ludlow, roughly mid-way to the San Juans.

We have all new crew this time.  Joining me for the whole trip will be Mick. Bek and Yoshi join us for the first leg to Campbell River; Will and Yoshi for the second leg to Port Hardy; Dianne for the 3rd leg to Tofino.  Then for the final leg back to Seattle it will just be me and Mick.

The boat is clean and in good shape. Non-perishable provisioning is mostly done, and I’m waiting to get a little closer to the departure date before loading the boat with perishables.

Come Thursday we’ll be down to our final week before departure.

I love this point - most of the work of planning, recruiting, maintaining and cleaning have been done. Little remains but the anticipation of a grand adventure