Full Moon in Prince Rupert

Friday June 13th

Arrival in Prince Rupert

Friday June 13, 2014

We arrived in Prince Rupert harbour yesterday afternoon. We started off motoring into 15-20 knots of wind, but then with a bit of a change in wind direction and our heading we were able to put up the sails and had a exciting sail all the way into the harbour. 

Sailing across Queen Charlotte Strait, EXCELLENT!

From Ladysmith Harbour to Crease Island in the Broughton's took us just 3 1/2 days, that is a record time for us, but we really pushed it. Normally we would take at least a week to do that distance.

Sunset, always beautiful on the west coast.

From Port McNeill to Prince Rupert, the trip has been mostly uneventful. We have seen humpbacks and dolphins, caught a nice big ling cod, and done some beach combing (haven't found any treasures yet!).

Miss Maggie... where do I go from here?

After my last post, I did promise to tell a little story and it just happens to be about Miss Maggie. We went for a walk after anchoring in a small cove on the mainland. We knew we might be in bear country, so went prepared with our can of bear spray. We walked along an old logging road for about 30 minutes and turned around and shortly after that we all three saw a grizzly come out of the forest about 150 feet in front of us. Maggie took off after him before we could do anything. So, we both ran after Maggie, shouting all the way. The bear ran as fast as he could trying to get away from this awful monster that was right on his heals and making big loud noises! She came back, after probably chasing the bear for half a kilometer, looking like she was in big trouble, but we were just so glad to see her again! So, from now on, we will have her on a leash if there is any chance bears are around. 

Alaska Bound this summer!

Saturday May 31, 2014

Well, we are at it again.... we have departed on our next adventure and our most northern destination is Juneau Alaska and everything in between. We are not going to be posting as much as in the past, we will only have internet when we are in a marina or go ashore.

Bucaneer Bay, Thormanby Island, first night anchorage.

Our first day out, we were lucky to get in a few hours of sailing, but mostly the wind blew straight (NW) on our bow. All the way up Georgia Strait and up past Desolation and into the Broughtons, we had NW wind. 

On shore leave, Rendezvous Islands, Calm Channel, just north of Desolation.

Today, Wednesday, we arrived in Port McNeil to fuel up and fill water tanks. Tomorrow we will cross Queen Charlotte Strait and anchor in Blunden Harbour. On Friday June 6th, we will round Cape Caution and head up the BC coast to Prince Rupert. 

The effects of the NW wind on trees at Tuna Point, Johnstone Strait.

We have already seen our fair share of wildlife in the first few days of our trip. Just off Texada Island, we crossed paths with a beautiful large pod of orca whales. And several times we have seen single and mini pods of dolphins. And a grizzly bear! And do we have a story to tell! But I am going to wait to tell you until my next post, just to keep you hanging in there!

So off agin tomorrow. The weather forecast is for south and south east wind starting on Friday which is PERFECT for sailing up the coast. I won't believe it until it happens!! Keep posted for some exciting times!

All's well... Kathy and Jerry aboard SV Splendid Mane.

Family Photo

It was next to impossible to get Maggie to co-operate! This was taken on our walk after anchoring in Becher Bay, near Sooke. Wonderful waterfront park for everyone to enjoy, with a beautiful sandy beach and lots of hiking trails and even some petroglyphs to have a look at. 

Splendid Mane at anchor with the Olympic Peninsula Mountains of Washington State in the background.

Leaving the Pacific behind.

I am playing catch up on our few last days out on the water. We arrive home last Thursday afternoon. We left Port San Juan on Tuesday morning and motored about 30 miles to Becher Bay, catching another coho along the way. For the most part, the fog had left us alone, but we did not have enough wind to fill our sails.

Oh well, Maggie and I enjoyed the day!

Port San Juan

We anchored Monday night (Aug 12) in Port San Juan after motoring most of the day in pea soup fog. As we approached our anchorage, the fog started to lift (and we caught another coho). We watched as the fog rolled into the bay and hit the sides, but it never came close to us again.

Dog Fish

I know, I know.... I wasn't going to make this trip all about Miss Maggie, but seriously, how can you not just love that face?!? She is waiting for her share of the salmon we just caught. Maggie likes fresh salmon, raw or cooked, but she doesn't like white fish such as rock cod or ling cod. And she doesn't like crab either. Go figure! 

When we catch a fish, she absolutely goes BONKERS, and tries to help us by biting and licking the fish once we get it in the net. Way too funny!

Fog just moving in while we were anchored in Quait Bay.

Leaving Bamfield

Well, today is Monday August 12th and we are just leaving Bamfield. Our original plan was to head out on Saturday but the wind decided to do an about turn. So we headed over to Bamfield and hooked up with Rick and Rosita. Yesterday Rick took us out fishing on his FAST boat and we hauled in 8 beautiful coho, 4 for each of Jerry and I!! It was unbelievably fun, especially when we scored two double headers, that is two fish on at the same time, and we landed all of them.

So, we are on our way home, today will be a long day, we might make it almost to Victoria and if not we will be in Port Renfrew tonight.

Fog-ust

This is a photo of fog moving in from the Pacific, hitting an island and then curling back on itself. On this particular day, it was the only fog. Yesterday we motored in fog for most of the day but just before we anchored it cleared off and we had beautiful sunshine. One of our favourite places to anchor in Barkley Sound is behind Refuge Island, close to Lucky Creek. The water temperature was a pleasant 19 degrees (68 fahrenheit) in the bay and just a little cooler in the river. So we all enjoyed a fresh water bath, including Maggie.

Trying our luck at catching some fish today!

Fog, fog, fog

One of the most common features of the west coast of Vancouver Island in August is the prevalence of fog. It is not fun to move around in for obvious reasons. Right now we are having a thick blanket of fog off the coast, so we are going to sit here near Tofino and see how the day shapes up tomorrow.

Back from the wilderness of the west coast.

We have arrived in East Clayoquot Sound, not too far from Tofino, which is why we have internet now! Our travels for the last two weeks have been AWESOME! We have enjoyed some great sailing, rounding Brooks Peninsula in 38 knots of wind! We are catching salmon, rock cod and lots of crab (no prawns yet!). We've seen humpbacks, lots of sea otters, black bears and heard the lonely howl of wolves (first time ever!). Some of our anchorages have had surprisingly warm water and we have done a fair bit of swimming. The picture above is of a beautiful pool with waterfall close to our anchorage on the north side of Brooks. That water was too cold to swim, but wading was very refreshing. 

Over the next few days, I will be able to post quite a bit since we will have internet for the most part from here on in. Tomorrow we will probably make a run for Barkley Sound and the Broken Islands. The winds are suppose to be blowing from the NW which is perfect for a sail into Ukee.

Full moon over Brooks Peninsula.

Arrival at Winter Harbour

We arrived yesterday afternoon in Winter Harbour after a very wonderful day of sailing down wind on Vancouver Island's west coast. Just wanted to let everyone know where we are!

Shelter Bay, northwest Queen Charlotte Strait

A nice surprise awaited us when we anchored in this small bay, a beautiful big soft white sand beach. You can see Splendid Mane in the background, the bay is shallow so we had to anchor a ways out. We are staying here today and then will head out across Queen Charlotte Strait to the Vancouver Island side to position ourselves for the rounding of Cape Scott.

Blunden Harbour

We arrived in Blunden Harbour on Thursday afternoon, got in a little sailing but mostly motoring. Tucked into the west corner of the harbour, we still had winds buffeting us up to 10 knots. After dinner, we went ashore for a little exploration.

Friday we decided to take it easy and just stayed put, did some reading and then took the dingy to see the reversing falls, very cool.

Today, Saturday, we are heading out again. On our way to the Walker Group of Islands, just a little north and east of Port Hardy. We are having a beautiful sail today, and just spotted a group of about 8-10 orca... they swam right under our boat but didn't stop to say hi. It looked like they were on a mission, or maybe chasing some fish. We are hoping to catch a nice salmon for dinner tonight, got the line out so we will keep our fingers crossed.

Catch du jour

Here are two of the five nice sized Dungeness crabs we caught this evening. They are already cooked and will be dinner tomorrow and maybe a few more days too! This was all the result of talking to a fisherman who was cleaning his two salmon, he didn't want the heads and he told us where to put our trap down. Voila!

We will be leaving early tomorrow morning and heading north again. I am not sure about our internet, so if you don't hear from us for awhile, no worries, we will be in touch again once we get to Winter Harbour.

Port McNeill

We arrived in Port McNeill yesterday and met Margie for the Mom transfer. Thank you Margie for coming all the way up island to pick her up, we know that was a long 3 hour drive for you. And adios to Mom, we enjoyed having you aboard!

Today we are spending the day doing laundry, stocking up on fresh produce and then filling up with fuel (and propane) and water. We will probably spend one more night here, then be off tomorrow.

Pearse Island Marine Park

We just finished our lunch and are getting ready to take a dingy tour around Pearse Islands Marine Park. This park is located southeast of Port McNeill and is a wonderful anchorage with beautiful sunsets, just on the edge of Johnstone Strait where it turns into Queen Charlotte Strait.

Potts Cove, West Cracroft Island

Jerry and Maggie looking for sea asparagus for dinner in Potts Cove. The cove was home to a pair of eagles and mom's keen eye spotted their nest. Tried some crabbing but it was crappy.

We are on our way to Crease Island, a small island on the edge of the Broughtons. The wind has finally settled down, we had a great sleep last night and a very relaxing morning. Tomorrow we will head over to the Broughtons and then hopefully sail back (rather than motor) to Port McNeill on Tuesday. 

Shore duties at Rebecca Spit.....

Barnes Bay (Sonora Is) to Knox Bay (W Thurlow Is) then Port Harvey.

Our attempt to transit Johnstone Strait has been a tough one. We have mostly been travelling at night to take advantage of the lesser winds and waves. Last night we left our anchorage at 1:30 am to catch the ebbing tide and winds of only 20-25 knots instead of 30-35 during the day. What a night.... we had waves coming over the bow and hitting our dodger, but we made it to Port Harvey for some sleep. We are now on our way to a more protected anchorage, Burial Cove, a short distance away to spend a much needed rest overnight. 

Mom is doing great... she sleeps through anything and is quite happy the next morning when we are in a new location... just like on the cruise ships!

Leaving Bowser behind....

Getting ready to leave our family reunion yesterday morning, Maggie was enjoying a snooze in David's arms. She really played hard the whole weekend! She spent the rest of the day sleeping.

We anchored on the northeast end of Denman Island yesterday afternoon. After a walk on the beach, we headed back to the boat and were treated to one of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen! It literally looked like the sky was on fire.

Today we are aiming for Octopus Islands Marine Park on the north end of Quadra Island. Waves slapping on the stern forced an early start this morning, we pulled anchor at 4:15!! We have the current in our favour right now but a 15 knot NW wind is pretty much straight on our nose. Hopefully the wind dies down a bit (sounds odd coming from a sailboat!) so we can make better time today.

At anchor in Bowser

Splendid Mane sitting quietly near Bowser, the wind is somewhere else today. 

guess what's for dinner tonight?

Nanaimo Harbour... working on perfecting the shot.

Ella was teaching Ella how to use a sling shot, she is a pretty good shot, we had to tell her not to aim at the other boats!

Double Trouble!

Ella Hillbrecht (our neighbour's daughter) and Ella Huggins (our granddaughter) checking our progress to Dodds Narrows. We got away on time and are just approaching Dodds. We will be anchored in Nanaimo Harbour tonight, the girls want to go swimming!

Cast Off Day

We are planning to cast off at noon today, giving us about two hours to get to Dodds Narrows to catch the slack tide. We are having a  light drizzle this morning and it looks like it will definitely be a motoring day. Destination is Nanaimo Harbour and if the weather clears up, we will go for a hike on Newcastle Island.

Maggie getting a workout.

Overnight test run

Yesterday afternoon we left our dock for a short trip to Wallace Island, just to make sure we have everything working as it should. We managed to get some sailing in on the way home today, but in this area the winds are hit and miss. Our grandson, Aiden, came along for the trip, enjoying a romp in the woods on Wallace Island with Maggie.

Low tide after the supermoon....

This photo was taked just as the tide started to return. We rarely see the tide this low at our dock.

Perigee Moon

Last night the full moon was special. It is called a perigee moon because it is the one night when the moon is closest to the earth this year. It really is bigger than normal. Today, we are experiencing a minus tide because of the perigee moon. I will post later our low tide at the dock.