Handfield Bay

June 16th 

We left Squirrel Cove around 1230 to time with slack water in the Dents. The trip was uneventful except for the AIS is not working consistently. It broadcasts the boat for an hour or so and then stops. We are still receiving though. It is annoying!  Hopefully that's the worst problem we have -- knock on wood!  There is always a little something! 

We decided to go to Handfield Bay and anchor for the night. We were thinking of going to Shoal Bay but it was so late in the day and it was most likely the dock would be full. We really like Handfield Bay anyway.  

We arrived around 5 PM and there was another Kadey Krogen in there already - a 48 ft wide body. After we put the skiff down Jim took Jenny out and then stopped by to say hello. The boat was called Hokulele. 

It was a lovely evening. The weather remains cool but no rain or wind. 

Handfield Bay 

Squirrel Cove

The compass cover - finally!  Jim is very pleased and it only took 3 years! 

We spent last night - June 15th - in Squirrel Cove.  We decided not to go to Prideaux Have because the weather wasn't that great and it adds another 1/2 hour to the trip.  We are trying to get north quickly so we are just spending one night here anyway.  Squirrel Cove seemed easier. 

The weather turned sunny and warm by the time we got here.  We heard there was some nasty weather in Vancouver recently - heavy rain and flooding - snow and hail at the higher elevations -- Grouse Mountain and Caulfield. The people staying at our house said it was wet there but no wind and no snow.  It is definitely a different start to the trip this year.  This time last summer it was so hot and dry. 

The solar panels are working great - so says Jim. He's keeping track of the numbers on the monitor and reads them out on a regular basis. 

First trip to shore in the skiff. All works well with the launching of the skiff and the skiff is running well. 

It's always a bit of worry as you start the trip wondering what will go wrong - seems there is always a little something!   This year the AIS is not working correctly.  We are able to see vessels but we do not seem to be transmitting our vessel consistently.  The new AIS was just installed before the trip last year and it took quite some doing to get it working correctly then!  

Our plan is to catch slack water and go north through "The Dents". Slack water is about 3:40 so we get a late start today. We are enjoying a relaxing cup of coffee with the salon door open and Lilly is exploring the cockpit - in other words - looking for the escape hatch!  

On our way!

June 14, 2016

We are behind schedule. As usual life gets in the way and boat work always take 3 times longer than planned and costs twice as much!

Jim wanted to leave before the end of May. They boat was up on the hard for 10 days or so - which was a bit longer than planned. Lots of things were done that needed to be done and that we wanted to be done this year.

The refinished floors looks great. We bought a new area rug for the salon. A bit of a splurge ....

Jim installed 3 solar panels on the pilot house roof. So now we can be somewhere at anchor for a few days without worrying about batteries -  it's all about battery management. 

We got the screens installed on the pilot house doors and portholes and the salon windows. We can now have wide open windows for a nice sea breeze without worrying about the cat!  That wasn't too expensive - all about cat management that was!  

Not a great photo into the sun. But the window is wide open and she can't get out - or wiggle between the window and the screen like last summer.  But she is looking for a way out - all her escape routes have been closed and she a bit annoyed right now - running around the boat - haha. 

We left Steveston around 9 this morning. And coming out of the Fraser River was sloppy and it was blowing 25 knts. Not very pleasant. Even I was a little nauseated!  Jenny was fine. Lily was not happy. But once we turned the corner to head north after the Sandhead light station the seas calmed down and the rest of the trip was pretty good. 

Leaving behind some thunderclouds as we look back towards Vancouver. 

Heading towards blue sky! 

We are in Pender Harbour at the public dock. It is pretty breezy here at the dock. Took a bit to secure the boat as it kept blowing off the dock. It is certainly not as dry and hot as last year. 

Our plan is to leave tomorrow and head to Prideaux Haven. We are going to work our way north to Port McNeil as quickly as we can - weather permitting - as we try to get to the central coast earlier than we did last year. 

Refinishing the floors

We ( by WE - I mean Jim ) are getting a few tasks done before our cruising season begins.  Jim has done some electrical projects.  He put in a second VHS radio. That will be handy. 

We had some screens made for the pilot house doors and the small portholes in the pilot house and galley -- to keep the cat in and get a bit of a breeze on those warm days. 

Covers on the portholes in the pilot house.

Again - to keep the cat from going out those windows. While traveling and on warm days we can leave those windows open. She was a real pain with those windows and last summer we had them partially open and secured with little bungee cords - and she still got out once!  

We are very pleased with the new screens. On a warm day as we are traveling - we can open the top door and then with the screens down there is no worry the cat will launch herself out the open door into the ocean!  She is so persistent. 

This year - for a big project we decided to remove the 15 year old carpet and refinish the original teak floors in the salon and pilot house.  We left the carpet in the staterooms. 

This turned out to be a much bigger job than first expected -- of course! 

The carpet underlay was fully glued to the salon floor!! This required scraping off with a small putty knife. 

Taking off the underlay. 

Once the underlay was removed the sanding began to remove the old finish on the teak.  Jim had the shop vac attached to the sander to suck up the dust. That worked really well and kept the dust down to a bare minimum. 

 

Fourtunately the hatch covers didn't have the underlay glued down. Once the floor was all sanded and then vacuumed and dust free he applied a total of 5 coats of Poloplaz Supreme Satin. A product recommended by the fellow that we used for our hardwood floors at home -- Steve Bella. He is great by the way if anyone needs hardwood floors done in their house. He doesn't do boats. 

 

Not a great photo - but here's Jim showing off his hard work!  

They look great!!  

The pilot house. The floors are a little darker than what they show in the photos. But we are really pleased with them. 

Next --- solar panels!!  We are hoping to head out sometime around the 24th of May --- lots to do!! 

Pender Harbour and then Welcome Home!

It has taken me a long time to get this last post of our summer trip up on the blog. 

We spent two nights in Pender Harbour before heading back to Steveston. 

The weather was beautiful - sunny and hot summery weather!  

We were tired and ready to go home but the closer we got to home the more we realized we would miss being on the boat. But we were ready to go home. 

We really enjoyed the last two nights in Pender Harbour. 

I had been reading a book along the trip called "Fishing With John" by Edith Iglauer

It is a story about John Daly a B.C. Fisherman in the 1970's and his wife - Edith - who lived in New York and wrote articles for the New Yorker but fell in love with John and B.C.  and moved to Pender Harbour ( Garden Bay ). She writes about being out on the fishing boat in the early 1970's around the Central coast - Bella Bella - The Goose Group, Nemo,  Calvert Island .... All the places we were travelling. It was so interesting to read this book while we were traveling the area. I found it was a great book!  Thanks to a quilting friend - Sandi who rescued it from her uncles's book collection. 

John died in 1974 but Edith is in her late 90's and still living in their home in Garden Bay. 

Jim and I were able to find the home while we were anchored up in Pender Harbour and took a few photos. 

The shed out front and the dock and the house up in the trees on the right. 

The old trolling poles and sign that still says J. Daly above the salmon. 

We found a small park in Garden Bay for walking Jenny. Much nicer than the walk on the road to Maderia Park. And as we walked through the park and along the road we found the house sign. 

Edith Iglauer remarried after John died but continued to live in Garden Bay and was a very active member of the Pender Harbour community from what we understand. She is now 99 years old. 

We arrived back to Steveston on August 20.  Back home after one last night on the boat in Steveston. 

I think Andrew and Khyber missed us!! 

We were only home for a few days and then we were off to Calgary to see all the Grandkids and meet little Jackson Leo. 

Jim flew home after a few days and I stayed for two weeks. 

Then in the middle of September we took the boat to Victoria and the Gulf Islands for a week with my sister Sharon and her friend Eric. 

Now we rest for a little bit!  

Back to where it all began - Squirrel Cove on Cortes Island

This is the very first place Jim and I ever dropped an anchor --- Squirrel Cove on Cortes Island. We had chartered the Tri-cabin trawler the "Gulf Mariner" from Desolation Sound Charters in Comox and spent 6 nights in Desolation Sound in June of 2012 and spent our very first night in Squirrel Cove. 

I think we've come a long way Baby!  Haha. 

On this day Squirrel Cove was FULL of boats. When we arrived around 3 pm there were probably 50 boats anchored up. By 6 pm another at least 30 boats had arrived. It was crazy. Not at all what we were used to having in an anchorage. Probably close to 100 boats in there. 

We spent two nights there and the second day a lot of boats left and not so many arrived so there were maybe 50 boats left. Another Kk42 arrived in the afternoon - Pacific Star. We took the skiff over and introduced ourselves and visited for a bit. A man and his daughter who live aboard in the Seattle area. 

We took the skiff to the government dock and wandered about a bit on shore. Got ice cream cones from the grocery store. There is also a little craft shop with locally made items for sale. 

The weather was quite hot and sunny. We felt like we were back into summer. 

An interesting boat anchored up in Squirrel Cove.  Quite the group of people aboard. They were having a good time. 

A gaggle of Canada Geese making the rounds to the boats looking for food. 

Lilly having a little nap in the skiff - basking in the sun. 

Cheers!!  On to Pender Harbour. 

 We are enjoying our last few days on the water.  

Cordero Lodge and Marina

On August 13th as we were getting fuel in Sointula our daughter had a beautiful baby boy. 

Jackson Leo 

We left Port Harvey a little later in the morning. We got a couple of Port Harvey cinnamon buns, enjoyed our coffee and didn't leave until close to 10 AM. 

I think we are getting ready to go home for a rest.  We are getting a little worn out. But then I think once we are home we will miss the boat. 

We had a lovely mostly flat calm trip down Johnstone straight - as we heard one boater report to another boater on the radio -- "the seas are just slightly less than rippled" 

When we got to a small passage called Whirlpool rapids the current was running around 7 knots. It is a short run through there but we decided to go into Forward Harbour and anchor up for a bit and go through around 5 knots. 

We don't really like Forward Harbour. It was the place we went to anchor last year and the winch to put down the skiff wouldn't work and we had to pull anchor and go to Port Harvey. And then the wind came up as we were pulling the anchor. And it was windy and blowing us around. So we would never spend the night there, although many boater like that anchorage. 

We stayed in Forward Harbour for about an hour and half. Then we pulled the anchor and carried on through Whirlpool rapids. It was fine - the boat speed increased by only 3-4 knots. 

We were thinking of going to the dock at Shoal Bay but as we were heading south in Cordero Channel we saw the docks of the Cordero lodge were empty - and it was close to Happy Hour - so we radioed in and did a quick little U-turn and put down the fenders and spend the night at the Cordero Lodge and Marina. 

We arrived during slack water so tying up to the dock was pretty easy. A current can run pretty strong around there. The marina has recently been purchased and the new owners are doing a lovely job of maintaining the docks and buildings.  They are friendly and helpful. We would certainly stop there again. 

Lilly decided she needed to jump from the cockpit rail - across 5 feet of water running at a pretty good clip - to the dock!  Good thing she didn't fall in the current would have carried her halfway to China before we got to her!  That Darn Cat!!

The next morning we planned our departure to travel through the series of rapids - Dents, Gillard, and Yuculta at slack water.  There were a lot of boats heading south along with us.  

It was a lovely sunny day. The trip south was uneventful and we seemed to be back into summer weather. We motored into Squirrel Cove about 3 PM.