July 21, 2013

 

July 15th depart Deer Harbor:  Carl threw out our crab pot this morning for an hour or so before we lift the anchor.  With the anchor safely stowed we head for the crab pot.  After much struggle Carl hoists it out of the water and it is full of crab!  Carl looses count around 25 crabs and happily stows four legal sized crabs so we can cook them up for this evening’s dinner.  Then it is out of the harbor for our short trek to Stuart Island.  After three tries we finally get the anchor set.  We did read that it is sometimes difficult to break through the grass on the bottom of the harbor.  We feast on fresh cooked crab prepared (as Carl put it) the way Barb does it, cleaning them prior to cooking them.  In our pressure cooker we have fully cooked crab 5 minutes after reaching pressure, another energy saving practice while we cruise.  We enjoy another beautiful sunset which I am sure will sound cliché by the end of our travels.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

July 16th anchored Prevost Harbor, Stuart Island WA:   Today we set sail in our faithful dinghy “ET”.  We row to shore and tie up to a tree leaving ET for a full day of hiking on Stuart Island.  We wind our way along the shaded trail which gives us great views into Reid Harbor and back into Prevost Harbor.  The island has two small air strips for locals flying into and out of their homes.  There is no electricity, water, or other utilities but the homes we pass seem very well adapted to their “primitive” lifestyle and what a beautiful place to live!  We stop at the museum which is in the old one room school house. It is filled with very well done local history of their island settled by Europeans early on.  There is a ‘real’ library and a more modern day, although beautifully blended to the site new school house.  There is an honor system “treasure chest” that a local family uses to sell t-shirts, hats and postcards as a money making effort for the local school. You pick out your item and when you return to the states you mail them a check.  We picked out six post cards (designed by the local school students) and a nice hat.  At the end of the trail we find the Turn Point Lighthouse.  It is under the care of a very dedicated group of volunteers.  We enjoy a 12 minute video of the history and another well done museum.  We enjoy our trail lunch while watching the big ships make their “turn” (thus the name of the lighthouse) going from Boundary Pass to Haro Strait.  

We return to our boat after our six mile hike and settle in for the evening.  We continue to hear the boisterous noise of kids having fun.  We are anchored across from a YMCA camp and we have at least to troops (?) of Sea Scouts in addition to (we think) a band of local teens rowing by in their Viking type boat chanting as they stroke.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 July 17th enroute Prevost Island Canada:  Today we need to clear customs as we enter Canada so we set sail for South Pender Island and Bedwell Harbor.  We sail all the way across Boundary Pass riding the end of the rising tide.  As is the ‘custom’ we hoist the flag of the host country on our spreader, tie up to the customs dock and Captain Carl takes all of our paperwork and heads to the phone.  We have registered our boat with US Customs and we are now registered with Canadian customs.  It is a pretty simple process.  Carl uses their phone to make the call, answers a few questions, they give us our number and we are good to go.  

Given that we will have southwest winds for a couple of days we head for Prevost Island which has a series of anchorages that are supposed to have good protection from sw winds.  We do anchor in Glenthorne Passage but decide that we are still receiving too much wind.  The depth does not allow us to travel far enough inside to get out of the wind.  Instead we then set sail for Montague Harbor off Galiano Island.  We have another skill building mishap and loose a sheet for our head sail.  “Sheets” are the ropes that help steer the sail basically.  You want to keep one end tied to the sail and one end at the back of the boat. The end at the back of the boat has come loose and flails around until it finds the sheet on the other side of the boat.  It then happily wraps itself around its sister sheet Many Many times as we get the sail under control and sheeted in enough to safely handle it.  Carl continues to manage the boat while Pam patiently unwraps the two sheets which look like one big ball of rope.  We tie off and motor on to our destination safely anchoring in the large well protected Montague Harbor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

July 18th anchored Montague Harbor:  A peaceful night’s rest.  Today we will do some boat chores, re-roll and re-tie our headsail after yesterday’s mishap and then head to “town” in ET.  We watch as many boats depart.  One is the beautiful La Vie En Rose yawl from Park City UT.  Some boats just capture you.  This one did for us.  She is a soft turquoise with brown accents, lots of brass ports and winches and sleek looking.  She is handled very expertly by her crew as they set off for the next leg of their journey.  We take ET to shore for lunch at the only little restaurant; a little spendy but excellent food.  We enjoy a  dinghy ride across to the Montague Harbor Provincial Marine Park for a nice hike.  We hike by the anchorage on the other side of the park and will most likely anchor there next time we come by.  It is less crowded and more pristine than the ‘harbor’.