August 23rd – 25th from Alma Russell anchorage Barkely Sound to our home port, tied to our house

August 23^rd – 25^th from Alma Russell anchorage Barkely Sound to our home port, tied to our house

Today is our earliest departure yet on this trip.  We awake at 0400 to enjoy a cup of coffee with Walt and Odile before we head south.  We are handed a nice loaf of Odile’s boat bread and we give them a package of our ground elk.  Gifts exchanged, engines on at 0430 and we say “until next time” as we slowly make our way out of the anchorage in the dark. 

Filleting and Fishing - What a pair!

We are definitely delighted to find no fog when day breaks over the open sea.  At the edge of Barkley Sound as we round Folger Island we begin our steady 145 degree passage towards the northern end of the “tow lane.”  The tow land will guide us all the way to the Columbia River bar and is, by written agreement between commercial traffic and crabbers, “relatively” free of crab pots.  This year we have noted numerous pots, marked them with waypoints on our GPS and will, in a quiet moment sometime, report them to whomever administers the written agreement.

At 0700 we hoist our main sail, primarily to give us a little more stability in the large swell coming from the northwest.  Since the wind comes from the south southwest it makes for a sloppy ride as it collides with the swell and the predominantly northwest current off the coast of Washington.

The weather reports seem to be somewhat of a WAG!  The predicted northwest wind does not appear until we approach the Columbia River but we are able to use our headsail to augment our motor and keep our speed up decently.

Around 0900 we are joined by a beautiful Townsend’s Warbler.  Eventually we have a six pack of them onboard and they stay with us for hours!  What fun.  They land on our heads, our hands, and all over the boat.  They find many, many gnats to fill up on.  They eventually adventure inside exploring the cabin.  One works his way into a corner under the seat where he sleeps for an hour, warmed by the engine heat coming up under the floor.  Eventually they all depart, one permanently as he had tried to harvest a moth and took too many dips into the ocean waves.  These land birds do not do well when soaked and the efforts were just too much for him.  He receives the traditional burial at sea.

At noon we see the top of a gentle giant about 50 yards off of our bow.  We come to a stop and take the boat out of gear to watch the Humpback whale.  Eventually she gives us a nice tail wave and dives out of site.  We motor onward.

Through most of the night we do our yearly dance with the Grey’s Harbour fishing fleet as they troll back and forth and all around us.  There are also a few tows and tugs along the tow lane and cargo ships further out.  At 0250 Pam has to wake Carl up to come out and lend moral support.  A tug and tow had just passed us when a huge swell combined with a big gust of wind kicked us off course with the auto pilot and headed us right for the tow.  Pam gets the boat back under control but not until we have done nearly a 360 degree spin throwing lots of, thankfully soft, items about the cabin below.  Carl takes over since his shift is to start at 0300 anyway and after working for awhile with the auto pilot and sails we are comfortable that Pam can go down and try to get some sleep. 

The rest of the morning is uneventful.  We cross the Columbia River bar a couple hours after slack before the flood tide.  We have covered 169.5 miles from Folger Island to here and put another safe nighttime passage under our belts.

We call into Customs as we approach Astoria and leave a message.  We have never actually talked to a Custom’s person when we reach Astoria.  Since it is early in the day and we have a flood tide we continue to motor upriver with our head sail out and helping push us.  We approach Cathlamet and call in about a slip.  After asking them what their depth is we decide to motor on since we would possibly be aground with the overnight minus tide.

We end up anchored behind a tiny island along the river.  Carl had placed a GPS marker here in 2013 when he saw another boat anchored here.  We name the island “Refuge” since we have taken refuge from our travels having spent 40 hours on the “road” since we turned our engines on at 0430 on the 23^rd.  We spend a short evening in the cockpit talking about how well our boat has done and thankful that we both feel that we can continue to make this trek for quite a few years to come.  We enjoy the last package of chicken that Olivia bought in Sequim.  It has been frozen as it sat under the small freezer and we had enough fish heads to use as crab bait so it makes a nice BBQ dinner for our last anchorage.

We sleep soundly and are much refreshed today.  As we make the slow motor up the Columbia for home we pass the normal variety of river traffic, from sports fishermen to tugs to cargo ships and even a cruise ship, the “Training Ship Golden Bear.”  We see the cargo ship “Lihue” towing a tug. Now that is some dinghy! 

18' Cat Boat beside us

Riding the flood current we make good time.  We photograph at least three Club boats that are in the down river race.  We imagine that their crew would like a little wind!  We are not met on the river this year by our sons and their families.  Zach and Olivia have headed east for some fishing on the John Day River and Jacob and his family had the Hood to Coast relay, with Brittney running with her team along the course from Bald Peak, Mt. Hood to Pacific City on the coast.

As we pull into our marina, the Rose City Yacht Club, the social event, Walk 4 BBQ is winding down.  We are met at our slip by helpful hands.  Steve and Doug take the bow and stern ropes and Liv adjusts a fender.  Julie greets us as well.  We tie up alongside our new neighbor boat which may just become one of my favorites in the Club, Rick’s new to him 18’ Cat Boat.

We have done 1041 miles according to the gps and put another 210 hours on the engine.  It is good to be home.

July 14 – 22 Esquimalt – Sooke – Port San Juan and around the corner into Barkley Sound

July 14 – 22 Esquimalt – Sooke – Port San Juan and around the corner into Barkley Sound

I find myself writing less often so longer looks at where we have been.  Relying on my cryptic notes in our boat log here is what we have been doing for the last week.

Having never explored the south tip of Vancouver Island we decide to continue as landed tourists.  We put in at Esquimalt Harbour, the home port of Her Majesty’s Navy.  To enter and move about the harbour all boats, dinghies included are to check in with the Queen’s Harbour Master (QHM) on the VHF radio, channel 10.  Duly checking in we call “QHM QHM ExTerra.  We are a 38’ sailing boat entering the harbour and proceeding to the Canadian Forces Sailing Association (CFSA) dock.”  “Roger ExTerra, thank you.”

We then tie up at the CFSA dock for two nights of free reciprocal moorage.  In talking with Pierre, who helps us tie up, we find that the CFSA is 90% active forces personnel and 10% retirees and or family members of service personnel.  The club is steeped in tradition and ceremony, yet nicely relaxed.  The visitors dock is very close to the ‘outside’ dock, a dock that floats freely away from all the others.  We were not sure how people got to and from their boats until we watched as one man ably demonstrated to us the use of the small swim float/ferry that they pull themselves to and from with.

We enter the club’s bar, the bartender Sam saying to Carl “Sir this is a military establishment so kindly remove your cover.”  Carl removes his hat and we settle in to chat with the locals over another glass of Hoyne Dark Matter.  While we are not there enough days to come away feeling like “everybody knows your name,” it does have that Cheers feeling with bartender Sam (short for Samantha) and the locals telling their stories and ribbing one another over their pints.

The next morning we walk to the bus stop and head into Victoria to the Maritime Museum, enjoying their local maritime history and their current presentation on whales.  

Then it is back on the bus and back across town to the Hatley Castle, reminiscent of the castles we toured in Scotland.  No expense was spared in the liberal use of beautiful exotic woods throughout and lavish gardens from the formal Japanese to the relaxed Italian gardens.  

Built for the Dunsmuir family in 1908 it served as family quarters until 1937.  It then went, in succession to the Naval Training Establishment, then Naval College, Joint Forces College and currently as the Royal Roads University.   

Then it was back to the bar where we visited with members who had just had a meeting about the upcoming physical move of the CFSA.  Next time we visit it will be somewhere across the harbour enabling the navy to expand their drydock graving facilities into the current location of the marina.

Thursday morning we checked in with Her Queen’s Harbour master and let them know we would be touring the harbour in our inflatable dinghy, portable VHF in hand. 

First stop was the National Historic sites of Fisgard Lighthouse and Fort Rodd Hill.  We landed the dinghy and were promptly approached by the resident host.  She wanted to make sure we understood that there was an entrance fee.  Very soon two more Park employees showed up with radios in hand.  The host assured them that we were OK to land and we found our way by foot to the entrance.  

Fort Rodd served from 1878 to 1956 as part of the defences for the British Empire.  The Fort displays are set up in three distinct representations, the Upper Battery (1895-97), Lower Battery (1940’s era) and the Belmont Battery (Second World War era).  The displays are well done and include the Cold War era plotting room for anti-aircraft strategizing. 

Fisgard Lighthouse is significant in that it was the first lighthouse on Canada’s rugged west coast.  Completed in 1860, and staffed through 1929 it has since been automated and is still in service today.

 

Checking in once again with the Queen’s Harbour Master we move our dinghy on up to Parrish bridge, our goal the Six Mile House, the earliest pub established in British Columbia, serving up cold brews since 1864 with a brief prohibition closure.  Lunch was excellent and we even enjoyed a glass of dark beer, not often done for lunch, at least by us.  Pam thoroughly enjoyed her “Ploughman’s Lunch” with its Scottish egg, pork pie, apple bacon chutney, marinated onion, fresh bread and blueberries, sharp cheese and balsamic mustard.  Yum!! 

One last check with QHM on the VHF and we returned to our slip.  Later that day we stop into “Cheers” one last time just to say goodbye to Sam and other members.  We hike a nice three mile round trip to the Four Mile House, another pub in the 4^th oldest house in the greater Victoria area.  Here we enjoy one of their own brewery’s “Hot Chocolate Porter,” at last, a porter has been found!  We enjoy our walk back through oak and maple woodlands.

Next stop – Sooke harbour.  We simply come inside the long Whiffen Spit and anchor for the night.  This is a busy harbour with fishing boats a plenty and people out enjoying walking the spit.  We turn in early since our day had been spent bashing current against the wind in fog, mentally and physically wearing us out.

After a fairly restful (yet short) night we depart into the Strait of Juan de Fuca for another day of motoring into the wind, through the fog and down the Strait.  For lunch we have nice hot split pea soup in keeping with the pea soup fog that has stayed with us.  We enter Port San Juan in 1/8 mile visibility.  Thankfully by the time we get to where we want to anchor the fog has lifted and we can see the crab floats on the approach to Port Renfrew at the end of the opening. 

We had planned on setting up in Port San Juan, which is kind of across the Strait from Neah Bay.  From there we could depart for Astoria.  Instead we have a pleasant surprise.  Our friends Walt and Odile who have been circumnavigating Vancouver Island on their sailboat B Mondo are in striking distance to Barkley Sound.  Can a rendezvous be accomplished?  Yes we say!  A fairly quick look at the total distances shows that it would only be an extra hour or two for our run down the Washington coast from either Port San Juan or Barkley Sound so the rendezvous is on!

We take the day to go the roughly 41 miles around the tip of Vancouver Island and up into Bamfield in Barkley Sound.  It is yet another day of fog but the wind and currents are not as much of a problem today.  After we fill with diesel in Bamfield we go out into the bay to anchor for a very quiet, peaceful night.  The loudest noise is the blue heron chiding the eagle which goes off and on throughout the evening. 

A very leisurely day is in store for us yet not so for Walt and Odile.  They are in the fog some 40 miles today, coming down the outside of Vancouver Island from their Vargas Island anchorage.  We see them trolling for salmon before they enter Dodger Channel to tie up with us.  What a pleasure it is for us to have to boats tied together once again.  They have been with us since the beginning with ExTerra, serving as our crew and mentors on our very first trip up the Washington coast in 2013. 

We reminisce and catch up over a dinner of steaks and green salad and Odile’s wonderful boat baked bread.  The steaks have been saved in our freezer for a special occasion and we feel the rendezvous meets that requirement.  As we chat over our evening beverages we watch whales in our ocean living room in between the rocks that shelter us from much of the ocean swell.

Walt pondering the stillness of the early morning 

We start more actively watching our weather window for a safe departure to Astoria.  It looks like the wind and sea state is not favorable for another day or two so we separate the boats and plan a meet-up in Tzartus Cove.  They head to Bamfield for a fresh supply of produce and chocolate and troll for salmon on the way back.  We fish a couple of shallows along the way and put four more very nice rockfish into our freezer, we are now just two short of our allowable possession limit.  Pam catches two more ling cod but unfortunately neither of them is of legal size. 

We enjoy an evening of fresh fish and bread (Odile) and crab (Carl) and more reminiscing and then a leisurely brunch the next day with a taste of the Corey’s elk breakfast sausage, eggs and Odile’s hashbrowns.  They loan us a very good read (according to Walt), “Chasing Clayoquot,” and we look forward to reading it after his description.  We each depart brunch for various activities, Swedish weaving (Odile), restorative nap (Walt), dinghy cleaning (Carl) and blogging (Pam.)   Pam’s goal is to get this chapter done before we take off down the coast early tomorrow morning.  The rest of our day is spent decommissioning the shrimp and crab pots and getting things in order for our early departure.

August 6 – 13 Sidney to Sidney Spit with many stops in between

August 6 – 13 Sidney to Sidney Spit with many stops in between

A week of being tourists unfolds.  We have decided that we will probably not be back in this area for awhile so we will work our way up the east coast of Vancouver Island from Sidney to Chemainus, areas we have not even explored by land.

We spend one night anchored in Tod Inlet, near the back entrance to Butchart Gardens.  It is BC day.  We had hoped Butchart might have fireworks.  Alas, the only fireworks are as people anchor too near one another, including us.  The same boat drags his anchor.  I am sure we were not the only ones who were glad to see them leave without spending the night. 

Catching the currents we ride up to Cowichan Bay.  We set the shrimp pot over by Separation Point and then cross to Cowichan and anchor.  Beaching our trusty ET on shore we walk the quiet beach front village and sample the bakery.  Excellent!  

We then tour the Cowichan Bay Maritime Centre.  This is an excellent use of a converted fuel wharf.  There are numerous small buildings along the wharf that highlight the local maritime history.  It serves as well as the local small boat building center.  We of course sample the ice cream at the Morning Mist.  We enjoy our cone while sitting at the locals open air hang out, a few tables in a covered area between a couple of the small marinas.  We ‘hang out’ long enough to then grab a burger and brew at the only pub.  We waddle back to ET and sleep well on the hook. 

The next morning we pull our shrimp pot finding no shrimp, five crabs, no keepers!  Oh Well.  Off we go through Sansum Narrows on the current.  Pretty nice ride when you can use the currents for getting about when there is not much wind.  Our quest today is the delightful Maple Bay Yacht Club for two nights of reciprocal moorage.  Loren and Kathy spoke quite highly of this spot and it lives up to all of their kind words.  We hike our laundry down to the local laundry and take in another decent pub lunch and dark brew.  No porters but a good Hoyne Dark Matter.

While watching the clothes go round and round we hear via email from Liv.  She and Bill have moored Mischief at the MBYC as well and are wondering where we are.  We set a date for drinks at the bar in order to get an early seat for the MBYC Wednesday night movie and light dinner.  The movie “Hector and the Search for Happiness” is a funny yet oddly thought provoking romp.  We top off the evening sipping “Mischief” a nice whiskey that someone had given Bill and Liv when they first bought their boat.

They are gone from the dock, headed south, before we are up for our cockpit coffee hour the next morning.  We pass a quiet lazy day reading, hike once again to the pub at the other end of the bay, and are helped off of the dock the next morning by a combination of people from a Willard, the stand in wharfinger Phil, and a nice woman from the power boat that we are sandwiched in next to. 

Continuing our way north we have a nice sail most of the length of Stuart Channel.  Our last point of interest is quiet Chemainus, another small berg we have not explored.  It is just south of Ladysmith where we docked ExTerra a few years ago when Barb and Craig drove up to meet us.  

MODEL sailboat 'sailing' Telegraph Harbor

On the advice of Bill, Liv and many others we anchor in Preedy Harbour, Thetis Island, across the Channel from Chemainus.  We can then ferry across the next day to enjoy the small town.  But tonight, in our never ending quest for a good dark beer we hike to the Thetis Island Marina.  They do have a Nanaimo porter!  It is quite good.  Along our hike we see a couple of beautiful model sailboats gently sailing on Telegraph Harbor.  We believe they are somehow tethered in place but they do sail back and forth in the gentle breeze.

Our anchorage is quite close to the thankfully small ferry.  It motors in about every two hours, loads up, spins a 180 and if we gunned our engine we could probably motor right onto it when it hits the 90 degree mark.  Instead we dinghy to the small community dock and walk on as passengers along with the entire current group of youngsters ‘camping’ at the local Capernwray Harbour Bible Centre.  The exuberance of this many young campers is fun to watch.

Our day in Chemainus consists of walking the streets and enjoying the more than 50 murals that have been painted all over town.  They depict the heritage of Chemainus from its early First Nations people, through the wars and onto the lumber dynasties.  

Tug Boat "Chemainus"  1909-1945

They are quite well done and we thoroughly enjoy wandering up and down streets and alleys to view them.  

Local First Nations figures past and present
Snip Hunter statue in the foreground

Of course we find the bakery, the pub, and the thrift stores.  We do however forego our normal ice cream for a change.  Pam picks up a paperback for a quarter and we wait for the ferry to take us back to our Thetis Island anchorage. 

First Nations woman awaits arrival of HMS Reindeer

Having completed our east coast tourist swing we head out with the proper currents the next morning for the Isle-de-Lis National Park Reserve on tiny Rum Island.  After a brief visit by a power boat we have the anchorage to ourselves overnight and watch the lights of the numerous cargo and container ships as they transit Haro Strait between us and Turn Point lighthouse where a couple of weeks ago we hiked with Jim.  

The crab pot is not very productive but we keep two.  Carl lands a twenty pound dog fish on our deck so that Pam can use the needle nosed plies to extract the hook.  This is a nice new set of pliers….with a lanyard….that Zach bought for the boat.  Yes, there is the usual reason for this and it does include releasing dog fish with needle nosed pliers that did NOT have a lanyard!

  

The next day our hike around the tiny island is nice.  The foot wide path clings to the edge of the rocky points and takes us up and down the small swales turning at times to nothing more than a deer trail.  Evidence of deer yet we do not see any.  We weigh anchor after the hike and head for Sidney Spit for another night on the hook.

Entering Sidney Spit we hear a distinct “pop” somewhere in the engine or under the boat.  Carl quickly puts it in neutral and goes below to watch the engine.  No crab pots were in sight so we hope it is not a rope.  We motor very slowly into the anchorage and set the hook, then we work the motor through forward and reverse.  We watch the motor and listen.  No smoke, no clanking, both gears work.  We simply ponder over a glass of cold Crystal Lite. 

As we watch the commercial crabbers we see something suspicious.  They ‘long line’ their crab pots meaning they throw out some floats then drive their boat in long straight lines dropping off numerous crab pots that are strung together, then throw out another float at the end of the run.  They do this numerous times.  Another time they are fairly close to us and we see them pull something out of the water.  It was a SUBMERGED float.  They then continue to pull lots of line and some pots working their way back towards where we heard the “pop.”  Perhaps they will find that their line has been severed by our razor sharp Shaft Shark that we put on our shaft this spring.  We are not sure, but that is quite plausible.

July 31st – August 6th Carl’s brother Jim joins us for an island hopping tour

July 31^st – August 6^th Carl’s brother Jim joins us for an island hopping tour

 This will be a bit longer than most as we have not had wifi nor cell signal for most of this week.

We are in an odd cycle of currents and tides making midday runs rather than O dark thirty runs.  We plan a 1230 departure so with a free morning on my hands and fresh water hauled from the state park I set about doing the laundry in buckets, taking advantage of the lone picnic table on the dock.   

Hung to dry on the lifelines and later moved inside to finish as we weigh anchor around 1230 for our run across the Straits towards Aleck Bay.

After threading our way back out of Sequim Bay through the narrow switchback to avoid sand spits we motor/sail just short of 5 hours to cross 25 miles of open water through the bull’s-eye of the Seattle traffic lanes for large ships.  Thankfully no Fog this time!  We have given the auto pilot a good test as well.  We had a red rock crab go wild on us in the cockpit and he latched onto the low hanging wire for the auto pilot, giving it a good crimp before he finally let go.  Thankfully it does not seem to have broken the wire.

We set anchor in Aleck Bay on the southern tip of Lopez Island in the San Juans, where first we anchored with Walt and Odile when they helped us bring ExTerra up the coast for our maiden voyage in 2013. 

The next morning we depart at 0700 hoping to get some decent current in our favor.  Alas, for whatever reason this year’s current table and atlas are not that accurate and we are slowed down a bit again.  We choose to travel along the outside edge of San Juan Island in hopes of seeing Orca.  We had a wonderful show last time we came here but today, there are none to be seen.  We do get to sail a bit though and make it to our destination, Prevost Harbor on Stuart Island around 1:30.This is usually a busy harbour and is again today.  Lots of boats on anchor, tied to floats or tied to the dock.  We anchor out and dinghy ashore for our planned afternoon activity, a hike to the Turn Point Lighthouse.  

 This (poorly marked) trail takes us up and down hills, over logs and through the salal patch to the Stuart Island schoolhouse.  We purchase (on the honor system, please send a check later) a recently published book, “The History of Stuart Island.” 

We poke around the “Teacherage” Museum, nicely done with displays about the life on the island.  School was in session on the island from 1894 to 1904 in shacks and barns, then in the “new school house” from 1904-1969, then again in the newer “new” school building from 1980-2008.  It is currently closed. 

After catching up on history we are on the county ‘road’ (wider dirt track) for the rest of our nearly 3 mile (one way) hike to the lighthouse.  

We arrive unfortunately about 20 minutes after the small museum has closed but we sit on the nice wide covered porch, eat our trail mix, and gawk at the excellent view across Haro Strait and into the Gulf Islands of Canada.

On our return hike we browse the wares at one of the islands two honor system “Boundary Pass Traders” Treasure Chests, purchasing one set (please send a check later) of impressionist note cards depicting local birds.   

We are lazy bums again the next day with an 1100 departure to Pender Harbour to check into customs.  “Mr. Corey, is your wife Pam with you again this year?”  “Yes, and my brother Jim, but he will only be with us for four days in Canada.”  “What, you are going to throw him off in just four days?”  And so it goes, we are once again cleared to enter Canada.

We visit the Secretary Islands, anchoring one night in the small nook between islands.  Tides are not low enough this year for us to walk the shoreline nor allow the playful raccoons that we saw last year to wander around flipping oysters.  Fishing is successful and we limit out on rockfish since the catch and keep is one fish only.  Three smaller copper, one greenling and a small flounder make a nice fresh fish dinner for the three of us.  

Then it is popcorn and a movie on our “big screen” 9” tablet.  Please note the nicely tied bowline know that helps suspend it from our fishing pole holder.

Next we anchor in James Bay on Prevost Island with good holding and a nice open view north to other small islands and the Trincomali Channel.  Friends Gina and Kevin had mentioned the Fernwood community dock to us but it was completely full when we went by.  Their next recommendation was Portland Island which turned out to be quite nice.  We anchored twice.  Once on the south side alongside the Pellow Islets for the afternoon then around to the west side of Chad Island for the night.  From the Pellow anchorage we took ET, our trusty dinghy ashore.  As Gina and Kevin mentioned there was great hiking on Portland Island.  We logged about 3 ½ miles through lush forest on well maintained trails before returning to the boat to move it for the night. 

Fishing in ET was productive although it was all catch and release since we had plenty of fresh cooked crab already on the evening menu.  Very playful seals kept jumping, diving and chatting as they came in close to watch the dinghy fishermen.  Once the ferry service stopped for the evening the view out the stern of our boat made us feel like we were in some distant wilderness, gently rocking on the peaceful expanse of water with mountains and islands in the background.

Tonight finds us in the exact opposite….tied up at the very nice, large Van Isle Marina in Sidney, surrounded by mega yachts of all shapes and sizes.  Boat chores done, we then scouted out the bus route so we can get Jim onto the bus in the morning.  He will ride about an hour to Victoria by bus then hop the Coho ferry to ride across the Straits of Juan de Fuca to Port Angeles where his truck is waiting for him at the boat basin.  We have sure enjoyed having him along with us for the week and hope he enjoyed a quick tour of some of the San Juans and the Gulf Islands.