06/03/2011, Laura Cove, Prideaux Haven area
Alright... so this wasn't exactly what I had pictured in my mind when we set off on this adventure. Warm, sunny days, of comfortably warm temperatures during the day to explore, hike, and ramble the bay. The evenings warm enough to sit on the deck or in the cockpit sharing a glass of wine or a meal.
Nope. Not on this trip.... at least not yet.
We've had about one good day of sun, or at least a portion of one, then back to overcast and rain. Enough already! I'm pretty sure what Tom thinks is tan is actually rust!
Yesterday, for most of the day,we were able to be in shorts and tanks, and bare feet. Ahhhhh! It was nice! A few clouds wafted past occasionally. People were out in dinghy's, hiking and generally just warming up! Around 6, Tom and I headed to the "Lido" deck, to enjoy the evening and glass of wine. Within 6 minutes, give or take a couple, we had moved back inside the boat. The next system had moved in and it was raining!
Our plans for today were to take a hike with several other cruisers in Roscoe Bay to the top of Llanover Mountain, 2,200'. The rain from last night never let up. We were supposed to meet at the trail head at 9:00. At 8:45 the couple organizing it radioed that it was a bit wet, so they were taking their boat out for the day to explore. We stayed in bed!
We pulled up the anchor at 4 and headed out to Laura Cove, near Prideaux Haven for a change of scenery. We got the anchor set and the stern tie fixed to a tree. I took off in the dinghy for a bit of exploring, only to get wet from, what else, more rain! It's really dumping out there right now! I'm going to go take a Vitamin D, the real one, and maybe a glass of wine, then I'm sure when I wake up in the morning, the clouds will be gone or at least dried up!
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06/03/2011, Roscoe Bay, Desolation sound
We left Grace Harbor at about 2:30 on our way to Roscoe Bay, but not before I got a chance to go fishing again. The sun was out, it was a beautiful day, and there was` little or no wind. I caught a lot of small fish, and just as I was about to pack it in, caught another nice 28" ling cod.
The run over to Roscoe is about 12 miles, across the entrance to Desolation Sound. We motored out of Malaspina Inlet, and set the sails. 12-14 knots of a very nice down wind run.
The entrance to Roscoe Bay has a shoal in front of it that goes dry on a zero tide. We draft 6 feet, so we need to have at least a tide of that height or more before we try to enter. There was about 14 feet when we came through so it was no problem, but with the very clear water, you can see the bottom very clearly!!
We anchored back in a small little nook, on the right side. We got to stern tie for the first time. It went off with out a hitch...good thing because there were three other boats all sitting up in their cockpits watching to see how we do.
Jeanne cooked up an amazing dinner of grilled potatoes and corn on the cob, along with the rock fish, cooked in butter, garlic, and white wine. Yummmmm This a great reason for me to keep fishing!
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06/03/2011, Desolation sound
Yet another of the anchorage gems that we have been able to visit. Yesterday afternoon, Paul and Lynn from SV Sirens Song sailed in here, I guess we are blessed with their company for another night or two!
I have been really craving some Italian food, especially one of Jeanne's lasagnas. I guess I pestered her enough, that while I was doing laundry in Powell River, she made a provisioning run and got all the goodies to make a lasagna. In the past few weeks Jeanne has done a great job of cutting down on the size of the meals that she has prepared for us. She is an awesome cook, and usually makes most of her meals large enough to have at least one round of leftovers. With our reduced refrigeration capacity, this becomes a problem. If she makes a large meal, I also have a tendency to eat more than I need, and with my expanding waist line that also is a problem. But...this was lasagne!! make it as big as you want!
This turned out to be a good time to invite guests over. I too this opportunity to go say hello to Paul and Lynn after they got their anchor down and set. They were certainly up for a lasagna dinner. Then off to the other end of the anchorage, about 100 yards, to invite Ken and Carol. It sounded like they already had dinner plans but quickly put them on hold when they heard about lasagna.
The dinner was fantastic, with great company, stories and food. Lynn made a great salad to go with the lasagna and warm garlic bread that Jeanne whipped up. Carol had just baked an amazing batch of brownies with a layer of caramel in them, so she had desert taken care of. A couple of bottles of red wine and we were set.
Saturday I woke up to a partly clear sky, and no wind. I was goin' fishin'! I loaded up the dinghy and headed out side the harbor to find some deeper water. I wanted another one of those lings! I caught a nice bunch of rock fish, all little ones, but never even saw a ling cod. I was about to pack it in when I hooked a nice fish. Turned out to be a really large rock fish, one that was worthy of keeping. Wheew....I wasn't skunked.
After fileting the fish, we took a hike from one of the little bays here in Grace Harbor, up over the ridge to get a look at Isabel Bay. This was actually our original destination when we left Powell River, but the was blowing like stink so we opted for the more protected Grace Harbor. The trail is very much a minimalistic trail, through the ferns, bushes and blow down trees. Every so often there is a piece of pink or orange ribbon just to make sure you are headed in the correct direction. Once we got to the other side and were able to see what Isabel Bay looked like I certainly see why it has come so highly recommended. It is small, just room for one boat, more perhaps if you are good friends. Stern ties are required just in case you should swing. Our new friends Ken and Carol had left Grace Harbor that morning, and here they were in Isabel Bay, just tying off their stern tie, so we had a short visit with them, and then back over the ridge to our own Harbor.
Just so you don't think that every thing is about fishing and fun, I did install a new ball valve on the wash down pump line this afternoon. And I had to repair the Neutral switch on the outboard. Now, don't you feel better!!
I think we will head to Roscoe Bay tomorrow afternoon. That has a tricky entrance, but I will let you know about that after we give it a try!
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Your Dad Don suggested I follow your blog ... hope the rain has stopped but the fish are still biting!
Safe Sailing!
Sean Duggan (Roselle's stepson of 45 years!)
06/03/2011, Grace Harbour, Malaspina Inlet
We set the anchor in Grace Harbor, Malaspina Inlet after a motorsail up the coast from Westview. Our path today took us right past Lund, Savory Island, and the Copeland Islands. The Copelands look like a great place to explore by kayak! A wiggly path through the islands and then again down into Malaspina, avoiding rocks and shallows.
The weather was dry, none to warm, but comfortable enough to go explore by dinghy. Somewhere in our explorations we bumped a rock with the outboard prop. Didn't seem to be a problem..... wait for it, wait for it........ 3 minutes later, Tom discovers we don't have neutral on the outboard. Forward and reverse work just fine. We idle back into our little bay and continue around the edges.
We're just cruising behind a Beneteau, Gavia, when this man leans out and asks, "We saw all the jerry jugs on your boat, are you headed to Alaska?" We replied, " No, just taking the long way to Mexico!"He ducks back inside his boat, has a quick conversation with his wife, and the leans back out asking... "Do you know Al?" We answered YES! We couldn't stop due to no neutral, said we'd come back in a few minutes after Tom made the repair.
Back to the mother ship we went. Off came the cowling... Tom identified and fixed the problem and we headed within TEN MINUTES back to Gavia to finish the story. Little did we know the story was just beginning!
As we pull up to his stern, he says, " Come aboard, we want to know all about your engine trouble in Princess Louisa and your prawn story!" What? We'd only put that story in the blog at 8 this morning and it's 3:30 and 40 miles away, and we don't know these people? And they know about our engine stuff?
Ken and Carol are 'these people' and are good friends with Al and Louise Hughes, former dock mates of ours from Shilshole! Ken had gone below and called Al to inquire if we were one of the boats he said to watch for in Desolation. Al had read our blog this morning and gave him the complete rundown in the time it took us to fix the outboard and return. I'm sure the looks on our faces was a Kodak moment!
We shared boating stories, compared anchorages, watched the Eagles, Ospreys and Loons, and learned of more places on the way to 'be sure and not miss'! Ahhh, that six degrees of separation is becoming 5!
Jane-Regarding Savory We saw the brown house with the backhoe next to it... you're the blue one next door?
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hope the grass isn't too long at our place. we don't have sheep or cows. only deer...
05/26/2011, Westview/Powell River
At the boat show this year we bought ourselves a shrimp/prawn trap so we could perhaps catch a few of the little buggers. Well, here we are in prime prawn area, and I am stuck with a quandary. We have about $40.00 in this fancy prawn trap, but still need to get the line, weights, float, bait box and bait in order to deploy the trap. There is a pretty nice fishing and boating supply shop here in Powell river/Westview where we just happen to be today. So I ambled (that would be a very slow walk) up the hill and had a visit with the guy behind the counter about this gear that I would be needing. He was very helpful, and gave me the complete run down. He had used poly line, at $.08 a foot, with a 450 foot minimum. $36.00 Then there was the cool orange float, strong enough to support all that line, and can be seen in order to find it, and not get run over by other boaters $36.00 Since this was floating line, you have to put clips with weights on it to keep it down, again not wanting to foul somebody's prop. He recommended three of these cute little guys, at $9,00 each $27.00 I already have the trap, but will need a canister to put the bait into, at $5.00. And last but not least, the bait. They sell a commercial prawn bait, for $14.00 a jug that is about a gallon. So that is a smooth $118.00 just to get equipped. Then I got to thinking about the actual act of going after them wiggly little creatures, that taste mighty good I might add. Given that fact that I don't have a clue where to drop the trap, and when I do it is to be in 250-350 feet of water, I started thinking about actually pulling that trap back up by hand from 350 feet down...especially if it were to come back up empty. I had to give this some serious thought!
As I was walking back down to the boat, I struck up a conversation with a shrimp boat Captain, by the name of Brian. A very friendly fella, who was in a mood to chat. He had just come in with a good load of prawns and was off loading them as we spoke. Now I figure that this is a pretty smart guy, he had a good looking boat, well outfitted, and he had a great looking crew as well. You see the bulk of his crew was very pretty gals all about 20 years old. While the crew was unloading his catch we talked about shrimpin' and boats ( yes in the back of my mind, I did feel like I was reliving a scene out of Forrest Gump) and sailing around this area. Just as was getting ready to head back to my boat, I asked him what he would sell me a few prawns for, just to put together a little snack? Well, he reached down into the pot grabbed a big hand full and threw 'em in a bag and said how about $5.00 Well, I couldn't pass up on that, so I gave him a quick $5.00 bill and was off to the boat. Now I know that I will not always get a deal like that, as the going rate up here fresh off the boat, is $10.00 a pound with the heads, and $20.00 with the heads removed, but it got me to really working on that math again. I was going to have to catch 12 pounds of prawns to break even, not counting the extra work of pulling those traps up and down. I have never considered myself the lazy sort, especially when it comes to fishin' and crabbin' and the like, but I am pretty sure this is one place, where we are gonna just buy a prawn dinner every now and then.
By the way...I have a brand new prawn trap for sale, never been used $40.00 or best offer!!
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Cheers!
05/26/2011, Princess Louisa
If you have been reading about our adventures in the Princess Louisa Sound, you will begin to understand the magnitude of this place! I know we have a lot of amazing places to yet see on our adventure, but so far this place is truly an amazement. When we sailed in, it felt like sailing up into the mountains, but we never left sea level. On Friday afternoon, we took a dinghy ride over to a medium sized waterfall, that had a neat pool about 100 yards up the hill. The pool is featured in the Waggoner Cruising Guide, as a great place to sit and cool off and take a shower. Well, that wasn't happening as the water in that pool was right out of the melted snow fall. As we made our way back to the dinghy, I caught a movement out of the left side of the hill. WOW there was a huge avalanche starting!! I whipped up the camera and started shooting...and the picture above is one of the shots. This was a huge movement of water and it really did some damage, up rooting and busting off many large trees! That is just not the sort of thing you get to see by boat!! What a place!
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