07/31/2010, Vancouver, BC
A fun layday in Vancouver. We started the day with a 4-mile walk through Stanley Park to "Second Beach" and back. After breakfast, we hoofed it up along the waterfront to the Convention Center and Canada Place. Those of you from Backeast, if you watched the Olympics, saw a lot of those places. The Olympic Flame, now extinguished, has become a very attractive fountain. The picture above shows us standing in front of it.
After logging another 6 miles or so, we arrived back at the boat and basically crashed for a few hours. We gave up on the idea of dinner out because it would have involved another hefty hike and we already have to walk 20-30 minutes to get over to English Bay for the "Festival of Light" fireworks display later tonight. So we cobbled up some dinner on the boat.
Tomorrow we head out at the Butt-Crack of Dawn to cross Georgia Strait before the wind gets cranked up and get back over into the Gulf Islands. Tomorrow will be a LDR (Long Damned Run) which should end at Port Browning down on North Pender Island. We'll hopefully get another layday there and be poised to go down to Friday Harbor on Tuesday to meet our friends Mike and Kathy O'Brien.
|
Comments [0]
07/30/2010, Royal Vancouver Yacht Club, Vancouver, BC
This morning we moved across the bay to Royal Vancouver Yacht Club's Coal Harbor station. It sounds more high-falutin' than it really is. Oh, make no mistake, Royal Van is a VERY nice spot. But this is NOT their Main Station. That is out at Jericho Beach. We've never been there, but we've heard it is quite posh. Coal Harbour is right downtown. Check the Photo Gallery to see what our view from Dreamtime's bridge deck looked like.
As soon as we were secured and checked in, we were off to get some much-overdue exercise. The seawall around Stanley Park is a mecca for runners, walkers, rollerbladers, and cyclists. It felt good to get in a run/walk after too many calorie-intensive Happy Hours and dinners. Next item on the agenda was a hike over to the Safeway store at the corner of Robson and Denman. If one could FLY, it would be about half a mile. When you have to walk, it's a long trek around the end of Coal Harbour. Not so bad going, but coming back, lugging heavy sacks of groceries...not fun.
We had thought about going to "TUTS" (Theater Under the Stars, in Stanley Park) which is presenting Singin' in the Rain. But we decided a relaxing dinner and maybe a Waugal ride out to watch the Nine O'Clock Gun fire and maybe watch some of the cruise ships come in was a better option.
|
07/29/2010, Burrard Yacht Club, N. Vancouver, BC
After over a month of quiet anchorages and small marinas, we were thrust back into civilization big time! Unable to get moorage at Gibson's we elected to make the long run from Secret Cove down to Vancouver in one jump and see what we could find in the way of moorage at one of the many reciprocal clubs. Having met the nice folks from Burrard YC up at Cordero Lodge, we decided to try that first.
It was a long, often uncomfortable, run. We left Secret Cove at 0915 and immediately discovered that Georgia Strait currents do not follow what the books say. With the tide ebbing most of the day, we assumed the current would be flowing south and give us a nice boost. Instead, we had a couple of knots' worth right in our face. Our groundspeed was less than 7 knots all the way. To add to the fun, there was an obnoxious NW swell running which, added to the wakes of all the boats streaming out of Vancouver, made for a very rocky-rolly ride. But we slid under the Lion's Gate Bridge at 1415 and were down and locked at BYC by 1500.
BYC is in North Vancouver, across the bay from the city. It is in a sort of quasi-industrial area so there's not much to do within walking distance. That was okay because the one important thing they do have is a washer and dryer. That meant we'd have the luxury of clean underwear for the remainder of the trip. Priorities, you know!
|
07/28/2010, Secret Cove, BC Sunshine Coast
It's always a little depressing to watch the longitude/latitude coordinates spiral down. Up in the Broughtons, we were well north of 50 degrees north latitude and just beyond 127 degrees west longitude. As of today, we've slipped back into the 49's and below 124. Sigh.
Secret Cove is anything but. It is most of all a noisy, busy commercial marina. But it was a convenient stopping point on our trip down to Vancouver. Today was another Long Damned Run. We left Grace Harbour at 0640, again to try to get as far as possible before the wind got cranked up. As it turned out, the wind wasn't really much of a factor, never getting much above 10-12 knots. It did prove our point from yesterday's post by switching around and blowing from the south the last hour, but it didn't have much punch to it.
Up in the Broughtons, a long run is kept interesting by the continual need to pay attention to your navigation. There are lots of turns to make and a myriad of unmarked hazards to avoid. Today was the opposite. Seven hours of listening to the rumble of the engines and watching Robbie, our directionally-challenged autopilot, steer a course that sometimes was almost straight. The last two hours, from Grief Point to the entrance to Secret Cove was nothing but a long straight line and too far from shore to see anything interesting.
We passed dozens of northbound boats, all racing up to join the massed multitudes in Desolation Sound. We are more than happy to be headed the opposite direction.
Our clever plans got a bit of a monkey wrench thrown into them when we called down to Gibson's Marina for a moorage reservation for tomorrow night. No room at the inn. Most likely, the reason is that all the folks from Vancouver are getting out of town and that's a nice quick run for them. As of this writing, our Plan B is to go on down to Vancouver tomorrow. We have three different yacht clubs that will offer us reciprocal moorage. One of them is Burrard, over in North Van which probably doesn't see a lot of visitors. There are even more choices if we want to go around into False Creek so we're not too worried.
Meanwhile, we can take "boat showers" for the foreseeable future, which is a good thing since two of our three sunshowers are toast. One has already been consigned to the dumpster. The other is still useable if you're careful. But water has ceased to be a problem for the remainder of the cruise.
|
07/27/2010, Grace Harbour, Malaspina Inlet
We knew it was coming, or rather that WE were coming back to IT. But it was still depressing to be anchored in Grace Harbour with over 20 other boats. We wanted to hole up in our favorite spot over behind the Cochrane Islands, but there were two boats there. Yeah, it was a gorgeous day and the water in Grace Harbour was a comfortable 70 degrees, unlike the chilly 60 we measured here a month ago. And, of course, that's why everyone is here. The most annoying part is the noise. Oh, not a thunderous din, but just a lot of "people noise." People talking, kids laughing and screaming, dogs barking, outboards roaring around. When you are used to just serene quiet at anchor, it gets to you.
It felt like a long run today, though it was only 5 ½ hours. Come to think of it, that IS a long run by our usual standards. It involved transiting both Dent and Yuculta Rapids, then a long, boring run down Lewis Channel, punching into a 15-knot southerly that the Wind Gods dished up when they noted us trying to progress in that direction. We've pretty much gotten used to that. The northwesterly blows unceasingly for a month then, when we have to head south, the wind comes roaring in from the south for a couple of days. Once we get where we're going, it immediately switches back around to the north. You think we're making this up? Our logs confirm it!
That part about the "people noise" was reaffirmed when night came. We ran our generator for an hour, but had it shut down by 8 p.m. Several other boats did the same. All except one a-hole who decided that his air conditioning trumped everyone else's desire for peace and quiet. A couple of people yelled at him to "turn off your f-ing generator" and one gentleman dinghied over to confront the moron. The generator kept rumbling. It was finally turned off temporarily about 10:30 p.m. but was on again at 3:30 a.m. See the sort of fun stuff you miss when you adjust your schedule and itinerary to miss High Season?
|
07/26/2010, Cordero Lodge, Cordero Channel
Spoiling, as in dinner out two nights in a row. Last night it was fish and chips and a burger at Port Harvey's "Red Shoe." Tonight was a bit fancier: stuffed schnitzel and beef rouladen at Manfred and Doris Kupper's Cordero Lodge.
We left Port Harvey at 0640 this morning, knowing that the Wind Gods would be cranking up the northwesterly hurricane by noon, if not before. We had a relatively smooth trip back through Gate Four, leaving Johnstone Strait and heading into Sunderland Channel a little after 0900, by which time the wind was up to 12 knots and building. We got off Johnstone just in time. We hit the slack at Whirpool Rapids within ten minutes of the predicted time and, an hour later, squirted through Greene Point Rapids with a couple of knots of current behind us. Cordero Lodge is just around the corner. Non-cruisers might ask, "Why quit at noon?" The answer is: Gate Three. Whirlpool and Greene Point are just the first step in negotiating Gate Three. The second step is either Dent/Yuculta or Upper Rapids/Hole in the Wall. Our route home goes through the former and you don't mess with those bad boys any time but at slack water. By the time we could have gotten there, the door would have been shut.
When we arrived, they told us they had a "full house" for the evening. It wasn't long before the crowd started to arrive. There were several boats from Burrard Yacht Club in West Vancouver, followed by Longhaul, an Ocean Alexander 60 from TYC owned by Gary McLean. Gary is well-known by TYC cruisers for the outstanding red wine he produces and which he shared with participants ay last spring's Poulsbo cruise. Gary, as always, had a crowd aboard, including Chuck Steward, who we also know from TYC and Breakwater Marina. Chuck was helping get the boat up to Sullivan Bay.
Since we were the only "party of two" for dinner, we became part of the Longhaul contingent, who immediately made us feel a part of their group. Later, when the Burrard folks came in, it became one big party. After some good-natured kidding, the Canadians broke into a very creditable rendition of The Star Spangled Banner. This, of course, required us to reciprocate and Charlie more-or-less saved the day by being about the only one at the American table who knew all the words to Oh Canada. Before long, he was requested to produce his guitar and the usual singalong ensued. Utlimately, a lot of folks ended up on Longhaul, singing, visiting, and drinking Gary's wine. It was a great evening!
|
We've just been catching up on much of what you've been doing on the cruise - looks and sounds fantastic. We especially have enjoyed the wild life encounters, something we have no chance to get here (however, did see a bear at Bergseth last week). I've been bogged down with repairs on the trailer (abut half done) and Vicki has been taking a drawing class. Otherwise, we're enjoying the first real days of summer (80-85 degrees, finally!). Have a great and trouble free return and we'll talk soon. D&V
