07/18/2012, Moore Bay
Great spot to spend a few days. There are two mooring balls provided by BC Forestry, we expected them to be full. To our amazement both were available when we arrived. Nearby is a small dinghy dock and ramp to the forest. A perfect place for Oliver for a couple days. The view is spectacular and the weather is amazing, the second day here we hit probably 80 degrees. We dinghied over a bay to Shawl Bay Marina, it didn't look like they had much to offer. We did steal some internet by floating around in the dinghy in front of their facility. One thing that we do miss is 3G that is available anytime, we can only use wireless on our smart phones and we haven't had cell or text service since Port Mcneil. We have sure enjoyed our little 2.5 horse Suzuki that we found on Craigslist. In the past we have always rowed our dinghy, but with this little motor we can cruise all over. It uses very little fuel, we still have 2 liters left from the 5 that we left Olympia with.
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07/16/2012, Turnbull Cove
Well, after six days stopped in one place we felt it was time to move on. When the manager asks you "Are you Canadian and would you be interested in a winter caretaking job?", maybe we've become too familiar. We have met some great people here, one in particular was "Charles". Charles left the U.K. twelve years ago on his sailboat, he has sailed around the world, in the '70's and in the last few years. He had just sailed from Japan to Alaska down to Vancouver and back up to the Broughtons. We talked to him at length about the difference in the world, sailing around in the '70's and then again 40 years later. He said lots of traditional cruising places such as the Caribbean were ruined. That is the reason why now he has done Japan, Alaska, Canada and will be heading to Mexico and South America. All the other sailors in the marina were in awe of him, but he thought sailing around the world twice was no big deal "lots of other people have done it". We did help provide water for the facility while we were here. We decided our next stop would be Turnbull Cove, only a few miles away, with good reviews from other people. On our way out we heard a radio call about a whale spotted right in front of the marina. We stopped, turned our engine off and grabbed the binoculars, our chance to see "The Whale"!. We have as yet to see any whales, though we have seen bear, raccoon, pine martins and mink. We floated around for 5 minutes where to whale was supposed to be but no sighting by us. We continued to our anchorage. Turnbull Cove is a nice spot way up in the Broughtons, only problem is, a lot of other boats think it's a nice spot. There are 14 boats anchored with us. The space is large enough that we can get away from one another and enjoy some privacy. There is a trail that goes to a lake at the head of the bay. We hiked over the top and met some stand-up paddle boarders from the Nimmo Bay Resort. They invited us to come to the resort, we found out later that it is a high end ($4000 per day) fishing resort. We have been at Turnbull for two days and time to move on. We are heading to Moore Bay, this signifies the "turnaround", we have been heading north and west. Today we will go south and east, the return journey will slowly unfold. It has been strange, spending our summer up here, the weather has gotten to the mid-70's but not hot like Olympia gets. We try to see some different sights on our way home. We have noticed an increase in the number of boats, the anchorages and marinas further south may be a lot more crowded as we move into August. Once Labor Day is over we will probably have the waters to ourselves again, then onto the Blaine marina and reestablishing our lives in a new town and port for the winter.
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07/13/2012, Sullian Bay
Today was a different day in the cruising life. About noon we had the VHF radio on scan and I thought I heard our marina hosts calling out for a diver or air, since I had mine I thought I would wander up and see what was needed. Come to find out the main source of water was no longer functioning, thought to be a pipe undone "in 40 to 60 feet of water". I volunteered my skills and equipment, a way to put it to use and to get into the water. I suited up and began a trace of the 2" plastic pipe, the water was crystal clear. A previous repair had come undone, it had been hose clamped and tied together with line. At first the water was still on and too much pressure to put back together. I came to the surface asked that the water be shut off and a length of line to tie to the pipes, so we could raise them if not successful. I clamped the pipe together and tied line to each piece. Again the pressure blew the line apart, but now we could pull the pipe up with the line I had tied to it. We pulled the pipe up, repaired properly, dropped it down, turned on the water but no go. Somewhere farther up developed a problem while we were fixing the first problem. Some success but still no water. I was ready to go again, but Chris(the Manager)called a halt and wanted to do all new pipe the next day. Later on in the day he handed me a wad of $100's and$50's. I'm not sure I deserve it since we still have no water, but I will be spending it all right here. Maybe I can help when they get the new pipe in.
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07/10/2012, Sullivan Bay
Pretty awesome marina out in the middle of nowhere. There is actually a community of float houses adjoining the marina, some with helicopters on the roof and floatplanes in the garages. The marina has fuel, a store, showers and laundry and a restaurant. When you check in, you get two golf balls to pitch to a floating green, hoping to win free moorage. I made my try, but they didn't have much to worry about. This marina is more high end than we have seen previously, some 70 foot and larger power boats. There are only two sailboats here. Again, business seem fairly slow, plenty of dock space, no rafting required or needed. The moorage has no access to land, but they have a 10 x 20 foot area of grass called the "Poop Patch" for dog use. It is just big enough to play ball with Oliver. The hosts are very friendly, happy hour at 5, was well attended and I think the restaurant may be open today. We watched a Grumann Goose seaplane land yesterday, just like the one that Jimmy Buffett owns!
One thing that we see different here is the approach to garbage and waste. In our area, holding tanks and pumpouts are a way of life. Up here, you store up in the harbour and let it fly when you get out to moving water. The water is crystal clear so I don't know if we are overly careful down south or not. Here at the marina they offer to burn paper, recycle cans and throw organic waste and coffee ground into the water, again out in the moving stream. It all seems to work.
We had great sunshine yesterday, winds are supposed to be coming, a moorage special three nights for the cost of two so I think we will hole up for a few days. We have been on the move since May 29th, time to take a break.
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07/09/2012, Cypress Harbour
Up and at 'em, we fire up early and pull away from our wilderness dock. We have about 15 miles to make our next anchorage. We pass these floathouses out here in the middle of nowhere, people scratching a living by fishing or crabbing, must be a long winter up here. We see amazing vistas, we can see the snow covered mountains on the mainland, I don't know if they are the Rockies, a continuation of the Cascades or their own set of mountain ranges. We pass "Echo Cove" and their Saturday pig roasts, we pass" Shallow bay" with their morning pancakes onto Cypress Harbour. As we enter the harbour there is a large fish farm to our left, a boat anchored to our right, an old log landing in front of us which is where we anchored. Farther into the bay are two more boats and on shore a short trail with campsites. We hiked to the end of the trail, all the while making noise to scare away the bears. We have an awesome view from the stern of our boat, distant snowcapped mountains. Oliver continues to amaze and adapt. We haven't got him to do his business on the boat yet, but he is so patient to row to shore and use the smallest scrap of grass. We always take him right before we head out, sometimes it is up to eight hours later, before we get stopped anchored, dinghy readied and off to shore. We have been watching the movies that we bought before we left, also the movies we bought in Pender Harbour. Some have been good, some not so good. At an average price of $2 each we haven't done too bad. Weather report says up to 40 knt winds coming, we are going to head to Sullivan Bay Marina for a few days.
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07/07/2012, Joe Cove
Joe Cove was only 5 miles away as the crow flies, but took about 15, routing around all the islands. The cove has a small float out in the middle of the bay. No one was on it so we tied up, we had our own private island complete with picnic table. We explored some native "middens". Middens are large areas of broken shells that the aboriginal peoples had deposited thru harvesting over time. These areas were used for hundreds, if not thousands of years until the white man came. We hiked some trails, looking over our shoulders for bears, all the while rattling our pop cans filled with rock and our boat air horn in our hands. We had no other takers at our private float on our first night, though a couple of small boats tied up the next day. We watched them have success with a crab trap dropped off the end of the float. Very nice pair of couples from Victoria. Since we were at this anchorage for two days I did some minor maintenance work. We had been suffering a minor oil leak, I had stopped it up with 4200 a couple days prior and it sealed the leak, one worry off my mind. I had drained out a small bit of moisture from a fuel filter and had unknowingly broke the prime in my fuel line. We started the engine to charge the batteries, ran for about 5 minutes then died. Mind you this is out in the middle of nowhere, all I could think about was Ed and no engine. I figured all I needed to do was "bleed " the fuel system, quick bleed, restart and 5 more minutes and dies. Once more rebleed and dies and it is 9 o'clock and time to wait till morning, A sleepless night, a thorough read of the manual, a rebleed from the tank to the injectors and success. I used to make fun of people that couldn't change a spare by saying, "now if you had a sailboat broke down in Vanuatu, who would come and rescue you". That thought had ran thru my mind.
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