We left Blind Channel on the 3rd of July with a full larder, good ice, fuel, and two loaves of homemade bread and headed on the protected route north, avoiding Johnstone Strait as long as possible. Our goal was to take Green Point Rapids an hour and a half early, and Whirlpool Rapids about 2 hours late, and overnight in Forward Harbour until there was a good day to move into Johnstone Strait, and then hopefully into Port Harvey, so we could jink around the back way into the Broughtons by way of Chatham Channel, another rapid of sorts. Green Point and Whirlpool run at 7 knots on spring tides (kinda like Dodd Narrows). Chatham runs to 5 knots; we know this because in 2009 we read the wrong listing for the max flow and ran down it at 1.2 knots. Our friends were out the other side calling to ask us if we had gone aground because we didn’t come out when they did – they were a 7 knot boat. It’s only a mile long passage, and it was one of the longer boating hours we have spent!

Anyway, that was the plan. Remember, we had already run three very large rapids three days prior. And we had been through these smaller ones 5 times previously. If you want to know how two round trips to the Broughtons equals 5 times through the rapids, you will have to ask me in person. So the plan was to get into Forward Harbour, crab a little, and see what the weather radio said. This was Monday morning. Tuesday morning we took a run to the beach at the very low tide and I am so glad we did! The intertidal zone was filled with small stars – green and ruby and yellow. There were sea cucumbers and crab and clams everywhere – cockles and littlenecks and BUTTER CLAMS. This is a rocky beach, just perfect for butter clams. It had loads of green weed, to keep the beach cool during the low tide. We stopped walking, and the beach was talking! I swear if you closed your eyes, you could imagine 200 years ago, the granny clams were gossiping and spitting, the tiny spree of the crabs scuttling sounded like kids playing; the seaweed sounded like it was aspirating as the sun dried out the grass; it was the most amazing sound – the beach was truly alive and talking over the news of the day.

Tuesday morning we ran the engine for an hour to keep the batteries topped up, and decided to do it again Tuesday night because Wednesday was a great weather window for Johnstone Strait, and the back door into the Broughtons. And the engine did not start. (This is the 4th of July, actually.)

Raleigh starts troubleshooting and I start calculating what Plan B – or C or D – might look like. Oh, and I pass tools. I feel like the surgical nurse on Marcus Welby, MD, except I am passing channel locks, sockets, wire strippers and small bowls to hold nuts and washers, instead of scalpels and sponges. By 10 pm, Raleigh has rebuilt the ignition switch, and the starter, tested the alternator, regulator, and everything else he can think of. My calculations, between the wire strippers and channel locks, placed us 59 miles from Pt. McNeil at the north of Vancouver Island, and 58 miles from Campbell River. One distance takes us through Johnstone Strait, and the other through serious rapids.

At the risk of an AHA! Award from our cruising club, I am telling you the rest of the story. We turned off everything on the boat – no mast light, nothing, and turned off the battery switch completely. And we had a few choice words for the really smart technician who didn’t re-ground the alternator regulator after removing and reattaching the alternator, which I say fried our batteries. (At this point, Raleigh says I have to think more charitably about the fellow, but you all know we did not make it to our own cruise in May because of this dude. So I will change the subject so my karma will not explode.) In the morning, after another try and another failure at starting the engine, we had two choices: ask for a tow to Blind Channel, where we had just been – through two rapids and 14 miles, or a tow to Pt. Harvey – through Johnstone Strait and nearly 24 miles. Victoria Coast Guard radio put out the bulletin, and we got an offer of a tow for each location! We accepted the Blind Channel commercial tow first, and knew the 26 year old tow captain (woman) personally; a crabber just outside our bay offered a tow to Pt Harvey, but we could not turn down a tow we had just accepted. It took Jess just 45 minutes to reach us from Blind Channel, and two hours to return through both rapids to the dock. (In case you are wondering, the going rate for commercial tow for us pleasure boaters is 200.00 per hour. We thought it would be more.)

After taking power on the dock for the day, the engine started right up Wednesday evening. But now two days of really snotty weather was predicted (and the prediction came true!) so we spend three nights total, again, on the Blind Channel docks. Silver linings: meeting some great folks from Alberta near Lake Louise and Banff, and having the 120 foot Thea Foss tie up next to us on our last night on the dock. What a beautiful grand dame she is – not a nylon line on her, and it was a joy to watch her come in.

Finally, on Saturday the 9th, the weather in Johnstone Strait is predicted clear and light winds all day. We are off the dock at 6 am, and through the rapids again; the weather and wind are still fine at Forward Harbour, so we keep going; still fine as we enter the Strait and still fine at Port Neville, so we keep going. Still fine at Pt. Harvey, so we go in to anchor in the bay. Progress at last; tomorrow we will go around the corner and officially be in the Broughtons! Sunday the prediction is ok, but near gale in the evening. We made it through Chatham Channel at almost 6 knots (not our best, but certainly not that worst speed I reported!) And as we come around the corner, we can see Lagoon Cove through the Blow Hole behind Minstrel Island and it is full.

So we enter Cutter Cove for the first time ever. There is not a consistent report on this cove in any of the guide books, so let me share with you: if you have ever anchored in Ganges, on Salt Spring Island, and you know the feel of soft thin mud, with hard shale beneath, that is what is in here. Since no one else in their right mind has thought to take anchorage in the cove, we don’t worry about dragging on anyone. It is very pretty; very like Theodosia Inlet in Desolation Sound, or Viner Sound in the Broughtons. It is a low, low flat with a creek meandering through it with high hills, then mountains in the background. There are homestead and logging ruins at the southeastern shore. It looks like a bear beach to me. At about 2:30 we were nearly given heart attacks because a dynamite blast went off in the hills I just described! All of the dust settled out of the air and our hearts returned to our chests. I guess there is a big rock in the way of building a logging road.

The storm blew out and left the next morning fresh and sunny. We passed Lagoon Cove and headed for Potts Lagoon which is at the south end of Clio Channel, a clear pretty pass. As we entered the outer bay, the hillside had been blasted to bare rock and dirt, and there is a warning sign posted on the trees that says blast area. Luckily, we perservered, and went into the inner bay. WOW. A derelict pier, old remnants of house floats, 5 float homes in the bay, an abandoned log deck and log slide. It was just charming! In the afternoon at high tide we took the dingy to the very end of the lagoon. More evidence of pioneering days and fantastic bird life. We watched a pair of kingfishers go through the most amazing acrobatics – it was like aerial dueling banjos! But we were still having conversations about how low we could let the batteries go, and did we have to move every day, and if we went further north, we would be in bigger trouble, not less. And we remembered the year we met friends on Sonsie, in Nanaimo, who had power issues, and had to hang out in Madiera Park in Pender Harbor, and then turn back rather than take the trip they had planned.

So, after just really getting underway, we decide to turn back, cruise a little when we can, but plan to spend the cruising kitty on more docks to ensure power. Those who know us know this is not our preferred travel method.

We had a weather window and used it – two really long days got us back out Johnstone Strait and back through those dratted Rapids – all 5 of them, and collapsing into Squirrel Cove in Desolation Sound, after more than 80 nautical miles. After we fueled up and got water at Lagoon Cove, we saw 6 boats anchored in Cutter Cove in the settled weather, as we cruised by! And out into Johnstone Strait – whales! And as we left Sunderland Channel heading for Shoal Bay for the night – the biggest cinnamon grizzly bear- the first one we have ever seen. And as we left Shoal Bay for the rapids, a superpod of dolphins surround our boat, spashing, jumping, somersaulting, diving under our boat and swimming through our wake. Nearly 40 of them!

The last two days we have done chores at the Refuge Cove dock in Desolation Sound. Laundry, groceries, water, oil change, fuel, and ice – we are an ice-driven boat once again to save amperage. We hope the next two days will be the weather window that takes us back to Nanaimo, and then we can cruise the Gulf Islands for a few days on our way home. We will keep going, and blogging our travels.