2018-09-04 Liberty Bay, Poulsbo

Most of you will already know that we safely arrived home this past Thursday afternoon, and this after a wonderful sail down the Puget Sound. We arrived home with mixed feelings, just as we did at the end of our 2016 cruise around Vancouver Island. On the one hand, we were ready for a break from the confines of the boat, and on the other hand we were saddened to see the cruise come to an end. We sincerely enjoyed our exploration of many new and interesting places this summer and the overwhelming beauty of this part of God’s world (Note from Linda: And to “quantify” our cruise for those inquiring minds…We spent 55 nights on anchor; 43 nights at marinas and visited 36 NEW places that we had never visited before!). We count ourselves truly blessed to have been able to continue to enjoy our retirement in this way. And as we got home, we met up with our good friends and fellow boaters, Pat and David O’Morchoe, as they were preparing to leave their slip for the Labor Day cruise to Tacoma with the Poulsbo Yacht Club. They asked us the same question we’ve been asking ourselves almost since the beginning of the cruise: “What’s next?”

When they asked us this, we could only laugh. It depends, I said, on when you ask us and how we’re feeling at the moment. We’ve discussed going to Mexico, spending next summer close by in the San Juan and Canadian Gulf Islands, resuming our original itinerary of this past summer by trying again to make it Haida Gwaii and down the west coast of Vancouver Island, or perhaps going all the way to Alaska (something we thought we had ruled out).

The short answer to Pat’s and David’s question is that we just don’t know at this point, and for now we’re okay with that. We have realized one thing, however. In the first half of this summer’s cruise, we spent a lot of time alone, and after a while this began to weigh on us. This was partly due to where we chose to go. The areas north of Desolation Sound, the Broughtons and the Central Coast of British Columbia, just did not receive a lot of visitors this year and the rumors are that this is a downward trend that is likely to continue. But it was also partly due to the fact that we weren’t buddy boating with anyone and, at some point during the summer, we realized that might be a good thing to do in the future—not only from the perspective of safety but also with the idea of having more companionship. Being alone deep in an isolated fjord on a small boat is a very, very beautiful and special experience, but it is also conducive to contemplating the human condition: that we are a very small and vulnerable presence in a very large and indifferent wilderness. It left us feeling, at the same time, both privileged to be there and very much alone. So, we need to process these feelings as we think about the future.

For now, however, we are enjoying such simple things as a bed that doesn’t require one of us having to climb over the other; having warm showers without worrying overmuch about how much water we’re using; a washer and dryer that’s handy; and, especially, a community of friends close by. We have a long list of boat chores and repairs to deal with, and lots of other things to do to get back on the grid, but these are for the most part welcome challenges. Nevertheless, once one has cruised on a small boat it is an ever-present reminder to be careful about such things—simplifying one’s life by going off the grid reminds us of how much we take for granted while on the grid, and, more, how what we take for granted can become a subtle and persistent chain that holds us back from experiencing life more fully.

06-27-2018 Echo Bay, Sucia Island

We’ve been pretty lax about the blog lately – a symptom of our “winding down” this extended summer cruise – so I’ll quickly fill in a few of the blanks of our past week. After leaving our friends the Lott’s last weekend, we headed to Sidney, BC to do laundry and little provisioning. We like the Port of Sidney Marina and its easy access to the downtown area. There’s also a little spot just outside of the marina known as “Glass Beach” which I enjoy immensely! I planned my laundry and shopping times around the low tide so that I could enjoy beachglassing. The only downside to Sidney was that the smoke caught up with us here – it was the first time we really experienced the wildfire smoke; it was so thick we actually smelled the smoke and visibility was very poor.

We left Sidney last Tuesday morning with smoke as thick as any of the fog we’ve had this summer. We anchored in Reid Harbor, Stuart Island (one of our favorite spots in the San Juan Islands) after successfully checking in with US customs via telephone thanks to our I-68 numbers. Back in the US of A after almost 3 months! We had a delightful dinner with our new friends, Jane and Jerry McNaboe, on Shamaal – our sister Outbound (hull #60 to our hull #30). Jane and Jerry had just completed their circumnavigation of Vancouver Island and were joined in Sidney by Jane’s father, celebrating his 90th birthday with them, together with her sister and brother-in-law. They left the following morning and we stayed an extra night to enjoy the hike to the old schoolhouse and Turn Point lighthouse; alas, no whales were spotted!

From Stuart Island we made the short trek to Roche Harbor just because we like it there. We had a lazy day there with short hikes and watched the daily flag ceremony from the boat – too lazy even to walk to the dock for a better view. The flag ceremony is held at sunset each day during the summer. It’s a simple ceremony where four of the hard-working teenaged dock workers ceremonially lower the Washington state, Canadian, British and US flags, with music blaring from the loudspeakers, followed by the firing of an old cannon and then boaters honking their boat horns. Our sweet Liesl used to just hate the commotion.

Friday morning we headed to our most favorite spot in the San Juan Islands, Echo Bay, off Sucia Island. The smoke completely ruined the normally stunning view of Mt. Baker but it was good to be back. We discovered that DeeDee and George aboard Sea Turtle were anchored nearby so we kayaked over to say hello and invited them to join us for Happy Hour. We met Sea Turtle at Sullivan Bay in the Broughtons; you may recall that they were the ones from southern California who came north in May for the first time and ended up buddy boating with another Nordhavn couple, Lynda and Jim aboard Albedos. We had just missed Albedos, which left yesterday, but we had an enjoyable visit (and kayak paddle) with DeeDee and George.

They are preparing to head back down the coast to Dana Point, CA on September 1st with our other new friend Mark (Papalote) joining them. Jan is just a little jealous that Mark is going down the coast with them. DeeDee and George really enjoyed their cruise covering much of the same itinerary as we did, and they are planning to do it again next summer. We asked if they had considered leaving their boat up here instead of taking it down the coast and back up next summer. George replied that they can’t do that without losing their slip in Dana Point. There is a 20-year waiting list for slips there and if they leave the slip empty for more than 6 months, they lose the slip. I jokingly suggested that perhaps they needed two boats, to which George replied that the slips are not transferable that way. They went on the describe how difficult it is to obtain moorage in southern California AND the paucity of good cruising destinations.

In their area, you can purchase a mooring ball IF you are lucky enough to get to the head of the wait list AND if you are willing to spend between $300,000 to (off Catalina Island) $1 million - for a mooring ball!! To add insult to injury, you pay property tax on the ball; the local municipal jurisdiction rents your ball when you are not using it and keeps ALL the proceeds; you have to reserve your own ball when you want to use it; AND if you reserve it and don’t show up, you are charged for the night’s moorage – on your OWN ball!! Unbelievable.

We’ve decided spend a 4th night here at Sucia before heading south; our first day was so cold, rainy and overcast that just hunkered down and stayed on the boat. By afternoon yesterday it had cleared enough for us to enjoy a short hike, but this morning we woke to a beautiful sunny day and decided to stay another day to hike and kayak.

2018-08-21 Port Sidney Marina

This morning we are planning to reenter the US, and we thought we’d pause and bring you up to date on our cruise. We left Blind Channel and headed down through Seymore Narrows to Campbell River, overnighting along the way in a beautiful anchorage called Small Inlet. We stopped in Small Inlet so we could time our passing through Seymore Narrows, one of the strongest tidal channels on the West Coast. I wanted to come this way since it was, for us, the third of the three “gates” north and south from Johnstone Strait. As usual, if one passes through these channels at or near slack, it is a non-event, which is what we like in such cases. The one thing I hadn’t counted on was how very quickly the current picked up after the slack (there were spring tides that day), and within minutes we were being pushed along an extra 2-3 knots. Normally, I would have welcomed such a push, but we were heading into the Coast Marina in Campbell River and this current was going to make our docking tricky. And it did, but with Linda’s and the marina manager’s help, and some luck, we got on the dock safely and with only a little drama. I did determine right then and there, however, we were going to leave that dock on a slack tide. Our stay in Campbell River was typical—provisioning, laundry, some ice cream, and a dinner out—but we also took time for me to get a haircut and Linda to get a pedicure. It’s interesting the things you miss when you’re cruising in the wilderness!

In any case, in keeping with the decision we made to visit new places on the way home whenever we could, we left Campbell River and moved southeast along the west side of the Strait of Georgia, crossed over the Comox Bar without incident (a long sand bar with a cut through it that is shallow and, at times, quite rough) and anchored off the north end of Denman Island in Henry Cove. We posted some pictures on Facebook of our stay here—it quickly became one of Linda’s favorite places. We enjoyed long walks on the miles-long sandy beaches, got an education from some helpful locals on how to pick and prepare the local world-famous Baynes Sound oysters (though we decided we didn’t like them after all!), and Linda went for a long and surprisingly warm swim off the back of Evensong. As we left and headed south through Baynes Sound, I was very happy I had taken time to read up on the area. There’s BC ferry that connects Denman and Vancouver Islands that works like none we had encountered before—it travels back and forth using a long cable. When a light is showing red, the cable is engaged and it is not safe to cross behind the ferry; when it’s showing green, it’s safe to pass. If I hadn’t read about those lights in one of our guide books, I’m not sure I would have paid much attention to the warning lights. As it was, we timed it perfectly and didn’t even have to slow down.

Continuing our theme, we stopped at another new place for us that night—Schooner Cove Marina. I had read nice things about it, and they had room for us, but in the end it was one of my least favorite places. In part, it was because they are renovating the marina and building new condos and stores nearby and, in part (the most part!), because of the decidedly different approach to the service they had. It was first place I’ve ever stopped that required a copy of my boat insurance and asked me to sign a 5-page contract for a night’s stay. This seemed to be corporate fear of liability run amuck—the marina is part of a larger resort that includes the condos, stores, and a golf course. There was also a good deal of hostility between at least some of the locals and the marina staff that made me wonder if we weren’t the only ones. Further evidence of the liability concerns appeared when a local power boater came in to the dock and clearly needed help but the marina staff had not arrived. We started to assist and when the dock hand arrived (mid-catastrophe) he had a life vest on and informed us that we needed to leave the dock or he could not assist. Very unusual.

We stayed only one night, and left on the tide for Dodd Narrows the next morning—another tidal channel south of Nanaimo—in order to get to Ladysmith Harbour. What a change. This public marina is considered one of the best in the area, and with good reason. They were quite welcoming and worked hard to get us and others in on the crowded docks. We very much enjoyed our time there, eating out twice (!)—once at an authentic English pub and once at Spanish-Mexican fusion tapas restaurant. Linda found a pottery studio of a very talented local artist and spent several hours perusing the studio and her unique creations. We were utterly charmed by the place and hope to revisit it.

We stayed two nights in Ladysmith, and then moved this past Thursday to the small but beautiful Princess Cove off Wallace Island Provincial Marine Park. This is one of our favorite places, and we wanted to get there in the morning to secure a space to tie our stern line in the anchorage—it’s pretty small. We were also trying to get there so that we’d have a spot when the Lotts arrived on Friday afternoon to raft to us. It was actually more crowded than we expected, but there was just enough movement that we got the last chain to tie to (the chains are embedded in the stones so we can tie a stern line to them to keep us from swinging on our anchor in the current or wind). Another boat came in later and tried to tie to a rock. We advised the captain that we were likely to move into him if he stayed, but he wouldn’t listen to us – saying there were a lot of smart people on his boat and they would be able to figure it out! His neighbor on the other side of him left in dismay, and after an hour and half of trying, he finally decided it was indeed too close and that he left – thankfully! On Friday, the Lotts arrived, rafted up to us and we had a wonderful time talking, eating, kayaking, and hiking over the next couple of days. They left on Sunday for home (Vancouver), and we left for Sidney, passing some other friends on the way in Shamaal, an Outbound sister-ship. We plan to join them tonight for dinner on Shamaal in Reid Harbor, off Stuart Island, in the US San Juan Islands.

We’re delighted to be heading home but somewhat dreading the political drama we’re coming home to; not that we’ve escaped it altogether but there have been times this summer when we’ve been relieved to be without cell service or WIFI. Enough said.

2018-08-07 Blind Channel Marina, West Thurlow Island

It’s been about three weeks since we realized we weren’t going to make it to Haida Gwaii or the west coast of Vancouver Island, and since then I’ve had a lot of time to reflect on cruising with and without a destination as a goal. There is no doubt that I was more stressed when I had a goal with a deadline, but that goal also kept me engaged in the cruise and moving forward. In the last three weeks, I’ve relaxed about our movements and planning, and after some initial malaise, have reaped some unexpected benefits.

First, we were able to revisit some places in the Broughtons that we really liked on our last cruise in 2016, and we were able to stop at a few new ones. We’ve also had much better weather this summer, so the views have been awe-inspiring and we haven’t had to sit inside the boat in steady rain wondering what we’re not seeing. We are now through the Johnstone Strait and in Blind Channel Marina, a place I wanted to visit on our trip north two years ago and again on this trip north, but in both cases we needed to wait on some tricky currents to get here and I decided to bypass it. This time, we actually anchored nearby for an extra night just to be able stop, and we’re really glad we did. There’s great hiking here, as well as fresh cinnamon buns each morning and a first-class restaurant (which we’ll visit this evening).

Second, in the process of slowing down, we’ve met many more people than we might have otherwise, and that has been especially delightful. We’ve written about some of them already, but the other day Linda kayaked over to a small island in our anchorage where an older couple had set up camp after arriving in a two-person sea kayak. Linda introduced herself and learned that they were quite experienced kayakers, having paddled from Vancouver to Ketchikan in 2005, and then following up with another trip from Ketchikan to Glacier Bay in 2007. The weather was so bad in 2005 that it rained 39 of the 52 days it took them to make the trip (52 days to kayak from Vancouver to Ketchikan!!) We are in awe of them (though we have no desire to do this kind of trip ourselves). He also mentioned that he had lost one of his shoes, which was making it difficult for him to get in and out of the kayak on the many rocks which are covered with shells and barnacles. When he learned that we were heading to Blind Channel Resort the next day he asked Linda if there was a store there where he might find shoes. The next morning, we watched them take off for Blind Channel in the kayak just before we followed them on Evensong, leaving their tent and campsite set up for their return. When we arrived in Blind Channel we saw them at the lunch tables and Linda took a spare pair of water shoes to them. Indeed, the store did not carry any shoes but the water shoes fit, and he was overjoyed. He had been asking, unsuccessfully, everyone in the marina if they had such things, and he reported that Linda had definitely saved their trip. We then visited with them for a while over lunch. He was Austrian and she Swiss before they came to Canada in 1967 and made a new life for themselves. They had taken up kayaking, and he suggested to his wife in jest that they could paddle all the way to Alaska if they chose. To his surprise, she said, “Yes!” and he joked, “After that, I couldn’t back out.” Based on several pieces of information they offered, we deduced that he is about 75 years young and his wife is about the same age; we simply marveled at their courage and stamina.

Third, I suppose, is the fact that slowing down and loosening our plans has helped me to view cruising in new way. I’ve read for years about folks who write about how learning to cruise takes some time—time to unwind from one’s former life of deadlines and work commitments. Also, I’ve known (and often said) that the most dangerous thing on a boat is a schedule. I’m not sure what difference it might make going forward, but I have enjoyed these last few weeks more than I might have guessed. Oh, I still have to plan around weather and tidal currents, and as we get south into more crowded areas we’ll have to think ahead about where to anchor or moor, but still it’s nice to learn something new—about myself and about cruising—and not just intellectually, but in practice.

Linda’s Note: We’ve had a spectacular few days of cruising – sun, clear skies with a few billowy white clouds, beautiful mountain peaks, and some areas that we haven’t seen before. We left Port McNeill early to head into the northwest end of Johnstone Strait, expecting to anchor in Port Harvey before making our next foray back into the dreaded Strait. At my request, we went past Robson Bight, which is a protected whale preserve – 5 miles long and .5 miles wide. We saw the Warden Boat hovering protectively as we passed but no signs of orca. As we neared the end of the preserve, I was resigned to the fact that we wouldn’t see any orca and then, close to the shore, we saw four juvenile orcas splashing around. Soon after we saw two adults following close behind. No breaching and no tail lobs, but it was exciting to see our first orcas of this trip. The conditions were so benign and the weather so favorable that we bypassed Port Harvey and went all the way to Forward Harbour where we happened upon BarbEric again and had a nice visit with Barb and her German Shepherd Edie. It was a good day.

2018-07-31 Simoom Sound

We enjoyed a lovely afternoon and morning at Kwatsi, seeing Max, the owner, and meeting Anca, his wife (she was away two years ago when we visited the first time). They have put the place up for sale (asking price, $200,000 for anyone who might be interested) after 31 years; many cruisers will be sad to see them go, but it seems that owning a marina in this part of BC is a hard life and getting harder. We hear that Echo Bay, our next stop after one night on anchor in Simoom Sound, is also up for sale. There are fewer and fewer people cruising here, due largely to all the challenges coming and going that we’ve talked about in these blogs.

All that being said, we were surprised and delighted to reunite with Mark and Pam (aboard Papalote), and with Jim and Lynda (Albedos) and George and DeeDee (Sea Turtle), who we met at Sullivan Bay. We enjoyed another delightful happy hour being regaled with all kinds of cruising stories from good-natured boaters of all ages. Jan and Mark had quite a conversation about the best way to proceed through Johnstone Strait; they are leaving for Lagoon Cove and then Port Harvey, where they’ll be waiting for a weather window to transit Johnstone Strait – as are we, though we’ve decided to wait a few days longer and visit Port McNeill first to provision. There’s a forecast of a break in the strong winds on the strait this coming Saturday, so here’s hoping! We’re in one the many (strange) times on the Strait where there simply is no flood tide, so the normal NW winds stand up the waves on the strong ebb tide, making it dangerous for small craft or, if not dangerous, at least extremely uncomfortable, to be caught out in the afternoon as the wind regularly comes up to 25-30 knots or more.

As we left Kwatsi Bay for Simoom Sound, we were hailed by BarbEric coming toward us on the way in, telling us about the dozens of dolphins they’d seen coming up Tribune Channel. We soon saw them ourselves, though they were far enough away that we needed binoculars to see them well. But, wow, what a show they provided, and so much energy, flitting up and down and back and forth. We had been told by a neighbor in the Kwatsi Bay Marina that they had been in the marina early in the morning, and darting all around our boat, but sadly we slept right through their visit.

We made our way into Simoom and anchored in the same place we had anchored two years ago. Two years ago, we spent several nights here and thought it was utterly enchanting, however it was cold, rainy and socked in with fog and low hanging clouds. This time, we have enjoyed wonderful sun, and unusually hot weather. We got the kayaks down and explored our rocky surroundings much more thoroughly that we had during our last visit. Linda did a second trip herself this morning, and soon we’ll pull up the anchor and head to Echo Bay Marina for two days and then onto Port McNeill again. Perhaps if we’re lucky, we’ll get a few of these blogs posted as well.

2018-07-28 Burly Bay, Mackenzie Sound

In Sullivan Bay, we met up again with Mark and Pam (aboard Papalote which means “wind powered”). Mark’s brother graduated from Princeton Theological Seminary just ahead of Jan, and Pam and I enjoyed getting to know each other— we both have daughters who are our only child. We had dinner together the second night there, and as the marina offers a three-night stay for the price of two, we stayed and visited some more with them before leaving this morning (will probably meet up again in the San Juan Islands or Seattle area before they head back to Austin for the winter).

We left Sullivan Bay around 11 AM as the fog was lifting – and after we enjoyed our last hot cinnamon buns and cherry turnovers made fresh every morning! We headed up through Dunsany Passage into Grappler Sound, taking the same route we took two years ago when we headed to Turnbull Cove. This time, we continued on through Kenneth Passage into Mackenzie Sound and on to Burly Bay. The guidebooks were less than encouraging about the anchorage but indicated that the scenery was spectacular with a granite wall falling straight into the water – “Ansel Adams photograph stuff,” claimed Waggoner.

As we entered Burly Bay we saw a small boat with what looked like several people on board and I wondered if it might be a bear watching tour boat. Soon after we had gone below to start lunch, we heard someone calling to us and, lo and behold, the folks in the small boat were our friends Barb and Eric and their German shepherd Edie! We hadn’t seen them since Codville Lagoon when we hiked to the lake with them in overcast, drizzly weather. They’ve been anchored in Turnbull Cove for five days and came to Burly in their Whaler for a picnic lunch and to look for bears – they’ve seen bears here before. We had already noticed the hundreds of moon jellyfish in the water and they reported they didn’t anchor here this year because their generator can suck jellyfish into the water intake filter creating a mess! More importantly perhaps, there’s no place to go ashore here so Edie doesn’t like this anchorage and it appears that Edie is a big factor in their destination selections.

In any case, after lunch another power boat anchored in the bay, we rested, played some cards, and then went out in the kayaks to explore the area. By the time we came back the wind and current had picked up so we got more of a workout than we had planned. Low tide was as at 8 PM and I was hopeful we might see some bears. Sure enough, around dusk a mama black bear and her cub appeared on the beach. We watched them for about 20 minutes before they sauntered back into the woods making quite a racket in the tree branches.

There was an even lower tide this morning at 9 AM but the thick fog prevented us from seeing the shore until around 10 AM when an adolescent black bear appeared briefly. I used the fog time to bake a loaf of banana bread and a batch of oatmeal cookies and just as I had gotten the cookies ready to put in the oven, an adolescent bear appeared again on the opposite shore. I left Jan to finish the cookies and went out in the kayak with binoculars and my camera to bear watch, and I got a good show. If the bear noticed me, he didn’t give any indication. The air and the water were still and I quietly paddled a little closer to the shore where I could watch him. I heard him turning over the rocks to find food and then he climbed out on a log that was partially submerged in the water and covered with black mussels. I could hear him crunching the mussels as he enjoyed his breakfast buffet. At one point he scratched his belly with his hind leg and his two front paws slipped putting him face down in the water. Through the binoculars I could see the surprised expression on his face – just like you’d expect from a child who falls unexpectedly. I wasn’t close enough to get any good pictures but I will have very fond memories of Burly Bay and the bears! We heartily recommend this as an anchorage!

We’ve decided to leave mid-afternoon today to go through the narrows at slack tide; we expect to anchor tonight in Carriden Bay before heading to Kwatsi Bay for Sunday night.