Stuart Island

Bald is beautiful

Fried egg jelly

Ethel the gull

Teachery and old school

Light House

New School, Stuart Island

Reid Harbor, Stuart Island

Prevost Harbor, Stuart Island

Walking the county road to the Stuart Island lighthouse

The boys' discovery

Salt Marsh Buck

compact harvest brodeia

Gulf Islands and Montague Harbor

Salt Marsh at Montague Harbor

We took off out of Nanaimo towards Dodd Narrows first thing to catch the morning slack before ebb that would boost us down the channels.  We followed another trawler out of the harbor and went down in tandem.  Dodd Narrows is only a few miles south of Nanaimo and passes along a shoreline that is mixed between a giant pulp mill to beautiful shoreline forest lined with log booms. There was definitely a busy and industrial feel in the area. We arrived at the narrows about an half hour early.  The other trawler decided to power through, so we just followed after they alerted other traffic that we were coming through.  We had no difficulties with the opposing 2 knot current and “whooshed” right through.  It was a bit disconcerting seeing the white rocks under the water off our port side, but all was well.  We were now in the Canadian Gulf Islands. The channels are wide with San Juan-feeling islands on both sides.

The water was calm, the sun was out and the trip South was very relaxing comparing with dodging ferries and wind/current waves out in the straits. It was a nice feeling. We were in Montague Harbor on Galiano Island by mid afternoon. We set down and anchor and relaxed in the summer sun.  Once we got the tender off, we discovered a floating bakery on an old converted ferry and ordered some sticky buns for the next morning. 

Approaching Dodd Narrows

Gulf Island View in channel

Montague Harbor from kayak

Pick Me Up Time

Montague Harbor view

Happy Captain!

Pink Honeysuckle in bloom

Nanaimo Again

It takes us about ten hours of running time to get from Gorge Harbor to Nanaimo. It’s not our favorite place as we are quite exposed and don’t have many places to run once we commit to the straight run down instead of taking the longer but more sheltered run down behind Texada Island. We had a good weather report, so we committed to the straight run down the strait. The weather report was a bit off and we had lumpy 2-3 hours with stiff wind with sloppy water and a rolling boat. After that, the ride was fairly calm, but with our radio apparently not working reliably we were edgy and eager to get to Nanaimo.

It was a relief as we came around to Nanaimo Harbor. As usual the harbor is the definition of chaos – varies ferries crossing the channels, sea planes landing, sailboats tacking randomly in front of us. However, we were prepared for it this time and had a reservation at the harbor so we were able to slide right in. Right after getting there Jeff made a beeline to find a part for the water heater. He came back with the part in hand and made a quick repair and the water system was fixed. It is great to have such a handy captain on board! Jeff made some calls around for a marine electrician to address the radio and starter button issues, but no return calls.

In the meantime, we enjoyed the big city and went out to dinner, did some grocery shopping and relaxed enough to decide to stay another day in Nanaimo.   Ian and Vikki enjoyed the bookstores and art galleries in town, while Jeff kept fiddling with repairs. We spent some time looking at charts and decided we would head to Montague Harbor on Galiano Island after we left Nanaimo. After that was decided we headed to bed enjoying a last night tied securely to a dock.

Feather Dusters at the dock

Nanaimo skyline

Octopus Islands

View of forest trail from Octopus Islands

Last view from Prideaux

Anemone (huge, you will have to take my word for it)

Ghost Banana slug (huge!)

Seastar cluster

Oregon stonecrop

Yellow lined nudibranch (aka sea slug)

Maiden spleenwort

Lyngby's sedge

A peek at Octopus Island at low tide

Ian's glee

Jeff at the helm

Ian watching for rocks in the passage into Octopus Island Marine Park

We said goodbye to Prideaux Haven and went back around the south end of Cortes Island and north again headed to the Octopus Islands. We had been there last year and enjoyed them a lot and decided to have a replay. We had to time our travels to make sure we hit Surge Narrows at slack to avoid a ride in the rapids. We were a bit eager to get there and ended up having to tour the channel south of the rapids for about two hours before the slack was scheduled. The channel is wide with steep sides. There was supposed to be a little store with the a dock where we could bide our time until slack came, but the store was closed and the dock taken over by locals. So we just toured the area via boat. Surge Narrows is one of the smallest tidal rapids up here, but still it can throw a punch and one does not want to cross through them outside of slack unless they have a fast powerful boat. Our time finally came and we headed on through without adventure. It is just a few miles up to the Octopus Islands and we were anchored by dinner.

Last year there were boats everywhere in the Octopus Islands, but this year there were no more than 5 in the entire bay while we were there. It felt as though we had the place to ourselves and we spent a few days enjoying the luxury. Vikki headed out in her kayak to explore the oncoming low tide on the first morning. The low tide life was amazing, with anemones, shrimp, nudibranchs, all types of cool algae, crabs. Mammals were not shy as she floated at the tide line and watched raccoons on the beach next her foraging for tidal goodies, a river otter that played hide and seek with the kayak, many seals that kept popping up and down it was very magical. Other cools sightings included a pair of red-throated loons (different from our common loon) that were in the bay calling all the time. They sound a bit like a cross between a loon and a wolf calling. We managed a fun walk to the next cove via a wonderful rainforest and picked wild mint for tea. We investigated an old home site and picked up some fresh oregano and thyme, so we are set for some gourmet cooking, particularly when you add the fresh basil from the basil plant I have on board. Our last day there we sat through some stiff wind which kept us boat bound most of the day, but the boys read and Vikki painted and the cats slept and all was well. We left these islands today and headed back to Gorge Harbor on Cortes to see if we can fix a couple of mechanical issues (we lost all of our fresh water in our tanks due to a bad valve and the starter on one of the engines is not getting the signal to start). We may have to head to Nanaimo to get these things figured out. If we do we may revise our plans and see what happens. Always an adventure.

2010 Adventures

The 2010 boating adventure is off and running. Jeff and a friend got a head start and headed north on the Patriot a few days before Ian and Vikki. They had a slightly rough ride in the Strait of Georgia headed to Nanaimo. The weather turned a bit for the worse and they holed up in Nanaimo for an extra day before heading north another full day up to Gorge Harbor on Cortes Island.

Vikki and Ian drove up a few days later and took the ferry to Nanaimo, then drove north to Campbell River, took the ferry to Quadra Island and zoomed across the island to catch the Cortes Ferry and were at Gorge Harbor by bedtime. Jeff’s friend headed back to Seattle and we spent a lazy day getting reacquainted this lovely harbor.

Gorge Harbor is a fun bay that is totally enclosed by the surrounding island. The only way in and out is a steep sided channel about 200 feet across. The Gorge Harbor Resort is a comfortable place to hang out for a couple days, with a store, showers, laundry and a wonderful restaurant (Pad Thai and Fish and Chips to die for).

Tuesday we pulled up our anchor and headed east to Prideaux Haven in Desolation Sound. We avoided it last year as it is known as much for it beauty as it crowds of boats. However, since Gorge Harbor had such light traffic we decided to give it a shot. We had a smooth ride over on a sunny day and found very few boats in the harbor. Prideaux Haven is series of small coves off the mainland with scattered little islands all around. The mainland sides of the harbor are very steep and but the little islands are a bit easier to explore. We were tucked into Melanie Cove. Prideaux Haven coves are a couple of the sites in the book “A Curve in Time.”  To historical characters (Phil and Mike) had cabins in these coves. We took a walk along one of the trails that connects these two cabins, but we never found them. The forest along the walk is an amazingly dense cedar forest. The trees were huge and we had trouble visualizing the fruit orchards described in the book. Eighty years of growth has returned the sites to rain forest.

The water this time of year is much clearer than last August and we spent Wednesday morning poking along the shoreline in our kayaks (in the rain) looking at the amazing array of fish, seastars, nudibranchs, jellies and other invertebrates at low tide. The birds are light, but black oyster catchers, glacous winged gulls, marbled murrelett, redbreasted merganser, spotted plover, raven, pileated woodpecker, varied thrush, robin, towhee, raven, bald eagle, were all present and accounted for. Tomorrow we may hang out one more day or head north-ish and challenge ourselves with Gillard Passage and Dent Narrows just to get our blood moving.

Patriot at Prideaux Haven

View from stern of Patriot

Ian in Prideaux Haven

View of channel at Prideaux Haven

Ian's glee

Ian and Jeff at Manson's Landing (near Gorge Harbor)

Vikki kicking back

Homeward Bound

The journey home

Jeff at the helm

Ian with a treat

Nanaimo Harbor

Look what we found on our anchor (a hound of hell?)

Passage out of Gorge Harbor

Another Moon Snail find

Sunset at Gorge Harbor

A view of Gorge Harbor from Government Dock

Ian cruising around in the tender

We decided that it was time to head southward and home. There was not enough time left to head into the Broughton’s. We got up at 5:00 am checked the weather forecast and decided things looks good to head towards Nanaimo. We pulled anchor at 6:00 am and slide out the narrow passage at the head of the harbor and headed south into the Strait of Georgia. The weather was good (sunny and winds of 5 to 15 knots with the current moving with us). We made excellent time and were in Nanaimo Harbor by 3:00 pm. We were a bit nervous about them having room for us. We called the harbor right after we left Gorge Harbor, but were told we needed to reserve a space 24hrs ahead (but we had no cell phone coverage at that point). They said it was first come first serve and to call when we got there. Once we arrive we made the call at the outside of the harbor. They said they did not have room at that time, but they would call us when they did (but not to hold our breaths). Within 5 minutes they called and had a slip, but we were going to have to negotiate the inner harbor to get to it. That made us a bit uncomfortable since we remembered the inner harbor as a labyrinth of narrow causeways and slips and boats tucked into every available space. We decided to go for it. The slip was located at the end of a dock, but still took some careful docking skills.  On a side note, many of the harbors have staff that will take your lines as you come in. We have noticed that these young kids (teenagers and 20 something’s) have not been trained to handle very heavy wooden boats such as ours. They take the line and think they can just pull it towards the dock as you can with a fiberglass boat, but our boat weighs 55 tons and that is not an option. We always mention they want to get the line secure quickly so the cleat can take the weight of the boat, but they usually just try to pull it in and we worry we will be pulling some unsuspecting soul into the drink? (anyone know how to handle this issue without undue yelling?)

We had a very nice evening relaxing in Nanaimo (no taxi rides to the vets this time). We got take out from a fish and chip joint just down the dock from us and had a very nice dinner on the boat enjoying the cityscape.

At 5:00 am the next morning we disturbed the peace and quiet of the harbor and fired up the engines and got ready to head home. The first item of business was getting the boat out of the very tight slip in the inner Harbor at Nanaimo. We had a sea wall behind us and boats on all sides. Jeff did a good job of backing the boat out of the slip, around the sea wall corner and out into the clear. After that we were headed right out the Strait of Georgia. The forcast was for mild wind in the morning, but it was supposed to pick up later in the day. That was fine, but the wind direction was going to be opposite the currents later in the day and remembering our past experience out of Blaine Harbor with similar conditions we decided we better get moving. The going was good most of the day, but once we reached Tsawwassen/Pt. Roberts the water was getting very lumpy and Vikki was getting less comfortable. The waves were getting bigger as we moved south and all Vikki could think about was how close to home we were. That was all fine, but as we turned towards Blaine on our final approach we noticed a float for a crab pot near us. We swung wide, but not wide enough. The pot had floating line (you are supposed to have sinking line on crab pots so you do not catch boats instead of crabs) and it caught us. Jeff saw the line at the last minute and made an incredible lunge for the helm controls and threw the boat into neutral (stopping the rotating of the propellers). The line still got us, but we kept from fouling our props and being dead in the water. The line caught on our rudder. We were stuck in rolling seas and no way to control the boat. Ian held the helm while Vikki and Jeff worked at the back of the boat. Jeff used Ian’s prize grabbling hook to catch the line to the crab pot bring it to the surface and then cut the line. The whole time the boat is being thrown about in the waves and things are crashing around inside the boat. As soon as the line was cut we were free. Jeff tested out the props and all was well. Relieved we headed into Blaine harbor and made our careful way between all the other crab pots. Just a bit out of the harbor entrance we were moving along the right side of the channel as we should and we noticed a sailboat (under power, not sail) headed our way. We figured they would correct their course and move to out left and pass port to port, but they kept coming and at a coarse that crossed ours (and we were as far to the side of the channel as we dared to go). Just before they would have intersected us Jeff stopped our boat and they crossed right in front of us. Jeff yelled out to them to see what they were thinking, but they said we should just hold our coarse. We really don’t know what they were up to, but if we had not stopped our boat I am sure there would have been a mess. That shook us up a bit. We finally headed into the harbor and found it was a really low tide. Given we were rattled we decided to slide into the visitor docks until high tide and we could get into our slip. We docked and breathed a sigh of relief. After the tide went back in the evening we moved back over to our slip and were greeted by all our wonderful neighbors to take our lines and greet us home. It is nice to be home.

It was a great trip. We learned an incredible amount about our boat, piloting, anchoring, docking and crab pots (we learned that one once before). Desolation Sound is a wonderful destination, but lacking in wildlife (at least this time of year) and fairly crowded. We look forward to next boating season to head north again and investigate more places. 

Gorge Harbor - Cortes Island

Flora and Fauna in a Manson tidepool

Ian with Moon Snail at Manson's Landing

Tide pool channels at Manson's Landing

The Government Warf at Whale Town

The library (blue building) at Whale Town

The little church a the walk to Whale Town

Ian at the docks at Gorge Harbor Marina

The Gorge entrance at Gorge Harbor

Gorge Harbor

We had intended to head to Campbell River to re-provision the boat with water, food and do the long overdue laundry, but none of the marinas had room. We quickly starting looking at the alternatives near by and settled on Gorge Harbor on Cortes Island. This bay is known for a lot of traffic and is tucked away in a totally enclosed bay.  The entrance is a narrow channel through steep cliffs. We called into the Gorge Harbor Marina to check to see if they had room at their docks and were told come on ahead. We got into the harbor and made a perfect docking at the marina. The docks and resort had been very recently redone (this spring) and it was a great place. The food at the store was pricey, but all organic and worth stopping over for. We passed on the pool and hot tub but enjoyed the free jazz and people watching. A few very large yachts were moored at the docks that dwarfed the Patriot and were certainly the definition of doing the Yachting Scene.

Jeff managed to have an adventure while helping a sailboat turn around on the dock.  They needed a strong push on the bow with a boat hook to turn the boat around to set up for heading out.  It was a nice boat and had a classic old brass boat hook without a rubber pad on the end.  He gave a hard strong push on the cleat (so he wouldn’t mar any finish) and unsurprisingly the hook slipped off the cleat and an embarrassed Jeff ended up in the harbor – the first time he had fallen off a dock in his life!  The floats were brand new with very high bull rails and the heavy steel emergency ladders were neatly stacked by the main ramp waiting to be bolted on.  After a futile attempt to mantle up the high rail, he was about to swim for shore when a neighboring boat set up a ladder so he could climb out.  The episode goes to show that no good deed goes unpunished.  Sorry – no photos.  I was laughing too hard.

The harbor offered a lot of points of interest, so we decided to stay over but anchor out in the harbor (the cheapskates that we are). We started the day with a 3 mile r.t. walk to Whale Town. It consisted of a Government Warf, a general store, post office and the tiniest library I had ever seen. We made stop at a small café on the way back, bought some less than wonderful muffins and headed back to the boat to settle in for the evening.

After a sleepless night we still made the most of the day. We headed out in the tender to Manson’s Landing (about 3 miles over water). Manson’s Landing has a government dock and a public shellfish gathering area. We made it at low tide and wandered across the tideflats, gathered some clams and did a lot of poking in the channels. There was lots of intertidal life to see with sponges, various species of algae (seaweed), several sea star species and such. We enjoyed the beach combing and then headed back to the boat. The rest of the day was naps, kayaking, a bit of walking and reading.