Month: June 2018

We have had our fill of Nanaimo!…It really isn’t my favorite place other than the Nanaimo Bar ICE CREAM!. The marina there leaves a lot to be desired especially when we were given moorage in “outer Siberia” as I described in my last post. We finally moved from the Nanaimo dock to the anchorage at Newcastle Island on June 10^th but didn’t leave the area until the 18^th which was about 4 days more than we had planned. We did enjoy Newcastle and did several long hikes there.. my phone tracks distance and we did 11 – 14 km each time. The weather did get chilly and June did become Junuary for a while. We even broke down and put on the propane fireplace! That and lots of quilts on the bed at night kept us warm.

So it was a struggle to leave Nanaimo for several reasons…. Commitments to cell coverage, trips to Vancouver and then just when we were ready to leave the wind direction changes! We had several days of fantastic wind direction for a sail north in the week prior but when we were ready to leave the wind was right on the nose out of the north along with opposing current/tides. So for the non sailors.. that means either motoring or hard upwind sailing. We are capable of both and if time were the dictator we would have left but since we had time why not wait for better wind!

So off we went with still winds from the northwest but not as strong and there was a chance for lighter winds switching to the southeast later in the day. We had a great sail and anchored in a bay called Water Bay on North Thormanby Island. Not a great anchorage and we didn’t sleep much as the wind blew up and Brian had to get up and do “anchor watch” for a while at midnight. We left there and had a slow sail to where I sit now writing this… Deep Bay Jedidiah Island Marine Park. What a beautiful spot and so quiet with only 2 other boats in the bay. We hiked across the island to the orchard and saw the wild sheep that are left over from when the island was private. I took lots of pictures so will post with this.

Today we did one of my favorite things FISHING! Brian was so patient and helped .. actually did all the work of setting up the rod and bait and then handing me the line when FISH ON! We caught one that was too small; Sue caught a dog fish and then … Brian hauled in a whopper cod! I’ll let the pics speak for itself. We filleted it and got enough for 4-5 meals! Tonight we had sautéed fillets, rice and fresh vegies sitting in the cockpit. Our entertainment for the evening was a beautiful huge otter that was fishing all around us and then sat for a good 15 minutes on the shore 50 ft behind our boat preening in the evening sunshine. That and a great glass of wine… who could ask for more.

So prior to coming here I checked the Telus cell coverage map.. and newsflash; they lied! I have no coverage here but as we went out around the island to the channel to go fishing the texts and emails started to make my phone vibrate. I guess if I need or want to be in touch I will either have to kayak out or go fishing again!

We plan to be in this great spot for about a week or when the holding tank is full – whichever comes first LOL… and then maybe Comox… maybe Powell River. Heard about a great spot at the northwest end of Denman called Henry Bay. That would be close to good friends at Fanny Bay and family nearby in Courtenay.. stay tuned!

So when we last connected we were in Montague… and no crabs were eaten or harmed.. aka we were skunked again! We left there and meandered north to Wallace Island Marine Park and stern tied in Princess Cove. The sail to Wallace was a broad reach, not fast but very pleasant and comfortable for the crew. The sun was out, and it was warm.

Wallace is such a pretty spot and we had it mostly to ourselves. We did have some company for a few days; Karen and Dave on SV Dakota. Dakota is a sister ship to Cariba. She is a Bayfield 40. We had a great two days of hiking, dinners, laughs and sharing sailing stories. We declared it a mini “Bayfield Rendezvous”! The weather started to change while we were there, and we saw the first significant rain since we left home!

We stayed for 4 nights at Wallace and then set out for Nanaimo. We motored the whole way under cloudy skies and it was chilly! Brian says that we are in Junuary not June! We have actually had the propane heater on more than once to warm up our home. The weather continues to be temperamental here.. sunny one second and dark foreboding clouds the next.

Since I have the conference to attend here we decided to pull into the Nanaimo Port Authority Marina…. I must say it isn’t my favorite. We are on the “outer Siberia” docks which means it is over a kilometer to the showers and back! 2166 steps to be exact according to my Samsung health app. And as some of you may have read on my personal FB page – the shower was abysmal and not worth the walk or the 3 loonies it cost! Fortunately since we are plugged in the water heater on the boat is working and we have access to lots of water… Showers on the boat are the order of the day!

So in addition to the lack of washroom facilities here in “Siberia” …. There is no mobile pump out service. Our holding tank for the nasty stuff is only good for 4 – 5 days.. so this am we decided to take the boat out to the pump out station located at the entrance to the marina. The was an exercise in advanced docking 101 and traffic management skills. In our current slip the wind and current is pushing us against the dock and we needed to do a complete 180 turn to head out the channel. The captain did some magic with a stern line and some hard turns and power in reverse brought her around.. but it wasn’t easy!! Great practice for me on the helm though!.

Heading to the pump out station was interesting with float plane traffic, the water taxi to the dinghy pub, big commercial vessels coming and going .. and of course the damn wind and current.  But the trusty helmswoman and her captain did great and then slid back into our same slip at the dock we had left 20 mins before! Advanced Docking 101 passed – no boats or pilings were hit or injured in the process… we just won’t talk about how close we were! Lol…

Will be in the Nanaimo area til around the 14^th as the first mate has to make a quick trip back to Vancouver for a darn meeting! Boat projects, guitar playing and hanging out with Dezi for the Captain. Then maybe Jedidiah or Lasqueti island… stay tuned!

Well it is it the start of week 3 of cruising and we are still hanging in the south. We had a great time at Pender. Really enjoyed seeing our friends Robin and Lorine. They have a million dollar view on the southern tip of the island… great food, company and wine!

After Bedwell we heading to Ganges Harbour at Saltspring Island. We anchored out in the bay and used the dinghy to get back and forth. We needed to stock up on groceries.. OMG is Thrifty’s there expensive! Great selection but pricey. Just as we were leaving we found out about a free shuttle for boaters to the Upper Ganges Market… will use that next time as they have a great deli and prices are better. Thank goodness our dinghy is so stable and easy to use…we loaded her up to the max as we needed many staples as well as fresh meat/produce. The goal was for the galley slave to have enough to last until Nanaimo on June 3^rd. There was extensive meal planning and a comprehensive list before we went ashore. Fortunately Cariba has both a fridge and a freezer and with our new solar panels and batteries, we are able to stock up well.

Ganges hasn’t changed much but we do find that going ashore involves spending more cash there now than in years gone by…It is much cheaper to stay on the boat! We ate a couple of meals out.. the Tree House Café was good but I would give the new Taco place a miss .. not worth the money for sure. But we do enjoy sitting at TJ Beans for coffee and the people watching is epic! There must be a specific dress code that is distributed to you when you move to Saltspring. There is definitely a ‘style’ here that is different from anywhere else! Gauze, tie-dye, loose cotton and wild colors along with the most interesting “head dressings” I have ever seen. Makes the 60’s look tame. But along with the relaxed dress code there is a atmosphere of peace and most people are engaging, happy and look to be enjoying life….. Maybe I need some tie-dyed gauze pants too!

The anchorage in Ganges has some major pluses and minuses… Plus would be easy access to shore/groceries and amazing WIFI!. We have a Wirie Pro wifi booster and I could pick up Shaw Open and live stream Shaw on Demand.. and yes Mum I did see the final episode of Designated Survivor! The major drawback to Ganges is the wake from lots of boats and noise/wake from the seaplanes. Not a biggie but gets tiring after a few days.

So where are we now… well yesterday we did a long long sail…lol 90 mins only back to Montague Harbour on Galiano Island. We had an awesome sail out of Ganges – we were doing 6.5 knots upwind with only staysail and reefed main. As the wind eased we pulled out the Yankee and kept at 6+ knots. It always amazes me how when the winds are so good that many people still motor their sailboats. There was a large 50 ft Hunter whose name was BLUE BY YOU…. Well they were motoring and we BLEW BY THEM!!! Lol while under sail with big grins on our faces. The sailing continued to be good right across Trincomali and we came down the channel into Montague and anchored under sail again… we are getting good at this!

So today has been clean the boat, a short hike, fetching water (you can get it from the marine park) and now we are contemplating put out the crab trap. We didn’t have great luck crabbing last year but have a new trap to try out. Also someone suggested using oysters for bait so stay tuned to see how that works…