Month: July 2018

We returned to one of our favorite anchorages from 2013… Elworthy Island aka Cougar Island but more about that later.. the anchorage is a sheltered small cove between the afore mentioned island and West Redonda Island in Waddington channel. If you didn’t know about it you must just sail on by but we were told about it by a good sailing buddy from Point Roberts. Hans from SV Avoca has sadly passed on a couple of years ago.. We thought about him as we sailed in here again. RIP Hans..

At most there has been 6 boats here but most often only 2 or 3. It is peaceful and quiet with great prawning just out in the channel… I have posted on FB about the great pulls we have been getting. When we arrived here we were greeted by a fellow on a powerboat who coached us on prawning and even gave us a big container of bait! Thanks Sven!

Elworthy Island is also known as Cougar Island and our other neighbours in the anchorage experienced it first hand a few weeks ago when last here. They were sitting on their boat and noted an “orange/brown” buoy that was traveling across the channel about 3 boat lengths away… not unusual as often people lose buoys or floats but this one was traveling across the current… well it turned out to be not a buoy but a COUGAR!! It was swimming across from Elworthy to Redonda island.. of course they told us after we took Dezi and attempted a hike on Redonda! We saw nothing threatening and the only food consumed on the hike was lots of huckleberries.. not Dezi! Lol

Ok we are no longer prawning newbies! And we are loving it. At first when we tried to lower the trap and the 300 ft of new line did not play out from the roll became a tangled heap in the bottom of the dinghy . At that point it did not feel fun, but we took the mess back to the boat and my occupational therapy for the afternoon was untangling the line.. OMG that was a job.. and then we ran it back and forth through a block to take all the twists out of it so the tangles would not reoccur… my hands were so sore and blistered.. .. just where did I put those sailing gloves anyway!!!!

But once the line was sorted we ventured out in the dinghy to drop the trap. You just can’t drop anywhere; the drop site has to be strategic and so we took the tablet with Navionics to look at depth and contour of the seabed. From what we understand, best prawning is achieved with the trap set on the edge of a shelf at 300+ feet of depth. The trap is best weighted (insert large rock here) to avoid being carried away by the current. And then you wait.. at least 3-4 hours but our best results have been overnight.

The first time Brian hauled it by himself and we only got 4.. but big ones! He then read that pulling up without stopping is best because when you pause the prawns rise to the top of the trap and swim out. It is really hard work pulling a trap up from over 300 ft down so I came with him the next time and we are able to spell each other off without a pause.. .. coordination and synchronized line pulling gold medalists!! Lol.. Anyway the results were awesome with 30 -40

prawns per pot. And for a girl who used to be squeamish about baiting a hook… I turned into the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland…OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!!…Last night we had prawns on the BBQ and tonight I made prawn scampi.. yummy!. We do well for dinners on Cariba!

We haven’t spent all our time prawning. The water is so warm – one neighbour told me it was 22 degrees and I believe him so we have been swimming several times. We tried fishing for snapper and cod; had lots of nibbles and a few cod but they were too small to keep. I launched one of our kayaks and paddled the anchorage and circumnavigated Elworthy a couple of times. Cell coverage has been sketchy at best with texting and downloading emails more successful than actual phone calls. Brian has kicked my ass several times at crib and I finished 2 more books. I need to reload my kobo as I have nothing left to read!  It is a relaxing life on Cariba.

So we have been here for 5 nights and are planning to move in the am. We think we will check out Tenedos Bay. It is within the Desolation Sound park boundary proper and so might be a bit more crowded than here. We are keen to try the hike to Unwin Lake and will swim more I am sure as the temps are predicted to be in the low 30’s in the beginning of the week.

We had an awesome stay in Squirrel Cove with better weather than we expected.. yes there were some cloudy periods and some rain but overall it was sunny for large parts of every day. We inflated the kayaks and explored the lagoon behind the main anchorage; hiked the trail to Von Donlop Inlet; and took the dinghy out to the store at the entrance to the anchorage.

Cruising means connecting with old friends and meeting new ones and this trip has been no exception to that rule.. and thanks to social media we made a few key connections. In Squirrel Cove I got a FB message from a couple that we last saw in Bedwell Harbour, Pender Island in 2015. Steve and Doris at the time had a small 26 ft sailboat but have made a significant upgrade to a Catalina 34. We connected and had a couple of happy hours in Squirrel Cove and talked about all our life changes since 2015. It was so cool to see them again.

The most incredible experience was connecting with Jim and Dana on SV Beauty in Teakerne Arm. The last time Brian saw Jim was 50 (yes FIFTY) years ago in Panama when their respective parents were buddy boating together!. Thanks to FB they were able to find one another and connect. Dana and I commented on how cool it was to watch the deep connection that had obviously transcended the 50 year separation. The two of them shared many common interests: sailing, guitar and a keen sense of adventure. It was a great privilege to witness them rekindle this relationship.

I also was a benefactor of this experience in that I made a very special new friend in Dana, Jim’s wife.. the four of us got along like “peas in a pod’.. Many meals, happy hours, wine, margaritas, scotch and G&T’s sealed the deal. In addition we also met good friends of theirs, Rick and Lorna.. It was very special time and experience that this writer is struggling to express.  

We left Teakerne Arm and had a nice down wind sail to Refuge Cove where I sit writing this post. We were last here Sept 3^rd 2013… It is was off season then and hardly any one here; the restaurant was closed, the generator shut off at 5 pm and the grocery store was not as well stocked. Fast forward to 2018 in the busy season and it is busy during the day. Boats can tie up for free for 4 hours and many do. They come to do laundry, stock up on groceries and booze, fuel and water. We elected to stay a couple of nights so we could have a last visit with Jim & Dana and still get stocked up and clean laundry.

Jim and Dana did try to leave yesterday to head north for their circumnavigation around Vancouver Island but the sea gods decided otherwise.. either that or because it was Friday the 13^th.. anyway about 45 mins after hugs, goodbyes and a few tears (mine) we got a call they were heading back… a bit of mechanical issue which Brian and Jim were able to rectify; but that meant dinner at the restaurant (great pizza) and more G&T and scotch. We waved good bye to them again this am .. but really it is “see you soon” as they only are 3 hours away in Tacoma once we are home.

Tomorrow we will head towards Pendrell Sound area. Not sure where we will anchor but are looking forward to some more fishing. We bought a few more lures at the store here.

Can’t believe how quick the time is going by… we only have 7 more weeks… I know that sounds like a long time but we have already been out here for 9 weeks so our trip is more than half over..

Not sure if any coverage for cell in Pendrell Sound.. Brian says likely not.. but will check in as soon as we can..

Love to all

Crew of SV Cariba

Well it did feel like we were attached to the dock in Comox with Velcro.. but it was for good reason. But first I will tell you the tales leading up to our stay in Comox.

We really enjoyed Deep Bay and Jedidiah Island. The cell coverage wasn’t as bad as I was whining about in the last post. If one hiked across the island the coverage was actually really good! So one can’t really complain about the combo of exercise and cell coverage; it’s “2 for 1” deal!. The island was lovely and we enjoyed our 6 day stay there. At that point the holding tank was maxed out so it was time to move!

We left Jedidiah and the initial forecast was for southeast winds, but it was wrong! The winds switched to the northwest and the rain was torrential! At that point Ford Cove on Hornby felt like the best option… and what a nice little marina. It wasn’t expensive, had power, great WIFI and the store there was impressive with it’s stock given its size. They even had an Asian spice aisle and there was a whole turkey in the freezer. I am sure the prices would not be bargain but I am sure one could find most of what you need there.  The only thing that marina lacked was access to water on the dock but as we have a watermaker it isn’t a big deal for us.

The next day we motored to a nice bay on the top of Denman Island called Henry Bay. We had no wind to speak of except for one very dark squall that came up with winds suddenly at 20 knots on the nose. We didn’t realize it but that was our warning call. We anchored and went ashore to a lovely spit/beach and Dezi ran around like crazy. We noticed some black clouds again so went back to the boat and we were glad we did. The calm sunny bay was suddenly transformed to a wind tunnel with gusts to 25 knots, white caps and again torrential rain. Fortunately, as there were only 2 boats in the bay, Brian had decided to put out 225 feet of chain with our big anchor and it was needed! We didn’t move an inch which was good as the wind would have blown us on to shore! This all lasted 2 hours and was in daylight still so at least it was easy to watch for any movement of the anchor.

The next morning we looked at the dark clouds still in the area and decided not to repeat the previous evening’s experience and so we motored the short distance to Comox Harbour Authority Marina. We went to Comox for several reasons… it was time to stock up with provisions; we needed to do laundry (it was getting full and stinky!) and of course the main reason was to see Ryan, Jorie and our grandson Vincent. We had a great visit with them. Vincent if given the choice between going to the park or to see “Grandpa Brian’s boat” would pick the latter every time!

So what do I mean about the Velcro comment.. Well we got to spend extra time with the kids as the winds were not cooperating at all. This resulted in us needing to stay there for several more nights than planned. We wanted to head north and the winds decided to blow like crazy directly from the north! Sailboats can’t sail directly into the wind; meaning one has to tack back and forth. It is hard work and would have meant a 8+hour slog into the wind. We could have done it but one has to say “why”… One of the benefits of being retired is that we don’t have to stick to a schedule so the short answer is .. we don’t! And a big bonus..we took advantage of the wind and took Vincent to the beach to fly kites.

The Comox marina was a great facility and Leslie the manager was lovely. We joked about  us needing to apply for annual moorage if we stayed much longer! The port has an active fishing community and we bought fresh snapper right off the boat there. I wish I had room in the freezer as they were also selling halibut – but you had to buy the whole fish and I didn’t have room for 20lbs of halibut even at the bargain $12/lb.

We finally left Comox on July 3^rd and had a sunny warm day with some sailing and some motoring to Lund. The next day we finally made it to the Desolation Sound area and we are anchored in Squirrel Cove on Cortex Island. Not sure how long we will be here. It all depends on the solar panels keeping up in the cloudy weather. We had a thunder and lightening show last night with lots of rain followed by a gorgeous sunset. Stay tuned as again not sure where we will go next!