Seeking endless summer!

The time had come to leave the Broughtons. All the clues were there….. the morning fog and mist that took longer each day to lift; that chill in the cabin in the morning that made us appreciate the Dickinson fireplace; and the clear blue skies that we could see to the south of us. This seems to be an annual rite of passage for us. The Broughtons provided remote and beautiful solitude in anchorages we could have all to ourselves. But if we wanted to tan rather than rust, it was time to head south.

We left Port McNeil for the third and final time in the misty morning. The day brightened up and we traveled up Baronet Passage; a route we had never taken before. The sun came out and it was breathtaking.

Our anchorage for the night was Potts Lagoon with a quaint collection of floating homes. We met up with an old NP colleague of mine and her partner on MV Halcyon. All were fully vaccinated so a great happy hour ensued on their back deck.

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Unfortunately it took a few more anchorages to escape the damp and wet weather. We traveled about another 20+ nautical miles and dropped the hook in Boughey Bay. The weather there wasn’t great as I described in a “Cariba live” video https://www.facebook.com/svcariba/videos/550559629722027

We hunkered down there for two nights waiting for winds to shift in our favor on Johnston Strait. We were tired of motoring and being a sailboat… we wanted to sail!

We got our wish finally and had some great downwind sailing in the strait and then up Sunderland Channel. In that channel we were doing over 6 knots with only a small portion of a headsail out! Wahoo!!!

There were two more stops before we made it back to summer. Forward Harbour where we had been before, and then through Whirlpool and Green Point rapids to Shoal Bay. We anchored out at Shoal as the small dock was pretty full. We didn’t go ashore as there was a sign on the dock restricted shore access to those at the dock only. This was part of their Covid protocol, so we respected that. We had seen lots of salmon jumping so decided to try our hand at fishing again – no luck but we were treated to an awesome dolphin show!

I know it’s going to happen, but I am still surprised by the change in the volume of boat traffic once you are south of the last three rapids (Dent, Gillard, and Yuculta). Within minutes I felt like we were driving in rush hour on the freeway. The chatter on the radio was crazy – I turned the volume down. We had big power boats passing within 50 to 100 ft of us while we were trying to get Big Bird (our huge sail for light wind) to set… ok they did slow down but really unless passing us a beer, there was not need to be that close! And we saw our first American boat. But did I also say the sun was out and we were back in the land of t-shirts and shorts! And we saw whales!!!

Despite the frenzy of power boats, we managed to have an awesome sail with Big Bird down to one of our favorite anchorages on Cortez Island – Von Donop Marine Park. We love the opportunity that this marine park has for hiking trails and we did one this time that we hadn’t tried in the past. It was a lovely hike to Robertson Lake. On the way there you pass Wiley Lake and we noted a sign for the “Wiley Lake Canoe” but there was no canoe in sight. When we got to Robertson Lake we saw the canoe being paddled around the lake by another couple. Apparently BC Parks has left a canoe for general use. They were able to paddle Wiley Lake, make a short portage and then paddle Robertson Lake. We will have to do that next time! The lake is quite beautiful as you can see in the pic below.

Von Donop provided hiking, visits with friends on SV Fan Tan and SV Callisto but it was also the place the windlass died! (Makes me think of that old song by Don McClean …’the day the music died”! Fortunately it was calm the day we were leaving and the “manlass” aboard was able to haul up the 180ft of chain and the 33kg anchor. I contacted my kids on the sat phone to track down a new windlass in Campbell River and we got underway to Rebecca Spit to consider our options.

We don’t seem to connect often enough with land based friends when we are out boating but we had a blast when we met up with my dear friend Dani, her family and friends. Dani was staying on a beautiful 180 acre farm on Quadra. In addition we met Rob and Kaya and their two lovely girls. The farm was at the top of Hyacinthe Bay just 2.5 nm north west of where we anchored Cariba at Rebecca Spit. As you can see from the picture below, Hyacinthe Bay is a bit shallow for anchoring a big boat… and even the dinghy for that matter. Thank goodness we have wheels on her for just such landings!

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We had a few great dinners with them and Dani and her hubby Steven were so kind to help us get back and forth to the Quadra ferry so we could pick up the new windlass in Campbell River. Once the windlass was installed, we were able to haul anchor for a day sail with Dani, Rob, Kya and one of the girls – Emily. It was raining on an off and only light winds, but they enjoyed it!

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We discovered a new place to eat out on Quadra and happy to promote it here as I promised the owner Lucas I would. We ate at great new little place called “Thunder Burgers”. Lucas had only been open for three weeks but we would highly recommend a stop here if you are hungry. The burgers are huge, loaded with everything and just a short walk from the boat ramp at the far end of Drew Harbour. The dessert was amazing – Apple Poutine complete with ice cream and carmel syrup!! YUUUUUMMMMY!

Regular followers of our blog know that our home base in Desolation Sound is Elworthy Island and we just spent a week there. We fished – no luck, prawned – lots in the freezer, swam, kayaked to Roscoe Bay and back, and hiked with Karen and Chaim – the never-ending hills on that logging road- all 8 km of them! We celebrated Micheal’s birthday on SV Solaris with a fresh baked chocolate cake made by his partner Miles. We had great sunsets and moon rises. It was a fabulous week.

So where are we now and what’s next you ask? Well we are in Comox doing some of the boat essentials – laundry, groceries and garbage disposal. I had to winch Brian up the mast for a halyard retrieval – long story but all is good. We have just over 10 days left til we need to be home and time is just melting away! We will do a quick tour of some of our favorite spots in the Gulf Islands before pointing our nose home. It has been a great summer!