So OK, I know it has been a while, but we have been busy! We have travelled over 734 nautical miles since I last wrote, and I will confess I have been suffering with a bit of writers block. We’ve been back to lots of places that we had been to before, and I didn’t want to bore you with endless sunrise and sunset shots..though some will be included here! As we retrace our path back up the Baja our focus this season will be exploring new anchorages. Despite it being our 4th season here, there are still many places we have yet to visit!
As we were snorkelling and kayaking yesterday, I reflected on the last month of cruising and wondered why this anchorage felt different. We are currently on the mainland of Mexico and relaxing in Bahia Chamela. We both feel like we have “made it” and for the first time don’t feel the pressure of “where we are going next”. But that isn’t to say we haven’t had a great time since leaving Ensenada, it’s just that we feel like we are back in the Mexico we both enjoy. But before I tell you more about that, let’s talk about what we have been up to in the last five weeks.
Many of you will have followed along with my posts on the PredictWind tracking page…and if you didn’t you can find them at the link below. But there is much more that happened behind the scenes that I didn’t capture in those short posts. Here I will share some of the highlights…keep reading to find out more about who got locked in the head and our birdie rescue!
When we last wrote we were in Rebecca Spit. We provisioned at the local grocery store in Herriot Bay, treated ourselves to dinner at the pub and had a great visit from our friend Dani and her daughter. It was lovely to host them on the boat for dinner in the sunshine!
The “taxi” back to the shore!
It was starting to get a little smokey from the forest fires in the province and reports from Vancouver was it was quite a bit worse at home. We decided to head back into Desolation Sound and hopefully find an area with less smoke. Friends on SV Callisto had recommended an anchorage on Read Island called Evan’s Bay; they had enjoyed the hiking there. On Navionics it looked really protected and it was only 10 nm away. The trip there was an uneventful motor as there was no wind. To our delight we were greeted by huge pod of dolphins feeding along the shore as we entered the bay. The pod stayed in the vicinity for hours and were still there when we went out to put down the prawn trap later in the afternoon.
Dolphins feeding in Evan’s Bay
The hiking suggested SV Callisto didn’t disappoint; we were able to hike across the island to Burdwood Bay and had great views of Sutil Channel. There was a great kayaking campsite area there complete with a cute fire pit and benches.
After a couple of nights in Evans Bay we needed to move on. The water tank was getting a bit low and the bay was filled with moon jellies – not really a great environment to run the watermaker in. We had a feeling that we may not get back to Desolation sound for a few years, given the plans we were making for 2023… so off we went to a favourite spot – Elworthy Island.We had the anchorage to ourselves for the next several nights. It was so peaceful and relaxing.
Panoramic view of the anchorage
After leaving Elworthy we retraced our track that we took when we left Vancouver. Our first stop was a couple of nights in Squirrel Cove. We went fishing in Lewis Channel and finished the crib tournament of the season. Finally Sue won after losing the last 3 years in a row!!
Oyster catchers just outside of Squirrel Cove – they look comical in a big group!
This trip was shorter that our usual summer cruising but the weather and the sailing was fantastic. The sun was warm during the day and we had only a couple of cloudy days this entire trip! And did I mention the sailing!? Often in the summer there is very little wind, but choosing to go at the end of the season made a big difference. We sailed almost 50% of the time; and we can thank our Code Zero Big Bird for that as she was able to move Cariba even in light air.
Big pod of Humpbacks on our way to Pender Harbour!
But all good things must end and our last morning in Pender Harbour made us realize the summer was rapidly coming to a close! The temperature was so cold in the cabin that we quickly had coffee, put on the warm sailing clothes and pulled up the anchor!
Sunrise just outside Pender HarbourIt is COLD!
We have been home for a couple of weeks now and it is starting to feel like fall. We actually had some rain – though not enough really. We are running both the space heater and the dehumidifier on Cariba now. I want to get out of the PNW before it gets cold enough that we need the diesel heater as well!
With less than a month till we drive south to Mexico, there are lists of “to do’s” taped up on the saloon walls. We have to organize and pack everything we need to take with us to Calidris as well as plan for how to put Cariba to bed for the winter. We have an exciting cruising season planned for Mexico so continue to watch this space! And stay tuned for other big plans for summer 2023!
The official Cariba drink! Grapefruit Empress Gins!
Summer was very slow to start this year and so I guess it turned out ok when we needed to stay dock side until late August…but we wanted to take Cariba out at least one more time before heading south…so this is our abbreviated summer cruise.
Yes we are still in the boatyard…. but we have good reasons. It has been a bit of an emotional roller-coaster ride for the last month, but there is light at the end of the tunnel. We will be spending the holidays on the hard. But before I elaborate on why we are still here, let’s fill you in on what we have been up to in the meantime.
Well we had an awesome summer. The weather was amazing and we got to see the Broughtons at their best. To be honest the last time we were there two years ago, the weather wasn’t great and we wondered what the fuss was all about… this year showed us what we had been missing! So now we are home, reminiscing about the summer…. and plotting the future plans for the crew of SV Cariba.. and the plan does not include staying another winter in the PNW!
Today was to be the day… the day we left the dock for our 2021 summer cruising season. We had worked and were still working hard to get Cariba ready and complete several projects to make cruising off grid much easier this year. But COVID strikes again…..and so despite what looks like a favorable forecast with SW winds in the strait, we sit and wait for the other storm to pass.
Well the world has changed so quickly in only a few months… and world events have altered many plans for all of us. This includes SV Cariba and her crew.
SV Cariba 