SV Cariba

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!

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…

Well we have been so relaxed that I forgot all about writing a post about our adventures! I think it is starting to hit home for me that we are really out here for the summer and can go where and when we please… with the exceptions of a few commitments the Admiral has for BCNPA and work. I am thinking I need a detailed map of all the anchorages with cell and wifi coverage on the coast.. is there an app for that!? Or should there be?!…lol

We had an awesome time in Tod Inlet. So quiet and peaceful in that anchorage due in part we are so early in the season. We were sitting in the cockpit one evening and I swear you could have heard a pin drop. The weather did not disappoint either; one evening it was almost too hot sitting in the cockpit. I was wondering if we had time travelled to July without knowing it.

Tod Inlet also allowed us to reconnect with our dear friends Mark & Lyn Sigson who are just back from 28 years of living in Hong Kong. Mark is now retired, and they have a beautiful property only 5 min walk away from the dinghy dock at Tod. We had lots of laughs, great food and too much wine.

We have managed to set up systems which allow us to be very independent and self sufficient on Cariba. Our new solar panels and battery bank are providing us with all the power we need to keep fridge, freezer, lights running as well as charging all the electronics on board. In addition, on a sunny day we can run our watermaker to top up the water tank.

Grocery shopping takes on a new meaning living on a boat. It becomes more of an adventure; it combines different modes of transportation and a workout to boot. While in Tod Inlet we shopped for supplies. This meant taking the dinghy for a 25 min ride to the government dock in Brentwood Bay, walking just over a kilometer – most of which was uphill on the way there. Once there we took my detailed list and tried to prioritize it as all would have to be carried in our backpack and shopping bags back to the dinghy for the reverse trip. This meant crucial decisions like “can we carry a 4 litre milk or should we buy just a 2 litre?” The good news was the trip back to the dinghy was down hill!

We are now anchored in Bedwell Harbour, South Pender Island. Here we met up with more great friends, the Tremblays and we are attending the Bluewater Cruising Association Rendezvous. There are over 40 boats here and lots of fun to be had.

We really want to stay in shape this summer and so knowing that every anchorage is at sea level and everywhere you need or want to go is uphill; I am thinking it won’t be too difficult! We also enjoy hiking and long walks with Dezi so hope to offset all the good food and wine with exercise. We have done one hike here already to the Gowland Lake Dam and beyond it to a spectacular view point. Brian has posted some awesome pics of that excursion.

So we are here till Wednesday May 23^rd and then we will head to Ganges, Saltspring Island. The Admiral needs wifi coverage and groceries so will chill there for a while… SV Cariba out

And note lots of sailing terms in this post!…

It may not be summer yet on the calendar… but it is in our books! We are off for some adventures on the BC coast this year. Other than a few commitments our plans are yet to be written and will be guided by the winds, waves and weather!

We got off to a great start. We did an initial hop to Plumber Cove on Keats Island.. not my favorite anchorage really. I can handle a rolly anchorage but really would prefer not to have to gimbal the stove to boil the kettle! For the land lubbers in the group, this means allowing the stove to rock as boat rocks back and forth thus keeping the stove top level.. mostly!

The next am we set out for what I would say was our single best day sailing ever on Cariba! We crossed the Strait from Keats to Gabriola Pass in a record 2.5 hours!!.. We were on close reach in 18-22 knots and 4 foot steep stacked waves due to the opposing current. I thought they higher but the Captain said no only 4 feet at the most!   We were flying along at over 7 knots and even hit 8 knots! We took one wave right into the cockpit… #badhairday!! Brian said all he saw was a wall of water behind me!! But it was a glorious sail!.

We had to change course as we were way to early for the slack ebb at the pass. We headed off towards Porlier Pass and were too early there as well.  We decided to go for it and with sail up and engine on we punched through against 4 knots of opposing current. Cariba did well and didn’t slow down past 3.5knots! This was followed by a nice wing on wing sail down most of Trincomali Channel to Montague Harbour on Galiano where we dropped the hook in the sunshine!

For those of you who know us well we travel with a small dog who last season was not that happy on the boat. We were a bit concerned given his recent illness and stay in the vet hospital but he has been awesome. Even with the raucous conditions yesterday, he laid down in the cockpit. No more pacing, shaking and panting. He drank water and once we anchored went forward to pee!! He is a boating dog now for sure. He used to react to every noise, boat going by and if the dinghy hit the hull he hit the roof!! Not anymore, we are so proud of him.

So happy my phone is working as a hotspot to post.. took me a few days to figure that out. We are sitting in Tod Inlet..so beautiful!.. but more about that next time!

SV Cariba out