Gale warning

Gale warning today so we decided to stay over another night here at the marina. Not much to see in Shearwater.
This place was built as a seaplane base to protect against Japanese invasion in the second world war and turned into a fly in fishing lodge after the base eventually closed. There is a lodge, restaurant (quite good), the marina, a fuel dock,  a couple of stores and a marine repair yard.
The native town of Bella Bella is across the bay and a water taxi runs back and forth all day for $5 , not sure if that is one way or return fare.

Painters Cove docked at Shearwater marina

Looking out at marina

Boats "on the hard" at Shearwater

We spent the day organising nautical charts, about 70 of them now, and catching up on banking and bills etc.

Will decide tomorrow whether to stay or go based on the latest forecast. Since we have all the time in the world there is no point in going out into unpleasant weather, better to sit at the dock with a good book.

Shearwater

Pissed rain all night and again this morning so have decided to come back and walk to the beach on the way home this summer.

Left at 11:15am and took a narrow winding shortcut out to Hakai Passage, it would likely have been very scenic if it wasn’t raining so hard.

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Barney Point in Hakai Passage

Hakai Passage is open to the Pacific Ocean on the west so some pretty big swells roll in, we were only in it for about half an hour today.

Anyway , up Fitzhugh sound to Lama passage and around into Shearwater arriving at 3:30 pm. After  raining most of the way it turned bright and sunny for about half an hour in Lama passage then just as we were docking at Shearwater there was the heaviest downpour yet and we got soaked as we were tying up. Vivian got the worst of it as I could stay under the bimini till we were alongside. She was drenched and went straight to the shower as soon as we were secure.

On the way up we saw our first whale of the season, a big humpback, he blew then came right out of the water and dived with a big tail flip. Unfortunately the Camcorder battery was flat and we didn’t get any video. Figures!!

Had dinner out at Shearwater and , surprisingly, it was excellent. I had salmon with rice and Vivian had a steak sandwich, both  perfectly done, hot and well presented. With wine the bill was only $60, not bad for the back of beyond.

Still having trouble uploading pictures so will try again later.

Around Cape Caution

A bright sunny morning again in Port MacNeill, since the forecast was for better weather after noon in Queen Charlotte sound we had a leisurley breakfast then checked out of the marina and went to the fuel dock to fill up. We took on approximately 1500 liters of diesel (just under 400 US gallons) at $1.30 per liter or $4.92 per US gallon.



Local eagles in Port MacNeill

The local eagles are too lazy to fish so they just hang around the dock and wait till the fishermen come in . They perch on the lamposts  around the marina fish cleaning station and wait for the successful fishermen to clean their catch then they dive for the leftover heads and guts etc.

Crossing  QC  sound  was a little rough probably 1 to 1.5 m swell out of the North west. Going up Gordon Channel it was on our bow and we pitched up and down for an hour which wasn't too bad but after we turned north at Pine Island it was on our beam and we rolled pretty good for about 3 hours till we entered  Fitzhugh Sound.

Dock at Hakai Institute in Pruth Bay

There was only one other boat anchored in Pruth Bay when we arrived, only the second pleasure boat we have seen since Port MacNeill, it looked like 4 guys out for a pleasure fishing trip. They left on Sunday morning leaving us all alone.
Above is a picture of the dock and the institute buildings in the background. This used to be a luxury fly in fishing resort but is now the Hakai Institute owned by the Tula Foundation and involved in fisheries research, environmental issues and nursing for isolated communities . One of their objectives is to make West Beach more accessible to visitors and so they welcome boaters to their dinghy dock and they maintain a trail from there to West Beach. Will try it out when it stops raining.

Will stay over at least one more night here to catch up on laundry and paperwork etc.

Now that we have a better internet connection this may just work>

Port Macneill

We left CR at 7:30 to catch slack tide at Seymour Narrows just north of town in Discovery  Passage.  Missing the correct time to transit these narrows can ruin your day as currents can run up to  16 knots at a big flood tide and many boats have been capsized and lost here.

The Environment Canada weather forecast was for 15 to 20 knot winds in Johnstone Strait, a notoriously windy channel, but once again they were WRONG. We had no wind to speak of and even flat calm for part of the way. That is the third day in a row that they have been WRONG, they obviously are extremely conservative in their forecasts, probably figuring that people won't complain if the weather is BETTER than forecast rather than worse.
Like the boy who cried wolf too many times though it does not give you much confidence or comfort in their forecasts.
Arrived at Port Macneill  at 3:15 and, as expected,  had no trouble finding a moorage at this time of year . Total distance today was 86 miles.

The next leg of our  passage crosses Queen Charlotte Sound which entails a 30 mile section of   ocean open to the West all the way to Japan. As all the weather comes from the west it is important to choose a weather window to minimize winds and especially heavy swell and waves so not sure yet exactly when that will be. We may be able to go tomorrow afternoon or we may have to wait a few days.
  Click location tab below for location at time of posting

Nanaimo to Campbell River

 The first seaplane takes off at 7AM exactly followed by several more then the island ferry starts up so not much chance of sleeping late around Nanaimo harbour.

Nanaimo seaplanes awaiting the commuters

Anyway, it is a beautiful sunny morning, not much wind in the bay  and the forecast and current weather enroute looks fairly  good to the north so it’s time to go.

Later in the evening. We had a super trip today, left Nanaimo at 8:30 and arrived here at Discovery Marina in Campbell River at 3:30.  Total distance 75 miles.

Hudson Rocks Beacon just outside Nanaimo harbour

The Environment Canada forecast had a “Strong wind advisory” for the route we took and forecasted winds of 15 to 20 Knots in the afternoon but we figured that if we left early enough we would miss the worst of it. Anyway,as it turned out,  the ocean was flat calm all the way, not a ripple on the water all in all a beautiful day to be sailing.

Barge en route from Seattle to Ketchikan

This is the tow boat

Tug and tow

We overtook this tug and barge at Sisters Islets just off Lasquetti Island. These rigs run 24/7 at a slow 5 to 7 knots and are the main supply route for SE Alaska. Note the boats, cars and travel trailer on top.

BC Ferries Discovery Passage

There are numerous BC ferries running between the various islands and between Vancouver Island and the mainland. The ferries run on the same routes, sometimes hourly, and the routes are clearly marked on the nautical charts. On today's run we crossed 2 separate ferry tracks and , as always seems to be the case, the ferry and ourselves always want to meet at the same spot on the map and we end up slowing or stopping till they cross.
This happened on both crossings today, what are the chances??

View of Campbell River approaching from the South

Click on location tab below to see where we are at time of writing.

North to Alaska

After at least two winters of planning, reading guide books and nautical charts we are at last ready to tackle a trip of a lifetime along the remote BC coast from Victoria to Prince Rupert then north through SE Alaska as far as Skagway and Glacier Bay.
The boat is as ready as we can make it although no doubt problems will arise along the way. We have enough food aboard for months and our friends Ron and Marg Boisvert will monitor our progress via satellite and send the Coastguard if  we  get lost along the way.
The round trip should take about 2 or 2 1/2 months and cover around 2500 nautical miles.
Following are some log entries so far.
Monday May 14th.

Left Cochrane around Noon after lunch at DQ, beautiful drive, nice day all the way. Almost 30 C at Kamloops when we arrived around 6 PM BC time.

Nice dinner at Earl’s and early to bed. Accent hotel is quiet and comfortable
Tuesday May 15th

Another nice day and easy drive, about 400K from Kamloops to Anacortes.

Sumas border crossing is fairly quiet so only about a 5 to 10 minute delay. No problems crossing.

The boat was in the main yard next to the main office, they just took it out of the building this morning and were washing it when we arrived. Spent the rest of the afternoon unpacking and getting organized and fridges turned on etc.

 Wednesday May 16th

Another beautiful, sunny day for a trip to Costco to stock up for the summer or at least for a couple of months anyway. Prices are so much cheaper here than in Canada plus we can drive right alongside the boat and unload directly aboard rather than hiking along a few hundred yards of dock somewhere

Thursday May 17th

We originally planned to splash the boat today but asked them to delay till tomorrow so I could haul out all the anchor chain and paint the marks. We paint about a foot of the chain with luminescent orange every 25 feet so we can easily count how much chain we are lowering when we anchor.

Through time the paint wears off although this is the first time we have repainted it so it has lasted a long time.

Gave it one coat of paint in the morning, did another big shopping at Safeway in the afternoon and did a second coat of paint in the evening.

It  was another fine day today

Friday May 18th

Splashed the boat just after lunch and tied up at NHD’s dock.  JJ came aboard to service the watermaker and we found out we had an electrical problem. Turns out that the 30 amp shorepower socket was pretty seriously burned both at the cord and on the boat socket. Lucky we found this now as this is where most boat fires originate. Replaced cord end and boat socket.

There also seems to be a 12 volt problem but JJ stayed till after 6PM with no solution so decided to stay till Monday to repair this.

Saturday May 19th

Went to Trawlerfest again and bought a sample LED lamp for the cabin lighting and also an LED replacement bulb for the anchor light. The Anchor light bulb cost about $30 but uses 2 amps per hour versus about 30 amps for the regular bulb so should pay for itself over time.

Took a nice drive to La Conner, a lovely little tourist town nearby and had a nice walk along the waterfront and the main street. Lots of gift and art shops.

Sunday May 20th

Stayed aboard today as the weather changed and we had rain all day.

Big crisis just before dark though. We ran the generator for a while so we could use the electric oven for dinner and next thing we know our slip neighbour notices that we are leaking diesel  overboard.

Panic stations, there are some VERY serious fines in USA for environmental spills.

Turns out that  whoever changed the generator fuel filter either changed or accidentally bumped the tank selection  valve lever and when we used the generator it was pulling diesel from the port tank but instead of returning the excess to the port tank it was going to the starboard tank which subsequently overflowed thru the air vents.

We started the starboard engine and switched  it’s valves to pull from the starboard tank and return to port tank so it only  took a few minutes to lower the starboard tank level and stop the overflow.

We then spent till after dark spraying detergent on the oil slick to break it up.

The overnight rain and big tidal exchange did the rest and all was clear on Monday morning.

Monday May 21st

JJ came by first thing this morning and load tested all the batteries, all good!

The 12 volt problem was due to a blown fuse in the DC to DC convertor which reduces our 24 volt battery voltage to 12 volts for the stuff that needs 12 volts.

Boats, like cars , used to always  use 12 volts but as boats got bigger the 12 volt wiring became an issue. 12 volt requires wiring 4 times as big as 24 volt wiring which substantially adds to weight and cost so it makes sense to use mostly 24 volt then use a convertor to reduce some of it to 12 volt where needed.

Radios and some electronic toys  as well as most cabin lighting runs on 12 volts so when we lost it we had no communications.

Anyway  after a new fuse was installed  all is now good with that issue.

Next problem was with the electronic keyboard which runs one of the chartplotters, it  was live but would not communicate with the plotter. We traced wiring and plugged and unplugged cables all over the place. Powered the units on and off several times and , finally, 2 frustrating hours later, it started working. We never did figure out why but anyway we are now good to go tomorrow morning.

Rained all day today and was quite windy for a while so hopefully tomorrow will be better.

Tuesday May 22nd

Still raining today although not as much. Left at 09:00 and had to spend the best part of an hour setting up the compass and autopilot again as we had done a factory reset on the electronics yesterday.

Seems I need re-trained every year as I forget everything over the winter!!

Arrived Port Sidney at 13:00 and cleared Canada customs by telephone at the marina. The customs officer was fairly polite and civil but far from the welcoming and friendly officer we saw last week entering the USA. We Canadians sure don’t go overboard to welcome visitors or returning residents.

It was still raining lightly while we cleared Customs but after that the sun came out and it turned into quite a nice afternoon.

The only reason we came to Sidney was because my safety flares and smoke signals were outdated and needed replaced. We looked for them in Anacortes but in the USA they are marked as US coastguard approved whereas in Canada they are marked as Transport Canada approved.

They are the identical product by the same manufacturer other than that approved statement.

The other BIG difference is that the Canadian ones in Canada cost about twice as much!!! Our boat  is required to carry  12 flares and if they are outdated (expired date), or (heaven forbid) are approved by US coastguard instead of Transport Canada, then the fine is $200 PER FLARE.

Anyway, shopped for those and for some fresh veggies and fruit this afternoon and are now “good to go “ tomorrow morning for Nanaimo.

Wednesday May 23rd

Left Sidney at 09:30 and arrived Nanaimo at 1:30 total of 42 miles.

Cloudy with some showers, particularly  when we had to go through Dodd Narrows, a very narrow tidal passage, it poured just when I needed  to go outside and steer from the open flybridge area so I got  thoroughly soaked.

After that it cleared up and the sun even came out when we went uptown for charts.

We intended to get our Canadian charts here since there is a really neat bookstore in town that has been here and selling unusual books for the last 50 years. The owner is very  helpful and also very knowlegable  about charts and nautical books etc.

As it turned out he is also a USA chart dealer so we bit the bullet and bought all our charts for Alaska  except six which were out of stock. He says he has at least 2 or 3 boaters  come in and stock up on Inside Passage  charts every day at this time of year. He must do OK as we spent close to a boat unit ($1K) in his store today and we already had  a lot of the Canadian charts.

Forecast looks good for North Georgia Straight  tomorrow so will head out for Campbell River in the  morning. It is about 75+ miles  so 8 hours dock to dock, if we leave by 9 we should be tied up by 5pm

Sorry to post all this at once but we did not have internet access in Anacortes.

That brings our trip up to date, from now on I will try to post whenever we can get internet access.

Video upload test

Success  at last, apparently I cannot upload direct from my computer to my blog but first had to open an account with Youtube (now owned by Google I think) , convert and upload the video to Youtube then download it to my blog.

Go figure ?? maybe everybody knows this stuff but it sure took me long enough to figure it out.

Anyway, here is a short test video of  the  back yard at our winter home in Phoenix. Just did this to figure out the procedure so we can hopefully get some video footage from the boat on our trip to  SE Alaska this summer.

All packed now and leaving tomorrow, May 14th, to drive out to Anacortes to get the boat out of winter storage. Will need a couple of days to provision and to test out all the boat systems before taking off for the summer. Also there happens to be a boat show in Anacortes next weekend so we will likely stay over a day or so to see that but , all going well will be back in Canada and heading North by next weekend.

Click on location tab below to see where we are at time of posting.