Summer Afloat in British Columbia

     I made it back to Nanaimo on June 14. Claudia arrived two days later. Sabbatical had survived the winter in good shape, although it took a week to get her provisioned and ready for sea. On June 21, our anniversary, Claudia and I sailed north across the Strait of Georgia.  With 15-20 knots of wind from the southeast, we had a fast run to Bargain Bay, then continued north the next day to Westview Marina, near Powell River.  There we learned that my sister Janet and her husband Paul, who are taking their first extended cruise in their new boat, Talos IV, were anchored in Gorge Harbor on Cortez Island.  So we headed there.
     Here Claudia is looking toward the narrow gorge that is the harbor entrance as we approached under power.

And here she is looking (unsuccessfully) for ancient petroglyphs that supposedly can be seen on the walls of the gorge.

     Janet and Paul had accompanied us on the run from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas in October-Nov 2009, that is chronicled earlier in this blog. They must have liked cruising with us, because they bought their own boat in Seattle and were making their first lengthy cruise this summer. When we entered the harbor, we found them at anchor, having cocktails with a salty, couple who had circumnavigated on a replica of Spray, Joshua Slocum's famous sloop. Janet reported that as we prepared to anchor nearby, the captain of Spray complemented Claudia, saying "that woman can really handle chain..." For a cruising woman, this is high praise. Shown below is Paul waving hello from the immaculate Talos IV.

Janet and Paul's sailing blog can be found at http://baker-talos4.blogspot.com/. We shared a couple of dinners together, and tried some crab catching (unsuccessfully) before they headed north toward the Broughton Islands. We stayed another day at anchor in Gorge Harbor, so that we could hike across Cortes Island to Whaletown.

      When we tried to leave the next day, our diesel engine overheated as we were heading through the gorge. With wind and current pushing us toward the rocks in the narrow channel, I could not stop, so I continued until we were out of danger, before shutting down the engine to see what was wrong. It was just a broken fan belt. Knowing I had two spares, I was not worried. But when I tried to install the spares, neither would fit! I had bought the belts at a chandlery in Long Beach, before we left for Mexico in the Fall of 2009. I had given the chandlery the Westerbeke part number for the correct belt, and they had supplied what they claimed were two equivalent generic belts. They looked to be the right size, but I had never actually tried them out. They were, in fact, about an inch too long to work.    
     While I was figuring this out, the tidal current was moving us back toward the rocks. There was practically no wind, giving us no way to sail out of danger, so we rigged our inflatable dinghy. My initial effort to tow Sabbatical out of danger did not work very well. The tension of the tow line kept turning the dinghy--it was impossible to maintain the necessary heading. So we lashed the dinghy beside Sabbatical, fore and aft, so it could not turn. In this configuration we were able to make progress and get ourselves away from the rocks. Eventually, a light wind came up from the south, so we raised sails and slowly made our way back into Gorge Harbor, where we dropped anchor again, wondering how and where we could get a fanbelt.  Here I am adding more coolant.

As it turned out, the problem was easily solved. At the Gorge Harbor Resort, we learned that a shuttle bus service called Cortes Express makes daily runs (via ferry) to Campbell River and that they will deliver parts from chandleries there. I was able to order the correct fan belt from a diesel supply place there and have them delivered to Gorge Harbor Resort the next afternoon.

The next morning we were on our way north again. On June 29, we passed through the tidal rapids at Beazeley Passage, and anchored in the Octopus Islands, a BC Marine Park. It was a beautiful area, but it rained hard for the next four days, keeping us mainly in the boat, and allowing us to discover some new leaks in our hatches and around our mast. The bad weather gave me time to work on some academic writing, so the time was not wasted. Shown below are some of the Octopus Islands during a break in the storm, and a picture of Claudia bundled up in the cockpit. It did not feel like summer.

We thought about continuing north to the Broughton Islands, but it was so cool and rainy we decided to head south again, back to Desolation Sound, where the waters are warmer and the summers are (usually) sunnier.  As we headed back through the Beazely Passage, a local couple passed us in a small runabout.  The snowy peaks are on Vancouver Island. 

We continued south to Herriot Bay, on Quadra Island, where we re-supplied and rode out some strong north winds in the small marina.

    From there we sailed south again, around the southern tip of Cortes Island, and across Desolation Sound.  We had a glorious day of sailing with 20 knot winds in the afternoon.  By late afternoon we had reached Roscoe Cove, one of our favorite hang-outs in Desolation Sound.  We stayed there for nearly a week, enjoying the peaceful cove and the nearby, warm freshwater lake.  Here are some pictures of the cove.

    While at Black's Lake, I was able to try out the new "pontoon shoes" I bought at West Marine.  They worked surprisingly well in the fresh water.  I highly recommend them.  They are a little awkward at first, until you get used to sliding them forward.  It feels more like ice skating than walking.  But it is very fun to be able to "stroll" over to nearby boats. 

     From Roscoe Bay, we moved north to Pendrell Sound, one of our favorite places from last summer.  But it started raining again, hard.  Once again, we spent most of our time in the boat rather than outside.  But I got some more writing done.  At one point we snagged an oyster net in our propeller.  I had to dive into the cool water with a knife to get it off.
     After three days of rain we were ready to get out of Pendrell Sound, so we motored south toward Prideaux Haven.  Rain was pouring down hard enough to teach me the limitations of some of our foul weather gear.  Some lightweight rain pants that claimed to be water resistant didn't resist for long.  I was soaked by the time we anchored in Melanie Cove. 
     At Melanie Cove it continued to rain, but we managed to do some kayaking and hiking anyway.  While hiking from Melanie Cove to Unwin Lake, we spotted a Great Grey Owl.  According to Claudia's bird watching books it was well outside its normal range.

Here is Claudia looking down on Double Island at the entrance to Toba Inlet. We hiked to this spot from the Toba Wilderness Resort, where we stopped for fresh water.

The water comes directly from a waterfall fed by melting glaciers on the mountain above through the pipes shown below. The flowing water also powers the resort's hydro-electric system.

 Here we are about 12 miles up Toba Inlet.  We considered driving our bow under the waterfall for a boat wash (which we had been assured was possible) but thought better of it due to the cold weather.

More later....