Thursday, June 26, 2025

Lots of rain today, in fact the boat sprung a leak in the salon ceiling. John tried to find where it was coming from but no luck. This is a new thing as we’ve never had a problem with leaks before. Frustrating. We arrived in Campbell River around 1PM and got settled at the dock at the marina, then John and I went to Budget to pick up our rental car. We are headed over to the west side of the Island tomorrow for 3 days at a fishing lodge. After a couple hours reprieve on rain, it’s pouring again and looks to be staying that way for the rest of the day. Tonight we are headed out to dinner at Carve, a fairly new restaurant in town, so I am looking forward to that after many days of cooking dinner onboard. Not much to report today, laundry and house cleaning. A little bit of shopping at the First Nations art store. Otherwise, a quiet day. Hopefully I will have more exciting news from our fishing weekend ahead!

 Wednesday, June 25, 2025

Cast off from lovely Toba Wilderness Marina at 9AM this morning headed for Squirrel Cove for one more night on the hook before we head to Campbell River tomorrow for 5 nights. We had an overcast, slightly rainy and uneventful 2-hour cruise down to Squirrel Cove where we anchored just inside the entrance. Beth and I immediately decided to head over to the Squirrel Cove General Store and Gift Shop to check things out. Gift Shop was closed – it opens for the season June 27^th, so just missed it. We discovered that this year Squirrel Cove has a food truck next door that is open every day except Wednesdays (which is today) but for future reference to my boater friends, the menu looks pretty good if you’re searching for a lunch destination. Also in the General Store they’ve expanded the gift shop in the back and have a lot of pretty things, so it’s a worthy stop. Lastly, will let my boater friends in on a little secret…..there is wild mint growing behind the store so grab a few stalks if you’re in need! Mojito Time! We went back to the big boat and picked up the guys and headed over to check out Refuge Cove, another reprovisioning stop across the channel. It too has a grocery and liquor store, laundry and showers, two really fabulous gift shops, and the restaurant is really stellar. We grabbed beers and appetizers and sat outside on the outdoor couches, enjoying the ambience. Just as we were about to pay at the counter, a super obnoxious couple with their matching royal blue jackets and little white pocket dogs got in line to order food just ahead of Beth. They proceeded to argue over the prices with the staff, and were super arrogant and entitled. Everyone in line was horrified to witness this bad behavior and we all wanted to give them a piece of our mind. This is a beautiful little establishment in this stunning wild Canadian country, and their antics were just embarrassing to witness. Yes the prices are high but you are in the middle of nowhere being served by a business that makes its money 3 months out of the year, and produces beautiful meals. Just pay the damn prices and call yourself lucky to even have this option. Ok off the soapbox. Afterwards we took a slow cruise around Squirrel Cove where we discovered a submerged boat that appears to be there for the long haul as they’ve secured it to shore with lines. Don’t know the story behind its unfortunate demise, but the imagination runs wild. There weren’t many boats in the harbor, normally it’s jam packed all summer long. We managed to escape the rain which set in only after we returned to the boat and hunkered down for the night. Dinner tonight was Jambalaya Rice Mix with hot Italian sausage, wild prawns that I caught last summer, and a cup full of clams from the night before, which kind of got lost in the spicy rice. Also had another of Beth’s delectable green salads, she is a master green salad maker!

Menu at Squirrel Cove Food truck for my boater friends

Hanging out on the deck at Refuge Cove

This poor girl has seen better days

 Tuesday, June 24, 2025

 

It’s my birthday! It’s Ashley’s birthday! Yes, I am birthday twins with my stepdaughter, if only I was 32 like her and not 64, where did the years go? Happy Birthday Ash!!! Anyway, still standing and lots to be grateful for! Today’s adventure is to cruise up Toba Inlet which is a very deep, long fjord carved by the glaciers eons ago. The result is a landscape of high peaks with spectacular waterfalls and glacier-runoff greenish blue very deep waters. We were hoping to see some bears on the beach but alas no luck. Seems like when we go looking for bears we don’t find them, but when we least expect it there they are! Like last year when we had a bear ease into the water just ahead of us and swim across the channel right next to us! Anyway, we did a slow cruise out of Pendrell Sound 30 nautical miles up to the head of Toba. The waterfalls weren’t as plentiful this visit, but we did come across one very spectacular one among all the smaller ones. The water was glassy smooth and as I mentioned – no bears. We pulled into Toba Wilderness marina for the night around 2PM and were warmly greeted by the relatively new marina managers. They gave us a spot where we could back in so the view out the back of the boat was spectacular! John, Beth and I went for a hike on the trails with bear spray and a bull horn in hand. The marina managers require all guests to be armed with both, as bears are prevalent here – including (right now) a mama Grizzly and her two cubs. Don’t want to run into her! The hike was pretty vertical and these muscles and lungs compromised by our recent bout with Covid were struggling just a bit….but we made it up to the View Point which was stunning. Dinner tonight was our harvest of clams and oysters with warm sourdough bread. I made a mignonette sauce for the raw oysters, and steamed the clams two ways – one being the traditional wine, butter, garlic and herbs, and the other a thai red curry preparation. Both were delish! My grandkids all face timed me today which was the highlight of my birthday, I just love all those little people! Emma (2 years) kept asking me to show her the cake, which at the time we didn’t have (nor had we even thought of one), but after the call Beth and I were then inspired to make one! We whipped out a recipe from my sister-in-law Cindy for a lemon cake with lemon glaze that you pour over the cake and let it soak in for a delicious moist dessert. We shared our shellfish and cake with neighboring boats who were thrilled with the bounty! 

The view looking back at the head of Toba Inlet as we are cruising up

The glacial water is so gorgeous!

View from Toba Inlet marina grounds

View from the lookout on our hike

Not sure if this will upload but this is a waterfall video

Our view from Toba Wildnerness marina tonight

 Monday, June 23, 2025

 

Woke up to a beautiful and balmy morning today, which is so welcome! We set out around 9:30 to go harvesting clams and oysters with Marc as our tender driver as he is hobbled by a torn meniscus right now, and getting on and off the whaler isn’t easy for him. The water was glassy smooth on the 10 minute run over to the clam beach where John, Beth and I quickly filled the buckets with a plethora of perfect littleneck clams. The clams are buried just beneath the gravelly surface, easily turned over with a basic garden claw, it takes no time at all. The oysters, also plentiful, are simply laying on the beach, most not even attached to rocks, so it is really easy pickings. We did a slow cruise of the shoreline back to the boat and noticed with excitement that the starfish are back! I can’t recall seeing them in recent years. Predominantly purple ones dotted the shoreline among the chartreuse seaweed making for a beautiful display of nature’s colors. As we drifted over the shallow shelves along the shore we also noticed a huge population of sea cucumber, another creature we don’t recall seeing from the past. These are all signs of a healthy and robust marine environment which is just so wonderful to witness. Also present in the bay were big balls of herring jumping and flipping on the surface, another good sign. Back at the boat after lunch with the temperatures rising, Beth (an avid swimmer) took to the water enjoying a refreshing swim. The water is normally very warm, in the low 70s during the hottest summer months, but today was only 64 degrees which is certainly a reflection of the cool May and June we’ve been experiencing. Later in the afternoon I took the kayak out for a spin around the shorelines and little island next to us, gliding over the oyster beds just beneath the surface. Dinner tonight was Cumin Roasted Salmon with Cilantro Sauce, some lemon cream pasta from my nephew-in-law Gionny (check out Forchetta Pasta online), and balsamic tomatoes and basil over burrata.

Lots of starfish pictures

Sea cucumbers below the surface

More starfish on a shallow ledge

 Sunday, June 22, 2025

 

Shannon and David left this morning after a couple of days with us. Sorry to see them go! We always have so much fun together. 

Our friends from Blakely Island, Marc and Beth, arrived today on Kenmore and we met them out in the channel outside Prideaux Haven with the big boat and proceeded to head up to our next destination, Pendrell Sound. Pendrell is a family favorite destination as the water in the height of summer can reach temperatures above 70 degrees, so it’s a delightful place for water sports and swimming. It is also a place where we feel safe to harvest clams and oysters. BC has shellfish consumption warnings year round because they can’t keep track of when it is safe and when it is not safe to eat the bivalves. We harvest them at a location where a freshwater stream converges with the seawater and flushes them each day with the tidal changes. We’ve never had an issue. We motored up to Pendrell slowly so we could make water (we have a water maker onboard) and do laundry. Arriving in Pendrell we were the ONLY boat in the inlet (until later that day when a sailboat came in and anchored around the corner out of sight), which is normally wall to wall boats in the height of summer! We anchored just outside the back bay on a shallower shelf and settled in for a peaceful afternoon on the hook. Dinner was Grilled Chicken Thighs with Summer Corn Salad and a beautiful green salad. The sun came out and we dined topside. Pendrell still hasn’t recovered from the wildfire in 2018 that devastatingly burned an enormous swath of the beautiful, forested shores surrounding the sound. It is now dotted with dead trees mixed in with some green from the trees that survived. The ground cover and new seedlings are sprouting up so maybe in another 10-15 years the dead wood will be less obvious. And they believe the fire was manmade, caused by a boater who built a campfire ashore to burn garbage.

Shannon and David leaving us today.....

The view looking northeast in Pendrell Sound, with our boat the white spec in the right hand side of the shoreline. Note no other boats.

Closer view of the fire damage. The notch you see is at the top of a trail we used to hike to, but now it's impassible with all the blow down of burned trees. Used to be lush forest.

Our anchorage looking southeast 

 Saturday, June 21, 2025

Would somebody please inform the universe that today is the first day of summer? BRRRR…it is just plain cold here unless the sun is out. Add a little bit of wind and it’s like October. But if the sun peeks out, the temperature goes up 15 degrees immediately. It’s just that cold breeze that is a buzz kill. Regardless, Shannon and I bundled up and went in her dinghy for a nice long putt through all the bays and harbors around us. We saw some darling oyster catchers perched on the rocks (by the oyster beds, go figure) and another group of birds gathered by a small stream that feeds into the bay seemingly bathing. Will have to look them up as I didn’t recognize the species.  As we rounded the corner to pull back into our bay a gorgeous wood sailboat was under full sail in our small harbor headed for the narrow entrance, which we thought was gutsy, but they clearly knew what they were doing. We went for a second cruise around the bay with beers and the boys for our daily tradition of “cocktail cruise” and this time the weather gods cooperated. Sunshine and no wind – it was perfect. Shared dinner again topside, grilled steak, prawns from the freezer that I caught last summer, cucumber/avocado salad, and cornbread muffins that Shannon made, which she was making fun of because they were somewhat firm. I can attest they were actually delicious. After dinner there were a couple muffins remaining so Shannon tossed them overboard. A seagull appeared out of nowhere and swallowed an entire muffin whole! Many jokes ensued. Sorry once again to not have anything more interesting to report. We are just coasting right now.

A little blurry, but these oyster catchers are all over the bay we are in. 

Such pretty orange bills

This photo also blurred and the birds blend in with their surroundings.

Love all the colors of nature

This photo taken with iPhone and also blurry!! But was impressed

by these folks hoisting their sails in the harbor among all the other boats and navigating out the narrow entrance

 Friday, June 20, 2025

 

I have decided to relocate the toaster to now live in the microwave, just to be safe. It seems I can’t be trusted to protect the toaster. Super calm night here in Prideaux Haven, not a whisper of wind all night. Friends Shannon and David are motoring this way from Pender Harbour today and will tie up with us late this afternoon. Just to be safe with our recent Covid issues, we will have socially distanced visits from flybridge to flybridge, but hey….at least we will get to visit with them. We’ve relocated to a spot deeper in the bay with a better shore tie for when they arrive as they will raft up to our boat and probably attach their own shore tie and maybe put down their own anchor as well. Today was a day of puttering and projects on the boat, didn’t go anywhere. Shannon and David arrived around 4pm, and we had a really nice cocktail hour topside getting caught up.

 Thursday, June 19, 2025

The mechanic showed up this morning to assess the diesel heater!! Yippee. However after 2 hours of trouble shooting he could not seem to fix it so pulled it out of the boat and took it back to his shop to see if he could repair it. While this was going on I did my grocery run since we will be out for a week on the anchor so had to stock up on fresh produce, which went pretty quickly. Grocery store drama. The checkout lady admonished me for putting two different items (in this case, asparagus with 2 jalapenos) in the same bag. She looked at me and said “DON’T do this, I just have to dump it all out of the bag” to which I replied, “I was trying to minimize my use of plastic produce bags”.  She just glared at me and kept checking. Sheesh, someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed.  Remember yesterday when I listed all my mistakes so far??  Here’s #5.  While unloading the groceries back at the boat, I accidentally bumped into the touch controls on the oven, I heard the beep but didn’t think anything more about it because often I push the buttons by mistake with my hip but it’s never the one that turns the oven on. Except, apparently, this time. A little while later I am puttering around the galley finishing up wrapping all my produce in green bags when I say to John “I smell something burning” thinking it had to do with the diesel furnace repair. He says “is your oven on?” and I look down to see that OH CRAP yes it is!! As previously mentioned the toaster lives in the oven and I was pretty sure this was going to be the last of that toaster. Using a hot pad I gingerly removed it from the oven to let it cool off. Later when it had cooled, I plugged it in and attempted to push the lever down but it was clearly impaired. That’s when I also noticed that the dial on the front was melted and disfigured. The toaster was toast. It was 20 minutes to go until we had to check out of the marina, so I set out on a very brisk walk (1.5 mile round trip) to go buy a replacement so I guess the good part of this story is that I got an excellent cardio session!  Let’s hope there are no more mistakes on this trip. We cast off shortly after 11 and made our way over to Prideaux Haven, our home for the next several days. It was a beautiful calm cruise all the way. The entry into this area is backdropped by a stunning theater of high peaks known as the Unwin Range, which jut straight out of the water to heights of over 4500’ – still snowcapped this time of year. It is very dramatic and on a clearer day than today you can see all of the peaks. We pulled into Prideaux Haven first to a spot we were hoping to snag only to find it occupied by 4 boats rafted together. Darn. We then found a spot in the main harbor, threw down the anchor and affixed a shore tie to one of the government installed chains ashore. Within the hour the wind whipped up, again on our beam, and John decided it was best to release the shore tie and just rely on the anchor. The holding in here isn’t always the best so it’s better not to stress the anchor any more than necessary. By evening the wind had died down, the sun was out intermittently and quite warm at times, I love to sit up top with a glass of wine, listen to nature, enjoy my surroundings. Tonight’s dinner was hasty because John had a board meeting to attend via Zoom. I overcooked a pork tenderloin, so it was disappointingly dry. Fish food. This harbor in the heart of summer is wall to wall boats, being one of the busiest and most populated anchorages. I counted 11 boats in our midst so clearly it’s still early in the season. I am sorry I don’t have any fishing news or anything more interesting to report. I am sure many of you are bored to absolute tears.

The can marking the reef off of Cortes Island appears to have been struck by 

a boat or maybe just one too many sea lions onboarded and it collapsed.

This was the view crossing over to Prideaux Haven, beautiful sunny skies and flat water

As we got closer you start to see the snowcapped peaks

Wednesday, June 18, 2025

Things we have done wrong so far this trip. 1) When going through customs on Monday, we had turned down the VHF radio so John could have a conversation with the customs officer. Well, we forgot to turn it back up, which I only realized about 2/3 way across the Georgia Straits, 4 hours later. It wasn’t really an issue since there was no opposing traffic or anything, but we always have our radio on. 2) We failed to charge the handheld VHF which is what I take in the tender so John and I can communicate when we are trying to anchor or dock and are in separate boats. We got to Smuggler’s Cove and decided it was a great idea to use our cell phones. Not. We rely on Starlink to make calls in areas where there is no service. As soon as I got away from the boat of course my Starlink connection was lost. We tried to connect a dozen times only to have a few words before the calls dropped. So now we were reduced to hand gestures, both of us frustrated. Eventually I pulled alongside the big boat and just said “let’s get out of here and go to Pender” – which we did – it was windy and it just wasn’t working. 3) Lastly, I forgot to mention that last night when making my pizza, I had preheated the oven to 450 degrees. A couple things live in the oven when it is not in service because we have so little storage space in the galley. One is the toaster, and another is the pizza pan. I removed both of these things before turning on the oven! However, what I hadn’t noticed is a dishtowel that we sometimes shove in the oven to quiet the oven racks when underway as they have a tendency to rattle, and nothing drives the captain MORE insane than having annoying rattles when we are underway. When I went to put the pizza in, smoke billowed out of the oven, which then made me look deeper inside for the cause only to find a very brown dish towel. Sheesh. I sure hope this is the end of dumb boater mistakes. Whenever you hear of another boater making a mistake, it’s always a tendency to feel like you’d never do something that stupid. The truth is….remain humble and never judge. Even if someone puts their boat on the rocks. You just never know when your mind will miss a detail, and it’s you in that situation. Never judge. Ok yes we did judge the boaters that took 3 tries to anchor and reverse plow their way out of a good holding, but that isn’t something 99% of boaters would do. OH wait, I forgot #4 – I sent out the wrong link to this blog to 50 of our friends and relatives only to hear back from many of my mistake! SORRY!!

This morning I decided to get the liquor store run out of the way first thing. When I was there yesterday scoping things out the lady in the liquor store told me I couldn’t use their shopping cart to haul my purchases back to my boat because (she said) “I have no way of knowing that you’ll bring it back” yet she offered no solution to this dilemma. I was thinking maybe I could leave her my license to hold? But I figured I would solve the problem tomorrow (meaning today). So instead I decided to push a dock cart up to the liquor store, which are noisy and heavy but then I wouldn’t have to leave my license. As I made my way back to the boat with my load, I had to stop mid dock to nicely ask this family to move their pile of stuff out of the way so I could pass. This darling little girl in her cute little xtratuf boots proceeded to move the pile onto their dock finger. In the process she accidentally dropped a rubber glove in the water. While bending down to retrieve it the most beautiful spotted harbor seal appeared out of nowhere thinking this item it heard splash was actually some food! We all met eyes as it realized it was not indeed food and he turned around and went back to the deep, it was a pretty close encounter for the little girl. Meanwhile back at the boat John waited, and waited (and waited²) for the diesel furnace mechanic to show up or at least call. That turned out to be an all day wait. He called them a couple times to find out when they might show up and they kept being vague and non-committal. Needless to say the captain was a bit surly over this situation. I had a much better day as I found myself a massage appointment and had the most wonderful massage and a very long walk to get there and back, so it was a good day. BUT, on the way home I passed Dairy Queen, and then could not get ice cream out of my mind. Stopping at Canadian Superstore (a giant grocery and home goods store) I loaded up on various options, as they say never shop when you’re hungry. John just rolled his eyes when I showed up with two different kinds of ice cream bars and another tub of ice cream, especially when freezer space is somewhat limited.  Teriyaki rice bowls with fresh herbs for dinner and more Joe Pickett, Season 2. It’s kind of been a weird series at times but we will finish it.  If anyone watched the Goliath series with Billy Bob Thornton and recall the season about water rights and lots of opium use with hallucinations, Joe Pickett Season 2, Episode 2 reminded me of that. 

These two photos above and below are an hour apart showing the nasty 

thunderstorm that rolled through today

This pretty juvenile eagle was swooping and diving near the boat last night before landing on the breakwater

 Tuesday, June 17, 2025

 

Ahh we both slept in a bit today. SO nice. But the wind was predicted to be bad today and we wanted to get to Campbell River to get the heater fixed. Not that we really need it right now, but when we get farther north we will want it working for those chilly mornings. Pulled anchor in beautiful Garden Bay and slowly made our way out to the channel to begin our journey north. The water was a little choppy at 8AM when we departed and grew as the day went on. We had pretty large swells on the stern all morning long resulting in wallowing seas, where the boat just sort of rocks back and forth as the surf hits from behind. It could have been worse if we were cutting that water head on, we’d have had a really rough ride. We arrived in Campbell River at 12:45pm, tied up to the dock, and it immediately started raining and the wind began to howl. Today I tested NEGATIVE for Covid so I got my walking papers!! Yay! John is still feeling a little peaked so he took a nap and I went out exploring and did a little shopping. It was nice to get off the boat and get a little exercise. I finally took a shower today after roughing it for a couple days, as I had debilitating nausea from Covid and haven’t felt like doing anything except sleeping. I was going to make Chicken Piccata tonight but fatigue set in and I lost motivation, so ended up making a pizza for dinner, an easy escape route. It’s now 8:15pm, John already went to bed, and I am heading there soon. Good night all. 

 Monday, June 16, 2025

 

Forgot to mention yesterday that we discovered our diesel heater decided to crap out on us without warning. We just used it in April when we went out for the weekend and had no issues. The diesel heaters are nice because you don’t have to fire up a generator to use them. Luckily we have redundancy in that we have electric heaters we can fire up, but as I said, it requires the generator to be running. At least it is summer (although the weather hasn’t heard this news yet, it is actually quite chilly) and we aren’t headed to Alaska this year, so we can manage without the diesel heaters at night and early mornings. Pulled up the anchor this morning  at 6AM and headed out to clear customs in Port Browning which was a breeze as always. The customs agent told us if nobody is on the dock when we arrive, wait five minutes and if nobody shows up we can leave. That is what happens every year, it is so easy! Within the hour we ducked out of Active Pass into the Georgia Straits (on a slack tide) and headed for the other side. Active Pass is VERY active as it is the main thoroughfare for the BC Ferries so it can be quite exciting at times! This time we just had one ferry coming at us so we loitered on the west side and waited until it transited. We had a really nice crossing, a little bit of chop but very pleasant. Arrived at Smuggler’s Cove on the mainland side, and attempted to anchor inside, but it is a very small harbor. A sailboat entered ahead of us and took their sweet time anchoring and shore tying and by the time they did all that we figured out that there really wasn’t a good place for us to anchor and shore tie or we’d have the wind at our beam, which just stresses the anchor and makes for an uncomfortable stay. We moved along to Pender Harbour, which was just 45 minutes north of us. Pender is a gorgeous bay with beautiful homes dotting the coastline all throughout, it’s the summertime playground for Vancouverites. We went to the back of the bay and settled into a nice anchorage among other boats, the sun beaming warm into our windows, the water lapping at the side of the boat. Great people/boat watching here, and the seaplanes land right in front of us as well, I love it here.  A beautiful 80’ Offshore flying a rainbow flag was anchored just off our bow and a rousing cocktail party was underway. The guests all appeared to be dressed in orange, so our binoculars came out (I know, voyeurs) and we saw that the guests were dressed in drag! WooHoo party on, having a good time! Another boat we watched attempted to anchor 3 different times and each time powered back on the anchor only to drag it right up so it wouldn’t set. Felt badly for them but given we had Covid we couldn’t really offer any help. Eventually they settled. Had a beautiful dinner of steaks on the grill, roasted baby reds, and salad. We both slept really well, water slapping alongside the boat lulling us to sleep. We are still somewhat fatigued from our Covid battle. 

2025 BOAT TRIP, WE ARE OFF AGAIN! 

Sunday, June 15, 2025

And off we go this Father’s Day morning, the Covid ship has left the dock! Yes, both John and I came down with Covid last week, quashing our fun for our last few days in town. We had planned dinner out for John’s birthday on the 12^th, a party to attend on the 13^th, and a wedding to attend on the 14^th. Instead we stayed home and binge watched Joe Pickett while whistfully looking out the window at the beautiful sunny evenings. Luckily both of us had already done our respective provisioning responsibilities the week before (I am in charge of food and beverage, John in charge of all things mechanical) so we were pretty much good to go. I was on Day 6 of Covid by the 14^th and as such was permitted (per my doctor) to leave the house with a mask to do a couple last minute errands. Earlier in the week we had the boat carpets cleaned so all of the furniture was stacked in the galley or on the couch, and by Saturday the 14^th the carpets were still damp so we were forced to stack everything on the couches and such, not wanting to go down below on the even wetter carpet. By 8PM on the 14^th, we had deposited the last of our bags on the boat, stacked three deep in the salon, and all over the galley counters. What a mess to face the next day but we knew we’d have all the time in the world once we hit the water. We pulled away from the dock at 7:30 and slowly motored over to the locks where we were the third boat in line, driving right in (no wait!) and by 9:45 we were out the other side, officially northbound with our nemesis, Point Wilson, just three hours away. Now Point Wilson is  where the open ocean flows into Admiralty Inlet which funnels down into the Salish Sea. It is a mixmaster of unstable water, with crazy tide rips and currents that don’t always make sense. We’ve had more than one unpleasant experience transiting the entrance. Well, she didn’t disappoint yet again, we found ourselves in a perplexing and what appeared to be isolated washing machine of ocean swells, all seemingly converging from different directions. The table tipped over, the basil plant went flying off the counter, and my cupboard contents were crashing into the doors, and the compactor was flying open and shut!! John quickly got us out of there and over to the shoreline where the water was settled and we were able to continue our journey out into the straits of Juan de Fuca, which were actually quite pleasant. Nothing broken or damaged. We decided to get as far as we could so John spooled it up and we barreled across the strait at 1800RPM which means we were burning 40 gallons per hour, or as John says, throwing dinosaurs off the back, or throwing dollars overboard, lots of metaphors work here. I took two naps on the couch with the warm sun streaming in the windows, the water glassy smooth. We ended up in Reid Harbor on Stuart Island in the San Juans and anchored for the night around 4:30pm. It was a beautiful warm evening and after a fresh summer dinner of BBQ salmon, steamed corn, and asparagus, we played a couple hands of cribbage and fell into bed, both of us still fatigued.

JULY 25, 2002 – CULLEN HARBOR TO MOUND ISLAND

Boy are we looking forward to leaving today. We enjoyed swells from the outside most of the night which was interesting because during the day we didn’t have any swells, so what gives? It is socked in with about 1/8 mile visibility, and the area we are transiting today is rock strewn, so best if we have a visual. I spent an hour shelling the batch of shrimp I cooked last night and yielded about 2 lbs, and that was just all of the smaller salad sized shrimp. The larger ones went into the freezer last night uncooked. I packaged up the cooked and peeled small shrimp for future quick appetizers, and left the larger ones out for our lunch today – Shrimp Louis Salad.

We are now slowly making our way down to Mound Island to anchor out in a more protected cove, should the winds materialize. I checked the Windy and Predict Wind apps this morning and neither concurred with what the marine weather forecast is saying, so we aren’t sure what exactly to expect. It’s 11:15AM and we are now out in the middle of Queen Charlotte Strait, well.....really just skirting the edge of it, we can duck into more protected waters at any time. It’s pretty soupy out here now that we are away from Cullen Harbor, but calm, and radar is spinning. We are now on a countdown to get south by Friday to hook up with friends, and have a course plotted for the next 4 nights to get us there, only about 60 miles away but a semi-major crossing is involved. We’ve been sitting on the edge of Queen Charlotte Strait for the past 24 hours so we get the occasional 1 bar of 5G that comes and goes. I am hoping these blog updates post! Not sure when I’ll get service again but will post again soon. 

Over and out for today.

JULY 24, 2022 – CLAYDON BAY TO CULLEN HARBOR (BOOKER LAGOON)

Today we are moving campsites so first order of business was to get the shrimp pots that we left out overnight, and the crab pots that I put inside Claydon Bay near the boat. We got a few more shrimp, but overall it was a disappointing shrimping session the past couple days. Same with crabbing, my pots were full of females and one molting male so couldn’t keep him. And I fed them SOOOO well with fresh salmon heads and pieces. Our cruise down to Cullen Harbor couldn’t have been better with glassy smooth water and sunshine trying desperately to penetrate the cloud layer creating a greenhouse effect – meaning, it was toasty inside. We arrived to find that this is a very popular place, about 10 other boats already here, but we found a niche in the corner of the bay and got the anchor set. Unfortunately, this spot was a bit open to the outside but with settled waters we hoped for the best, not like we had a choice as it was the only spot left. We had read about really good shrimping inside Booker Lagoon which is accessed through a narrow channel off Cullen Harbor that has some respectable rapids when the tides are running, so we timed our access at slack and dropped the pots inside in 300’ – the only shrimp hole in the lagoon as far as we could tell. Many others were already there, so it looked popular. We had a low-key afternoon on the boat puttering about and reading as it has been an active few days of fishing so we were both kind of beat. At the next slack we went back in to collect our pots, they’d only been down for 3-1/2 hours so I wasn’t super optimistic, but hallelujah! We found the mother lode. Both pots were teeming with shrimp and our 5-gallon bucket was quickly 2/3 full. It was the best shrimp haul of this entire trip and renewed my faith in the process!! Makes all the effort worthwhile. Back at the boat we had an assembly line where I headed them and John rinsed and packaged them for freezing. Dinner was ling cod piccata again, along with pearl cous cous and roasted broccoli. A great day!

JULY 23, 2022 – CLAYDON BAY

Today was a busy day of fishing and harvesting. We headed out fairly early to put the shrimp and crab pots down, and also because John needed to get cell service which meant a half hour run out into Wells Passage. We dropped 2 shrimp pots and also an experimental crab pot drop. Several years ago when we were here we pulled up a shrimp pot out of 200’ + water and it was full of baby Dungeness, all about 3” wide at most, so we figured that was decent evidence that the bigger crab were there too! So down went the pot to 224’ along with 1 shrimp pot, the other we placed across the bay at a different location The ride out Wells Passage was beautiful and smooth, and the temperature already warm so a nice dinghy ride is always enjoyable! We headed back in near our bay and tried to get on a halibut spot at this morning’s slack but as soon as we let down sure enough the wind came up and made it super difficult to stay on our spot. We have had a frustrating time with halibut fishing so far. But the good news is that we have rediscovered our youth in the delight of a simple peanut butter and jelly sandwich as today that served as our breakfast! I make strawberry freezer jam every year so that makes it a lot better than average. John discovered yet again, that his email didn’t go through so back out to Well’s Passage we went for another try. 

Back at the boat later that morning, you guessed it, John discovered his email still didn’t go through. ARGH.  So we made a plan for the afternoon to get back out there to Wells Passage, refuel the whaler at Sullivan Bay (which was packed by the way) and go ling cod fishing in Drury Inlet again. Sullivan Bay has new managers and is doing a booming business – and if you are a boater reading this, make your moorage reservations ahead of time.  They continue offering meals on certain nights and also lunch, so check their schedule and get on the reservation list for dinner as well! The manager told us they were sold out for 2 seatings at the Friday night dinner so people are clearly patronizing them this year, which we are so happy to hear. These small businesses in remote BC need our business to stay afloat, so to speak. After the 3^rd run for cell service, we had another fun afternoon of ling cod fishing with little rockfish getting on (released) along with a few big ling cod that got away, and one smaller one we let go, but I finally landed a nice 12 lb ling – they are so fun to catch. Afterwards we checked our shrimp pots and pulled in a respectable amount of shrimp, enough for a couple meals. Interestingly though, one of the shrimp pots only had small salad sized shrimp, very curious about that because usually they are mixed in with all sizes. I don’t mind though, they are super easy to peel and make a nice salad topper. The other shrimp pot had nice big ones in it. The deep crab pot didn’t yield any male keepers but it did contain the most enormous female crab I have ever seen, she had to be 8” so that proves that at least the females are down there, maybe that’s where they have their babies, hence the babies that we caught a few years ago. Tonight I made crab stuffed chicken breasts with the 1 crab I caught a couple days ago. I didn’t want to use up my panko for coating the chicken as I only have 1 box left and need it for crabcakes, should I find where the crab are up here. We were told it is an off year for crabbing for everyone, including commercial. But I hear it is booming at home in the San Juan Islands per my brother Scott who says they are slaying them right and left.  Anyway, I improvised for panko using crushed ritz crackers instead and you know what, it was pretty darn good! Just a note for the cooks out there. John continues to beat me harshly at rummy, he remains 800 points ahead of me at this point. Frustrating but I try to be a good sport.

Sullivan Bay - just packed with boats

There appears to be a new float plane service up here called Friday Harbor Air, never seen them before. Kenmore isn't flying too far north this year we are told.

Visited Jennis Bay at the head of Drury Inlet and the logging business is booming again here, very active operation, this appears to be the log camp. Below is the "marina" and residence of the owner/operators we believe. We didn't stop to visit but that is where we stayed about 15 years ago when we visited here.

JULY 22, 2022 – DICKSON ISLAND TO CLAYDON BAY (SULLIVAN BAY AREA)

Super fun early morning fishing out at James Point. After trolling the shoreline for a couple hours and getting nothing but the occasional rockfish, we went deeper and farther away from shore and started picking up the bite! Ended up with 1 nice silver salmon for our freezer so that was a score! Soon we were off to Claydon Bay for a couple days, just a short hour run around the corner to the inside. Once settled we headed to Drury Inlet to try for some halibut and ling cod, and boy did we hit the ling cod! We found a sweet spot right at slack tide, put the gear down and gently drifted past a rock face, and bam bam bam, we were getting fish right and left, not all keepers of course as some were just the basic small rockfish. We hooked up a few big ones that got away, but the final count for keepers was one very large ling cod, a smaller one, and a medium one that I decided to let go, not sure if our freezer could accommodate more fish! Very fun fishing! Around 6PM that night, we were prepping dinner, and just chilling out on the boat when a working skiff was headed our way. As it motored towards us I wasn’t sure what was up, was it fish & game or First Nations officials? Turned out it was a group of loggers coming around to warn us that there will be a dynamite blast on shore in our bay just as soon as they can notify all the boaters in the bay. Sure enough about 20 minutes later a sonic boom shook our windows! Apparently they are blasting rock to build a logging road. I felt sorry for all of the woodland animals who probably still have PTSD. It’s a shame for us boaters that they are going to log inside Claydon Bay as it will make it unattractive to visit.

We found this tree growth very odd, almost like a seedling attached itself to the top of another tree. It was just a thick mound of pine sitting up high. Curious to know why

JULY 21, 2022 – DICKSON ISLAND

John left for fishing this morning at 6:45 and I opted out, as it was 53 degrees, threatening to rain, and virtually no visibility with the fog. Not this girl’s favorite fishing weather. Soon he was back with a nice Chinook and a Black Rockfish (different species than Black Cod/Sablefish) so of course I have regrets I didn’t just suck it up and go! We’ve heard from two people now that Black Rockfish are really delicious so we are going to eat it for dinner tonight. He is now back out fishing again, perfecting some new way to attach herring so it rolls just right to attract the King Salmon. I rallied later in the day and checked the crab pots (1 keeper), then went fishing with John for the afternoon bite. The afternoon was beautiful, sun came out, but not the fish unfortunately. Pot yielded 1 rogue crab as clearly this spot wasn’t quite right, although I had caught crab there prior years so that’s all I have to go on! This evening I prepped the black rockfish with a tempura type batter, made some homemade tartar sauce, and boy that is some good fish. The batter wasn’t super exciting (new recipe) but the fish was super flavorful, so next time no coating. To be honest I am writing this recount of our day three days later so my memory fades as the days run together. Doesn’t make for exciting reading so my apologies!

Beautiful Mount Waddington soaring over the Broughtons

Caught this funny looking little bullhead type fish in my pot! That and a starfish, along with the one crab!

JULY 20, 2022 – PORT McNEILL to DICKSON ISLAND

Headed out early to do our short crossing of Queen Charlotte Sound which was glassy smooth but full of sticks, kelp and other debris so one had to pay close attention. Ran into some fog as we neared Wells Passage which is typical weather for this area. After getting settled into our bay, anchor down and all that, John extracted all the fishing and crabbing gear and we soon set off for a morning/afternoon of fishing, with a picnic lunch packed. First stop was to let down the crab pots at a place that was reportedly good for crab, (per the manager of Sullivan Bay Marina). I had serious doubts about that referral when we arrived to the bay and found nothing but kelp beds at the edges which isn’t typically indicative of good crabbing conditions, but I figured maybe he knew something I didn’t so we put them down with fingers crossed. As we were doing so John noticed a little black bear on shore just watching us, so of course I dropped what I was doing and took photos, but with all the fog they didn’t turn out too great. Anyway, after that we went to James Point and beyond for some salmon fishing. The water remained calm throughout our adventure even when we ran to the outside shoreline of the sound, so in that respect it was a super pleasant outing. Additionally, the sun was gallantly attempting to penetrate the fog, creating a nice greenhouse effect resulting in warm temperatures on the water.  Alas the fish were not there today, except for these cute little rockfish that we just released. As the afternoon progressed by 3PM the fog burned off and we enjoyed a beautiful sunny afternoon on the hook, except for the cool wind that decided to show up late in the day.  John puttered away the afternoon and fixed a few nagging things around the boat while I took a much-needed nap. After dinner, the wind had died down and the sun was still shining so we took a ride around the bay soaking up our new surroundings, and had a most delightful cruise. In Port McNeill I downloaded a new TV series to try called “Pieces of Her” with Toni Collette, whom I like. We watched two episodes this evening and it’s quite the thriller so far. 

Cute little black bear foraging on the beach

Eagles are Always watching and waiting for a fishing opportunity

JULY 19, 2022 – PORT McNEILL

Today is our last full day in Port McNeill. We have to stay in port for the cell service for John’s conference call tonight, then tomorrow we will be on our way to the next 10 days of being off grid for the most part. It’s raining! What the heck. Residents here are grumbling about their “non-summer” as well, I guess the rain and chill has been pervasive for them as well. Today is the rest of the dreaded provisioning day so that awaits me. Supposed to stop raining later this morning so I will of course wait for that before embarking on that marathon. The store is close enough to walk to but without a car I have to roll the grocery cart all the way back to the top of the dock where there are dock carts for the rest of the journey…..sometimes there are….yesterday I wheeled a cart all the way down the dock, it’s pretty common practice here with the boaters. I will also hopefully get to post the rest of my blog days up until today since wifi will be scarce. T-Mobile has once again already reduced our data speed to the ice age, making it impossible to do anything much over cellular data. I am hoping to get my chores done in time to go visit Alert Bay but I don’t think it’s going to happen.

Finished the shopping and stowing, cleaned, dumped garbage, and fueled up the boat, so we are ready to head out early in the morning. The winds are kicking up tomorrow so we want to get across Queen Charlotte Sound as early as possible. We are hosting Bill and Kim Halley for happy hour late this afternoon, they just pulled into Port McNeill. I don’t have any pictures for you today, and we are going off grid for another 10 days – maybe we’ll get service here and there who knows. Anyway, I’ll be back eventually! Until next time….. 

JULY 18, 2022 – PORT McNEILL

Up at 5AM for my morning routine because today we are going fishing! The weather is nice, the wind is calm, and we are excited. It was about a half hour run over to the other side of Malcolm Island where the fishing grounds were located and I was bundled up properly so as to enjoy the early morning ride. I will summarize our 4 hours of fishing: “Humpies” Humpback or Pink Salmon as they are also known. These are relatively small salmon that are mainly harvested for sale to canneries as it is a very soft fish that literally goes to mush within a few hours. It’s fine if you cook it right away, or quickly get it into brine for smoking, but this isn’t a fish you want to keep for more than half a day without doing something, the flesh just deteriorates. Anyway, we could not keep them off the lines! They were fun to catch and we pulled in probably 20 of them, but it was catch and release all morning. We tried fishing shallow, then deep, changed the lure and bait, changed our trolling speed. Nothing worked. We also caught a few Chum Salmon, or Dog Salmon (or Keta as it’s also known) but we weren’t interested in keeping them, as it’s not the best eating fish. So all in all we caught a ton of fish but kept nothing – we still had fun! Weather cooperated; seas stayed calm all morning. Back at the boat after cleaning up and having some food, I set out for some errands and John was fixing things as usual. Our diesel heater decided not to work again, so he had to look into that, and something else I can’t remember. Anyway, walked up to town and popped into this nice new home furnishings/gift store at the top of the hill. I casually asked the ladies if there was anywhere to get a pedicure, as it has been soooo long, my feet were in desperate need of attention. I had been researching online before I left the boat and could not find any nail salons in this fishing town of Port McNeill, not a big surprise. They dropped what they were doing and spent the next 20 minutes calling all around town to their friends and contacts to see if they could find out who was doing nails out of their home and voila! We found April who said “get here in 10 minutes” so the lady at the store says “I’ll drive you up to her house” which she did – small town hospitality!! So kind. April worked me over and gave me a fresh coat on paint on the toes, working out of her house. She preferred cash over credit and I hadn’t brought any with me so she said “oh I will catch you later, no problem, we’ll figure out how to hook up.” Again, small town trust and hospitality. I had a nice “soaked in warm sunshine” 20-minute walk back to town through the pretty, manicured neighborhoods, grabbed a few groceries then met April at the local bank where I was able to get some Canadian cash and pay her. We hugged goodbye as we had become friends over the past hour and I was SO grateful. Anyway – I was just touched by the generosity of the residents here in town. We had dinner at Gus’s Pub tonight at the top of the dock, the only restaurant open on Mondays, and it showed as it was packed to the gills. Again, fellow boaters heading this way be aware of that – lots of businesses closed Mondays and Tuesdays.

Just a snapshot of a boat that came in ahead of us at fuel dock. It's the new Ocean Alexander model. Not sure how I feel about it. Seems very bulky, and like it should be in a Bond movie

JULY 17, 2022 – PORT McNEILL, SIDE TRIP TO SOINTULA

It’s a beautiful morning today and our plan is to visit Sointula, which is a Finnish settlement on neighboring Malcolm Island. We walked on the ferry at 10:30 and enjoyed the 20-minute crossing – we can see Sointula from the harbor and probably could have driven ourselves but the ferry dock is right next to us so we decided to be tourists. Sointula means “place of harmony” in Finnish. It was established in 1901 when a colony of Finnish settlers arrived with utopian dreams of building the perfect community. The vibe is super peaceful over there, with some homes sporting beautifully manicured lawns and gardens, and others more left to nature but still tidy for the most part. There are many Finnish residents and seasonal workers from abroad as well. After grabbing a late breakfast, we set off to walk down to the other end of town where the main harbors are located, about 2km away, desperately needing to put some miles on our legs after sitting on the boat for so long. Talked to some locals on the docks that were cleaning fish and got the scoop for where to go fishing, visited a couple gift shops and galleries along the way, and found ourselves back on the 1:45PM ferry to Port McNeill. One of the shops sells art on canvas of actual fish that have been laid on the canvas with ink making an imprint, very well done. The artwork was created by Alexandra Morton, a whale biologist turned activist who has written a book “Not on My Watch” exposing the corruption and cover up by the government regarding the devastating effects on wild salmon by farming salmon in British Columbia, who still pick up diseases and parasites from the farms as they pass by on migration. I will know more later as I bought her book to read, certainly relevant to our State of Washington as well as everywhere in the world that farms fish. I’ve always been against farmed salmon, looking forward to getting more educated on the topic. Back at the boat we had a nice catchup facetime call with John’s parents, then I spent 2 hours planning meals and making up various shopping lists as this is the last provisioning stop for next 3 weeks. Dread the shopping coming up but it’s a necessary part of our trip.

Scenes from Sointula (pronounced (Sun-Toola)

Very clever fence decorating with fishing floats

Don't think these two will be going anywhere

Couple more decorating ideas below

Driftwood with float in center