the summer cruise: gulf islands
Date: July 27, 2015
Time Start: 6:00 a.m.
Time Finish: 4:40 p.m.
Cruise From: Henry Bay, Denman Island
Cruise To: Clam Bay, Thetis/Kuper Islands (Gulf Islands)
Engine Hours Start: 246
Engine Hours Finish: 256
Dan gets NORTH STAR underway at 6:00 a.m. on a calm and beautiful morning. North swells pick up and we rock and roll our way along Vancouver Island, heading further south, listening to music and enjoying the ride. Dan loads our photos from the past several days into the laptop, ready for me to sort, while I take the helm. The views in both directions are identical - the shores backed by mountains with white billowy clouds, on both the mainland and Vancouver Island. Then we enter a group of small islands. We have seen very few boats so far except for several small fishing skiffs off of Parksville.
Time Start: 6:00 a.m.
Time Finish: 4:40 p.m.
Cruise From: Henry Bay, Denman Island
Cruise To: Clam Bay, Thetis/Kuper Islands (Gulf Islands)
Engine Hours Start: 246
Engine Hours Finish: 256
Dan gets NORTH STAR underway at 6:00 a.m. on a calm and beautiful morning. North swells pick up and we rock and roll our way along Vancouver Island, heading further south, listening to music and enjoying the ride. Dan loads our photos from the past several days into the laptop, ready for me to sort, while I take the helm. The views in both directions are identical - the shores backed by mountains with white billowy clouds, on both the mainland and Vancouver Island. Then we enter a group of small islands. We have seen very few boats so far except for several small fishing skiffs off of Parksville.
We are enjoying our fusion stereo as we cruise, mellow jazz followed by the Pandora "Adele" station, and then some classical music. With a canopy of blue skies, sun sparkled water, sloshing sounds against the hull, and the music, time flies by.
We cut inside the island that has a complex of communication facilities, just off Schooner Cove. One islet is covered with guano and is a bird refuge.
We cut inside the island that has a complex of communication facilities, just off Schooner Cove. One islet is covered with guano and is a bird refuge.
We are seeing lots of housing developments as we near Nanaimo. A ferry crosses as we near Gabriola Island. Sailboats off of Newcastle Island are enjoying the breeze. The pulp mill is sending out its cloud of steam.
We are early for passing through Dodd Narrows and need to wait for the slack. We slowly cruise along Gabriola, enjoying the sheer rock faces where cormorant nest. Log booms and barges are tied along Gabriola. Two log booms with tugs are waiting to go through the Narrows and will lead the way for us.
A parade of boats heading north comes through the Narrows. The tugs with the log booms wait until the exact time of slack and start their way into the Narrows, one at a time. Each boom is towed by a tug and has another tug working the stern end of the boom, making sure the long boom stays on track and that logs are contained. It is fascinating to watch!
Now it is our turn, and it is an experience we will never forget! The boat ahead, a Nordic Tug, slows because the tugs and barges are still in the Narrows, and she gets pushed sideways by the current. The tugs move the barges to the center of the passage, and boats pass them on either side. You would think northbound boats would be on one side of the booms and southbound on the other, but that doesn't happen. Boaters seem to go wherever. Boats, tugs, booms, currents, narrow spaces, it is a bit chaotic but somehow organized enough that everyone makes it through without mishap. Even the tugs are finally moving along.
Now we are in the Gulf Islands, with Vancouver Island still off our starboard side. A few sailboats are enjoying the breeze . We approach Clam Bay between Thetis and Kuper Islands (a small cut that dries at low tide divides the two islands). There is another Ranger Tug at anchor here, and we drop ours before our daily swim (water is 70 degrees) and dinner in the cockpit. It is a breezy evening with some thirty boats anchored in the bay.
Date: July 28, 2015
Clam Bay layover day
Weather: Beautiful summer day, sunny with breezes, mid 70's
It's a morning to relax, no early start today. Clam Bay is beautiful on this sunny morning as the wild sounds of geese drift across the water. Dan fixes our favorite hot breakfast, his signature blueberry pancakes, and we give NORTH STAR a cleaning.
The tide is low. We wait for it to rise enough so that we can take the dinghy through the cut that separates Thetis and Kuper Islands. Kuper is reserved for First Nation tribal members. Our destination is the wonderful Telegraph Harbour Marina on Thetis. We love this marina and have great memories of our visit here last year on our R 25 HOKU KAI.
Clam Bay layover day
Weather: Beautiful summer day, sunny with breezes, mid 70's
It's a morning to relax, no early start today. Clam Bay is beautiful on this sunny morning as the wild sounds of geese drift across the water. Dan fixes our favorite hot breakfast, his signature blueberry pancakes, and we give NORTH STAR a cleaning.
The tide is low. We wait for it to rise enough so that we can take the dinghy through the cut that separates Thetis and Kuper Islands. Kuper is reserved for First Nation tribal members. Our destination is the wonderful Telegraph Harbour Marina on Thetis. We love this marina and have great memories of our visit here last year on our R 25 HOKU KAI.
We relax, Dan checks his email, we look at the amazing collection of boating burgees, and we have ice cream cones before returning back through the cut to Clam Bay and NORTH STAR.
It's a wonderful swimming day, there are no breezes to chill us. We grill chicken and laze away the evening on NORTH STAR.
Date: July 29, 2015
Time Start: 10:50 a.m.
Time Finish: 2:10 p.m.
Cruise From: Clam Bay, Thetis/Kuper Islands
Cruise To: Genoa Bay, Vancouver Island
Engine Hours Start: 256
Engine Hours Finish: 259
We have a bright, sunny, beautiful calm morning, and it is already heating up. It's going to be a warm summer day again. A goose has been honking, hearing the honk echo, and then the goose answers the echo. We aren't the only creatures who talk to ourselves!
Now that we are back in areas with actual beaches, we are once again seeing herons foraging at low tide. Farther north where the shores were steep, we had eagles galore, and an occasional heron that would perch in the trees.
Time Start: 10:50 a.m.
Time Finish: 2:10 p.m.
Cruise From: Clam Bay, Thetis/Kuper Islands
Cruise To: Genoa Bay, Vancouver Island
Engine Hours Start: 256
Engine Hours Finish: 259
We have a bright, sunny, beautiful calm morning, and it is already heating up. It's going to be a warm summer day again. A goose has been honking, hearing the honk echo, and then the goose answers the echo. We aren't the only creatures who talk to ourselves!
Now that we are back in areas with actual beaches, we are once again seeing herons foraging at low tide. Farther north where the shores were steep, we had eagles galore, and an occasional heron that would perch in the trees.
,The morning is made for paddling, with beautiful reflections on the calm water that is barely rippled by the breeze. The tiniest of fish are nibbling at the surface, silvery schools of them leaving their bull's eye circular marks. Morning on the water can be so glorious!
Dan in his kayak watches a red rock crab crawl into a clam shell and close the lid, hiding from him! We both drift over the eel grass beds that extend out from the shallow shore. They are teeming with fascinating worlds of life. We see crabs, starfish, shellfish, algae. Then there are the shadows of fish that dart away on our approach. We have great visibility of the life below us today, and it is wondrous. We cannot help but think of our naturalist grandson Andrew who would love to spend hours drifting over this underwater paradise.
Dan in his kayak watches a red rock crab crawl into a clam shell and close the lid, hiding from him! We both drift over the eel grass beds that extend out from the shallow shore. They are teeming with fascinating worlds of life. We see crabs, starfish, shellfish, algae. Then there are the shadows of fish that dart away on our approach. We have great visibility of the life below us today, and it is wondrous. We cannot help but think of our naturalist grandson Andrew who would love to spend hours drifting over this underwater paradise.
It's time to leave Clam Bay (and it does have lots of clams!). We head south along Kuper Island and watch a seaplane practicing touch and go landings on the water. We take the Houston Channel into Stuart Channel where we cruise further south between Saltspring and Vancouver Islands.
We can see the pulp mill in Chemainus, and note that the sawdust barges we saw outside of Dodd Narrows are now there. Dan is busy with a series of phone calls using SKYPE, taking care of business items. We pass through Sansum Narrows where there is a lot of current flowing and then round the point into Cowichan Bay. One more turn to starboard and we are in lovely Genoa Bay, our destination for today.
Genoa Bay is on Vancouver Island, but it has the feel of being a world unto itself. We are putting it here with our Gulf Island visits as it fits right in with our itinerary. With our anchor down and the air 80 degrees, Dan cannonballs off the stern. I join him. Water is a chilly 68 degrees! Yet it is wonderful. We love our daily swims as long as we have a warm solar shower waiting for us on the bow.
For dinner we put together a pasta salad, making it up as we go. We call it NORTH STAR Pasta Salad: mezze penne cooked al dente, sliced red bell peppers and green onions, kalamata olives and sun dried tomatoes, dressed with a little basil pesto and some Italian dressing. It works!
Full moon tonight!
Date: July 30, 2015
Time Start: 11:30 a.m.
Time Finish: 5:00 pm.
Cruise From: Genoa Bay, Vancouver Island
Cruise To: Princess Margaret Island
Engine Hours Start: 259
Engine Hours Finish: 262
Weather/Sea Conditions: Sunny hot summer day, upper 80's
Plans change for us. We have a lunch scheduled at the wonderful Genoa Bay restaurant with Dan's colleague from Cowichan, and then we are looking forward to a day to explore the bay by kayak. This all is cancelled when we get a call from Altech Marine (our oil change people). Dan has been communicating with them and letting them know that our oil level continues to be too high. They want us to go to Sidney today, to Van Isle Marina to have a mechanic from South Island Marine take a look at our engine. We decide this is a must do. Today is Thursday, and due to the British Columbia Day holiday weekend ahead, the mechanics won't be working either Friday or Monday, meaning that we would have to wait until next Tuesday to have the engine looked at. David is a good sport and meets us on the Genoa Marina dock for coffee instead of the planned lunch before we depart for Van Isle.
We prepare to leave, and as we are pulling up the anchor, Dan gets a yellow jacket sting on his hand. Ouch! Fortunately the cruise to Van Isle, located about a mile north of Sidney, is smooth. We get our first view of Mt. Baker, and realize that we are getting close to home waters. We pass the enormous Sidney ferry terminal. The ferry is also enormous, looking almost like a cruise ship. We tuck through John Passage where there is lots of current and lazy seals are on the rocky islets.
Full moon tonight!
Date: July 30, 2015
Time Start: 11:30 a.m.
Time Finish: 5:00 pm.
Cruise From: Genoa Bay, Vancouver Island
Cruise To: Princess Margaret Island
Engine Hours Start: 259
Engine Hours Finish: 262
Weather/Sea Conditions: Sunny hot summer day, upper 80's
Plans change for us. We have a lunch scheduled at the wonderful Genoa Bay restaurant with Dan's colleague from Cowichan, and then we are looking forward to a day to explore the bay by kayak. This all is cancelled when we get a call from Altech Marine (our oil change people). Dan has been communicating with them and letting them know that our oil level continues to be too high. They want us to go to Sidney today, to Van Isle Marina to have a mechanic from South Island Marine take a look at our engine. We decide this is a must do. Today is Thursday, and due to the British Columbia Day holiday weekend ahead, the mechanics won't be working either Friday or Monday, meaning that we would have to wait until next Tuesday to have the engine looked at. David is a good sport and meets us on the Genoa Marina dock for coffee instead of the planned lunch before we depart for Van Isle.
We prepare to leave, and as we are pulling up the anchor, Dan gets a yellow jacket sting on his hand. Ouch! Fortunately the cruise to Van Isle, located about a mile north of Sidney, is smooth. We get our first view of Mt. Baker, and realize that we are getting close to home waters. We pass the enormous Sidney ferry terminal. The ferry is also enormous, looking almost like a cruise ship. We tuck through John Passage where there is lots of current and lazy seals are on the rocky islets.
After docking at Van Isle, our mechanic from South Island Marine arrives. Thankfully our engine checks out fine, but the problem is too much oil. He removes about three liters of excess oil. He notes that not only was the oil overfilled, but the old oil was most likely not completely drained out as well. We are hoping that we have reached the end of this incident and treat ourselves to a nice lunch in the marina restaurant, eating indoors with air conditioning on a very hot afternoon.
We take advantage of the chance to fill our water tank, and leave our garbage and recycling. The fuel also gets topped off. Van Isle is a wonderful marina, well cared for, and filled with a lot of really big yachts. Even the fuel station is quite the snazziest one we have seen.
We head to Princess Margaret Island (aka Portland Island). On the way, we pass picturesque little Pym Island. It has an inviting ambiance with its old bulkheads, no wake signs, and ferries passing by.
We find ourselves a spot to anchor and stern tie in Royal Cove at Princess Margaret Island. A small offshore islet partially protects the inlet, but wakes from passing ferries (and they pass often, small ones and large ones) make their way into the inlet and provide lots of rocking action. We are next to the dinghy dock. Tonight we are the lone powerboat amid several sailboats
The entire island is a marine park. In the 1950's, it was given to Princess Margaret as a gift. She later returned it to the people of British Columbia with the stipulation that it become a park.
We have wonderfully big dragonflies darting around us, like miniature helicopters. They hover almost like hummingbirds do, and hopefully are eating any bugs that might be around to feed on us. We are having some nostalgic memories of camping here with our small aluminum Hewescraft several years ago, before our days of owning sleep aboard Ranger Tugs.
There is an interesting and friendly family on the sailboat next to us. They are a group of eight people, with most of them sleeping ashore in the campground at Arbutus Point, about a ten minute walk from Royal Cove. This is where we, too, camped. Several of the family member are visiting from Israel. Barry, the boat owner, has sailed in the Swiftsure. He has also climbed Mt. Rainier several times, and is an avid outdoors man.
There is a full moon tonight, and bioluminescence in the water.
There is an interesting and friendly family on the sailboat next to us. They are a group of eight people, with most of them sleeping ashore in the campground at Arbutus Point, about a ten minute walk from Royal Cove. This is where we, too, camped. Several of the family member are visiting from Israel. Barry, the boat owner, has sailed in the Swiftsure. He has also climbed Mt. Rainier several times, and is an avid outdoors man.
There is a full moon tonight, and bioluminescence in the water.
Date: July 3l, 2015
Princess Margaret Island layover day
Weather: Sunny and hot, mid 80's
The last day of July! The tide is low and getting lower. We need to move NORTH STAR a little deeper as rocks are visible under the stern. Ferries are running again after a quiet night, sending their wakes our way. The morning is beautiful with calm water, herons foraging, and clams squirting along the shore.
Princess Margaret Island layover day
Weather: Sunny and hot, mid 80's
The last day of July! The tide is low and getting lower. We need to move NORTH STAR a little deeper as rocks are visible under the stern. Ferries are running again after a quiet night, sending their wakes our way. The morning is beautiful with calm water, herons foraging, and clams squirting along the shore.
After breakfast we load the rucksack with a picnic lunch and head ashore to walk the trails. First we head to Arbutus Point. Barry and family are there, packing up their campsite. Arbutus Point is so scenic, with shallow rock ledges extending out from shore. Seals are resting on an offshore rock exposed by the low tide.
The trail along the eastern shore of the island takes us to Princess Cove. The trail goes around several scenic inlets, some with inviting beaches. Ferries and pleasure boats pass offshore, and we can hear the loud speakers on the ferries as they spiel out information for their passengers. In one inlet, we see a large bald eagle perched regally in a dead tree.
Picnic tables, informative signs, and an old orchard greet us at Princess Cove where there are several boats at anchor. The apple and pear trees are old, some planted by the Kanakas (Hawaiian settlers) in 1875! One tree amazes us. It is hollowed out and twisted, just a shell for the trunk, yet still producing a sizable crop of apples.
We enjoy our lunch in the orchard and then visit the beach and dinghy dock for the bay.
We take the path that cuts across the island on our return to NORTH STAR. We are in a beautiful forest. Suddenly Dan hears the sound of a robin and looks up to the trees. There before us sits a large owl. We are so stunned to see it. We get only a short glimpse, and a blurry photo, before it flies away. We later learn that it is a barred owl.
A Hewescraft is tied to the dinghy dock next to NORTH STAR, much like the one we used when we camped here! What fun to see our "old" and "new" boats side by side.
The water is a chilly 62 degrees. Hardy souls that we are means it is swim time. Actually, it is a very short dip today! The rinse from the warm solar shower is a must.
The water is a chilly 62 degrees. Hardy souls that we are means it is swim time. Actually, it is a very short dip today! The rinse from the warm solar shower is a must.
The menu for tonight is grilled chicken with Greek salads, but our cucumber is spoiled. We substitute a NORTH STAR ratatoule: zuchini, red bell pepper, green onions, tomatoes, kalamata olives all sauteed with Italian seasoning and topped with feta cheese. It turns out great (or we are very hungry and will eat anything!).
Date: August 1, 2015
Princess Margaret Island layover day
Weather: Sunny with wispy white clouds, calm, another hot day, mid 80's
August today, a Saturday, and we have another amazing and wonderful day here at Princess Margaret Island. A morning adventure with the dinghy takes us from Royal Cove (where a raccoon is foraging on the rocks) to the little beach near Arbutus Point where the tide has brought in colorful algae. We become beach combers and attempt to identify the algae - ulva, fucus, sargassum, turkish towel, kelp . . . and more.
Date: August 1, 2015
Princess Margaret Island layover day
Weather: Sunny with wispy white clouds, calm, another hot day, mid 80's
August today, a Saturday, and we have another amazing and wonderful day here at Princess Margaret Island. A morning adventure with the dinghy takes us from Royal Cove (where a raccoon is foraging on the rocks) to the little beach near Arbutus Point where the tide has brought in colorful algae. We become beach combers and attempt to identify the algae - ulva, fucus, sargassum, turkish towel, kelp . . . and more.
As we walk through the campground to Arbutus Point, we meet Marie, a teacher from Saltspring Island and her kayaking friend from Ontario. They both paddled here from Ganges. We have a nice chat with them, and then visit the point one more time.
As the tide grows slack, we continue in the dinghy around Arbutus Point, gliding through a large kelp bed, and get some terrific views of the seals on the offshore rock.
Two of the larger B.C. ferries are crossing paths offshore. Do we ever get a wake from them! The dinghy really rolls around. Marie and her friend are also on their way to see the seals but in kayaks and look completely relaxed as they glide over the wakes.
We follow along the shore of Arbutus Point and trace our route back to NORTH STAR in Royal Cove.
After lunch we take a shore walk, this time along the trail that leads along the scenic bluffs of the north and west shores, heading in the direction of Kanaka Bluffs. The trail stays high above the water, weaving through forests and out onto open bluffs. The scenery is stunning. Huge madrona trees are along the bluffs, pillows of lichens cling to ground moss. We pass an old well probably dating from Kanaka days. Below us are small beaches full of drift logs. Views out across the water are beautiful.
Again we return on the trails that cut through the forest. Salal growing along the trails has recently been pruned. We use the cut leaves to make our own trail markers, leaving them behind us like breadcrumbs We learned this fun little trick while hiking on Wallace Island last summer!
The dinghy dock is heavily used for bringing dogs to shore. Three kids in a rowboat have their hands full with their two life-jacketed dogs. But where are the life jackets for the kids???
The water didn't get any warmer today, but in we go. Dan jumps off the stern. Brrr! We both get cooled off, and Dan even dons his mask and snorkel to check the zinc on the prop.
An evening kayak paddle is followed by Saturday night nachos. Sunset colors the sky with reds and purples, colors that unfortunately are a result of a new forest fire near Cowichan Lake.
