Chronicle 2 Pender Harbor to Stuart Island

Day 6 We are still in familiar cruising grounds. You’ve heard that familiarity breeds contempt. Complacency in our case. We were tied up at the dock at Madera and had paid for hydro (we’re in Canada, eh?) so we lazed around in the morning, enjoying our coffee and electric heaters. A walk to the post office and the requisite swapping of stories on the dock resulted in a leisurely 11:00 departure. No problem. We were only going to Desolation Sound: straight, easy shot.

Predicted 5-15 southeast winds assured us of a fine sail. We motored over smooth waters and watched a sailboat pitch and roll at the mouth of the harbor before he turned back into the bay. Binoculars enlarged the dark gray water and white froth to show the considerable swell. Our fine sail was going to be a slog in high winds with large following seas. Shaman made a smart about-face and snuggled into Garden Bay, twirling leisurely on her anchor. The crew read and napped, ignoring the 27 little jobs that they assured themselves they would do underway.

Old Geezer note: As I was talking with an Old Geezer on the dock, enjoying his stories of growing up in this harbor and building his 50’ boat, I realized that we are probably the same age as the Old Geezer. I’m still working with that one.


Old Geezer's beloved boat. It looked better in real life.

Weather forecast definitions and conundrums: Last year the US forecasters added breezy to their lexicon. I personally find numbers helpful. We’re now working with strong, moderate, and strong- to- moderate. Today’s forecast was for strong winds: 10-15. In the same for cast, strong was used with 20-25. Now, we consider that an important difference. Maybe we’re being too picky. After all, they are only words. And numbers. I did enjoy the “outlook”: A mix of sun and clouds today. Cloudy with sun on Friday. Saturday, sunny with cloudy periods. How many ways can you say the same thing, and does the ratio of sun and clouds change according to the arrangement of the words? I think I need more to do.

Oh! Oh! Oh! Recommended reading: Fishing with John, a book by a female journalist for The New Yorker (I think) who came to BC to write a story about fishing on the coast. She went out on a small troller from Pender Harbor to get background information and fell in love with the coast, the man, the way of life.

View from the cockpit with morning coffee, Squirrel Cove, Desolation Sound

Canadian geese at home

Day 8 We arreived at Squirrel Cove in the early afternoon. The SCHOOL TEACHER decided we Needed Something To Do. Let’s practice using out Life Sling! The Life Sling is a retrieval system designed to enable someone fortunate enough to still be on the boat to haul aboard someone unfortunate enough to have fallen overboard. The design anticipates the worst possible circumstances, where the person in the water is unable to assist in getting on board. To practice, you put one person in the dinghy, cast that poor soul adrift, toss them the Life Sling, and then haul dingy and driftee to the boat. Fortunate person on board then clips a halyard to drifeee, and cranks their sorry little body on board. Since we were anchored, we skipped the "cast adrift" part. I got in the dinghy and put on the Life Sling. Doug clipped the contraption to the one of the halyards and preceded to scrape me over the lifelines onto the deck, with both of us complaining vehemently about how difficult this was.

We hadn’t seen difficult. We switched places. Well that wasn’t going to work. I really couldn’t turn the winch the winch handle. I could push and tug at it. All of Doug’s ribs would have been crushed in the three hours it would have taken me (with time out for a snack, of course) to drag him aboard. Soooo… I am the only one allowed to fall overboard on this trip.

Sunny, winds light and very variable; we were underway the next day for Stuart Island. Usually we plan carefully to get through both Yuculta and Dent Rapids in the same tidal exchange, but this time we turned right when we cleared Yuculta to spend the night at the community dock at Big Bay on Stuart Island. When we were younger boaters, Big Bay was a well-known fishing resort. It was sold a few years ago to a private party; they tore down all the buildings and removed the docks. Last year, we met a fishing guide who lives her who he talked up the Big Bay community and how they are trying to make the community dock viable. We stopped to contribute $$$.

Pretty place, still just getting started. We were the only boat on the docks. There IS no reason to be here if you don’t fish....unless you like beautiful sunsets. As the sun set, we could look northwest and see islands and mountains. We could look southwest and see what we call Whistler West -- a huge new fancy resort for hugely rich fancy people.

Shaman after her bath at Big Bay

The docks were in good shape, and they did have fresh water on the docks, so we decided to wash Shaman’s sides and stern. (Shaman had not received a proper scrub and still had her Winter Black Streaks. We realized that if we did everything we wanted to do before we left our homeport, we wouldn’t get away until Labor Day.) The boat bath took a very looooong time, as the water pressure was less than adequate. Doug said it was like peeing on the sides, but that would have involved ‘way more beer than we have on board.

Tomorow more rapids......