And what is with the underlining??? When I copied and pasted from my Word document, some of the paragraphs were in blue and underlined. 'Can't make it go away, although I was able to get black letters.
Chronicle 4
Sunday, June 8, Day 16,
“That is the worst weather forecast I have ever heard.” I think Doug might have been exaggerating a bit, but I agreed it is a truly lousy outlook. We were anchored in Green Island Anchorage at the beginning of the Inside Passage, having rounded Cape Caution that morning under favorable conditions. For those of you who didn’t make the trip with us last year, or were not paying attention, Cape Caution is the first of two areas that are open to THE OCEAN. Our “weather window” that allowed us to finally leave Port McNeill and round the cape was closing. That was short. Words like gale and wind speed predictions of four-oh and five-oh (that is 40 and 50 in real-person talk) off the coast make a person want to go back to bed.
Speaking of going back to bed, Shaman was really tired when we left at o’dark hundred to round Cape Caution. Bard and Darlene had joined us in Allison Harbor the night before on El Buccanero, their 34’ Wilber lobster boat. Shaman was built in Ontario, Canada. El Buccanero was built in Maine, but has lived most of his adult life in San Diego. I’m assuming he speaks both Maine and Spanish. Shaman speaks Northwest and Canadian. We’re in Canada. Shaman spent most of the night teaching Canadian to El Buccanero. They were both exhausted. Doug says that is not what they were doing.
After waiting for a day at Green Island for the predicted gale-force winds which never materialized, El Buccanero’s crew decided to continue north in spite of Weather 2’s warnings of mayhem. Shaman followed at her usual leisurely pace, headed for Shearwater where we got to Change The Oil and Do The Laundry.
El Buccanero waiting for good weather at Green Island AnchorageAnnouncement on the VHF radio yesterday as we left the Native settlement of Bella Bella: There will be a meeting at 11:00 at the Big House to listen to the official apology from Prime Minister Harper to all of the survivors of Canada’s Native residential schools. The meeting will start at 11:00. The announcement will be at noon. We thought of the people our age and much younger who had been taken from their families to learn the white man’s ways at St. Michael’s Residential School at Alert Bay.
New Toys and Old People
Prior to our trip north last year, we took a seminar about cruising the Inside Passage. We were told we should always have the VHF radio on so we could be aware of what was going on. Our VHF radio was permanently installed at the chart table where we could occasionally hear it talking to itself. Consequently, we rarely had it on. For Christmas, one of us got a fancy new VHF radio with a remote microphone at the helm. (That be the place at the square end of the boat with the wheel.)
In the early ‘70’s when Doug and I started boating, you had to have a license to use a VHF radio. You didn’t have to take any classes, but you had to apply and probably had to somehow verify that you knew up from down and were aware of the VHF Radio Protocol. We still have our little cards in with our boat documents. At some point, the People Who Issue Little Cards found other things to do. Licenses and VHF radio call signs went the way of black and white television and reel-to-reel recording tape. Since we rarely had our radio on to listen to how people actually use it, we were not aware that radio protocol is no longer followed. Maybe it never was, but when I hear women chattering away, I long for the days of licensing requirements. (This is a very sexist viewpoint, since I am so not critical of the commercial fishermen who chat back and forth.)
The new radio has a several dials and knobs and a six or seven buttons with various functions. One of the buttons says OFF. We read the manual and discovered that if you push that button, all of the noise goes away. Even old people can adjust.
Cruising boaters use the VHF when coming into a boat harbor to inquire about moorage. You state the name of the marina or boat harbor on the designated channel and identify your boat. The language is scripted. It goes like this: Port McNeill Harbor Master, this is the sailing vessel Shaman. Over. And you wait for them to reply. Of course, it is not the sailing vessel Shaman talking. She’s not allowed to use the radio, but no one mentions this talking-boat oddity. So why am I telling you this? I was listening yesterday and heard: Prince Rupert Rowing and Yacht Club, This is the pleasure boat Last Resort. I’d never thought of it before. Sailboats are sailing vessels. Powerboats are pleasure vessels. Does that mean that we are NOT pleasure vessels…..and who told????
June 13th
"Don’t hit the tree." Always good advice for a cruising boat skipper. We were maneuvering to anchor in 45 feet of water. We’re not sure how much water the tree trunk was anchored in.
Day 28 June 19 We're in Ketchikan, headed for Misty Fiords tomorrow. See what I mean about the numbers? We'll be back in cyber-land in about a week.
