Middle Watch Musings

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Middle Watch Musings

• Jul. 24, 2008 - Galley Pump Failure

We had our Whale Galley Foot pump fail today. It is quite old so no biggie. One thing I would like to rant about.....why don't the new ones fit the same holes as the old ones?

The latest model of the whale (version III) is almost identical to the earlier ones but the Whale people have seen fit to move the mounting holes in the feet about a quarter of an inch. That means redrilling two of the four mounting holes. How stupid! The thing is, Sea Dog makes an identical pump that is slightly cheaper and it fits the holes left by the older model Whale. Smart!

We now have a Sea Dog foot pump in our galley.

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• Jul. 23, 2008 - Wandering again!

    As you have probably guessed, we are once again wandering the coast of British Columbia. We left Victoria on July the 18th with no destination or plan. We are now in Vancouver alongside at the False Creek Yacht Club watching the International Fireworks competition. We can see the display right from the pilothouse windows. Not my cup of tea but there are thousands out there enjoying it.
     We had nice weather and some fine sailing getting here. We made a couple stops on the way and then spent last night in Silva Bay. Today we spent 5 hours close reaching across the Straits of Georgia in a 12-15 knot wind. It couldn't get much better.
    We haven't had any boat issues yet but I am wondering just how hot my diesel should be when running. I normally run it at about 160 F but lately it has been getting up to 175 F. I think I'll just run it hot and see if it alarms next time. I think it alarms at 190 F. I guess I'll know soon enough.
    Our foot pumps (for fresh water) seem to be leaking. They both look pretty old so I'll pull one out tomorrow and see if I can find a replacement that fits all the same holes. (That is what the actress said to the Bishop!)

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• Jul. 20, 2008 - Interesting Anchoring Incident.

We are currently anchored in Ganges Harbour, on Saltspring Island. It is a very crowded anchorage because of the fun touristy town of Ganges. While here we witnessed a funny anchoring story.

Late last night a sad looking Alberg 37 named CUMARA, flying a French tricolour, wandered into the anchorage. It was towing a half deflated dinghy, and it looked less than shipshape. It pulled up near us and dropped a Danforth, on about 30 feet of chain, right beside a large power boat named KANAKA moored to a mooring buoy. They paid out about 200 feet of rode and drifted with the brisk wind back behind the power boat so the power boat was between CUMARA and his anchor. This did not seem to concern the skipper at all. There was no one on KANAKA.

This morning when I woke up CUMARA had swung to the other side of KANAK with the overnight tide change and now had her anchor rode wrapped completely around the mooring buoy chain. When the tide changed again, CUMARA blew down wind (as did KANAK and they both ended up beside each other. The skipper heard the boats bump and got up. The first thing he did was take a leak over the side while surveying his problem. He pushed off KANAKA and then went down and made himself a coffee. Then he came up and found himself in the same position again. He started to weigh anchor and realized his situation and flashed his engine.

Needless to say it was a bit of a goat f#*% as he untangled his rode from the buoy mooring. He quietly left. I don't think either boat was any worse for the experience. Fun to watch though!

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• Jul. 2, 2008 - Barkley Sound

    My Dad and I took Plumper up the west coast of Vancouver Island this past week. We left Esquimalt on Tuesday morning and sailed up to Sooke, where we anchored for the night. We left Sooke at 0500, hoping for an easterly wind working with the long ebb tide to take us out as far as Cape Beale. Unfortunately, the wind was on the nose. We beat against the NW wind until the speed we needed to get to Cape Beale before dark was excessive, and then we flashed the iron genny for the rest of the day. We approached Cape Beale at about 2100 and the tide had changed. It was ebbing (out of Barkley Sound) and hitting the NW wind off the Cape and created a very confused and nasty chop. Plumper was rolling on her beam ends as we avoided the myriad shoals and entered Trevor Channel. We saw many Humpback wahles in that last hour or so before we anchored in Dodger Channel (dodging the swell).
    After a nice sleep in we set sail up Trevor Channel exploring the Sound. We dragged either a bucktail or a diver and flasher all day but had no luck catching fish. We pulled into the Port Alberni Yacht Club for the night. It is basically a fish camp that the thirty members welcome visitors at. There are no reciprocals because they need the moorage fees to keep the place running. It was worth the buck a foot mootage. They have created some wonderful hiking trails on their island with spectacular views. The shower there is the finest anywhere. One of the club members (a ceramic tiler) built it. The on-demand hot water is endless and the shower itself is huge. I pulled up a lawn chair and basked in the clean hot creek water being piped in. Best $2 I ever spent.
    From the PAYC we sailed out looking for salmon but again had no luck. The sailing was fine with steady winds off the Pacific. We pulled into Effingham Bay for the night. There were three other boats there. One was flying the Red Duster and hailed from Southampton, England. On Effingham Island there was a rugged hike across to the other side of the island where an old native village used to exist. The hike was really fun, if a bit tortuous. The village is almost non-existant. There was a boat from Oregon there, and the guy came over and gave us a couple of Greenling for dinner. They were delicious.
    The next morning we sailed out of Effingham and wandered over to Bamfield where we tied up for an hour or so at the grocery store. We stayed just long enough to buy some bread and beer and have an ice cream cone. The weather warranted some ice cream. The shop keeper was miserable. Despite the fact that the sign on his dock said we were welcome to stay for an hour he gave us the bum's rush after we had spent our money. Jerk!
    From there we went back to Dodger Channel to be in position for the run back down Juan de Fuca Strait the next day. We rowed ashore and watched three humpback whales in the small lagoon eating and frolicking. It was very cool.
    We left Barkley Sound early the next morning and started sailing SE hoping to get to Sooke. Unfortunately we were again becalmed for a while. Eventually the winds piped up and were forecast to hit 35 so we decided to seek shelter in Port San Juan. The bay at Port San Juan is open to the SW with almost no shelter, and the wind was blowing about 25 and building from the SW when we got there. Fortunately, a fisherman in a boat called K-Roby let us tie up alongside him and we spent the night bouncing around at the dock secured to him. He was very friendly and we learned a lot about the black art of salmon fishing from him.
    The next day had an all day flood and 20 knots of NW winds forecast. We left Port San Juan at 0820 and hoisted sail. It was a banner day in Plumper. We sailed all the way back to Esquimalt (about 72 miles) in 8 hours. The wind was cooperating as was the tide. We pulled into CFSA at 1620 (exactly) after an great sail home.
    It was a great week!

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• May. 8, 2008 - Easter Cruise

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• May. 8, 2008 - Just about ready

Plumper is back in the water with a clean bottom and new zincs. We've been out for a couple sails including Opening Day for both the Canadian Forces Sailing Association and Royal Victoria Yacht club. They were nice days on the water. We sailed up to Long Harbour for easter weekend and had nice winds there and back. Early season sailing is easy on the engine!
Since launching I have put about 7 coats of Seafin Oil on everything wood. I did the taff rails and they look good. I did the cabin sole and it looks fantastic. I also did many of the interior bulkheads and they look really nice as well. I have also spent some time getting Minnow, our little Whitehall Minto, ready to go. She also is looking very buff after several coats of teak oil and some varnish on her oars.
I am itching to get away but little things around the homestead are keeping me back. It won't be long and the one gun sloop will slip her moorings to wander north once more.

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• Apr. 11, 2008 - Getting Ready to Go!

Plumper, my one gun sloop, is once again high and dry. I hauled it out last week to change the zincs, clean up the bottom and get a survey done for the insurance folks. There are a few blisters in the glass on the keel that I will attend to in the fall, but other than that she is ready for "Adventure West Coast", this year's plan. We gave the sails a birthday over the winter, and they all had a visit to UK Sails where Sharon did her magic. They should be good for another few thousand miles anyway. I changed the leaky fuel hose from a copper pipe to a proper fuel line and replaced the sight glass with a new one. The engine room looks like new.

    So what is the plan? Hopefully I will be taking Plumper up the west coast of the island with my Dad. The rough idea is to leave in early June and sail up to where the fishing is good. My brother may join us for a portion of the trip as well. We'll take our time exploring the west coast inlets and fishing, working our way north to Port Hardy. Once there, Nancy will drive up and jump on board, and my Dad wil take the car back down to Victoria.   Nancy and I will continue north again.
    There are a couple bailout options. If the west coast is miserable, and we don't want to venture north of the Brooks Penninsula, we'll come back down to Victoria and Nancy and Dad will change around. If the north coast looks like another wet summer, Nancy and I will sail around to the inside passage and spend July and August in warmer waters.
    The key, of course, is flexibility; we don't have to be anywhere, ever! That is real flexibility.

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• Dec. 2, 2007 - Waiting for spring

Winter is just kicking in here in Victoria. We've been spending our time on the water in some of our friend's race boats keeping our sailing skills honed for next spring.

There are a few things we are doing to Plumper to make her better for our next wander north. We bought a new mattress for our forward berth (the one we always use). It is 6 inches of foam with a 2.25 inch memory topper. I call it "the paralyzer" because once you are in bed there is no getting out. It is lovely.

Our trusty blade jib is in at Halsey/UK getting SALEX'd (SAil Life Extension) I should probably take the main in as well.

I also had a new clutch lever built for our auto pilot. This one is stainless with two set screws instead of plastic with a small pin. Long after the boat is history this clutch lever will still be able to do its job.

We also have to replace the traveler hardware because we smashed the sheaves in one end during a careles gybe last summer. It certainly isn't a show stopper but it is nice when everything works properly.

I would also like to increase the capacity of our holding tank, currently about 10 litres. It needs a deck pumpout fitiing so that we can empty it at marinas instead of finding deep open water. I am not sure where it will go but there is lots of room around the boat.

We both have been enjoying racing the past little while. Nancy has been crewing on Sea Quin, a Catalina 27, with Leslie Quin and a bunch of other ladies. I think she is learning a lot and building confidence. I have been a bit of a boat slut crewing on various types of boats to get the feel for different styles. I did a few races on a Moore 24 and quite enjoyed it. It is a difficult boat to sail when the wind is really blowing. I did a couple races on a J80, nice easy boat to sail but a tough rating to sail to. I crewed for a regatta on a Flying Tiger. It was just like the J80 but bigger. We had very light winds but I enjoyed the weekend and we did win. I have also spent a lot of time in an old Shark 24. I love it. When the wind pipes up it is great fun.

All in all, we are both getting lots of sailing in as we wait for spring.

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• Sep. 18, 2007 - Homeward Bound

We sailed from Pierres bay and started south. Over the next few days we wound our way down through Welbore Channel and Johnstone Strait and eventually found ourselves in Thurlow in Shoal Bay. What a neat place. We wandered ashore expecting to find nothing but low and behold, a pub! Right there in a house! Well we waltzed in and had a nice cold beer looking out the window up Philips Sound. Terrific.

The next Day was the "Tackle the Rapids" day. We sailed early the next day so we could fish on the way. Yes we did catch a nice size salmon off Hall Point just before slack in Dent Rapids. Our Transit through Dent, Gillard and Yuclata was uneventful. We aproached on the last of the ebb and by the time we got to the Yuclatas we had a gentle flood helping us out. We spent the next few days in Desolation Sound. After the north coast it seemed very crowded and the water looked full of growth and algae. It was not great.

We decided to go for a walk on Savary, another of my favourite islands, and enjoyed a coffee at the little store and coffee shop. It is a great spot. We arranged to pick up Nancy's sister Alison and her husband Doug in Gibsons so the next couple days were spent sailing down to Howe Sound. Our sail down through Malaspina brought us to Sturt Bay. What a spot. The docks are cheap, there is internet access and wild blackberries as far as the eye can see. We picked till our hands were stained and boiled up 6 jars of "Texada Black" jam. Further south we stopped at the Thormanby Islands and discovered the fabulous Buccaneer Bay beach. We spent two days nipping back and forth to Thormanby from Secret Cove because I didn't trust the anchorage at Buccaneer Bay (Thormanby). A new favourite spot!

We then sailed down to Gibson and did the Bataan death march up the hill to the grocery store. We hauled our laptop around looking for internet access with no joy. We stocked up in prep for our guests and hauled it all down the hill. Funny, now that we were south we had limited internet and lots of cell phone. It was the opposite of when we were farther north.

Alison and Doug arrived that evening and we enjoyed some wine with them as they adapted to our minimum accomodations. After another hike to flush out the pipes we sailed across the Gibsons bar and had a rollicking good beat in a southwester while working our way around Keats Island. Alison was pleased she didn't barf. A first for her I guess.

After a nice sail we motored up to New Brighton expecting a quaint pub and restaurant. It wasn't to be. The restaurant is gone and the docks were full of boats that weren't welcoming us at all. We bailed on New Brighton and motored around to Halkett Bay but it was being bounced around by the SW wind. We then motored back to Port Graves and found many yachts happily anchored. The next day we sailed/motored down to Snug harbour and went alongside Graham and Cis' dock on Bowen. They were happy to see the four of us and we had a great visit with them and other family.

After dropping Doug and Alison off, we turned north to get back to Courtenay to pick up our car but stopped again at Buccaneer Bay and Sturt on the way. Great discoveries. We eventually got up to Courtenay and put the boat alonfside at CFSA in Comox. After a quick visit Nancy jumped in the car and took it south to Victoria while I sailed (singlehanded) south stopping at Tribune Bay, Schooner Cove and Nanaimo. Nancy hitched a ride up to Nanaimo with my Dad, on his way to play hockey in Parksville (at 70+ years old), and she joined me for the leisurely cruise through the Gulf Islands.

We spent a couple days working our way down to the RVYC Outstation at Long Harbour and then enjoyed two quiet nights there. We rode the bikes into Ganges and got a little exercise as well as internet access. We then sailed down to Lyall harbour on Saturna to visit our son Cameron and his main squeeze, Libby, who are working at the Saturna winery. That turned out to be an exciting day. While we were standing on the docks Libby noticed that a large power boat made fast to a winery buoy was drifting away quickly. She ran up to the bistro to inform the owners while I rowed after it in our inflatable. Once I got onboard I couldn't drop the anchor because it was electric and I couldn't find the main power breaker for it. The keys were in the ignition though so I flashed it up and had my first drive of a gin palace. Anyways I saved the boat and the owner gave me three bottles of Saturna winery's finest. Yeah!

From there we sailed over to the RVYC Outstation at Tsehum Haven (Gair haven) and spent a relaxing night there. The next morning my Mom and Dad came for coffee then we pushed off for Cadboro Bay. A night at Cadboro then home to Esquimalt.

What a long strange trip its been.

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• Aug. 11, 2007 - Some sun at last!

We have finally found some sun, only occasionally, but it does shine once in a while. We left Shearwater with a boat full of groceries and water. Our first stop was in Fancy Cove, a small quiet anchorage in Lama Pass. It was a nice change from the hustle of Shearwater. From there we had a short sail (yes a sail) across to Codville Lagoon. We even sailed in through the gut. There was no tide and a following wind so it was easy.

We dropped the hook in the east end near the trail to the lake. The anchor had not even hit the bottom when Rollie (VE0TI) from Tropic Isle came over for a visit. We spent the next couple hours talking about the coast, cruising and radios. Rollie is a very interesting fellow. Later that evening Nancy and I went over to Tropic lsle for a drink and met Anne Fenje, another RVYC cruiser who was out with her husband and son on there beautiful Niagara 42, Ghost River. We had a nice time chatting.

The next morning I was woken from a deep sleep by a blowing sound and ran up on deck to see two humpback whales in amongst our boats swimming around. That was the closest I had ever been to them. I shouted down to Nancy and we watched them swim off up the lagoon. Both Rollie and Anne were out in their pygamas taking pictures. Of course we forgot our camera! We then hiked up to Sagar Lake. It was beautiful but before we could jump in for a skinny dip Rollie came ambling up. Oh well' modesty is an inconvenience.

We left Codville and sailed farther south enjoying a pleasant sunny day and decided to anchor in Lewall Inlet for the night. The entrance was very narrow and shallow and there were dead fish everywhere. When we got in to the dogleg there were two American power boats anchored with go-fast fish boats tied alongside. We stayed anyway and anchored right in the dogleg. It was a quiet comfortable anchorage except for the dead fish and the power boats generators.

The next day was very foggy. We left Lewall in zero visibility using our GPS and crossed Hakai Pass with about 500 yard vis. Once across the visibility opened up and we motored into Pruth Bay and anchored.

Pruth Bay was much more pleasant this time. The sun was out and we were ready for the long awaited 7 Beaches Hiking Trail. Nancy and I set off and hiked to the sixth beach where we found another couple who insisted that it was the seventh beach. The trail had been challenging so we stopped and stayed there a while. The 7 Beaches hike is a "don't miss" hike. We got back to the boat muddy but happy. Pruth is still one of my favourite places ever.

We left Pruth to set ourselves up for the sail around Cape Caution. Thinking I was running short on fuel we motored up to Dawson's Landing and spent the night on their docks. It was very nice. They have a wonderful "Country Store" that sells everything from bullets to beer. We filled the fuel tanks at $1.18 a litre (I discovered we still had 25 gallons left) and motored south intending to sit in Smith Sound and wait for perfect Cape Caution weather. Once out of Rivers Inlet the wind was a norwester at 18 knots so we made sail and ran along ahead of it at 7 knots right around the corner into Skull Cove. It was a great sail! Skull Cove proved to be a perfect little hideaway from the wind. We spent a quiet night there and the next morning made sail again and sailed to Port Hardy on one long starboard tack.

In Port Hardy we met Jack (VE7DFJ) and Judy in Majendie and Derek and Pat in Nokomis. The six of us went out to a Port Hardy hotspot for dinner. It was amusing and tasty but very peculiar. The staff all seemd like they were just learning how to work in restaurants. The orders were all confused and the drinks were wrong. They did make everything right eventually but it was strange. Funny.

That night, while we were moored alongside the public dock in Port Hardy, a fish boat came in and off-loaded its catch upwind of us. We both woke up smelling the strong smell of dead fish and the next morning the entire boat stank. We sailed immediately and spent all day scrubbing the boat inside and out. We got a slip in Port McNeill and scrubbed it again there. It was horrible. We did get the boat cleaner than ever and there is no more smell.

From McNeill we sailed over to Alert Bay to visit the town and cultural centre. It was excellent. A lot of the places we had visited on the coast made more sense with after the visit to Umista in Alert Bay. What a terrible history we have with the native people. We didn't stay the night in Alert Bay but moved to an anchorage in the Plumper Group hoping to get a picture of Plumper in the Plumper Islands the next day. Unfortunately, when we sailed the next day it was zero visibility and we didn't even see the islands. Bummer.

We crossed Blackfish Sound and the vis cleared up as we entered the Broughtons. We dropped our hook in Duck Cove in Port Elizabeth after a great sail up Knight Inlet.

The next morning we sailed off the hook and up around Gilford Island to Bond Sound looking for bears. We anchored in Bond Sound at the edge of the drop off until dusk but we didn't see any bears. I took our kyak up the river until it got scarey but still no bears. We moved over to Wahkana Bay for the night. It was a very sheltered anchorage with one other boat.

From there we motored over to Kwatsi to meet Jack and Judy again for potluck on the dock. Another great time at Kwatsi.

That brings us to now. I am sitting in Pierre's Lodge in Pierre's Bay waiting for the pig to be roasted. Tonight is "Speak Like a Pirate" night at the Pierre's Bay Pig Roast. I've been praticing all day, "Damn your eyes!" Arggghhhhh!

More later.

Gary

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• Jul. 28, 2007 - Bishop's Bay party boats

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• Jul. 28, 2007 - Nancy catching a Sockeye

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• Jul. 28, 2007 - Klemtu Bighouse

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• Jul. 28, 2007 - Hartley Bay Cultural Center

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• Jul. 28, 2007 - Still Raining

Here we are back in Shearwater. We have spent the last three weeks north of here in the remotest part of the BC coast. From Ocean Falls we sailed up to Eucott Hot Springs. We enjoyed a couple days there even though the weather turned warm and the springs were too hot to get in! The horse flies were awful.
After Eucott we sailed back to Ocean Falls and filled up with their perfect water and left again. It was a miserable day with huge winds so we turned back and sat out the storm at Ocean Falls, comfortable and warm. Our second try leaving took us up through Troup Narrows where we anchored in Discovery Passage. The water was quite warm and we had a swim over the side. Very refreshing! We put the crab trap down and when we hauled it there were no crab but several shrimp so we quickly swapped it out for the shrimp trap. The next morning we enjoyed a fresh shrimp breakfast. This is really the life. While there we were visited by Jean from Po-Tolo (K7BIW) and had a great chat with her about places to see on the coast.
From there we made a quick stop in Sheawater for groceries then sailed for St John Harbour where we heard the fish were running. That was a success. We caught a small pink on the way out and ate it. We also caught a large coho and put it back. The next day, sailing north from St John, Nancy caught a fair sized sockeye that fed us for two days. Mmmm.
Our next stop was Klemtu were we worked on our new fuel leak. It turned out to be a bad flare on a fuel line. "Grant", the Klemtu motorhead, lent me the only flaring tool in town and I cut off the bad flare, re-did the flare, assembled the line and we were leak free. Many thanks to Grant for his advice and help. While in Klemtu we met Francis, the local story teller who took us for a tour of the Klemtu Big House. What a great place. We enjoyed Francis' tales and the impressive carving in the Big House. Thanks Francis.
From Klemtu we sailed north to Butedale and met Lou Simoneau. What a fun stop. Lou likes company and has a neat setup in Butedale.
The next day (dates are vague) we motored north to Bishop's Bay Hot Springs. We got their in good time and were able to berth alongside the little dock. It seemed like a blessing at the time. The next day the trailer park crowd came down from Kitimat in two small Bayliners loaded with coolers and booze. They had a very loud night while parked right ahead of us on the dock. We were happy when they left but no sooner had they gone when their cousins pulled up and did the same thing the next night. It took a little of the fun out of Bishop's Bay but the Hot Springs were nice and we enjoyed most of our time there.
From Bishop's we sailed around Gribble Island to Hartley Bay looking for some fresh food. There was nothing for sale at Hartley but we did eat out at "Nicks". Nick, from Toronto???, has opened his house as a little burger joint and the burgers were good. It was a little unusual sitting in his kitchen eating them but we enjoyed the visit. We filled up with Hartley water, reportedly one of the best soures of water on the coast, and sailed south. After a couple months in almost continuous rain we decided it was time to find some dry weather. While sailing over the site of the sinking of the Queen of the North we caught another big salmon but put it back because there was too much for the two of us. We motored and sailed down to Butedale again but Lou wasn't there so we had a free night on his dock.
From Butedale we sailed down to Klemtu and saw many humpback whales feeding along the shoreline. We caught another small pink just outside of Klemtu but it was infested with lice. The locals at Klemtu told us that it was because of the fish farm in the area. Sad! We chucked it back.
While in Klemtu we met several interesting folks on the other boats and had drinks on Nokomis of the Orient with the owners Derek and Pat. They were wonderful hosts and very experienced sailors who had a lifetime of stories to tell. We had an interesting evening.
From Klemtu we sailed intending to go to Oscar Cove to look at some bears that were reported there. We arrived late after a boisterous sail and the cove was full of power boats, bummer. We continued on to Bella Bella and spent the night on their fuel dock for free. At the Band Store we bought a huge load of groceries and booze and then departed for Sheawater where we linked up with our friends Barrie and Sandra in Passat II for an evening on the town. That was last night. Now I am sitting in the laundromat writing this. We will leave late today or tomorrow and start making our way down to Kvai and Hakai and then to Pierre's for "Speak Like a Pirate" day on the 11th of August Yeehaw.

Still having fun.
Gary

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