Middle Watch Musings
• 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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