British Columbia – Riveted

Flotilla-ing to Alaska Again

Laura Domela — Thu, 10 May 2018 15:48:11 +0000

It’s that time of year again, and we’re leading a flotilla of boats up the Inside Passage from the San Juan Islands to SE Alaska! We’ll be documenting this trip on our Slowboat website, so for more than just an occasional highlight reel, head over there and subscribe if you want the day-to-day reports! We’re on Day 5 (of 35!) now and it’s shaping up to be a great adventure!

Sunrise as we left Silva Bay on Gabriola Island headed across the Strait of Georgia

Sunrise on the Strait of Georgia

BC Ferry, Strait of Georgia BC

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BC Ferry, Strait of Georgia BC

Dall’s Porpoises surfing our bow

Anchored in Squirrel Cove, BC

Public dock Squirrel Cove BC

Eagles fishing between Yuculta Rapids and Gillard Pass

Airship and Safe Harbour (the Slowboat raft!) in Forward Harbour, BC

We hope you’ll join us!

All Tucked In (but not for long!)

Laura Domela — Wed, 27 Sep 2017 19:57:44 +0000

Before leaving Victoria on Tuesday, Kevin and I walked over to old town to get some breakfast at Jam Cafe. A local had recommended this spot earlier in the week, and I in turn had passed that recommendation on to boat neighbors Jeff and Kim a few days prior (hi guys!!). Jeff and Kim went for brunch on Sunday and raved about it, so we really had no choice but to check it out before leaving, and we’re glad we did! The food was delicious, and we’ll definitely go back next time we’re in town. (I had an off-menu special — pulled pork on a crunchy tortilla, topped with poached eggs and some sauce I forgot what kind and avocado and I dunno what else but it was amazing, and Kevin had a “Charlie Bowl”–Jam’s version of a hash with crumbled biscuit, hash browns, diced ham, bacon, corn salsa, peas, green onions, cheddar and sausage gravy topped with two sunny side eggs. I liked mine the best.)

The cruise back to Anacortes from Victoria was foggy then sunny but the whole time calm calm calm!

The forecast for Tuesday for the Strait of Juan de Fuca was spot-on…and a great day to cross back into the U.S. We cleared U.S. Customs easily and by phone (yay Nexus!) and returned to Anacortes right around 4pm.

In the morning, we got up fairly early to start the process of cleaning and unpacking. I began by washing Airship, and Kevin went to see if the truck would start. Unfortunately, the battery was dead, in spite of the solar trickle charger we’d left on it (the one that worked great last summer), so he took it (in a dock cart) over to a local shop to have charged and/or replaced if that didn’t work. (That worked…battery’s great and the truck started fine with it after a couple hours of charging.)

After Airship was shiny, we needed to address the leak in the dinghy. We thought we’d found the tiny pinprick hole (ahem, someone wasn’t careful with their fishhook!) and patched it successfully, but the port side was still slowly losing air. We removed the outboard and took it in a cart up to the truck (we’ll take it back to the shop where we bought it for its annual maintenance) and then pulled the dinghy up onto the dock for inspection. After spraying soapy water all around the area on and adjacent to the first hole we patched, we found TWO more tiny pinpricks that were leaking air. One patch covered them both, and we think we’re good to go. (Be careful of those fishhooks!)

While we were working on finding the leak, we also started a bit of dinghy cleaning…which turned into a whole ‘nother project. We’d never been able to find anything that worked WELL for cleaning the dinghy…everything we tried required SO. MUCH. SCRUBBING! Our dinghy is mounted on a davit off the swim step, and the port bow of it gets a bit of exhaust while under way, and that gray builds up fast. For some reason, we’d never tried (until now) this cleaner that West Marine carries, called (creatively): Inflatable Boat Cleaner (and Protectant…comes in a two-pack).

We used one entire bottle of the cleaner and went back for two more — it worked so well!! We’re going to have a clean dinghy from now on!

So, after washing Airship (which is always a good way to quell any thoughts of a bigger boat…at least for a day or so), scrubbing the Zodiac, removing the outboard, several trips to deal with the truck battery issue, and I don’t know how many trips hauling stuff in dock carts to the truck, cleaning the interior of Airship so she’s all ready for whatever comes next…we were ready to head back to Portland…at 5:30pm. We stopped for dinner at Coa Mexican Eatery in Mt. Vernon (figuring the longer we waited, the less traffic through Seattle we’d hit…plus, those prawns!) and returned to Portland just after 10:30pm. We unloaded the truck, had a glass of wine, and then hit the sack. Long day!

After some work trips and a couple photo shoots in my studio here in Portland over the next two weeks, we’ll be heading back up to meet friends in the San Juans. I already can’t wait. We have a lovely home here in Portland, but my heart is on the water.

Victoria, B.C. | Gorge Waterway and Fisherman’s Wharf

Laura Domela — Sun, 24 Sep 2017 22:50:49 +0000

The other day Kevin and I decided to take the dinghy out to explore the Gorge. The Gorge Waterway is a narrow tidal inlet that connects Victoria Harbour to Portage Inlet. Here’s what it looks like on the chart (with the yellow line being our cruise from Causeway Floats, up and back about 7.2 nautical miles):

From Victoria’s Inner Harbour the scenery changes from city, to industrial, to urban nature park. The speed limit is 5 knots, so we just puttered up about 3.5 miles and then back. It was a beautiful day for it!

As we returned to the Inner Harbour, the bridge was up to let a big tug and barge through.

This handsome vessel was docked nearby and we got a good look at her from the dinghy. Launched in 1930 as “The Chieftain” (she’s now called the St. Eval), she spent 60 years operating under the British flag escorting British warships during WWII. In 1992, she was purchased by Dennis Washington, and after extensive renovation (including a hot tub on the top deck with wood that matches the pilothouse perfectly!) she now operates as a personal pleasure yacht and is based here in Victoria.

Evening light on The Empress:

On Friday, Kevin flew to NY to cover the World Maker Faire for EE Journal, and I stayed with Airship to hold down the fort.

This morning I walked down to Fisherman’s Wharf along the David Foster Harbour Pathway, which winds along the waterfront of the Inner Harbour.

Fisherman’s Wharf is about a mile walk from Causeway Floats, and it was a perfect, quiet Sunday morning for a walk. I left Airship around 10:30am, thinking I might have a late breakfast/early lunch at one of the little floating restaurants in the wharf.

After reading several reviews I settled on the Floating Fish Store. I ordered one halibut taco and six Kusshi oysters with a cucumber jalapeño mignonette. It was all fantastic! So fantastic, in fact, that I brought a dozen Kusshis back to the boat, along with a sockeye salmon rice wrap and a cup of salmon chowder to have for dinner tonight.

View from my brunch

Halibut taco and Kusshi oysters from the Floating Fish House

(What I didn’t realize when I left the dock is that I’d be missing the very last Water Taxi Water Ballet of the summer, that took place RIGHT BEHIND WHERE WE’RE DOCKED! How did I not know this was going on? So disappointing!)

As I made my way back along the waterfront trail, once I could see Airship and the Empress Hotel, I could also see there were multiple fire engines with their lights flashing up on Government Street (between the Causeway Floats and the Empress Hotel). The fire engines had ladders up, but I couldn’t tell what was going on. I didn’t see smoke, so that was a good sign!

As I got closer, I could see an enormous Canadian flag hanging from two of the ladders, and as I returned to Airship, I watched as the firemen raised the ladders on two more fire trucks, and then spread an equally large British Columbian flag from those.

I decided to take a walk down to the art supply store near Chinatown (Opus Art Supply, if you’re interested…very well-stocked art supply store!), and on the way, check out what was going on up top! Turns out it was a British Columbia Law Enforcement Memorial. The street was closed off and there were all types of law enforcement and military, along with some really good bagpipers (unlike that one guy).

They paraded down Government Street and over to the front lawn of the Parliament buildings where they assembled for the memorial (complete with rifle fire and trumpets and more bagpipes).

I can say that being docked downtown is most definitely not boring!

Airship in Victoria B.C.

Laura Domela — Tue, 19 Sep 2017 01:27:56 +0000

We arrived in Victoria on Sunday afternoon. We’re now docked at the Causeway Floats, directly in front of the Empress Hotel. It’s so great being right in the inner harbour here…it’s touristy, yes, but from a distance — there’s a coded gate at the top of the ramp. It’s not an inexpensive moorage, but totally worth the slight splurge…so much to do nearby!

We both thought we remembered the Empress being covered in thick ivy, and after a little Googling, we learned we were right. They removed the ivy not that long ago, embarked on a brick restoration project, and I believe the hotel had its “grand reopening” in June of this year. The building’s ivy coat was definitely a fabulous look, but apparently rodents had taken up residence in the ivy and the vines were wreaking havoc on the facade. (Here’s an image of what it looked like with its ivy coat.)

After we were settled in, we headed out to stretch our legs and explore the city a bit.

The water taxis here are adorable!

We had a late lunch/early dinner at Tacofino, and were not disappointed…at all. The tacos were better than we remembered from the original taco truck spot in Tofino! We ordered four tacos total and shared: one crispy ling cod (cabbage, chipotle mayo, salsa fresca), one tuna (soy, sesame, wakame, ginger, wasabi mayo), one crispy chicken (guacamole, black chili oil, radish, sprouts, cilantro, green onion), and one steak (pickled carrot/onion/daikon, sriracha mayo, cilantro). We were prepared to like the fish tacos the best, but we both REALLY liked the crispy chicken and steak tacos.

Crispy chicken in front, steak in back

If you don’t eat meat, they have some creative vegetarian taco options: a tempura yam taco with chipotle mayo and salsa fresca, and a bean taco with crema, salsa fresca, and queso. Most taco options appear to also be available as burrito options. This is a VERY casual spot. It’s a brick and mortar place, but it feels closer to the taco truck vibe of the original Tofino location. Anyway…Tacofino. We love it. We’ll probably go back for another round while we’re here!

The Empress, behind the wall, with businesspeople

Last night’s view from Airship (Parliament buildings on the left)

Parliament buildings at night, taken from the pilothouse of Airship

Today we got up on the early side and worked most of the morning until we were hungry, which was about noon, so we walked up and visited the ramen joint we scoped during yesterday’s walk. It’s called the Menbow Ramen Bar and it’s just around the corner from Tacofino. Everything is made in-house. We both ordered the spicy pork broth ramen (toppings of soft boiled egg, fish cake, BBQ pork, seaweed, bean sprouts, etc.) and it was fantastic.

Back at Airship we cranked out some more work and we’ll probably just hang here and do dinner in tonight. (So nice to have the option of meals cooked by someone else! Ah, the benefits of boating in the city!)

We’ll be joined tomorrow by some friends (Carol and Parker, on Akeeva, from our Slowboat flotilla to Alaska), and we have a few more fun things on the list for the next couple of days: the Royal BC Museum, the Maritime Museum, Butchart Gardens, more tacos, and dinner out at Il Terrazzo on Wednesday night (with some laundry-doing and grocery shopping thrown in for good measure).

Exploring the West Side of Vancouver Island | Part 2

Laura Domela — Sat, 16 Sep 2017 23:30:15 +0000

From Hot Springs Cove we cruised over to Clayoquot Sound. There are many little inlets and anchorages to explore (as well as one of our favorite towns on Vancouver Island — Tofino. Our first stop was Bottleneck Bay, which as the name suggests, has a narrow entrance channel (we never saw less than 25 feet under the keel). Inside is a large, secure anchorage.

Bottleneck Bay anchorage from the air, Clayoquot Sound

Bottleneck Bay, Clayoquot Sound

We spent the following night in Bacchante Bay, and then continued on to Tofino. Tofino is a great town to visit, and as I said in the Part 1 post, the last time we were in Tofino was with the Airstream in 2014. Arriving by boat is a whole different ball game.

Tofino waterfront

Tofino really doesn’t cater to pleasure boats, at all. We tried hailing the harbormaster at the public docks but received no answer. The transient docks appeared full, with small boats rafted two and three deep. We continued down to Crab Dock which looked like it had space, but the current was running to about 4 knots, and the narrow channel there is bordered by sand bars and smaller islands, all with small whale-watching and fishing boats buzzing past at 8-10 knots while you try to figure out where to go. We called Tofino Resort and Marina (formerly Weigh West Marina), and they said they had space for us and told us where to tie up. This facility has recently been completely remodeled and updated. Included in the moorage rate (which is a bit expensive) are power, water, laundry, WiFi, and showers. The staff is friendly and helpful, and they take reservations. We would definitely stay here in the future.

While in Tofino we reprovisioned with groceries, beer, and wine. We also dined out! We had oysters in the afternoon at Tough City Sushi on the waterfront, an evening cocktail (cedar-infused rye!) at Wolf in the Fog, and a delicious late dinner at Shelter.

On to Barkley Sound! Our first anchorage was a lovely, well-protected spot in the Broken Group, behind Turtle Island. We anchored and then took the dinghy out to explore.

Topiary islet near our anchorage in the Broken Group, Barkely Sound

View from our anchorage near Turtle Island, Broken Group in Barkley Sound

Next we headed inside a bit further, and anchored in a spot next to Refuge Island so we could go up Lucky Creek with the dinghies:

Heading out in the dinghies to see what’s up Lucky Creek (anchored at Refuge Bay, Barkley Sound)

At the head…a waterfall and some tallish cliffs

Lucky Creek waterfall

We secured the dinghies to the rocks and climbed up to see what was at the top of the waterfall

…more pools and more waterfalls!

…and a rope swing! If it had been hotter out, we’d have been swimming!

Back at Airship and Safe Harbour, anchored near Refuge Island

We had a calm and sunny cruise back out to the Broken Group, and anchored in Effingham Bay, right on the edge of the ocean.

View from our anchorage in Effingham Bay, Barkely Sound

We beached the dinghies on this sand spit/islet near our anchorage at Effingham Bay and walked around a bit.

More island topiary

Sea caves on the outside of Austin Island, near our anchorage at Effingham Bay, Barkley Sound

Another sandy islet, Broken Group, Barkley Sound

Beach textures

Scratched up bull kelp

The next morning we cruised from Effingham Bay over to the town of Bamfield. Bamfield is a tiny town separated into two halves that border Bamfield Harbour — the east side is where the road is, and the west side is on a peninsula. All the buildings are linked by boardwalks and is not connected to the main part of town by road at all. It’s really a very charming little town! We tied to the government dock on the west side and took off on foot to explore the boardwalk trail.

Bamfield has a small general store on the west side that had a surprising amount of great-looking produce!

Next we took the dinghies across to the east side, which was fine but not as charming. There is another store (called “The Market”) that also had quite a bit of produce. (Is it obvious what we care about as cruisers in remote areas? Fresh produce!!!) We stopped at the pub (called “The Pub”) and had a beer and some yam fries, and then headed back to the boats for some work and a late supper.

It was looking like our window to do the last (long) leg of the outside (and into the Strait of Juan de Fuca) was going to be Saturday, which is why we decided to come into Bamfield instead of staying out in the islands. It’s a good jumping off point, and though we could spend weeks more exploring out here, we need to be in Victoria by the 20th…so we’ll be a little early, but at least we won’t get stuck! The trip is about 75 nautical miles (and about 10 hours underway) from Bamfield to Sooke, and fortunately for us, the forecast for the morning until late afternoon was for minimal winds, low swells, and fog.

Leaving Bamfield at first light:

As soon as we got outside of Barkley Sound we entered the thick fog bank:

Fog can make for a rather boring cruise. There’s not much to see, but you need to keep even more of a watch than on a good visibility day. We have GPS and radar and AIS, and with calm conditions we were pretty low on complaints for the day.

Happily breaking up the boredom were two Orcas (not together) — one younger one (splashy and active, and very close to Airship)…

…and another larger one with a much taller dorsal fin, further away:

We also saw more than a dozen humpbacks (most of them in the fog), including two enormous ones right in our path. We stopped and waited until they dove.

Entering the Strait of Juan de Fuca…conditions were still calm, and the fog eventually cleared for us, but remained thick at the east entrance. Approaching Sooke Harbour:

We anchored just on the inside of Whiffen Spit, which is a lovely location but for all the crab traps and speeding fishing boats zooming in and out all day. Those little guys can throw quite a wake, which is not awesome when you’re rafted to another boat!

Kevin and I decided to see if we could get in for an early dinner at the Sooke Harbour House. (Since we were anchored right out front basically, and could easily dinghy over and back…we figured we’d never be closer!) We managed to score the corner window table, with a killer view of the water, and opted for the three course dinner plus wine pairings. Everything was fabulous, and the food was better than we remembered from when we visited three years ago. Definitely worth a visit!

After dinner we walked the length of the spit and back, and then dinghied home.

From Sooke, we’re heading over to Victoria for a few days. Another new destination for Airship!

Driftwood fort on the beach at Whiffen Spit

Exploring the West Side of Vancouver Island | Part 1

Laura Domela — Fri, 08 Sep 2017 22:20:18 +0000

As you might already know, we decided to take a different route home this summer: the west coast of Vancouver Island. Soon after we bought Airship (September 2014) we attended the Seattle Boat Show in January of 2015. We thought it would be a good idea to attend some boating/education seminars, since we were relatively new to boating (and especially boating in the Pacific Northwest). When deciding which seminars to attend, we opted out of the Alaska seminars and instead went to the presentation on cruising the west side of Vancouver Island. Closer to home, we thought. Alaska’s far, we thought. We’re too new, we thought. And then — we ended up cruising Airship to Alaska just several months later, in May 2015. The west side of Vancouver Island turned out to be the area that sounded the most advanced!

Since then, we have spent 5 months per year for the past three years cruising up and down the Inside Passage to SE Alaska, been underway for over two thousand hours, and have over 13,000 nautical miles under our belts. After all that, the west side of Vancouver Island sounded like a great idea — more remote areas full of new places to explore!

Vancouver Island is enormous, and stretches 300 miles from the Strait of Juan de Fuca to Queen Charlotte Sound. The inside route we’ve taken numerous times lies east of Vancouver Island is therefore is protected from the Pacific Ocean.

The west side the island has five main sounds along its coast: Quatsino Sound, Kyoquot Sound, Nootka Sound, Clayoquot Sound, and Barkley Sound. These sounds each have quite a few interesting anchorages, small settlements, and miles and miles of remote shoreline. Between these sounds, however, you’ve got to hop out into the open ocean. The distances between are relatively short, but the addition of swells and thousands of miles of fetch can quickly make things uncomfortable.

So far, we’ve had an incredible time with some great weather, and the most challenging bits (like coming around Cape Scott, rounding Brooks Peninsula and Estevan Point) have been calm, foggy, and easy.

Here’s a brief overview in pictures of our first week or so on the outside:

Queen Charlotte Sound, on our way to Cape Scott

Shoreline as we entered Sea Otter Cove

Leaving Sea Otter Cove the next morning

Exploring the Marble River by dinghy. We anchored in Varney Bay in Quatsino Sound the first night, and Julian Cove the next. Lots of rain while we were in Quatsino Sound!

After rounding Brooks Peninsula in the fog, here we are approaching Columbia Cove as it burns off.

Airship and Safe Harbour anchored/rafted in Columbia Cove. Taken from the kayak. We arrived by 10am and had the whole sunny day to explore!

Aerial shot of our anchorage, Columbia Cove

There’s a trail that that leads from the inner part of Columbia Cove out to beautiful sandy beaches!

The Bunsby Islands are a great area to explore by dinghy and/or kayak

Kevin on the rocky landscape

The Bunsby Islands looking almost tropical!

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The Bunsby Islands looking almost tropical!

Exploring one of the many rivers in the Bunsbys at high tide.

Wolf tracks on the beach. (We also saw cougar tracks, and bear tracks…well, and the black bears that made those bear tracks!)

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Wolf tracks on the beach. (We also saw cougar tracks, and bear tracks…well, and the black bears that made those bear tracks!)

Airship on the public dock at Walters Cove. We picked up fresh produce (and ice cream!) at the little general store here.

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Airship on the public dock at Walters Cove. We picked up fresh produce (and ice cream!) at the little general store here.

Portrait of the Queen in the Java the Hutt cafe at Walters Cove.

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Portrait of the Queen in the Java the Hutt cafe at Walters Cove.

Taking the dinghies ashore to hike over to Rugged Point.

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Taking a dinghy ashore to hike over to Rugged Point.

Intense foam churned up by waves as they crash over nearby rocks. On our way to Nuchatlitz, at the entrance to Esperanza Inlet.

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Intense foam churned up by waves as they crash over nearby rocks. On our way to Nuchatlitz, at the entrance to Esperanza Inlet.

Colorful west coast sunset, Nuchatlitz

Airship and Safe Harbour anchored in Nuchatliz. Sunset from the drone.

Nootka Lightstation in Friendly Cove/Yuquot

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Nootka Lightstation in Friendly Cove/Yuquot

Native carvings and totems inside the old church at Friendly Cove/Ququot

Kevin and Sam at Hot Springs Cove,

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Kevin and Sam, Hot Springs Cove, Clayoquot Sound

Sunset at the public dock, Hot Springs Cove. Airship and Safe Harbour are anchored just past the right edge of this shot.

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Sunset at the public dock, Hot Springs Cove. Airship and Safe Harbour are anchored just outside the right edge of the photo. I used no filter on this shot — I think the color is largely due to smoke from nearby fires.

We are still in Clayoquot Sound and will be heading to Tofino in a day or two. The last time we were in Tofino we were there with the Airstream and were seriously considering getting into this whole boating thing. (THAT worked out well, didn’t it??)

After Tofino we’ll stop in Uclulet and then head into Barkely Sound where we will probably spend a week exploring before heading around to Sooke and Victoria. For more detailed posts, keep up with Kevin and Sam and I over at Slowboat.com.

The Abandoned Cannery at Namu | British Columbia

Laura Domela — Thu, 31 Aug 2017 16:28:36 +0000

Yep, we’re behind in the posting. We had a successful Dixon Entrance crossing, spent the night in Prince Rupert, then headed down the outside of the Inside Passage to see some new places. Since this part of our trip south is to primarily to scout new territory for future Slowboat flotillas, we’ve mostly been posting updates to Slowboat. But I don’t want to leave you out, so there are some links if you feel like you’ve been missing something!

And now, on to Namu! We anchored back in Rock Inlet (a mile or so past the abandoned cannery), and then dinghied back out to the site for some exploring.

The first cannery at Namu opened in 1893. BC Packers bought the operation in 1928 and developed it into a sprawling complex that included salmon processing plants, giant warehouses, a store, a power plant, and housing for workers and their families. All of it was linked by boardwalks and a good portion of it was constructed on pilings over the water. The cannery partially burned down in a fire in 1962, but was rebuilt and went on operating until…well, I’m not sure. I found reference to it closing at times in the 70s and the 80s. The dates and history is a little fuzzy for such a “known” place.

In any case, the pilings and docks are presently in various stages of falling apart, so we beached the dinghy on the rocks and climbed up the hillside to gain access.

This place has a seriously creepy vibe, and after reading this Wikipedia entry, I get why:

“In its early iteration the cannery at Namu employed a race-based policy of labour; with groups of First Nations, Japanese, Chinese and “Whites” – and was for a time racially and sexually segregated, including but not limited to whites-only bathrooms and the management positions being reserved for Caucasian men.”

Okay, maybe it’s not just that. We’ve been to abandoned settlements with crumbling buildings before, but there’s something about the feel of this place that’s different…the disrepair, the way so much stuff was just left here, combined with the giant piles (and I mean GIANT) of empty alcohol bottles and occasional shotgun shell, well…you get the idea. It feels like somewhere that someone slowly went crazy…like in The Shining. But maybe I’m reading too much into it. I’ll show you what I mean:

There are fire extinguishers everywhere. Lots of them. On the roofs, inside buildings, sitting out in the yard (with bullet holes!).

There’s one building that has an insane amount of stuff covered in barnacles, but this is not where the barnacles grew. This stuff has been “collected” presumably from adjacent shorelines and brought into this room. It’s weird, and I don’t get it.

There were tables and tables and TABLES covered with broken pottery and bottles and other random things…covered with barnacles.

Ping pong, anyone?

This giant dead tree structure with birdhouses was actually bolted to the side of this concrete wall. Pretty arty, actually:

The general store:

Most of the paperbacks left here were Harlequin romance novels.

The location is lovely, really:

But I mention PILES of empty booze containers? This is just one of many.

These cans all say “Shrimp Meat” on the labels:

I found a bunch of ready-made still lifes…

As I mentioned, there’s much evidence of people hanging out here, shooting at stuff:

“Danger, Sulphuric Acid” — eeek!

It was definitely an interesting stop. I’m sure the expense to clean this place up is quite large, but boy does it need cleaning up!

Flotilla to Alaska | Update from Prince Rupert

Laura Domela — Tue, 06 Jun 2017 14:07:13 +0000

Day 16 of the Slowboat Flotilla to Alaska and we’re about halfway to Sitka. We’ve had some fantastic adventures since I last checked in, and we’ve documented all of them over on Slowboat, but if you aren’t following the flotilla over there, here are some highlights:

Otters at Cape Caution

Orcas outside Fury Cove, in Fitz Hugh Sound

Akeeva (Nordhavn 50) with orca

The flotilla (plus a few extras) anchored in Fury Cove

The dam at Ocean Falls BC

We had a great visit to Ocean Falls that included catching about 10 big Dungeness crabs between us (some of which ended up as crab enchiladas for the whole group the next night), as well as exploring the spooky insides of some abandoned buildings.

North Beach by drone, Pruth Bay, BC

We visited Butedale, an old cannery in various states of ruin (with plans for restoration), and hiked and bushwacked a very muddy, overgrown trail up to the lake.

Butedale, BC

Butedale Lake

We’ve had about a solid week of rain and gale warnings, but this morning in Prince Rupert we awoke to this:

Our plan is to head out in a bit for a Dixon Entrance crossing, but we’re waiting to see if a few weather reporting stations report a trend of lessening winds…we’ll stop over in Foggy Bay tonight if we go, and then on into Ketchikan the next day. So far, conditions might be favoring another night in Prince Rupert, so we’ll just wait and see. Always nicer not to get tossed around out there if you don’t have to, and we’re in no rush.

Flotilla to Alaska | Update from Port Harvey BC

Laura Domela — Fri, 26 May 2017 16:22:05 +0000

Here are a few highlights from the past few days as we made our way from Silva Bay to Pender Harbour, then up to Squirrel Cove, Shoal Bay, and finally Port Harvey, where we are today.

Squirrel Bay anchorage, taken with the Mavic Pro drone.

The weather has been wonderful for the most part, and when the wind picked up we were safely tucked in at Squirrel Cove. On Wednesday, we slept in and caught the afternoon slack at Dent Rapids (after going early through Yuculta Rapids and Gillard Pass), and arrived at Shoal Bay in time for happy hour on the dock.

Yesterday we were a little concerned about the transit in Johnstone Strait because the forecast was for strong NW winds of 15-25 knots, increasing to 25-30 knots in the afternoon. But when we arrived, it was blowing about 10 knots with maybe 1-2 foot chop (with an occasional 3). The wind was right on the nose, so it was a bit of a wet ride, but no big deal.

We arrived at Port Harvey with enough time to do a little droning and a little kayaking before meeting for happy hour on the dock, followed by a delicious pizza night in George and Gail’s (almost finished) new restaurant.

This morning we’re headed over to Pierre’s at Echo Bay! Everyone is having such a great time!

Remember, we’re blogging daily and in more detail over on Slowboat, so if you want more, follow us over there while we’re leading the flotilla up to Sitka.

The Flotilla is Underway!

Laura Domela — Mon, 22 May 2017 14:37:33 +0000

And we’re off! The Slowboat 2017 Flotilla to Alaska officially left Roche Harbor yesterday morning and had a beautiful, calm cruise up to Silva Bay Resort and Marina on Gabriola Island.

This is such a great group of people! All of the flotilla participants have already spent time in the Gulf Islands, so we won’t dilly dally here for more than a night. There’s a ton to see, but we figure getting everyone on to new territory is the best plan!

We’ll be blogging in more detail over at Slowboat.com for the duration of this flotilla, but I’ll plan to post some highlights here at Riveted every few days. If you want ALL of the detail, follow us here, and also at Slowboat! (Here’s a link to the Slowboat facebook page.)

Airship tucked in at Silva Bay:

The view from dinner up at the Silva Bay Restaurant and Pub last night:

We’ll be crossing the Strait of Georgia this morning, and going into Pender Harbour for the night (and for groceries).

Conditions sound ideal for crossing the strait this morning: wind calm, seas rippled. Let’s go!