British Columbia – Riveted

Lund | BC

Laura Domela — Sun, 25 Sep 2016 03:54:43 +0000

Melanie Cove was foggy and rainy in the morning yesterday when we woke up. We didn’t leave until after noon…and since it was later in the day, we decided to stop in Lund and cross the strait on Saturday when the wind was supposed to be light. Plus, we like Lund!

There was room at the end of B dock at the Lund Small Craft Harbour. We settled in, did some work, and then two guys from a nearby sailboat (called “Pony”…its dinghy is called “Dog”) started chatting with Kevin about boats and Lund and stuff. Our default plan had been to walk over to The Boardwalk Restaurant for dinner, but these guys highly recommended a restaurant called Laughing Oyster, about a 15 minute cab ride away. They said we just go up and get the number for Martin’s Taxi off the bulletin board and he’d take us over there. Martin’s Taxi is a 1947 Hudson that was apparently painted up like a taxi for some Hollywood movie, and then he somehow got it, and now he just “gives people rides” in exchange for a donation to the charity his wife volunteers for (the SPCA, I believe).

We made a reservation for 7pm at Laughing Oyster, and then at about 6pm we called Martin, but it turns out Martin was unavailable (apparently very rare). Awwwwww. I called to tell the restaurant and they said “Oh no problem. Martin’s actually having dinner here tonight. Louisa can come pick you up.” (So awesome.)

Here’s the view from our table. That’s the patio seating there, and down from that is the public dock:

Upon arrival, we learned that it was “Beggar’s Banquet” night (or something like that). There was a buffet, and music…the musicians played for their dinner and tips (I think). It was fantastic. The place was totally full (we got the last table), the food was delicious, and the music was great. What a treat! Oh and guess who was sitting at the table just over from us? Martin and his wife…celebrating their 55th anniversary. I’d say that’s a good reason not to be driving the taxi!

It was a lovely night.

This is David Bowes on the left (also the executive chef at Laughing Oyster) and Sam Murrie (I think that’s how his last name was spelled) on the right. They were both very good and we thoroughly enjoyed the evening.

In the morning we headed up to the harbour office to pay our moorage (about 23 bucks Canadian) and then walked over to Nancy’s Bakery to pick up one of their famous blackberry cinnamon rolls. (This sugar thing is going to have to stop soon.)

Actually, as soon as we went inside I decided I might rather have something savory, and save my cinnamon roll for a later snack, so we both had breakfast and then took a cinnamon roll to go for later. I ordered an omelet with avocado, spinach, and lox:

Kevin had a huevos rancheros with black beans and chorizo:

Both were delicious (and pretty!)

Back down at the harbour…Giderdun II loading a truck carrying lumber:

We decided to go all the way to Nanaimo today…60 nautical miles or so. We figured we had the time and the strait was supposed to be fairly calm (which it was, until it wasn’t):

The wind picked up a bit this afternoon. We had probably 20 knot gusts for a bit and maybe 3ft moderate chop. A wet ride, but not too bad really (especially compared to last year on the same stretch).

We pulled into Nanaimo Harbour and anchored just off of Newcastle Island, then dinghied into the Dinghy Dock Pub for dinner and a pint. Tomorrow I think we’ll aim for Cabbage Island, and then after that…perhaps back to Anacortes!

More Melanie Cove Shenanigans | BC

Laura Domela — Fri, 23 Sep 2016 02:58:54 +0000

We took the Inspire 1 up this afternoon for some aerial photos. My camera controller was glitching out a little bit, but I managed to take a few nice overhead shots that should give you a good sense of this place:

After doing some more work, we decided to go hike some of the trails here from the head of Melanie Cove. If you’ve read the book The Curve of Time by M. Wylie Blanchet, you’ll know about Phil the Frenchman’s cabin right here in this area.

[About the book, from amazon.com: The Curve of Time is a biography and astonishing adventure story of a woman who, left a widow in 1927, packed her five children onto a 25-foot boat and cruised the coastal waters of British Columbia, summer after summer.Muriel Wylie Blanchet acted single-handedly as skipper, navigator, engineer and, of course, mum, as she saw her crew through encounters with tides, fog, storms, rapids, cougars and bears. She sharpened in her children a special interest in Haida culture and in nature itself. In this book, she left us with a sensitive and compelling account of their journeys.]

Anyway, we kayaked over to the trailhead here in our cove.

Cultural Heritage site? Aboriginal artifacts? Wow! This might be a more interesting hike than we’d originally thought! Just a few steps up the trail and there’s an outhouse and a fork…we took the right fork and headed for Laura Cove. The trail is good, but then in many (MANY) parts of it, there are downed trees that you scramble over or crouch and crawl under. It’s pretty fun for the first mile or so. The trail…straight ahead, under these trees:

This part was like those parts of the obstacle course/boot camp game shows where young buff dudes high-knee over fences:

Cool fungi:

We eventually came to a little stream that babbled out into the head of Laura Cove (where we’d kayaked just this morning). Okay, cool…pretty. No artifacts, no cabin. Maybe the cabin was on the trail that went left at the fork. So we headed back and then took that fork. Well…that fork…goes up up up and then down down down and then up and then down and then up some more and then way down. The whole time you climb over rocks and logs and man are my legs getting tired. We never saw any cabin or artifacts or anything like that at all. But the views were lovely:

We made it back to the kayak after about a 3.5 mile hike. (This is about half a mile less than the hike we normally do at home every morning, but holy moly all that up and down and log climbing and rock scrambling! Legs. Tired.)

Back at Airship I googled the dang cabin and it sounds like the remains are at the head of Laura Cove. JUST WHERE WE WERE EARLY TODAY. Twice!! Fine then. Maybe we’ll dinghy back over there in the morning before Kevin’s conference call.

Dinner tonight is Cilantro Thai Grilled Chicken (chicken breasts, chopped garlic, 1/2 c cilantro, 2T fish sauce, 1T sesame oil, marinate all together for half an hour and then grill), roasted baby potatoes and sautéed green beans.

We’re not sure yet where we’ll go tomorrow…maybe Lund? Maybe another anchorage we haven’t been to.

Rebecca Spit | BC

Laura Domela — Wed, 21 Sep 2016 16:46:28 +0000

The moon came up last night behind the spit and I managed to get a couple of decent photos of it. Here’s my favorite:

Sun coming through the trees over on the spit this morning:

We had some coffee and then dinghied to shore to do some hiking out on Rebecca Spit. Such a pretty place!

More sea asparagus:

We’re back on Airship doing some work now. We have good strong internet here so we’re taking advantage of that. I just scheduled a haul out for the beginning of October back in Anacortes (hull cleaning, bottom paint, and some new zincs) … I’m happy I got that on the calendar…the grungy waterline is making me a little crazy. Kevin makes fun of me because every time we are in the dinghy and I can see how dirty the hull is, I whine about it. I like a clean boat…what can I say?

Octopus Islands | BC

Laura Domela — Tue, 20 Sep 2016 08:07:43 +0000

We’d heard and read about the Octopus Islands (and how great they are) but we hadn’t been there, so we put a quick stop to that on our way south!

It rained all night at Shoal Bay. We left the dock with cappuccinos in hand at 9am. Today was Okisollo Rapids day! We had about 20 miles to the rapids (at about 7 knots that’s about 3 hours) and we planned to be early for slack (which was at around 1:10pm). We were plenty early so we trolled for salmon a while in Discovery Passage before turning into Okisollo Passage. We saw a whole bunch of Pacific White-Sided Dolphins, and also a few Dall’s Porpoises that surfed our bow a bit. The white-sided dolphins have curved dorsal fins, while the porpoises have small, more triangular fins. We’ve had both surf our bow, and they can be easy to confuse for one another because their coloring is the same…the dorsal fin is the easiest way to tell the difference.

We had some current against us as we approached the lower rapids, but it was diminishing rapidly. We went through the lower rapids and noticed pretty much nothing in the way of swirls, boils, whirlpools, or anything else. Same thing at the upper rapids…it was so calm there wasn’t even anything to take a picture of….completely uneventful.

During maximum current, the Okisollo Rapids can have somewhere between a 5-8 foot standing wave/overfalls. If you want to see what I’m talking about, check out this video. (There are plenty more…feel free to Google.)

Soon after the non-rapid rapids, we turned into the Octopus Islands Marine Park. How beautiful! I’m so glad we finally decided to stop here. There are only two other boats in here: a sailboat that anchored way up at the head of Waiatt Bay, and a power boat anchored not too far from us (but definitely far enough). We’re in the northernmost tip, anchored in about 30 feet with plenty of swing room. I made us some lunch (a curry tortilla wrap filled with fresh crab, tomatoes, avocado, shredded lettuce, and a little garlic aioli and pepper…super yum) and then we went out exploring in the dinghy. (Crab pots are out!)

Tonight I think we’ll just grill up some halibut with some zucchini, and enjoy the quiet. It hasn’t rained since we got here, and there’s even some blue sky. Perhaps we’ll stay here tomorrow too! Our next planned stop is down at Rebecca Spit (beach, park, woods, trails) and Drew Harbour…on the east side of Quadra Island. There are two marinas there as well…the Heriot Bay Inn and Marina and the Taku Resort. There’s apparently a really good store (and even a liquor store)…sounds like a big city!

So We’ll be going through Surge Narrows between here and there, and I believe it’s another one that needs a slack transit. Lots of rapids in this area of BC!

Port Harvey to Shoal Bay via Whirlpool and Greene Point Rapids | BC

Laura Domela — Mon, 19 Sep 2016 02:00:59 +0000

Last night after catching up with George and Gail about how their season was and the progress they’ve made on rebuilding the restaurant and store, we headed back to Airship to cook up some dinner. Tonight turned out to be tostada night! We grabbed some of the pulled pork (the stuff we made and brought from home) from the freezer, cooked up some black beans with jalapeno, garlic, and shallots, and then got all the toppings together: lettuce, shredded cheese, homemade salsa, sour cream, and some fresh lime to squeeze over the top. I’d picked up a bag of chipotle tostadas in Port McNeill last week thinking it had been ages since I’d had or made tostadas. We heated the crunchy tostadas in the oven and then built on with the toppings. They turned out great!

Port Harvey this morning:

Sabby on the dock:

George came down just after 8am with fresh cinnamon rolls. We took two to go, chatted a bit more and then headed out for Shoal Bay.

The rain started (again) just as we were leaving. We pulled the crab traps we’d set out on our way into the bay, but we only had one male keeper…the rest were females so back in they went.

We saw several sets of Pacific White-Sided Dolphins on our way through Johnstone Strait and into Sunderland Channel:

Our route today took us through Whirlpool Rapids and Greene Point Rapids. Both Whirlpool Rapids and Greene Point Rapids run to 7 knots at max ebb and flood, but can be safely traversed at any time as long as your boat has enough speed, stability, and rudder authority.

We had about 4.5 knots of current with us at Whirlpool Rapids…nothing too dramatic.

Even with what look like pretty good boils, our autopilot kept us on track with not much work.

We arrived at the Greene Point Rapids right AT max flood, and had about 6 knots of current going with u, but not much drama:

A little squirrely back toward the Cordero Islands and lodge:

We arrived in Shoal Bay and docked at the government dock (no other boats when we arrived besides the owners’ boat, but there are two more now). We walked up to the “pub” (the pub that’s never in pub mode when we’re here because it’s either too early or too late in the season) but we met Will inside…he’s from England and has been working here for most of the summer…and he said “Well guess what? It’s a pub right now!” so we had a beer and chatted with him for a half an hour or so. It’s rainy here too right now, but still so beautiful.

Tomorrow we’ll head on to the Octopus Islands. We’ve heard great things about them but never been. We’ll also go through more rapids tomorrow (the Okisollo Rapids). Unlike Whirlpool and Greene Point Rapids, you do not mess with the Okisollo Rapids at any time besides slack (which is exactly what time we’ll be there). During non-slack, there are large whirlpools, and an overfall/standing wave than can be between 5 and 8 feet tall! Eeeek.

Sounds like there’s some great kayaking and/or dinghy exploring around the Octopus Islands, but it’s not supposed to clear up until Tuesday, so maybe we’ll need to spend two days there.

Codville Lagoon to Fury Cove (and Humpbacks!) | BC

Laura Domela — Tue, 13 Sep 2016 19:24:45 +0000

Today’s plan was to meet up with our friends on Dawnbreaker down at the Koeye River inlet. The Koeye River is a very good place to watch grizzlies, and the anchorage there is decent for a temporary stop in relatively calm conditions. It was beautiful in Codville Lagoon this morning, but the further south we went, the more fog we encountered.

Entering the bay at the Koeye River Inlet:

Dawnbreaker was already anchored and their dinghy was gone, so we assumed they were already up river. We launched our dinghy and headed out to meet them (and hopefully spot some brown bears!)

Long house on shore:

Airship, anchored:

Our Torqeedo had other plans for us, however. It quit abruptly as we were headed into the river and gave us an error message. E23. Kevin messed with it for a few minutes as we were pushed around by the waves coming in from Fitz Hugh Sound. I turned us around and started rowing back toward Airship while he worked to see if he could recalibrate and clear the error, but to no avail. We got back to Airship and brought the electronic tiller part in and did some troubleshooting and determined that somehow, water had gotten in where it shouldn’t be. We messed with it for about an hour, and decided to bag it on the river trip. Being stuck up river with grizzlies and only oars didn’t sound awesome and it was 2pm already. Our plan was to get to Fury Cove so we could do our Cape Caution crossing tomorrow…and we still had about 3 hours to go. We tried radioing our friends to let them know the deal, but didn’t get ahold of them. (We figured we’d just get them on the radio once they were back.)

Back out in Fitz Hugh Sound the fog cleared a bit and once we were past Hakai Pass the seas calmed to rippled for the rest of our cruise down to Fury Cove. We’d seen the occasional humpback in Fitz Hugh, but mostly too far for much detail. Just outside of Fury Cove as we were about to turn in…humpbacks! Several of them were directly in our path.

We watched them for about 10 minutes and then just as we decided we could get past them easily and go into Fury Cove….they started bubble net feeding. This is the very first bubble feeding we’ve seen all summer, and happens right here in front of our anchorage! I took way too many photos. Hopefully that’s what you want to see right now:

The bubble circle just before the whales come up through it:

This close to Airship:

You never know where they’re going to come up. (Actually, you do if you watch the birds.)

We watched them for over an hour. The light was so great…bubble feeding at golden hour! We watched across the channel as another boat (Bonaventure, heading to Seattle) made its way toward us (with spouts and breaching and tail-slapping humpbacks between us and them…busy whale day today!) They stopped when they got close and we both watched the bubble feeding for a while before heading into the cove to anchor.

We’re the only two boats in here, and it’s just gorgeous.

Oh and…guess what? We can hear whales from our boat!

Tomorrow is supposed to be pretty chill, so we’re planning to leave just before sunrise (6:30am or so) for what will likely be a foggy crossing of Cape Caution.

Klemtu to Shearwater | BC

Laura Domela — Mon, 12 Sep 2016 16:49:03 +0000

We left Klemtu on the early side yesterday. The water was smooth and the skies were clear. Gorgeous day to be on the water!

We arrived at Perceval Narrows near max ebb, but the tidal swing is small right now and we estimated we might have as much as 2kts of current with us. As we got closer we kept an eye on our speed as we binoc’d the area between Martha Island and Lizzie Rocks, and it looked fine…a little bit of movement in the water but not much. We went through easily with just below 2kts of current with us. Just like we thought!

Gorgeous in Reid Passage:

A bit of swell (crashing on the rocks) as we came out of Reid Passage and into Seaforth Channel:

We arrived into Shearwater around 3pm, caught up with Christophe (the harbour master) and then headed up to do laundry and get groceries. We did some work while waiting for laundry, and then had dinner up at the pub.

View from dinner (before it got too cold and we moved inside):

We ran into the guys from Dawnbreaker, the big sailboat docked next to us in Kasaan (and then again in Klemtu) and caught up with them after dinner (had a nightcap on Dawnbreaker). We’ll probably see them again tonight in Codville Lagoon…fun bunch of guys!

This morning it’s gorgeous out! Kevin’s finishing up an article and I’m going to make breakfast here in a minute before we head out. Codville Lagoon isn’t far, so it’ll be a short cruise today.

Shearwater, from Airship this morning:

Not sure when we’ll have internet next. Our rough plan is Codville Lagoon tonight, then maybe Pruth Bay or Fury Cove before crossing Cape Caution. We need to look at the weather forecast and that’ll give us an idea how fast or slow we need to be over the next few days. The guys on Dawnbreaker have some other spots between here and there marked on their chart that sound interesting too…so we’ll just play it by ear!

Airship to Alaska | Day 16 | Prince Rupert to Ketchikan

Laura Domela — Mon, 23 May 2016 21:38:45 +0000

Airship Goes to Alaska 2016

Last night's Prince Rupert view from Airship:

We set our alarm for 4am this morning to check the 4am weather and forecasted conditions for Dixon Entrance to make the final call about whether to go or wait. At Dixon Entrance East, waves were 1-2 meters. Hard to know what that means without the period of seconds between waves. At Buoy 46145, which is smack in the middle of Dixon Entrance, north of Haida Gwai (so quite a bit further out to sea than we'd be), they were 6-7 feet high at 9-10 seconds apart. So as they got closer to land they'd likely be quite a bit smaller than that. The Green Island lightstation report said "Partly cloudy, visibility 4 miles, fog, wind calm, seas rippled." (Foggy usually means calm.)

Here's what the 24-hour surface forecast looked like:

The high pressure system and the really wide/far apart isobars…? That's good for us!

Side note: It's occasionally difficult to make the decision to "Go" at 4am from a soft cozy bed while it's mostly still dark. The decision, however, is made easier when you know the weather window might not be open for all THAT long. Here's the 48-hour surface forecast:

Here we are passing the Green Island lighthouse:

Fog….check! Light wind…check! Seas rippled…check!

We took turns napping, and then I made breakfast for us (bacon and eggs underway!). Once out in Dixon Entrance we had some swells (about 6 foot swells) but they were far apart and gentle and it was all no big deal, really. (Still, I'm glad I wasn't cooking breakfast at that point.)

And just like that, we're in Alaska again!

I think the worst/choppiest conditions we had were in Revillagigedo Channel on the way into Ketchikan, because we had wind over current (wind against us, current with us), but it was still fine.

Arriving in Ketchikan is always a bit of a shock when the cruise ships are all there along the shoreline. One enormous cruise ship (as opposed to a small cruise ship) was just leaving (we watched as it headed north out of the channel) so there were only three when we arrived:

Hey, Ketchikan…I know you're in there somewhere….

The city floats are just around this cruise ship's stern:

Oh hey big guy:

We called the US Customs office in Ketchikan while we were about 4 hours out (but hey! cell service!) to let them know our ETA and give them our information. Super friendly! They told us to give a call when we were about 10 minutes out, let them know where we were going, and they'd send a customs officer down to meet us.

I called when we were just outside the cruise ships and said we were going to Casey Moran/City Floats. She asked if we were there yet, and I said "Nope, I'm just coming around the last cruise ship though." She laughed, said to call when we were docked, and she'd send a guy down. We docked, I called, the guy came down. He hopped on board, checked our passports and customs decal, asked if we had anything on board that we shouldn't have, and then wished us a great trip and was on his way. Super low key and easy.

Last year with the flotilla we started out north of town at the Bar Harbor Marina (close to the grocery store and laundromat), and then moved over to the city floats at some point. I like it down here. It's closer to town, there's a lot going on, and yeah, it's in the shadows of the cruise ships during the day, but they're mostly gone by 6pm (and there are still hours of daylight left at that point!). Plus, the city bus that runs up and down the main road here goes right to the grocery store, which is still in the free zone. Score! We'll do that tomorrow after Kevin's conference call. We need some milk, eggs, fruit, veggies.

Airship and cruise ship, for scale:

For a late lunch/early dinner (like 3:30pm early dinner) we went over to Alava's Fish-n-Chowder to get some fish and chips (only instead of chips, we got asparagus and zucchini, done fish and chips style…so good…we had some last summer and wanted to c) and then walked around town a bit. We stopped back in at the Alaska Eagle Arts gallery (where I got my salmon necklace last year) and…well, I got another Marvin Oliver necklace. This one is a salmon egg, representing the salmon in egg form, as well as the circle of life…it's really nice and I love it. I'll get a photo and post it…but for now, this is one of the art cards, showing the red salmon, as well as the salmon in egg form (the embossed image…that's what my pendant looks like):

We wandered around town a bit more and then headed back to Airship to relax a bit. Today's route was 83.7 nautical miles, and took us 10 hours and 52 minutes:

I think next we'll head around into Behm Canal and check out Misty Fjords. A new place!!

Airship to Alaska | Day 15 | Hartley Bay to Prince Rupert

Laura Domela — Sun, 22 May 2016 20:13:31 +0000

Airship Goes to Alaska 2016

Whoa! We made it to Prince Rupert! Two weeks after leaving the San Juan Islands.

We left Hartley Bay this morning at 6am. The cruise to Prince Rupert was almost 80 miles, so we had a long day ahead of us…

…a long day in Grenville Channel, that is. (Also known as "the Ditch.") This time in Grenville Channel was not nearly as exciting as our trip south was. (See here what I mean, in our post from last summer called "Bubblenet Bonanza".)

We did see a couple of humpbacks on our way though, also heading north like us.

Today's cruise was long and gray and pretty chill. I made breakfast under way (used the last of our crab for a little crab/benedict/florentine concoction), and we took turns showering, working out, and napping.

Fairview Terminal cranes as we entered Prince Rupert:

We arrived at Prince Rupert around 4:30pm and are staying at the new Cow Bay Marina. It's super nice! They've got power and water on the docks, trash and recycling, and their showers and washrooms go in…maybe tomorrow. So they're almost there! We walked up and had an early dinner at the Cow Bay Cafe (so good!!) and we're checking weather to see if tomorrow looks good enough for a Dixon Entrance crossing. If so, it'll be another 80 mile day. Woohoo!

Today's route from Hartley Bay to Prince Rupert (78.7 nautical miles, 10 hours 47 minutes):

Airship to Alaska | Day 14 | Khutze Inlet to Hartley Bay

Laura Domela — Sat, 21 May 2016 21:32:00 +0000

Airship Goes to Alaska 2016

Kevin went out to pull crab traps while I made breakfast. When he got back to Airship, I asked "Did we get anything?" and he replied "Yes?" with kind of a question mark at the end. I went out to the cockpit to see what was up. Turns out we had 5 small Red King Crabs. (We figured that out after a while of digitally leafing through the shellfish guidelines for CA and AK.)

They were obviously too small, but it was super interesting not to have ANY Dungeness.

Look at the roe this one's got with her!

We put them all back nice and gently. Who knew that Khutze Inlet was full of king crab? I guess we need a crab trap with bigger doors, so the large ones can get in!

We had some breakfast and then headed for Hartley Bay. Oh yeah, one more moon shot from last night in Khutze Bay:

Hartley Bay is a First Nations community, and home to the Gitga'at, which means "People of the Cane." The Gitga'at are members of the Tsimshian nation. About 200 band members live here in Hartley Bay, a community with all wooden boardwalks instead of roads. I don't know if you remember the sinking of the BC Ferry vessel Queen of the North in 2006 (on March 22, with 101 persons aboard, she failed to make a planned course change, ran aground and sank…word was that the captain and co-captain were involved in some, um, compromising positions and perhaps they were neglecting to drive the boat), but we learned this additional bit of information about this accident the other day: The people from Hartley Bay, with their personal watercraft, were the ones who helped rescue the passengers of Queen of the North…they arrived before the Canadian Coast Guard and the whole town and community center was turned into a rescue center, helping keep the survivors warm and fed. The town received the Governor General's Commendation for Outstanding Service on May 3, 2006, for "initiative, selflessness and an extraordinary commitment to the well-being of others" in the rescue; the honor also cites the town's "tremendous spirit and the remarkable example it has set". Pretty cool!

We got to Hartley Bay and were able to get a bit of cell service and internet, so we cranked out some work and a couple of blog posts before going to walk around town a bit.

The docks are government-owned and free, but donations are welcome (the $ goes to the elders). It's a nice system. They've got fuel and water at the fuel dock, and we had no trouble finding some room.

We had a nice night…visited a bit with the couple on the sailboat across from us, had some leftover crab bisque, and then got to bed fairly early. We'd definitely come back to Hartley Bay.

Here's today's route (39.8 nautical miles, 5 hours 32 minutes):