Gulf Islands – Riveted

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!

Gulf Islands | Wallace Island

Laura Domela — Sat, 31 Dec 2016 16:50:21 +0000

We left Anacortes yesterday morning in some beautiful light:It was a day later than we’d originally planned to leave, but we thought opting for less wind and calmer seas would be prudent in the long run. We stopped at the fuel dock and topped off our tanks. Here’s the “Lady of the Sea” statue (depicting a lady and child waiting for their loved ones to return from the sea) with a seagull on her head: We cleared Canadian Customs by phone (yay Canpass!) and had a nice fairly smooth cruise up to Wallace Island in the Gulf Islands. Conover Cove is busy for New Year’s Eve!We rafted onto Safe Harbour so Sam could give us some water (and because there was really nowhere else to go, turns out). Sam’s watermaker is coming in handy now that it’s cold and most marinas turn off their water (including ours). But first we went for a little hike around the island while we still had light: This little abandoned cabin is covered in driftwood boat names from all over:Inside: Old truck on a tiny island with no roads: Sam’s checking out the geocache hidden in the glove box. (Oops, should I not say that?) Good thing we had our Xtratuf boots, because the trail was SUPER muddy:Camouflage waterbird:We’re underway now en route to Green Bay, across the Strait of Georgia in Agamemnon Channel (via Dodd Narrows, where we’ll be challenging some current). Green Bay sounds like a good place to stage for getting to Princess Louisa on New Year’s Day. The weather looks pretty good…it’s supposed to be cold (right around freezing), but sunny, and the conditions right now in the Strait are “wind calm, seas rippled.” We’ll take it!

Ganges Harbour, BC to Anacortes, WA

Laura Domela — Tue, 22 Sep 2015 02:55:59 +0000

We left Ganges Harbour on Salt Spring Island this morning around 7:30am. Last night's dinner at the Hastings House Bistro with our friends Michael and Nancy was a great time! I'm so glad we were able to stop here and meet up with them before heading home.

The sky was clear and blue and the water was still as we began our cruise back to Anacortes. Ganges Harbour was the first stop on Day 1 of our trip to Alaska with the Waggoner Flotilla in May, so it's cool that we're here for the last night before going back to Anacortes.

No waterspouts today!

Oh right, I think I only posted the waterspout thing on facebook. Yesterday when I refreshed the weather forecast, this popped up:

Eeeek!

Our cruise today was beautiful and chill the whole way. We may have missed the high season in the San Juan Islands, but there were still quite a few pleasure boats out for a Monday at the end of September. I'm sure the gorgeous weather today had something to do with that.

Today's route (45 nautical miles):

(The break in the path is when the iPad crashed. Awwwww.)

We cleared customs this time by phone, thanks to our new I-68 we completed before we left in May. I just called the 800 number, gave some info, answered some questions, got the clearance number, and just like that we were cleared and we scooted into our marina just like we'd never left. Pretty neat!

We had such an amazing trip north, and we're so grateful to have had you guys following along with us. More to come…soon!

“Honey, I have something to tell you…”

Laura Domela — Wed, 01 Apr 2015 12:34:57 +0000

Okay , so remember last week when we were out at Sidney Spit in the Gulf Islands, and we went to the brick beach and brought back a few oysters? We fried 'em up that night and ate a few with the fresh crab we caught for dinner and everything was delicious.

The next morning while we were eating breakfast, Kevin suddenly turned to me with an alarmed and solemn expression on his face. "Oh no!" (gulp) "Honey, I have something to tell you. Remember yesterday, when I was shucking the oysters on the rear swim step, and you were inside working on dinner?"

"Yeah…?"

"Well, inside one of the really big oysters – I found a pearl. It was a big pearl, too. I was super excited and I thought 'Cool! I'll give this to Laura as a nice little surprise.'"

"Oh, how neat!!" I said.

"Well, there's more. When I found the pearl, I set it aside – just on the floor of the rear cockpit [the outside back deck area of the boat]. And then, I kept shucking. And then, I got to that crazy huge oyster…the one I couldn't get open…the one where you came out to see what was going on?"

"Yeah…?"

"Well, I put that oyster aside to tackle later, and then I finished shucking ALL the other oysters before coming back to my nemesis. I finally got that last mean one open and was really glad to have no more oysters to shuck. And then I brought all the oysters inside to you, and then I went back out and got out the high-pressure spray hose and washed all the oyster shells and dirt and…um, and everything off the swim step and out of the rear, um, cockpit… I guess. I sprayed it all off … really well. It was nice and clean when I was done."

"Awwwwwww."

"Yeah. So, isn't that cool that I found a pearl? It makes a good story, I guess. I'm just going to go out and take a look and see if by any chance the pearl is still out there anywhere."

Kevin went out in the rain and looked around for a few minutes, then came back in a little dejected. "Nope. It's gone. I hosed the whole area down really well last night after I finished shucking the oysters. I'm sorry, I totally forgot about the pearl."

"It's okay, honey. It's really cool that you found a pearl! And it's a good story, anyway."

A few days later, after we'd traveled from Sidney Spit to Ganges Harbor, stayed the night, then cruised out to Cabbage and Tumbo Islands, Kevin was hosing the deck off again (sand and dirt from hiking shoes, etc.). There was a little scrap of paper over one of the scupper drains. He removed the bit of paper, and guess what he found? The pearl!

It's pretty big! Maybe I should make a necklace.

Returning to Anacortes from the Gulf Islands

Laura Domela — Mon, 30 Mar 2015 01:02:39 +0000

I forgot to post these photos the other day of our return trip from the Gulf Islands to Anacortes. It was a beautiful, smooth cruise the whole way.

More eagles:

More seals and sea lions:

We arrived at our slip, called Customs, and the whole clearing process was pretty easy and convenient.

Here's our return route from Cabbage Island to Fidalgo Island/Anacortes:

Sunrise at Cabbage and Tumbo Islands

Laura Domela — Fri, 27 Mar 2015 12:21:54 +0000

This place! I love seeing the telltale gold light from the porthole in the stateroom. It's my sign to get up and grab my camera.

Sunrise at Cabbage and Tumbo was as good if not better than sunset last night.

The other direction:

Kevin went to retrieve the crab trap while I took five thousand photos of the changing skyscape (no crab this morning):

We're gonna make a quick breakfast and then head outta here. I know, why??

See ya later seals!

Cabbage and Tumbo Islands, B.C.

Laura Domela — Fri, 27 Mar 2015 02:55:09 +0000

Warning: Today was a picture-filled day. I tried to pare it down, but I didn't do too well.

This morning before we left Ganges, we took advantage of the very nice free Wi-Fi for a couple hours of work this morning, and then headed up into town for breakfast (and to grab those smoked bacon chips already, sheesh!) We were heading out of the harbor just as this Salt Spring Air flight was taking off ahead of us:

The sun came out today for our cruise down to Cabbage and Tumbo Islands and it made for such a nice cruise:

Passing the Java Islets, there were a handful of adolescent eagles (along with one adult that we could see) hanging out:

Nice rock formations on Saturna Island:

Cool contemporary home on Saturna:

This was as we were coming around the south point of Saturna Island…and Boiling Reef. During flood tides and rougher waters this point can be pretty treacherous, but today it was totally calm and we noticed only the slightest of eddies as we were taking photos of the sea lions and eagles on the reef.

Sea lions on the rocks:

More eagles:

Eagles and sea lions, hanging together (look at that face!):

We snaked our way into Reef Harbor (flanked by long reefs) with no problem and grabbed a mooring buoy.

There was one other boat anchored in the cove, but they were just day users and left before sunset. Here's a wide shot of the cove on the right (boats on the right) looking out into the Strait of Georgia. This is how calm it was all day today.

A heron, fishing in the cove:

Cabbage Island:

We put the crab trap out and then took the dinghy ashore to explore.

It was low tide, so there was plenty to look at on the shore (including tons of oysters, but we didn't feel like shucking again today, so we pinned our dinner hopes on catching some crab).

Purple starfish. They look so happy and chill. "Oh heeaay eyyyy. We're starfish! How ya doin?"

Another eagle in a tree. Yawn. (I know when we get to Alaska we'll probably be saying this for real, but for now, it's still cool, and it's fun to test out my new lens as well.) This was SUPER zoomed in.

We took the dinghy out to the rock with all the seals and said hi:

After our dinghy ride, we headed back to Airship and pulled up the crab trap. Hm. An oyster shell. How'd that happen? Alright…crab trap went back in the water and it was time (and weather) for a top deck cocktail and some charcuterie. We tried the Salt Spring cheese (two of the three we picked up) and both were yum (with a Perfect Manhattan and some salami and chorizo):

I could see the crab trap on the bottom from the top deck (25 feet down and clear water, that's fun!), and one of the times I looked down at it, I was pretty sure I could see claws yammin' at the bait container, so we pulled it up, and what d'ya know? A keeper! (Bait today was a chicken leg and more Canadian bacon, since that worked well the first time.)

Back up to the happy hour deck with one Dungeness crab in the bucket! The view from here is hideous, isn't it?

We pulled the trap up once more before sunset and had two crabs…too small, one male one female. The female's underside female part looked JUST like Jesus from South Park, don't you think?

We watched the seals playing and eating over by the shore and I really wished they would just come over and play ball with me already. They're so dog-like….their big eyes and splashy, um, fins. Okay whatever.

More pretty pictures of Reef Cove at Cabbage Island:

We cooked our crab in our new big pot and served it with some garlic butter, a kale/lemon/parmesan salad, and a bottle of wine from our friends at Gourmet au Bay. Delicious.

I'd say this is a successful last night in the Gulf Islands for our first trip up here. Tomorrow we're headed back to Anacortes. (We'll let you know how the whole "clearing Customs at our slip" goes.)

Here's our track from today (25.8 nautical miles):

That little 90ish degree turn up there is us changing our minds about going through Active Pass at max ebb tide. The current would have been 3.7 kts against us right at the time we were heading through…so even though we could have done it fine (we were following a 46' catamaran), it would have slowed us down quite a bit and we opted for the longer way….because, hey, more time on the water!

Ganges Harbor on Salt Spring Island

Laura Domela — Thu, 26 Mar 2015 12:07:00 +0000

Yesterday morning we left Sidney Spit and headed for Ganges Harbor on Salt Spring Island. The weather was gray and a bit foggy, but seas were smooth for the most part and we had a nice cruise. (I didn't take any photos on the way, because it was all just gray.)

These are the Chain Islands, as we entered Ganges Harbor:

Here's what Ganges Harbor looks like from above, when it's sunny.

Cool boat on our way to the marina:

Looking out of the harbor, float plane coming in:

We arrived at the Ganges Marina (which happened to be closed yesterday) and were directed (by a super friendly guy) to a guest spot with electricity, close by water, and good access to free Wi-Fi (woohoo!!!!)

We did a bit of work and then walked up to town to grab lunch at the highly recommended (by same super friendly marina guy) Tree House Cafe. The Tree House Cafe did not disappoint at all. Great food, great service, cute place.

We explored town a bit (including the three story hardware store that has MUCH more than hardware) and picked up a large stock pot (because: crab!) and a few grocery items at the market. I wanted to pick up some of the fun Canadian potato chip flavors…it's a thing we do in Canada…pick up a couple small bags to try (flavors like Dill Pickle, Ketchup, Fries 'N Gravy, etc.) but we couldn't find any small sized bags in the grocery store, and I just wasn't ready to commit to a giant bag of Smoked Bacon Potato Chips. (I know, lame. I should have gotten them.)

I know every one of these photos is all gray and kinda dreary, but this town is cool and has a really good vibe about it. Apparently the marina is already completely booked for July, so it's obviously a very popular place in the summer.

We came back to Airship and worked for a few hours, then took another walk up to town to (a) get another walk in, and (b) to do/get a few more things. We decided to exchange the 16 quart stock pot for the 20 qt one, because we were pretty sure it would fit on our stovetop, and it did:

We'll mostly use this outside with the Woodland Power Stove (once we get that…for cooking crab) but we wanted a pot that would also fit on the stovetop for when we might want to use it inside.

We also read a little online about Salt Spring Island Cheese and decided we should try some, so we stopped at the little organic market (Natureworks) and picked up a few goodies:

Here are better photos and descriptions from their website:

Ruckles: soft fresh goat milk cheese logs marinated in grape with herbs and fresh garlic in grape seed oil, topped with chives.

Juliette is a surface ripened cheese made to taste like a goat camembert. Blue Juliette (the one we picked up) is made essentially the same way as its white sister, but the Blue Juliette is made half with blue and half with white cultures. It takes on a very mild blue taste and also grows softer and stronger as it ages.

Garlic chèvre is covered with roasted garlic and dripping with olive oil; it has a sprig of rosemary too, which adds a subtle flavour and a splash of colour.

We're still full from lunch, so we probably won't try these (or even have dinner) until tomorrow. But check out the rest of their cheese on their website here. It's very pretty cheese.

Here's yesterday's route (16.08 nautical miles):

Next we'll head down to Cabbage and Tumbo Islands, near Saturna Island. These are the Gulf Islands that stick out the closest to the San Juans. We hear there's some good hiking down there (and potentially more crab to be caught).