Hiking – Riveted

Finally! Tiny Deer!

Laura Domela — Sun, 11 Dec 2016 01:03:17 +0000

We’re back at Jones Island tonight (three Nordic Tugs!): Dan & Eileen on Fortunate (a 32′), and Sam, Anna, David, and Mark on Safe Harbour (Sam’s 37′).

Airship, with rainbow:

We are moored on the north side of Jones, since the wind today and tonight will be SE. This afternoon we dinghied to shore and did a little hike across to the south side.

Not too long after we started our hike, we (FINALLY) saw one of the famous tiny deer of Jones Island! Everyone talks about them, but we’ve never managed to spot any when we’re here…until now!

It was not afraid of us at all (because, no predators on the island). We stood and chatted with it for a while and then moved on.

On the south shore, we saw a single camper over at a campfire, presumably staying in one of the little camping shelters. This is his rowboat (rowboat!!), and it was not looking all that…robust (and had quite a lot of water in it).

It’s a little rough out there and we wondered where he’d come from (maybe Orcas Island?). Hope he keeps warm tonight in that little shelter!

Sam took this great photo of us all with the drone earlier:

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Tomorrow we’ll return briefly to Friday Harbor to drop off David and Mark, do some groceries (maybe check out the recommended sushi spot for lunch), and then probably head for another TBA anchorage.

Tonight everyone’s meeting for and cooking dinner (all eight of us!) over on Safe Harbour. Should be festive!

More from Sucia Island

Laura Domela — Wed, 07 Dec 2016 17:32:44 +0000

The sunrise yesterday looked exactly like the sunrise today. It’s cold (28 degrees Fahrenheit) and perfectly crystal clear out. It’s gorgeous out!

Yesterday Kevin and Sam and I had breakfast on Sam’s boat and then hiked out to Ewing Cove to check out the sea conditions. Snowy mountains in the distance, from Echo Bay:

Rough water out past Ewing Cove. It’s hard to tell just how rough it was by these photos…but we would not have wanted to be out there yesterday!

Back on Safe Harbour, the three of us got to work on more webcast material. We’re excited to share these next ones with you!

Some clouds moved in yesterday afternoon and gave us a beautiful sunset:

I cooked dinner last night on Sam’s boat (shrimp tacos, and rice and beans). Here we are…at the dock in Fossil Bay, with the whole island to ourselves:

Here’s one of Sam’s drone shots from the other day (the day it was not gusting to 40 knots). This gives a good perspective. We’re docked in Fossil Bay, and the land that’s at the far left toward the top of the island is the outer edge of Ewing Cove:

Roche Harbor to Fossil Bay

Laura Domela — Mon, 05 Dec 2016 21:19:37 +0000

We left Anacortes on Sunday morning a little after 9am. The plan was to meet up with Sam over in Roche Harbor and then walk up to the San Juan Island Distillery (open Saturdays and Sundays from 1pm to 4pm) to pick up some more of the delicious shrubs I bought at the Christmas market in Friday Harbor when we were there for Thanksgiving — Kari’s Island Elixers. I bought a Sweet Summer Tomato shrub and a Spicy Rhubarb squash. They’re so great to mix into fizzy water for a non-alcoholic cocktail, or to add to cocktails…and as soon as I tried it at home I wished I’d gotten more. You can’t order them online (but you can order her bitters online), but apparently she sells some shrubs/squashes at the distillery…so anyway…where were we? Oh yeah, leaving Anacortes:

It was a little windy out, but not bad at all. We anchored over near Henry Island, near where Sam was docked at the Seattle Yacht Club outstation, and then we all dinghied into Roche Harbor for a walk up to the distillery.

Awwwwwwww. So sad. We’re here, but they’re not.

We’ll be back in Friday Harbor this weekend…maybe I’ll just give Kari a call and see how I can get us more of the delicious elixirs. We out to be able to work something out…it’s not a huge island.

Back in the marina we stopped to visit with some friends of Sam’s and they invited us all to stay for drinks and dinner aboard their 48′ Tollycraft. It was a super fun evening with great folks!

The docks were frosty and a bit slippery as we walked back to Sam’s dinghy. Hotel de Haro reflection under the dock:

The dinghy ride back to Airship was cold but short.

On Monday morning we headed for Sucia Island (photo taken from Airship, Safe Harbour up ahead):

The wind was supposed to pick up (gale warnings and such) so we thought we could hunker down and get some work done in Fossil Bay for a day or two.

Snow on Mount Constitution, Orcas Island:

At the dock in Fossil Bay:

We got some work done and then before it got dark we went for a hike out to Fox Cove:

Snow on Orcas Island:

Back at the dock…we’re still the only boats here! Winter boating is awesome!

Turn Island

Laura Domela — Wed, 23 Nov 2016 23:52:00 +0000

We left Anacortes this morning around 9:30am or so…sleeping in meant we had about 2 kts of current against us as we made our way out of Guemes Channel. Oh well. It was so nice to be on the water and out of the marina that we didn’t much care if today’s cruise over to Friday Harbor took a bit longer than usual. In fact, I even throttled back some of the time so it WOULD take longer.

The weather today was just fine. Not too windy, and we only had 1-2 foot chop in Rosario Strait.

We were feeling a little “marina fever” (the weather has been crap since we got to the boat last Saturday), so we decided we’d stop over at Turn Island (just around the corner from Friday Harbor) for a little hike before heading into the marina.

Found still life with barnacles:

The hike around Turn Island is about a mile and looks like this:

We’re tucked in at Friday Harbor now. We went for a walk when we first got here, and we’ll probably have dinner with friends tonight at the Downrigger (it’s back!!) Tomorrow we’ll be having Thanksgiving dinner at the Coho Grill (just like last year, only this time with friends). Hope everyone has a great holiday!

Halloween on Sucia Island

Laura Domela — Tue, 01 Nov 2016 00:29:38 +0000

Yesterday morning we did some boat projects (oil and oil filter change, fuel filter change) and then around noon we headed up to Fossil Bay on Sucia Island. We had about 20+ knots of wind from the north and some chop, but it was a pretty day to be out on the boat. We stopped at Matia Cove (on Matia Island) to check it out as a possible anchorage, and though it was pretty, we opted to continue on over to Sucia (for some increased hiking options). It was pretty cold out by the time we arrived (around 4pm) so we just hung at the boat and later made dinner (chicken piccata over zucchini noodles), and watched a couple more episodes of Black Mirror (Season 3…we’ve seen up to Episode 4 now). It rained most of the night and until this afternoon, so we just stayed cozy on Airship and worked.

Once it stopped raining, we dinghied to shore and then hiked over to Echo Bay and around out to the point. Even gray and cold, it’s still beautiful here.

Maybe because they’re all wet from the rain, but the bark on the madrone trees is just electric today!

We thought we might head back to Cypress Island today, but we’re staying put. It’s nice here, and we’re getting a lot of work done (and there are otters!). We’re the only boat on a mooring ball here…there were two boats at the dock last night (one sailboat, one Nordic Tug 37) and today only the Nordic Tug remains….a pretty quiet Halloween!

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.

Mitlenatch Island | BC

Laura Domela — Thu, 22 Sep 2016 02:28:53 +0000

We left our anchorage at Rebecca Spit around noon and headed for Melanie Cove in Prideaux Haven (Desolation Sound). It’s a little out of our way (and NORTH!) but hard to pass by when the weather is this great.

A little bit into our cruise, we opted to make a detour and stop at Mitlenatch Island. Mitlenatch Island Nature Provincial Park is home to the largest seabird colony in the Strait of Georgia. The island is a nature reserve and an important nesting colony for Glaucous-winged Gulls, Pelagic Cormorants, Pigeon Guillemots, Black Oystercatchers and many other species of birds. Marine life around the island includes river otters and harbour seals throughout the year, and Steller’s and California sea lions from late fall through to summer. [source]

Mitlenatch is here, in the middle of the map image (the small green island). Campbell River on Vancouver Island is over on the left side. Here’s a link to the actual Google map, if you want to zoom and stuff.

Steller sea lions, harbour seals, and a cormorant on our way into the cove:

The conditions were calm so we easily snuck in and anchored in the shallow cove (in about 15 feet) and then went ashore to explore.

The “Volunteer’s Cabin” (there was no one there right now, but I believe there’s someone here most of the summer):

There are all sorts of little collections of shells and bones around the cabin, as well as a little stack of pamphlets about the BC parks and wildlife. We looked around and then headed down the trail.

On the other side of the island there was a group of harbour seals hanging out in the sun at the water’s edge. We were pretty far away (and really quiet) but I think they still figured out we were there and after a couple minutes, some of them decided to get in the water.

On our way back across we went to check out the Gull Blind:

All we saw was one lone gull and a couple cormorants, but I’m guessing during the spring and early summer there are a lot of cool nesting gulls and baby birds to watch.

We did manage to spot and snap a photo of a neat Black Oystercatcher though:

After hiking all of the trails (except the one that went to the outhouse) we headed back to Airship.

The water here is so clear!

We had some lunch and then continued on toward Melanie Cove. This was a great stop, and highly recommended on a calm day.

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?

Codville Lagoon | BC

Laura Domela — Tue, 13 Sep 2016 17:27:00 +0000

We left Shearwater late yesterday morning and made our way over to Codville Lagoon. As we got just south of Bella Bella, we turned the corner into Lama Passage (I think that’s its name), we were “greeted” by about 75 gill netters with nets strung pretty much the entire width of the channel.

We looked behind us just as another one was setting his net from one side of the channel, across our stern and headed for the other side.

“Quick!! Turn around and get out while we can!!” I said to Kevin, but it was too late (and the other route around and through Gunboat Passage was considerably longer). So we picked our way through the crazy maze of nets and boats…it was complex and intricate, this maze. The boats let their nets out and what you can see on top of the water is a teeny tiny line of white dots (once you’re close enough to see them) and at each end of their net, there’s an orange float.

But there were so many of them, right next to each other, that we had to basically zig zag back and forth across the channel and/or find the end floats that were far enough from shore to squeeze past. It was nuts. We’ve never seen anything like this many boats in such close proximity. The interesting thing was that they were all being so polite and civil to each other on the radio while they jockeyed for their sets…this is NOT how it would have sounded in Alaska. I’m serious. The gill netters we’ve heard on the radio are, well…FAR less polite.

We saw this tug and barge up ahead of us and wondered how the heck they made it through, but it’s more likely that he was through before they started setting nets.

The cruise over to Codville Lagoon was beautiful and uneventful (after we got through the net maze).

We met up with our three new friends on Dawnbreaker (Lars, Thomas, and Urban) and anchored at the head of the lagoon. Their dinghy was on shore at the trailhead so we knew they’d hiked up to the lake already. We did a little work and had a light lunch and then hiked up to the lake after they got back. We made a plan for a co-op happy hour at 6pm on Airship.

The hike to Sagar Lake is not a long hike.

There are wonderful boardwalks built to walk on for most of it, but in some spots, there are stairs made from roots and they’re a little bit of a scramble.

Little frogs along the trail:

Actual stairs in one spot:

The lake was placid and the only sounds were bird sounds and water moving somewhere down the shore (maybe a small waterfall from the hillside). We saw kingfishers, one goose, and an osprey overhead. The beach! A sandy beach!

We heard there were wolves around here, but didn’t see any tracks on the sand (just the tracks of the barefoot sailors…they all went for a swim when they were here).

We headed back to Airship, and about a third of the way down the trail I spotted some fresh wolf tracks. So fresh, that they were filling with water as I got out my camera to take these two photos:

There were some smaller tracks next to them…maybe a wolf pup? Pretty cool. (And now I’ll say that while I was sitting on the beach up at the lake, I had the very distinct feeling of being watched.)

Back to the lagoon, Dawnbreaker and Airship at anchor:

Back at Airship we had snacks and a cocktail on the top deck, and were having such a nice time we invited the guys to stay for dinner. We grilled some halibut and I made some lemon risotto with zucchini. It was a very fun night!

We’re monitoring weather conditions for crossing Cape Caution, and tomorrow looks like it might be good. After tomorrow there look to be a few days of not so good weather. Dawnbreaker is headed down to the Koeye River today. There’s a little cove that looks anchorable in good weather. Their plan is to anchor and take the dinghy on an excursion up the river…word is that there are quite a few grizzlies back in there. We aren’t sure what we’ll do yet. We’ve got some limited internet here in Codville Lagoon so we’re doing some work while we can. We’ll either take our time for a few days, or head down to Fury Cove and get set up to cross Cape Caution tomorrow.

Cypress and Sucia

Laura Domela — Thu, 14 Apr 2016 13:41:14 +0000

Yesterday morning, Cypress Island:

We spent Tuesday night at Cypress Head with Sam. Sam now has a drone too and got a nice shot of our two Nordic Tugs tucked away in the cove:

Here's Sam on his bow, in his robe, bringing in the drone:

We left Cypress and were headed to Griffin Bay on San Juan Island, but Sam heard on the radio that there were some K dubs (killer whales, orcas) out near Sucia Island, so we changed our plans and headed out to Sucia. We never saw any orcas though.

We moored in Shallow Bay on the west side of Sucia Island. Before we headed to shore for some hiking, Sam took the drone up again and got some great shots of us in the bay, with the rest of Sucia Island and Mount Baker in the background. So cool!

Dinghy on shore, Nordic Tugs (and a sailboat) in the background:

Kevin and Sam on a makeshift teeter-totter in Echo Bay:

Dinner on Airship last night was grilled chicken, zucchini and risotto.

This morning is calm and gray. Kevin's working, and I'm making breakfast tacos for us before we head out.

We don't know where our next stop is yet because…that's how we roll.