Update from Lyall Harbor, Saturna Island

August 31st - Ganges Harbor to Lyall Harbor, Saturna Island (15.7 nm)
Before anchoring in Lyall Harbor we made a stop in Breezy Bay, slightly south from Lyall. Saturna Winery provides buoys and a small dock, just a short walk from their winery. We enjoyed the walk, which takes us past some of their vineyards. We enjoyed sampling the lovely wines from Saturna Winery, and we definitely enjoyed a delightful lunch with a nice glass of Merlot.

A view of a part of Saturna Island Winery's vineyards, as we walk to their winery.























After our stop in Breezy Bay we proceeded on a short distance where we anchored in Lyall Harbor, which is one of our favorite anchorages in the Gulf Islands.



















We departed Ganges Harbor, Salt Spring Island,this morning for a 15.7 nm cruise to Lyall Harbor. But first, we stopped in Breezy Bay. Our visit to Breezy Bay was to visit Saturna Island Winery, one of our favorite stops in the Gulf Islands.

After a short walk to the winery, we enjoyed the wine tasting and then a delightful lunch with a tasty glass of Merlot. All, while overlooking the vineyard and the water. The sun was out and a few boats were "sailing" by.

After lunch we cruised a short distance to Lyall Harbor where we set anchor. We'll stay here one night (Sunday) before crossing back into the US.


Here is some insight on what we've been up to since our last update:August 29th - Maple Bay, Vancouver Island (MBYC) to Ganges Harbor, Salt Spring Island (22.8 nm)

While we tend to start cruising early in the morning, we do not always get moving as the sun is rising. But sunrises in BC are spectacular!














An early morning view, taken from inside our cabin (where we are quite warm).













I love the morning clouds that linger around the mountains and the waterline in the early morning. I just wish my camera could capture their true beauty.













This beautiful island is an area of Salt Spring Island, before we enter Ganges Harbor. I love how the clouds have lifted so quickly. Amazing how the weather can change in a 5-10 minute window, in the PNW.














There are several commercial float plane companies that service the Gulf Islands, but Salt Spring Air is definitely a popular airlines for flights that visit Ganges.

I still haven't lost my excitement to watch a float plane land or take off and I truly love to see how they manuever around boats, that are underway or on anchor. The pilots of commercial float planes are really great pilots! If I didn't have such a fear of heights, we'd go up in one!














We enjoyed visiting the Hastings House in Ganges. This is a beautiful hotel, with lovely cottages, a fantastic flower garden, delightful artwork, a great view of the bay, and much, much more. They also have a fantastic restaurant, which you can enjoy without being a guest of their hotel.





















The Ganges Mermaid

Departing MBYC - Heading South

Next destination: Ganges, Salt Spring Island (Fri, possibly Sat night too).
http://www.saltspringisland.org/ganges/ganges.htm

We had thought we'd stop off at an anchorage before Ganges, but we've concluded with this coming weekend being Labor Day weekend, we'd best proceed to Ganges, to secure an anchorage. Not yet certain we'll spend one or two nights there.

Saturday is a Farmers Market, which in Ganges, also includes work from various artists. There is also a vary nice quilt shop in Ganges. Given I'm missing the wonderful San Diego Quilt Show this weekend, I'll enjoy some time touring the quilt shop in Ganges.

While we can get WIFI access at the Public Library in Ganges, we doubt we'll spend time trying to pursue a connect. Thus, I may not be able to get a connect to the internet until we are back in Anacortes. So, if you don't see an update from us until ~9/6, don't fret. Weather looks good, with a few days of strong winds and rain. Wish us luck to find some sunshine, but in the meantime, know that we are having fun and enjoying cruising in the beautiful PNW.

We're on the docks at MBYC!

We finally made it back to MBYC (Maple Bay Yacht Club). We stayed here in 2005 and fell in love with the club and with Maple Bay. We plan to be here for two nights, before we move south (Portland Island, Ganges, Lyall Harbor, Prevost Harbor, Roche Harbor, Jones Island, Blind Bay, Anacortes).

We've had a good day of rain in Nanaimo and more rain most of the night in Newcastle, but otherwise have had good to great weather. But it hasn't been cold and we do have good foul weather gear. Currently, the weather is delightful. Brad said today is a shorts day (but even rainy days can be shorts day for the locals). Oddly enough, we have actually heard a few people complain about how bad the weather has been this summer. One couple, out cruising for three weeks, was seriously looking at cutting their cruise short and catching a flight to Mexico to enjoy some sun. Hey, don't ya know we've been in Alaska....this BC weather is delightful!

Here is what we've been up to, since our last update:

August 25th - Nanaimo to Newcastle Island ( < 1 nm?)
Newcastle Island is a park, located across from Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. I've wanted to see Newcastle Island, for quite some time, but it seems each time we plan to visit it we end up with heavy rain. As we decided to stay over another night, we opted to move the boat from Nanaimo Yacht Club docks to the cove at Newcastle Island.

The morning turned out to be a beautiful weather day, with blue skies and bright, cheery sunshine. Perfect weather to enjoy a nice walk on Newcastle Island. While underway, we stopped at the fuel docks in the downtown harbor of Nanaimo, to take on some additional fuel. We didn't top off, but took on 150 litres for $216.63 CDN. This should carry us through till we arrive in Anacortes, Wa..

We enjoyed our walk around Newcastle Island very much. Great views out to Georgia Strait, which was amazingly calm! While this island has deer, we didn't see any.

Photo of one of the cute ferry boats (water taxis) that go from downtown Nanaimo to Newcastle Island.















Downtown Nanaimo, Vancouver Island, BC.


























There is quite a bit of history pertaining to Newcastle Island. At one point, in the early 1900s, sandstone was mined here. These photos are from an area where large sandstone circles were cut for use in pulp and paper mills, primarily in the North America.

























An unusual fungi on a dead log. We've seen them in various colors, but never this color.














August 26th - Newcastle Island to Pirates Cove, DeCourcey Island(11.8 nm)

The entrance to Pirates Cove is fairly narrow and shallow. One of the helpful markings is this arrow, painted on the rocks, and the "X" posted on the tree. You need to align your boat with the arrow and X, before you make a sharp turn to your port and enter the channel to Pirates Cove.

The sunrise was quite beautiful. We departed the cove early, as we wanted to pass Dodd Narrows at slack tide (~6:15-6:30am). Dodd Narrows is a narrow body of water between Vancouver Island and Mudge Island. Currents can run 7 knots, but Brad timed it for perfect slack. The Narrows are so narrow boats call out on their VHF if they are entering north or southbound. We didn't hear any boats make such a call, but fortunately two boats ahead of us had pulled over. We slowed down and pulled to the side, when a small tug with a very large load of timber came thru the narrows.


















When you approach Pirates Cove you need to align your boat with an arrow painted on a rock to an "X" on a tree. And then you can make a quick turn to your port, where you follow the markers to the channel. Essentially, the entrance can be quite shallow and there are a lot of rocks. {double click to enlarge photo for better visability to these markers}













Photo of traditional channel markers, to the narrow and shallow channel entrance to Pirates Cove.














BC Marine Parks are absolutely beautiful, with great hiking trails. They are also well marked, as this sign for Pirates Cove. Next to the sign is a Pirates Treasure Chest. Tradition is to bring an item, to leave in the chest, and to exchange for an item in the chest that you might like. When we visited in 2005 we left several nautical pens and pencils (e.g. shark pens, etc) and various small stuffed toys. We later met up with a delightful young boy who had taken a shark pen from the chest and he was very happy (we didn't let him know we had dropped it off). It was so much fun looking at items dropped off, even though we've never taken anything. And more fun to see the excitement of kids who find a treasure.

Unfortunately the old pirates treasure chest has fallen on hard times. Hopefully someone who is handy with wood may be kind enough to build a replacement, as it would be a great way to ensure the fun of the pirates chest in Pirates Cove remains a tradition for years to come.



















Another interesting growth in the forest. Mushroom ?





























August 27th - Pirates Cove to Maple Bay, Vancouver Island (20 nm)
Sun was out for this morning's cruise. Several sail boats were out having fun "sailing", which seems to be rare. Beautiful day as you can see from these photos. And it is now 4pm and there isn't any rain in sight! Yeah!



A view of another cove on DeCourcey Island, south of Pirates Cove. Popular with kayakers as there are also some camping and picnic areas here.













A view of Maple Bay, which is much, much larger than what shows in one snapshot.

Update from Nanaimo

This is going to be a quick update, as I have limited battery life left. We are using a free WIFI point, at a local McDonalds, and I can't find a place to plug in my power cord. Wouldn't you know, we finally find a WIFI signal we can connect to and this PC doesn't have enough power.

We are in Nanaimo and have been here for two nights. They were quite busy as we needed to do boat stuff (e.g. change oil, clean, etc), laundry and buy some supplies for the galley. We're on the docks at the Nanaimo Yacht Club (NYC) which is a wonderful club. They also have washers & dryers, which make doing laundry very easy.

Weather came in late last night to such we saw white caps off of the docks, winds are supposed to be 20-30 knots the rest of the day {and don't forget it will rain, rain, rain}. Thus, we've decided to stay at NYC one more night. Good thing we haven't put our foul weather gear away! But essentially this weather condition give us time to seek out internet access. With luck, I'll find more time later today for more editing on this posting and upload some photos.

Weather permitting, tomorrow we'll continue to cruise south. The plan is to go to Pirates Coves on DeCourcy Island and then to Maple Bay Yacht Club (MBYC), which provides wifi access. Thus, at the latest, I should be able to finish this posting and upload photos by this coming Tuesday evening.

Since our last update here is some insight on what we've been up to:

August 15th Lagoon Cove to Forward Harbor (33.6 nm)
Weather today was quite good. In the morning there were misty clouds, low on the side of the mountain. We headed south going through Havannah Channel, Johnstone Strait, Sunderland Channel and Wellborne Channel. We had ~15 knot winds in in Johnstone Strait, which we thought to be better than forecasted. We were on anchor (50 28.877N 125 45.289W) about 1pm, the only boat in the Harbor. But by the time it was dark, there were a total of 10 boats on anchor. Still, there was plenty of room and we enjoyed this anchorage very much.




















August 16th - Forward Harbor to Octopus Island (36.7 nm)
We had another good weather day today, even though the forecast was for gale winds in Johnstone Strait (we're now quite protected). We passed through Green Point Rapids at slack. There is a lucky family, with a beautiful home, overlooking the rapids. As we passed Blind Channel we spotted a black bear on the beach. We've not seen any bears in awhile (or Bald Eagles) so this was a treat. We were on anchor (50 19.427N) 125 15.978W). That afternoon we had sunny skies and 88 degrees at 4pm. This so far has been our warmest day this summer.

We ended up spending four nights in Octopus Island. When we arrived we had thought we'd spend 3 nights, but weather conditions brought in a storm and we felt it was best to spend one more night on anchor. Basically the last 32 hours in Octopus was full of rain & wind. When we picked up our anchor, the wind had spun us around, so many times, it was as if the anchor chain was laid out on the sea bed in a swirl pattern similar to a snail's shell.

Still, we had another delightful time in the Octopus Islands, enjoying hiking and exploring the little islands. We did try a few sets of crabbing, but ended up catching only rock crab. After all the dungeness crab we've caught this summer, we didn't feel the rock crab was worth the effort, so they were tossed back. But it was still fun to catch crab!


























August 20th - Octopus Island to Squirrel Cove, Desolation Sound (22.4 nm)
There are so many beautiful places to visit in Desolation Sound, but this summer we simply didn't have enough time. Our stop in Squirrel Cove was one that offered great logistics, as well as great protection from the wind. But it turned out to have the largest number of boats we've seen on anchorage this summer. No surprise, but it rained the entire time we were there. We decided to not put the dinghy in the water, as we've been there previously. But the floating bakery was still operating! 50 08.503N 124 55.213W

















August 21st - Squirrel Cove to Pender Harbor (49 nm)
This leg of the cruise is very beautiful and we lucked out with a good weather day. We could tell the summer is beginning to close, as there we felt we were cruising south with ~20-30 boats (all cruising south). In the large body of water there was plenty of room, so don't think the boats were on top of each other. Still, we joked about being in a boat parade, as we hadn't seen this many boats moving on the water, all summer.

Awhile back, when on anchor in Forward Harbor, we had spotted a boat named Northern Theatre. We thought the name has a nice reflection on cruising these beautiful waters, and it was a nice looking boat. We ended up seeing this boat not just in Forward Harbor, but Barnes Bay, and in Octopus Islands. When in Octopus, Brad was able to chat with them for a bit, before they pulled up anchor to go south. They kindly offered us use of their private docks in Pender Harbor.

Arriving in Pender Harbor we tied up to a fishing boat, on the public docks. We then set off on foot to do shop shopping at the local IGA Market, to buy some galley supplies. We then moved over to Ryan & Sue's private dock, where Northern Theatre has a nice boat house to sleep in. Having heard that there was a chance of strong winds, we really were appreciative of having a dock to tie up to and a chance to stress our legs. Ryan and Sue invited us up to their home for dinner and made us some very tasty hamburgers. Sue and I also picked some wild blackberries, before dinner, and we had them with some plain yogurt for dessert. They were yummy. But the highlight of the evening was the great conversation with Ryan and Sue.

To make the evening even more special, when Ryan walked us back to the docks in the dark, a baby deer and mama deer walked right passed us and quite close. It was fun to hold still and see nature so close. To Ryan and Sue, this may not have been very special, but to us this was a magical evening and one that made our summer very special.




























August 22nd - Pender Harbor to Nanaimo, Vancouver Island (29.7 nm)
We had a beautiful sunrise when we departed Pender Harbor. We left ~6:30am as needed to cross Georgia Strait and the forecast was for 20-25 kot winds in the afternoon. We had a safe passing, but some choppy water and winds ~10 knots.

We lucked out with space at Nanaimo Yacht Club (NYC) guest docks. We really like NYC as it is a friendly club, in a great location. And with a laundry in the clubhouse it makes for a good reason to tie up on the docks vs set an anchor. We did get some wind that night, but didn't give it much thought. Later we learned from another boater that they didn't sleep well, due to the wind, and were leaving.