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.
No comments:
Post a Comment