The Evolution of the Sailing Plans

Like all good sailing plans, they're written in sand at low tide.  We looked at the weather again while in Gibsons and decided that Sunday would be a good day to push north instead of sailing to Nanaimo.  After a few days of kids running around the anchorage at Plunper Cove, and wake from passing boats, we wanted somewhere quieter.  So we slipped the mooring and headed out into the strait.  The forecast was for 10-15 knots NW and we planned to tack our way north.  The predicted current was supposed to be against us.  We sailed north with 2 knots of current with us in a 8-10 knots of SSW winds, so much for forecasts!  We managed about 2 hours sailing before the wind dropped out completely.  When we got into Pender Harbour, we decided to see if we could get space at Fishermans Wharf in Madeira Park.  We called the office and Robin, the wharfinger, who was in Vancouver, checked his cameras and there was actually room for us.  We tied up, found the local prawn boat and bought a lb. of fresh prawns for supper.  I made a pasta with cream sauce and it was incredible.  Nothing beats fresh!  Met a few people on the docks; Lynn and Caroline on a Nordhaven 35 from Olympia WA named "Encore", and Fri, a local who works tugs and fish boats.  He has a 1965 Bill Tripp designed and one-off built yacht that he lives on in the harbour.  Interesting people!

After a couple of nights at the dock, we'd replenished the food we'd used and set off north, bound for Squirrel Cove on Cortez Is.  We had 8-10 knots of WNW winds so we tacked our way north.  We set a track and when we got to a mile either side, we tacked.  Lovely sailing day!  We chased down another yacht ahead of us and passed them just before Grief point.  I do get a bit competitive when there's another sailboat around of similar size.  As per usual, the wind died after Grief Point and we motored the rest of the way to Squirrel Cove.  There was only 6-7 boats there including us so lots of room and very quiet.  Had a nice walk from the dock at the Squirrel Cove store and a nice kayak tour around the around the cove.  I've been working all the while we've been out.  I generally work mornings and take time in the afternoon to experience where we are.  So far it's working out well with our StarLink system.  We turn it off when we don't need it and that has let us re-charge the batteries only using solar so far, except of course if we forget to turn the solar back on after we've been motoring.  I found out after a lot of digging around the internet, that with smart regulators, once the batteries are charged and on float, if the smart regulator sees higher voltage, i.e. from solar charging, it will shut off the alternator and we lose the tachometer.  We've been having this issue for years, but it was only when I updated the charging system last year I ran across an article that laid all this out.  I ended up installing a simple high voltage on/off switch on the solar output and everything is working as it should now.

 

Cygnet in Squirrel Cove

What once was Marilyn's Salmon many years ago - Squirrel Cove Cortez Island

We caught with Lynn and Caroline on Encore while in Squirrel Cove and had a wonderful appie hour with them.,  They are heading to Alaska, retracing a trip that Lynn took as a much younger man with his brother.  They travel around 3 hour a day from anchorage to anchorage and are very practical and patient boaters  I hope that we run into them again, they have a great life story.

We left Squirrel Cove on Friday and headed over to Refuge Cove to do laundry and fill up the diesel tank.  It was very quiet there, not surprising as it's still early in the season.  Had time to talk to a few people, have a shower and top off the water tanks.  They now ask for a donation for the water as they provide filtered water and the donations go to offset the cost of the filters, fair enough!  We caught up with the gent who looks after the garbage barge in the summer.  Rules have changed for him and now all that he collects has to go to Comox, 35 nautical miles south.  I expect garbage prices are going to go up to cover the cost of fuel. 

We left after lunch and headed towards Tekern Arm.  We had never been up to look at the waterfall and the winds were favourable, not too much chop in the bay.  You have to stern tie as it's quit steep to shore so I pulled out our stern-tie line on a reel and rigged it up.  From start to finish, anchoring and stern tie, it was about 50 minutes.  A significant improvement on past efforts.  I think the last time we stern tied was a  couple of years ago and it took almost 2 hours by the time I got the line untangled, found a suitable tree, etc.  Not our favourite way to tie up for the night but as it turned out we kept the boat head to wind all night so all good.  While there was a good bit of chop running into the arm, we were well anchored and had a reasonable night.  We've had the opportunity to try out the redesign of the stem fitting and raised furler, work that was done during the deck repair over the winter.  It works beautifully.  The anchor clears the furler, is easy to get down, and equally easy too retrieve.  We had a bit of an issue when I first tried to bring some anchor chain in the first time we used the new system.  The chain stripper on the windlass was out of alignment, ok bent, by me, when I was taking the anchor gypsy off to take with me to buy new chain in December.  Quickly fixed and all good.

Tekern Arm Subset - Desolation Sound

We left just before noon the next day to make our way through Hole in the Wall and onto the Octopus Islands.  There was not a lot of current running at Hole in the Wall and we figured on getting there just past the max ebb which was supposed to be around 3.6 knots (going with us).  Not enough wind to sail, again, so motoring we went.  No issues through the pass, quick, but no whirlpools o standing waves.  Very uneventful, just the way we like it.  We anchored just outside the marine park and here we'll stay for probably a week.