WX: partly to mostly cloudy, temp 75, wind S 10-15
08/12/2009, Ganges, Saltspring Island

Another layday in our slow trip south through the Gulf Islands. Truthfully, if we had a slip to go home to, we'd probably have been home by now. But it's not altogether a bad thing to be forced to take it slow. It is also significant that today is our 100th "Boating Day" of 2009. We've managed over 100 days twice before, most recently last year, when we achieved a record 104 days of using the boat. The real milestone will occur 5 days hence, when we break that record. By the end of the year, we expect to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 125.

Ganges still appears to be thriving. We got some exercise by finding some geocaches, one of which involved a couple-mile hike out to the Long Harbour road, followed another that took us up the hill beyond the bakery. The weather has shaped up again and the forecast for the weekend is for sunny with increasingly warm temperatures. This, of course, is scheduled to occur AFTER we leave Otter Bay, which has one of the nicest pools in the area. Figures.

Comments [0] | | More

WX: o/c w/ rain, temp 60, wind S 15-20
08/10/2009, Telegraph Harbour, Thetis Island

Okay, not Spain. Telegraph Harbour.

Oh, yeah. Go cruising in August because the weather is SO much nicer. It blew "with gusto" most of the night and, when it finally stopped blowing, the rains came. As in BUCKETS. There was probably 20 gallons of water in the dinghy this morning.

Fortunately, we'd scheduled this as a layday from the start. We had toyed with the idea of taking the ferry over to Chemainus, just for something to do. We decided we didn't need something to do quite that bad. We did scope out a couple of geocaches nearby (another unfortunate addiction Charlie picked up a few years back) so we may go search for those. Other than that, it's a good day to sit inside and watch DVDs.

We did take a moment to note that, had we gone through with our plan to go to Vancouver, we'd have been coming back across Georgia Strait today. How fortuitous THAT decision turned out to be!

Comments [0] | | More

a.m. rain, p.m. partial clearing, temp 75, wind S 15
08/09/2009, Telegraph Harbour, Thetis Island

If you've been following this tiresome tome from the beginning, you'll recall that Telegraph Harbour was our first stop after leaving Friday Harbor back on June 4. Here it was that we almost caught up with Night Music as they were ignominiously towed out of here to Nanaimo.

So today we have returned. The photo above is our attempt to recreate the one we took in June. If you're energetic, you can compare the two. Actually, there are still empty slips here tonight. Amazing! It's still pretty full.

We came around from Clam Bay, arriving about 1330. There are a couple of other TYC boats here, too. But it's not the Broughtons. No group Happy Hours here. Everyone does their own thing and keeps to themselves.

Layday tomorrow. We may take the ferry over to Chemainus. We've done it a zillion times before, but it's something to do. There's a good grocery store over there, if nothing else.

Comments [0] | | More

WX: overcast, light rain, temp 65, wind S 10-20
08/08/2009, Clam Bay, Kuper Island

What's better than cruising in August along with just about everyone else who owns a boat? Doing it in crappy weather! It just doesn't get much better than that! We left Nanaimo at 1045, timing our departure to arrive at Dodd Narrows (which everyone up here seems determined to rename "Dodd's" Narrows) a little before slack water. The wind was the typical "we're heading south toward home" wind, i.e. 15-20 knots right smack out of the south. It's happened so often that we're only surprised when it doesn't.

Okay, so we had some foolish idea that if we got there half an hour early for slack, we'd avoid some of the crowds. Yeah, right. Dodd Narrows looked a little like Highway 16 in Gig Harbor and Tacoma used to look at rush hour before they built the new bridge. There must have been 30 or 40 boats waiting on the south side, afraid to buck the blistering two-knot current that still trickled through just before slack water. Wimps.

On down Trincomali Channel we went, crashing into waves that were worse than those in Georgia Strait two days ago. Needing to find some place to hole up for just one night, our plan was to see how crowded Princess Harbour was, keeping Clam Bay as a backup, one we were fairly sure we'd need. We didn't even get close to Princess Harbour. From two miles away, we could see the boats anchored deck to deck the length of the harbor. We turned around and headed back to Clam Bay.

When we'd passed Clam Bay, we'd noted half a dozen boats already there. It took us maybe half an hour to get back there, by which time the number had increased to eight. We were number nine. Clam Bay is big and open (making it not the most ideal of anchorages when the wind is blowing) so we were able to find an acceptable spot to anchor. Then we sat back and watched as boat after boat after boat arrived. By day's end, there were 22 other boats at anchor. Remember, in our opinion, Clam Bay is a somewhat marginal anchorage in a blow. It is a good illustration of how horrendous the crowds are that that many boats would be forced to use it.

We'd love to have someone complete this sentence honestly:
"We LOVE to go cruising in early August, along with everyone else, because..." And if they say something about the weather being better, we would simply note that the forecast for the next few days is "periods of rain" and continued southerly winds. Oh, yeah. Good stuff.

Comments [0] | | More

08/07/2009, Among the Masses

We really hate to carp about the "good old days," because there are a lot of folks out here cruising that were doing it when we were still in elementary school. We can only imagine how THEY feel. When we first visited Nanaimo, it was on Charlie's parents' Spree II back in 1971. We negotiated the dreaded Dodd Narrows at slack water at 5:20 in the afternoon on a day in early August. An hour later, we arrived at the commercial basin and found plenty of room to moor. Try to imagine doing that nowadays.

The fact is, of course, that the "doubling time" for Earth's population is down to under thirty years so there are more than twice as many people on the planet now as there were in 1972. And if the same percentage of them own boats as did back then, there would have to be twice as many boats up here as there were back then. But it's worse than that.

We feel we can thank Bayliner and Catalina for that. Now of course we have no hard statistics to back up this opinion, but we'd suggest that, in 1972, a much smaller percentage of the general population were boat owners. Bayliner and Catalina have done for boats what Henry Ford did for the automobile: cranked out a zillion and three boats a year, well-built, and reasonably priced. Now every doofus with a bit of disposable income can afford a boat. And they're ALL up here during the first two weeks of August.

Even that might be tolerable if all of them knew what the hell they were doing. But there's a sizeable number of them that think "seamanship" has something to do with sexual activity. Good example: the moron in a small outboard we heard on the radio today talking to the Coast Guard and demanding that they come and help him because he'd run out of gas! And where was he? Tied up to some dock a short distance from the Petro Canada fuel float in Nanaimo harbor! The Coastie operator tried to get him to get off Channel 16 and over to 84, their working frequency. He claimed he "had 16 and that was it." Finally, she got him to call her on his cell phone to clear Channel 16. Then she put out a "marine assistance request," asking any vessel in Nanaimo that could assist, to please do so. A couple of boats responded.

Soon the idiot was back on 16. "I'm still waiting," he said, somewhat arrogantly. "The boat that came to help me only had diesel." (We are NOT making this up!) He apparently felt that someone was supposed to come out and deliver his fuel to him. It was all we could do to keep from grabbing the mike and suggesting that he get out the PADDLE that the law requires he carry, and start paddling his sorry ass in the direction of the fuel dock. We heard some comments on the radio later that indicated that others who had been listening shared our opinion.

So here's to Bayliner and Catalina (and yes, some other manufacturers as well). Thanks for making boating accessible and affordable for the masses. Please don't do us any more favors.

Comments [0] | | More

WX: overcast, temp 65, wind S 5-10
08/07/2009, Nanaimo, BC

Gate Two (or Five if you count them separately coming back) is Georgia Strait. It's really the last major natural obstacle to deal with on the way home. Weather-wise, it was a non-event. The Cosmic Forces, therefore, came up with a different way to smite us. An hour or so out of Nanaimo, Charlie scanned the instruments. Port engine tachometer reading; 0 rpm. Huh? But the engine is still running, isn't it? Next gauge: voltmeter. Zero volts. Huh? We blew up the alternator? Next gauge: engine temperature. Holy &%$#! Pegged on 240! That combination of symptoms spells just one thing: broken belt. Floorboards up, diagnosis confirmed: belt is now in several shredded pieces.

Now, one of the more notable examples of engineering genius on the Lehman diesel is the fact that the main fresh water cooling hose goes THROUGH the belt. In other words, to replace the belt, you have to undo the coolant line. Under normal conditions, the coolant in the line is somewhere in the neighborhood of 165 degrees. But, thanks to the broken belt and no coolant circulation for at least several minutes, THIS coolant was more like 240 degrees. Not to mention that every metal surface on the engine was just as hot.

Okay, so anticipating this very problem, we had "pre-loaded" a new belt so we wouldn't have to undo the coolant line. Great idea. What we forgot was that, prior to this cruise, we had a new alternator installed on this engine which required a longer belt. We neglected to change the "pre-loaded" spare belt. So, of course, the spare belt is now too short to reach to the alternator and the slot in the alternator's adjustment bracket isn't long enough to allow the alternator to slide back closer to the engine. Solution? Remove the bracket and drill a hole in it at about the tension point. This, remember, while wallowing around in a sloppy sea in the middle of Georgia Strait.

To make a long story just a bit shorter, the (blistering hot) bracket got removed and the hole got drilled, though it ended up not quite in the right position so the belt tension was pretty loose. But it was sufficient to turn the water pump, thus allowing the engine to be restarted. Surprisingly, while all this was going on, we were still rumbling along at a respectable 6.5 knots on just one engine. Equally surprising, "Robbie," our cantankerous autopilot, had no trouble compensating for the uneven thrust and steering us in a reasonably straight line.

So then we arrived in Nanaimo, which is just as crazy and overcrowded as everyplace else up here. Nanaimo Yacht Club and the docks at Newcastle Island were filled to overflowing and there didn't appear to be a lot of room to anchor off Newcastle, either. As a last resort, we called the Harbormaster for the big commercial basin, expecting him to get a good chuckle out of someone wanting overnight moorage. But the Cosmic Forces must have been busy smiting some other hapless fools, because we actually got a spot. It ain't too private, being right under the public walkway. But lots of people stop to talk to us!

We're taking a layday here before heading south through the Gulf Islands. We've already made moorage reservations for the next six nights. That's the only way to deal with the crowds. We're also going to take a layday at every stop, partly to relax and partly because we got back down here a little earlier than expected and have some time to burn. Internet access should be more reliable from now on so, hopefully, we can keep this tome updated.

Comments [1] | | More