No normal weather anymore!!

Here is today's marine weather graphic summary, which has been pretty much the pattern since I got out here for the "near offshore" trip. Weather/wind warnings everywhere except near home harbour where we were not able to sail more than 5 hours a day before the wind died!!

Baptizing the new Dodger

This is video Neil took when we were in 20kts+ after leaving Silva Bay heading north on Georgia Straight. The new dodger and some crew were 'baptized' in spray. Tatoosh handled well with 1 reef and full jib. Later at slightly less than 20kts we shook out the reef and all was well.

Last Round Up

We appeared to have a weather window and made a long trek south down Georgia Straight, anchoring back at Otter Bay. It was about 12 hours and 7 of those were under motor. When we got to Otter Bay Terry had made the decision to not carry on.

Neil and I were gagging for a beer and Neil went "shopping" for beer on the docks and came back with 2 donated cans!...tasted great. We had a crew meeting; it didn't make sense to think about going offshore with only the three of us and as it turned out the weather window closed again so we would not have made it in any event.

Neil decided to join up with Leagh and her friends early rather than just putting in more time here. We will try to organize a short offshore trip before Hawaii so that Neil can confirm if he is comfortable being offshore/overnighting,etc.

We took all day Saturday following the wind to end up at Sydney spit to be in position to pick up Leagh and friends for a day sail on Sunday. Ralph agreed to stay for 2 days for my selfish purpose of getting more celestial training from him.

I'll post more later, but for all intents and purposes the "near Charlotte" trip mutated to "near offshore" to now being done! Sometimes the weather gods just don't cooperate.

some quick pictures

Skipper up themast for some minor repairs.

Pre trip crew photo with "official" watch caps made by Robin.

Day 5& 6

We left , on the advice of our Calgary weather router, early from Silva Bay to catch the morning blow before it was due to die in the afternoon. It was good to catch a shower and get some laundry done.

We had a good run with combinations of staysail, reefed main and all sails in winds that started at 20 kts. The new dodger and some of the crew, got baptized by salt spray today. The winds then died out quickly at about 13;00. We then motored for 2 hrs to Jedidiah Marine park.

Enroute skipper had to go up the mast to repair a lazy jack line, but it wasn't an quick fix, so he came down and finished it at anchor. We anchored at "white rock bay", just south of Deep cove, a very pretty spot.

Menu for today was grilled cheese sandwiches enroute, and a fusion dinner of Italy meets India; tortillini augmented with chicken, onions, mushroom curry and chocolate pudding for desert.

Day 6:
Still at Jedidiah: decided to take an off day and explore the island and have some quiet time. Ralph stayed behind on anchor watch and we three went ashore. It was low tide in the coves and we had to carry the dinghy about 300 meters to get it to a safe spot to leave it for our walk-about. The homestead here [ island was donated by last owners as marine park] shows how much work was involved in the good old days. After walking through dense forest you break out into a 15 acre hay field and orchard that had been hand cleared. The old house has a great view, but if you were trying to bring home the groceries at low tide, it would a long, muddy walk!

A breakfast of pancakes and ham was followed by breakfast burritos for lunch [ courtesy of Neil]. Skipper confirmed the damper bread receipe with home base and made up a fresh loaf of bread to have with the second bag of tortillini which was now turned into a soup using chicken broth, left over ham from lunch and some corn.

We plan on early getaway to take advantage of the morning winds enroute to Desolation Sound.
PS: update: weather window in Juan De Fuca seems to be opening so we are now planning for a n early departure to catch the morning winds and make a LONG run down Georgia Straight to Boundary Passage tomorrow...stay tuned to see if weather gods cooperate.

Day 4

Day 4:

We raised anchor manually this morning because the windlass wouldn't
work and I couldn't take the time to troubleshoot it and still make
slack at Active Pass. We transited right at slack and as luck would have
it, both in& outbound ferries had passed through just before us.

Once we exited we had about 12 kts of wind that died within the hour and
we then ended up motoring to Silva Bay. Before motoring we were able to
go through training on using harnesses and jack/safety line.

Small rodeo during docking due to tight corner, wind blowing the bow off
and tense skipper; however no damage done and we are safely at dock. My
voltmeter has died , which i needed to troubleshoot the windlass; so I
went to wharfinger to see if they had one I could borrow for 20 minutes
and got a very frosy reception. I tried the Silva Bay Boat building
school and found Cameron working on an old canoe; he said sure but he'd
have to go get his meter; turns out this meant leaving his work, getting
his dinghy and rowing out to his boat at anchor. We gave him a couple of
cold beer [ Neil had already scoped out the cold beer store here] for
his trouble.

We got chatting and turns out that a friend of his has just bought a
Valiant and he wanted to see inside,etc. He is also keen on being crew
for Hawaii! A final intersecting circle: his good friends in Kamloops
are the organizers for the 1200 Km Randoneer ride that Mike is training
for.

Oh yes, back to the windlass: while rest of crew was off having showers
and drinking the new found beer, Ralph help me troubleshoot the
windlass; it turned out to be a slightly corroded deck switch which i
have got working again. However, it pointed out that I should carry a
spare anchor windlass switch - about the only spare we don't have. [ and
get new voltmeter!]

Dinner tonight was a previously frozen stew [same as last night] but
resurrected by disguising it as pasta sauce with spaghetti and cabbage
salad. We also carefully cut the last of the Otter Bay strudels into 4
very equal parts.

The plan at the moment is to find some wind that is not a gale and go
sailing; will report on how we do later.

Over and out from Silva Bay.

Day 3

Day 3:

Weather forecast continues to extend with gales/near gales at west and
east entrance to Juan de Fuca; this means that IF there is going to be
an opportunity to get out offshore, we will not have enough time to go
anywhere. So, the decision has been made for Plan B; we will go north
in Georgia Straight and get some time with the crew in some larger
( but less than gale) winds.

We left Bedwell by sailing off the mooring buoy, short tacking out of
the channel; we got the genakker up again, only to take it down 20
minutes later when the wind died completely. We drifted and had lunch
while waiting for the wind to build. Fortunately the current was in
our favour and although we were not moving in the water , we were
making way over ground. The plan was to have an 'organic' sail, i.e
not use the motor; destination was Otter Bay to be poised for
tomorrow's slack water in Active Pass to get to Georgia Straight.

We then circumnavigated Prevost Island to get some practice time; it
was a very strange day wind wise; with wind shifts/fading and battling
current, it took us over 2 hours to get from opposite entrance to
Montigue harbour up to Enterprise reef, a mere 2 miles away! At some
points we were tacking 180 degrees and in others tacking and loosing
ground. However, we stuck to the organic theme and didn't succumb to
temptation to start the engine.

After a day epic tacking , we arrived 1 mile from Otter Bay to try
anchoring under sail, only to have wind die completely. In addition
the cold, overcast skies opened up , sun came out , engine came on so
that we could get in for happy hour.

Neil and I rowed in to settle a bet as to whether the Otter bay
condo's would have a leaky wifi I could piggyback onto; turns out the
marina has it [ not advertised] and it reaches out to our
anchorage.... so we didn't have to row in. However, the row in paid
off in finding authentic apple strudel.

Dinner was heating up a Bev-made stew augmented with more rice and
some strudel for dessert; rest have been saved for tomorrow's second
breakfast.

Day 2

Day 2;

Is it really only day 2 ?!?...seems like we have been out for quite a while.

The weather reports for the West entrance to Juan de fuca are still not cooperating; our plan is to still ‘harbour hop’ our way to Sooke to be positioned to go when {if?) the weather cooperates. The winds have been building throughout the day so we can travel early to avoid the gale/near gale forecasted. If not, we go to Plan B and do something else.

We left Tumbo about 09:00, did some successful Man Over Board [ PC correct term should be Crew OverBoard] drills; then raised the genakker [ large light-weight sail]. After working out bugs with this we are at point to turn into Boundary Passage near East Point and the well named Boiling Reef and had a wind shift that turned into no wind. Down came the genakker, and on went the engine.
At one point we were making 0 kts over ground due to the current and had to tack across the current to make headway.

We stopped at Bedwell [ Poets cove] for fuel and found the last buoy at Beaumont marine park and called it an early day. Neil and I tested the dinghy outboard and went ashore for a hike up to Mt. Norman; we didn’t make it to the official viewpoint but did make the elevation – it felt good to get some exercise again. There was a very nervous osprey pair guarding their nest from crows and making a hell of a racket. We saw one of the parents taking a fish back to the nest.

It was a hot day, crew was tired and to avoid mutiny Neil and I did a beer run to Poet’s Cove via dinghy; this doesn’t quite violate ships articles about a dry boat – as Neil pointed out this applies to offshore only and we are 2-3 days away from that!

Dinner tonight was a second round of pork schnitzels since they thawed first; these were cooked and then cut up and added to spiced onions/mushrooms and butter chicken curry sauce over rice; followed by cherries with hot sauce over yogurt. I thought I had made enough rice to have left overs for rice pudding tomorrow, but alas, I once again neglected the NF [ Neil Factor]… there were no leftovers.

Ralph and I did some moon shot practice and as I write this the rest of the crew is having movie night watching episode 1 of “Rome”. The geek patrol was able to connect Ralph’s computer’s audio to the stereo so they have good audio.

Day 1

Day One: Current Position: Tumbo Island Marine Park [ right behind large party boat!] You can locate us on Google maps at

We had great visit with Kris & Erick Lares yesterday onboard; their boat is in Trinidad waiting out the hurricane season and they are here visiting and checking out their new property.

Neil has instituted a "gold star" or point system and Terry was up 3 until it was revealed he had not read his "must bring " list and had to run to Sydney for some last minute shopping.

After final prep,etc and the obligatory crew photo at E74, we left dock at 10:00 as planned. Not a lot of wiind but we did manage to get through some basic sail drills before we ran out of wind [ despite the forecast!] and motored around East Point to Tumbo Island. New bimini is taking some getting used to; i'm still feel a bit confined; but it is great for keeping us out of the sun.

After watching Neil eat we may have to make an auxiliary food stop; we did not use the "neil factor" in calculating the food!! Current plan will be to stop over in Sooke for food and to be in position to leave for the great beyond once the weather cooperates...i.e. winds are less than gale force in Juan de Fuca.

BTW; skipper lost a star because I forgot to top up with diesel before we left Canoe Cove -- we'll make a small diversion to a fuel dock in next day or so.

If the noise from the party boat doesn't shut down at sundown, we are planning on having neil suit up in his wet suit and swim over to cut their mooring line!!

Over and out from Tumbo

Pre Trip Week

This is the final week before departure; Ralph arrives on Monday, Neil on wednesday and Terry on Friday.

The key work list is relatively short and one key item is 'almost' done [the batteries].
I picked the batteries up in Nanaimo on my way through by taking the Horseshoe Bay ferry. Terry came over this morning to help wrestle the old batteries out and the new ones onto the boat.

The old batteries [ and they were OLD... purchased per stamp on side in 1999!] didn't have a lifting strap, so we had to improvise. No major hitches other than I need to get new jumpers made up since the terminal orientation of new batteries is different from the old. The new batteries are also more compact, so I will need to add some spacers to keep them from moving about. I think I'll raid the scrap wood pile at the float house construction site when I return to E dock after this update and see what I can improvise from that.

I am renting a life raft for this trip since we couldn't get a delivery date before our departure; unfortunately that means money down the drain but it does mean we can take our time to make a purchase decision [ i.e before next season].

I stumbled across a blog site of a crew sailing from Vancouver to Hawaii on a Valiant who arrived there in late june. I'll put the link on the side bar for anyone interested.

Over and out