Day 5 - Walker Group to Fury Cove

"Stellar Sea Lions"

Big Bull keeping an eye on his Harem

A face only Momma would love

Threes not a crowd

A pose for the camera

What a beautiful travelling day – Sunshine a bit of a breeze, only a slight chop on the water. We depart Port Harvey at 7:00 and continue trekking north. By 2:00 pm, we reach our destination – Walker Group of Islands. A new stop for most of the group, Oceanaire and Shaman II last stayed here with Mariner Bob ! A toast to you Mariner Bob!
The boys head out fishing for the afternoon and the girls go gunkholing (dingy riding to see the sites!) With cameras in hand, we head out to a Sea Lion rookery. Stinky but with a "wow" factor! There is a huge male with a harem of 6 females. Everyman's nightmare!

Day 4 - Port Harvey to Walker Group

Our Boats at Port Harvey Dock

The neighbors new aquistion - the old Mill Bay Ferry

Penny walking the dogs

Mama and twins across the bay

Relaxing in the afternoon sun

Found Floating - sponge

A new sponge growing out of one of the other old mussels

We woke up to a thick blanket of low clouds. A bit of rain overnight, but the forcast is good to travel to the middle of Queen Charlotte Strait today. A good travel day to get caught up on the blog and get some photographs posted!

Summer has arrived. What a beautiful afternoon we had. A bonus was a Grizzly bear sow and her two cubs (probably last years cubs) foraging for clams and such on the drying beach behind Port Harvey. Penny also found an interesting ocean find - a floating natural Sponge.

After a quick sleep we are out of Port Harvey at 7:00 am. A nice send off by Gail and off we head! Before hitting our pillows last night, it was decided that there would be a fishing derby over the duration of our trip. There are two teams - Ladner Lass & Gulf Island versus Shaman II and On the Edge. Oceanaire has admitted that he is not a big fisherperson, so he will run his own team. Fishing is in our future tonight I am sure.

Day 3 - Stuart Island - Port Harvey

"Red Sky at night...yada yada yada"

Lots of Snow on the Mountains (Still)

As the Sign Says

Lots of Eagles hanging out for the Fish leftovers

Nice boats at the dock - tide running in the background

Stuart Island Community Dock

Sonora Lodge getting her electrical Generating supplies

A bit of wind is forcast today and we have heard from Gulf Island who has left Vancouver at 5:00 am and has intentions (god-willing no problems!) of meeting up with us in Port Harvey. It’s a bit choppy on the way up, but quite comfortable. We are looking forward to seeing Gail and George at Port Harvey. Port Harve is a nice jumping off point to get back out to Johnston Strait to continue our trek north. We landed in Port Harvey to be greeted warmly by Gail (George was out of town) – some great changes that will have the boaters coming back for more over the summer. We were treated to a grizzly bear and 2 cubs sighting in the drying bay around the back of the bay. Port Harvey has weathered the winter well and will be a delight to any boats that stop in this year!
After a 17 hour day, “Gulf Island” crept into Port Harvey at 10:00 pm. We warmed up some dinner (Homemade French Fries and Burgers – Wayne!) and I kicked the tired but happy bunch off of the boat at 11;30. Another fine day!.

Day 2 - Pender Harbour to Desolation Sound

Arbutus (Mardona)Trees in Thulen Pass

Grief Point just before Powell River

Ladner Lass - Pender Harbour

Late Spring in Pender Harbour

George the cat is on board --- time to leave! Oceanaire and Ladner Lass pulled out at 7:00 am and we are not far behind. Light breeze and calm seas.
A nice cruising day from Pender Harbour to Big Bay. We are teaching flexibility to the group - original destination when we left Pender Harbour was Squirrel Cove but the tides/currents and timing allowed us to transit the rapids at slack tide and stop into Big Bay to the Stuart Island Community Docks. “Sambuca” will remember this style of cruising from 2008 Alaska Trip. Flexibility is the key Ladner Lass! The island is surrounded by rapids – Dents/Aaron’s/Yucultas and Gillard. The current is too strong for most boats to navigate through this area unless its slack tide and around the corner is the infamous “Hole in the Wall” – another set or rapids. So when the conditions are right, we go!
It’s been many years since we stopped at Stuart Island. There used to be a very nice marina with all the facilities and after it was privatized, the only game in town was Dent Island Lodge. For the ordinary boater, Dent is not an economical stop ($3.00/ft + $30.00-$50.00 power) – and since we are all quite ordinary, we have, in the last few years opted to rush through the rapids (at slack tide) and anchor on either side of Stuart Island. The site of the former marina is now a private golf course! Next door to the Stuart Island Community dock, is what used to be the only pub in the area – “The Wheelhouse Pub” – formerly owned by Oceanaire’s brother! It’s now a private residence for the family. We were fortunate to run into Oceanaire’s nephew, Tommy (the best guide at Stuart Island!) and saw his fabulous photographs of the 72 lb. spring salmon he caught last September (A record weight fish). We had a nice relaxing night watching a most beautiful sunset and slept to the sound of the roar of the rapids.
George has been on lockdown tonight as we are planning to catch the early.

Day 1 - Vancouver to Pender Harbour

Looking North through Welcome Pass to Pender Harbour

Nice Yachit! MV Contessa (Part of the Washington Fleet)

Some Folks still at work!

Nice Travelling Day

I thought this day would never get here....you know that feeling of waiting for the last day of school to arrive? that's what this week has been like! Thankfully It's here now and we are on our way. There isn't a square foot of spare storage space to be found on the boat and other than produce, we should do well until we reach Alaska (and probably then some!)

On The Edge, Ladner Lass and Oceanaire left this morning and have had a nice relaxing day in Pender Harbour. They had a stern sea most of the way from Vancouver to Welcome Pass.

We left North Vancouver at 4:00 and made good time, arriving in Pender Harbour at 7:30 pm. Tide was ebbing so we had up to a 2 knot push - Saving fuel like crazy! It was flat and fairly calm when we got past Bowen Island and continued to be so all the way to Pender Harbour. It takes a keen eye to navigate the ocean anywhere around the lower mainland as the Fraser River is "Freshing" and leaving a fair amount of debris in the waters from Bowen Island to Welcome Pass.

Gulf Island is still in her boat shed, stressing because new parts are being made as I write this. With luck and preserverence, Gayle and Tony should be enroute on Sunday.

Just came back from a nice hot tub and will probably call it a night fairly soon. Tomorrow up at 6:00 am and up coast to Desolation Sound. George the cat is on the loose,having made a run for shore earlier this evening. Will he or won't he be here for the scheduled departure time?

Is it Friday Yet?

The new top on the boat is installed - Yeah Brenda! (Custom Boat Tops) - not only was it done a week ahead of schedule, it looks great! Oil change on the motors tomorrow and I am awaiting a nice high tide to bring all the booze and groceries out of the cars down to the boat. For you landlubbers, we are awaiting a high tide so that the dock ramp is level and it's not on such a steep slope - much like hauling a wheelbarrow down a 50' ladder!

Meat has all been purchased, sorted and "sealed" and is happily frozen solid in the freezer. Supplemented with fresh fish, crabs and prawns, the occassional pub meal, we should be good for the time we are away. We have planned meals so that we are rotating meals between boats. Not a 100% sure if we are 3 or 5 in the rotation, but any night of no cooking is a bonus! A few more items crossed off of the never ending list of "Things to do" and it should be a nice short week until our departure day! My next post will be on Saturday - Day 1.

One More Week!

We are starting to count down until departure day! We are sitting topless in a borrowed shelter (thanks Gordie!) -- We are attempting to get our new roof on as the old one is shredded! Nothing like waiting until the last minute!!

Lists upon lists are being made - some even have big lines through them with some of the jobs being completed. Gulf Island has new Diesels in and all seems to be running fine. "On the Edge" will be getting stocked up next week and ready for our Friday Departure.....no sign of Ladner Lass in her home, but I am sure she will be back in plenty of time to be re-provisioned, Oceanaire is lollygagging up at the outstation for the long weekend as they are old hats at this sort of thing and can basically be ready to depart in a day! Things are starting to fall into place and are as they should be!

Fishing licences are being purchased, dog is getting new border papers, cat will be in "lockdown" mode until we leave (he's a runner!), internet banking will have all the bills entered for while we are away, cars are being shuffled around so that we are not taking up valuable summer parking space at the "Compound" (Burrard Yacht Club) and this weekend, Betty will start her wheelbarrow pilgramage to the liquor store and back to the boat with valuable Mike commodity - "Beer". At the end of the day, whatever we have forgotten can be purchased along the way! Put your money on which stop we will lose George the Cat (he will be maintaining his facebook page while we are travelling! - add him as a friend - "George Davison" - city North Vancouver. I am sure that he will have lots to say about his first trip to Alaska.

Long term weather forcast looks good right now, but who knows, we are afterall heading into one of the forecasted doomsdays (May 21) --- perhaps we will be surfing on a Tsunami to Alaska! So if nothing happens this weekend, I will be sure to update the blog starting next Friday!

May 5, 2011

Preparations are in the works to head north to Alaska again this year. The "New Top Phobic" Skipper (Mike) has had a wallet breakdown and we are putting a new top on the boat in preparation for this trip. For those not aware, we have been proud owners of Shaman II for over 13 years and our Top over our command bridge has seen better days, oh, perhaps 5 years ago. 5 years ago, we started with Porch sealer to re-seal the top against the elements....."Thompson's water seal" and over the years Mike graduated to putting on buckets and buckets of liquid plastic. This was all fine until he decided to clean the inside with some sort of toxic cleaner that lifted all the previous years layers of coating on our Bridge Top and over the past year we have these big chunks of plastic flying off everytime we cruise or have some wind. The leaks are back and we look like we have the pox. Mikes "Top" replacement phobia also extends to our car (Trans am Convertible) -- he has been handsewing the window back in place since the stitching started to rot out a few years ago. The car is over 20 years old and deserves a new top also!! But I Digress!

We are excited about heading north again and have slated new and old places on the cruising agenda. We are looking forward to dragging Dave and Penny around "the corner" again and are thrilled that the other three (Ladner Lass, Gulf Island & On the Edge) will be coming along! My book needs some blank pages filled on places we have not seen and things we have not experienced. Tune in often and comment often. We love to hear from you and your posts are quite often humourous.