Still in Nanaimo

What a great week we have had in Nanaimo BC. The first night, Wednesday,  we anchored and it was so busy. We ended up right next to the Wed Night Sailboat Races. Almost at the starting line. Boats were passing by our anchored position bow and stern within 10 feet!  We then went to a commercial marina for laundry, re-provisioning and water.  We next got a guest slip at the Nanaimo Yacht Club. Great facilities!  Very gracious hosts and a very thankful haven from the weather. Today, Sunday, Nanaimo held their annual bathtub races.  Fireworks last night and a yacht club feed  have all made our stop here most enjoyable!

Nanaimo BC

Here we are 2-3 weeks into our trip. The first two weeks we spent messing about in the San Juan Islands using Blind Bay on Shaw Island as a home base. The weather has been sunny, very windy, and rough. We are fair weather sailors and wind over 20 knots is uncomfortable for us. Besides which I am fighting an infection. We went to a clinic on Lopez Island and the cure is worse than th problem. Back in Blind Bay storm passed through with thinder and lightening and a different afternoon we watched three boats drag their anchors. 

     We met up with Rob and Becky aboard mv Maxine to cruise with. We passed into Canadian waters and were heading north. Dodds Narrows is a high current pass up to 12 knots so everyone tries to get thru at slack water, both directions and the passage is only about 75 feet wide. It is not always a happy parade

Getting ready? Or procastenating?

We should be cruising South Sound by now, but..me:  "how much trouble to put in a shower?"  Walt, "just time and money".  Since we were short of both we did it anyway. Then at installation, Walt dropped a very specialized, non-easily fabricated washer into an non-easily retrievable place in the bilge.  A call to the manufacturer had the part winging its way to us.  But tomorrow should see it finished, barring problems. What else can go wrong, right?

So to get the part that was shipped to our friends we met them in Olympia to take their boat, Maxine, out for a shakedown cruise.  All was going well, smooth sailing when right outside of their marina we shook out a couple of cutlass bearings (they help connect the propeller shaft to the engine, or something critical like that).  So next week to ten days they will be in the boat yard making repairs.  

Coming back into the harbor was fascinating watching 2 large tugs manuever a lumber ship into the docks to be loaded. Picture shows the Olympia Capitol building, the Crowley tug Tioga and the lumber ship right next to the marina.  The other pictures show Walt and Rob reading overhead electronics and looking through the windshield of Maxine. Maxine is a 34 ft CHB Trawler, a great boat.

So Walt and I, aboard Brigadoon will head to Port Hudson Marina in Port Townsend for the 2013 Ericson Rendezvous and then north to BC!  

Stay tuned for more Chronicles of Brigadoon 

Great Bear Rain Forest Proposed Itinerary

Some of you have asked what our proposed itinerary will be so that you can follow along.  Here it is with some caveats, we may not be where and when, but hopefully we will see it all!  As I have said before, once we are in BC cruising on the inland passage, internet postings will be slim as cell coverage is not all that good.  Keep checking back to see when we have posted to the blog!

Great Bear Rainforest Cruise				July & August, 2013
Day#	Date	Day	From	To	Nauticle Miles	Hrs in transit
1	20-Jun		South Sound cruising	Gig Hbr	30	6.0
2	27-Jun	Thu	Gig Hbr	Eagle Hbr	21	4.2
3	28-Jun	Fri	Eagle Hbr	Pt. Ludlow	19	3.8
4	29-Jun	Sat	Pt. Ludlow	Pt. Ludlow	0	0.0	Layover Day
5	30-Jun	Sun	Pt. Ludlow	Pt. Townsend	18	3.6
6	1-Jul	Mon	Pt. Townsend	Park Bay	30	6.0
7	2-Jul	Tue	Park Bay	Cowichan Bay	30	6.0
8	3-Jul	Wed	Cowichan Bay	Nanaimo	33	6.6
9	4-Jul	Thu	Nanaimo	French Creek	30	6.0
10	5-Jul	Fri	French Creek	Comox Bay	35	7.0
11	6-Jul	Sat	Comox Bay	Campbell River	35	7.0
12	7-Jul	Sun	Campbell River	Campbell River	0	0.0	Layover Day
13	8-Jul	Mon	Campbell River	Helmchen Is.	39	7.8
14	9-Jul	Tue	Helmchen Is.	Telegraph Cove	45	9.0
15	10-Jul	Wed	Telegraph Cove	Telegraph Cove	0	0.0	Layover Day
16	11-Jul	Thu	Telegraph Cove	Port Hardy	32	6.4
17	12-Jul	Fri	Port Hardy	E Nigel Is.	18	3.6
18	13-Jul	Sat	E Nigel Is.	Fury Cove	40	8.0
19	14-Jul	Sun	Fury Cove	Namu	30	6.0
20	15-Jul	Mon	Namu	Codville Lagoon	19	3.8
21	16-Jul	Tue	Codville Lagoon	Ocean Falls	22	4.4
22	17-Jul	Wed	Ocean Falls	Ocean Falls	0	0.0	Layover Day
23	18-Jul	Thu	Ocean Falls	Shearwater	22	4.4	Thru Gunboat Pass
24	19-Jul	Fri	Shearwater	Salmon Bay	35	7.0
25	20-Jul	Sat	Salmon Bay	Windy Bay	22	4.4
26	21-Jul	Sun	Windy Bay	Windy Bay	0	0.0	Layover Day
27	22-Jul	Mon	Windy Bay	Khutze Inlet	30	6.0
28	23-Jul	Tue	Khutze Inlet	Butedale	12	2.4
29	24-Jul	Wed	Butedale	Bishop Bay	28	5.6
30	25-Jul	Thu	Bishop Bay	Bishop Bay	0	0.0	Layover Day
31	26-Jul	Fri	Bishop Bay	Hartley Bay	25	5.0
32	27-Jul	Sat	Hartley Bay	Lowe Inlet	20	4.0
33	28-Jul	Sun	Lowe Inlet	Lowe Inlet	0	0.0	Layover Day
34	29-Jul	Mon	Lowe Inlet	Hartley Bay	20	4.0	(M&W to Prince Rupert?)
35	30-Jul	Tue	Hartley Bay	Khutze Inlet	38	7.6
36	31-Jul	Wed	Khutze Inlet	Bottleneck Inlet	22	4.4
37	1-Aug	Thu	Bottleneck Inlet	Rescue Bay	20	4.0
38	2-Aug	Fri	Rescue Bay	Rescue Bay	0	0.0	Layover Day
39	3-Aug	Sat	Rescue Bay	N Reid Passage	18	3.6
40	4-Aug	Sun	N Reid Passage	Shearwater	25	5.0
41	5-Aug	Mon	Shearwater	Shearwater	0	0.0	Layover Day
42	6-Aug	Tue	Shearwater	Kisameet Bay	28	5.6
43	7-Aug	Wed	Kisameet Bay	Rock Inlet	28	5.6
44	8-Aug	Thu	Rock Inlet	Rock Inlet	0	0.0	WX Day
45	9-Aug	Fri	Rock Inlet	Fury Cove	32	6.4
46	10-Aug	Sat	Fury Cove	Fury Cove	0	0.0	WX Day
47	11-Aug	Sun	Fury Cove	Allison Harbor	40	8.0
48	13-Aug	Tue	Allison Harbor	Telegraph Cove	40	8.0
49	14-Aug	Wed	Telegraph Cove	Telegraph Cove	0	0.0	WX Day
50	15-Aug	Thu	Telegraph Cove	Port Neville	33	6.6
51	16-Aug	Fri	Port Neville	Small Inlet	35	7.0	WX Day
52	17-Aug	Sat	Small Inlet	Campbell River	35	7.0
53	18-Aug	Sun	Campbell River	Campbell River	0	0.0	WX Day
54	19-Aug	Mon	Campbell River	Ford Cove	44	8.8
55	20-Aug	Tue	Ford Cove	Nanaimo	45	9.0
56	21-Aug	Wed	Nanaimo	Montague	28	5.6
57	22-Aug	Thu	Montague	Mackaye Harbor	37	7.4
58	23-Aug	Fri	Mackaye Harbor	Mackaye Harbor	0	0.0	WX Day
59	24-Aug	Sat	Mackaye Harbor	Pt. Ludlow	45	9.0
60	25-Aug	Sun	Pt. Ludlow	Pt. Ludlow	0	0.0	Layover Day
61	26-Aug	Mon	Pt. Ludlow	Gig Hbr	40	8.0
62	27-Aug	Tue	Gig Hbr	Harstine Island	30	6.0
63	28-Aug	Wed	Jarrell's Cove Marina		0	0.0	Spare Day
							14
				Mileage	1403		17
				Time	281	>6 hrs	hr; *at 5.0 kn avg

Oops

Arrived at the boat yesterday to find that our "leave the boat shut down procedure" works too well.  We returned from our last trip from home and found that the main house battery switch was turned off. Including the refrigerator full of food!  After grocery shopping we head to West Marine to purchase some lock out switches

Last evening we were enjoying life on the dock watching boats go by when a guest boat across at Jarrell's Cove State Park unfurled their yacht club burgee. Walt went below to get the burgee list and lo and behold they were from the yacht club we joined in February, Longview Yacht Club. We jumped in the dinghy and went over and introduced ourselves to Ron and Kathy Evans aboard the George Emery  They are starting their two year cruise in the north. They are headed to the Broughtons for this summer.  We enjoyed meeting them and will most likely cross paths again on our trips into BC. 

     Speaking of BC we realized that we forgot out passports. So we have to go back to Dallas one last time to get them or have family or friends retrieve and mail them to us!  Better now than when we were trying to cross the border. 

Provisioning for 2013 cruise

The boat is almost ready. Loaded to the gills!  A neighbor in the marina knocked on the boat and asked if we were taking on water, that our painted waterline was below the water and water was pumping out of the boat. We thanked him and told him we were loading for a 3 month trip and that the water was coming from the refrigerator cooling pump.  

      My many thanks to BoatGalley.com for sharing their provisioning spreadsheet. It has made my job so much easier. Also hints and recipies and instructions for making yogurt in a thermos, cooking chilies, beans and stews in a thermos and recommendations for galley equipment. Many of their tips I already have in practice.  The site is great for boaters and would be useful for camping. 

       So the plans are to cruise South Puget Sound for a couple of weeks then head to Port Townsend , Hudson Marina the last weekend in June for a rendezvous of Ericson owners. Looking forward to a great time

     Then we meet up with Rob and Becky Hamilton aboard their boat Maxine and head north to above Vancouver Island via the inside passage to The Great Bear Rainforest where we hope to spot the white "Spirit Bears".  

     

Once we are north of The USA we will be out of cell and internet coverage because of the expense. Look for posts and blogs before and after entering BC waters

Wishing you all a great summer

WELL DONE

Summer cruise delayed by water well failure. When we noticed the problem we were ready to leave for the boat. We decided we had better solve the problem before we leave so that our plantings with drip irrigation would not suffer. Walt pulled the receipt from the purchase of the last well pump and it was dated 28 years ago. Not bad at all. So he built a new dereck and son Dan and grandson Collin helped to raise it and pull out all 14 lengths of 20 ft galvanized pipe to get to the pump. On pipe #13 he found a quarter inch hole in the pipe that would lose the water.  A new pump, all new schedule 80 pvc pipe, new wire installed and we have water again. Hopefully we won't have to do it again. Getting too old!     Thanks to Dan, Collin and Mike Braet for the help