Just When You Think You Can't Connect.

Hello again!

One thing that really comes through about a cruising plan up here is that you need to be ready to change it quickly and often. We intended to stay at Greenway Sound tonight but when we got there, the place was closed up tight and not a soul was in sight!

We motored on into Sullivan Bay (photo) and are going to spend the night at the docks here. (N 50 degrees.097' W 126 degrees 49.691'). This place has good facilities but is open only for fuel and moorage during the "off season". The restaurant opens June 1st. However, the folks I am traveling with ran into two other couples in two boats that they know from Oregon and so there is a group of seven. The restaurant has agreed to open a day early just to accommodate us! So we go from no customer service to excellent customer service in a flash! Moorage rates are $o.50/foot today and $0.80/foot beginning tomorrow. I haven't checked on the fuel price here yet, but in answer to Owen's question, Echo Bay is the highest I've seen so far on this trip. I have been paying at least $1.18/liter.

This change in plans has moved the Queen Charlotte Sound crossing up one day to Sunday morning, weather permitting. The sailboat, of course can take a lot more rough water than DUNVEGAN but I have promised to push as hard as I can so as to stay on the crossing schedule, if possible. I installed a new radar reflector this morning so at least the big boys should be able to see me as I'm getting in their way.

I am going to stop trying to predict when and where I might have WiFi, I missed several times already.

Opportunities to Communicate Becoming Fewer

Hello! It's Wednesday and I am at the dock in Echo Bay Resort, all alone. I mean, DUNVEGAN is the only boat in the whole marina! I just gave them $92.36 for 15.9 gallons of diesel. Maybe that is the reason I am the only boat in the marina! (N 50 degrees 45.155' W 126 degrees 29.870').

Since Shoal Bay I have been cruising with a great couple aboard a 40' Endeavor sailboat. They have far more experience than I do and I think they sense some of my concern. They have been good morale boosters! Last night we anchored in Cutter Cove across from The Blow Hole on Minstral Island. The night before we anchored in Forward Harbour just north of Whirlpool Rapids at the east end of Sunderland Channel. Sunderland connects to infamous Johnstone Strait which was really calm during our transit. We plan to travel together for the next several days. Hopefully, we will be crossing Queen Charlotte Sound together on Monday morning. 267 nm so far.

I had fresh shrimp for dinner tonight. I had to barter for the shrimp from a shrimp boat. I used money and they used shrimp. It seems to work well that way.

Sorry for the short post but I will be powering down shortly. I will update when possible. I do thank everyone who has posted here and I am looking forward to more!

Rapids? What Rapids?

Cruising up Lewis Channel from Refuge Cove to the rapids.

I knew if my plan was going to work, there were some things that just needed to be done. like crossing the Strait of Georgia and running the rapids. There still are many more in the same category.

Today I took care of some of those things. Yuculta Rapids, Gillard Passage and Dent Rapids. Now, I have actually been through these a couple times before but I either had someone else in the boat or I was singlehanding but running with another boat. Today I was all alone in a slow boat.

I have read just about everything written about these rapids and I must say, if you follow the advice given in the Waggoner Cruising Guide and the Douglass' Exploring Series, everything will probably work out just fine! I slipped through without knocking anything to the deck and with only a tiny bit of psychological damage, (spread out over the entire morning of course!).The nice thing about the rapids is, unless there is genuine trouble, it only lasts a short time. On the other hand, the Strait can beat you to death for hours!

Right now there are gale force winds blowing in Johnstone Strait and my next leg will take me through there so I am going to go with plan B, just as soon as I figure out what plan B is.

I am currently sitting at the dock in Shoal Bay where the bulk of the wind can't quite get a purchase on the water. Mark McDonald, who runs the lodge here, provides free WiFi but there is no cellphone service. ( N 50 degrees 27.508' W 125 degrees 21.955' )

Here's a Place I've Never Been Before

Got up this morning without a plan but I know Lund is a little too cramped. I headed into Desolation Sound, not wanting to go too far today. I need to get some chores done on the boat and formulate some kind of a plan. I've heard so much about Refuge Cove that it just needed to be checked out. This place is, of course, beautiful but really quiet right now. It turns out that it is still pretty early for the cruising crowd and so they are not even officially open! However, they are great folks and they had the front door to the store open as they were working to open for business by the first of June. So I helped myself to the diesel fuel and had my pick of any place on the dock. Pretty much the opposite of Lund.

I haven't decided if I might hang around Desolation Sound for a bit or run uphill a ways. It's tough to leave one incredible place just to go to another incredibly beautiful place. The plan is to go north however. The next leg will take me through five sets of tidal rapids. I put in a link to them in one of the older posts, "The Plan".

Met a great older couple in a 34' CHB Trawler from Port Angeles. They lived in the Bitterroot Valley just south of where I now live, about 35 years ago and still have four kids living in western Montana.

The WiFi connection failed last night so this is a little late.
( N 50 degrees 07.41' W 124 degrees 50.41' )

Across One Strait and Up the Other!

I left the fuel dock at Nanaimo at 0810hrs., headed out into the Strait of Georgia under a small craft advisory, which is about as good as it gets for this body of water I think. Area Whiskey Gulf (WG) was not active so I was able to cross in a straight line from Nanaimo to the south tip of Texada Island, about fifteen and a half miles. WG is a military exercise area that you are forbidden to enter into when they are conducting operations. It is up to you to know where the boundaries are. If you get it wrong, the military will definitely make contact!

Fortunately I had my Bose noise cancelling headphones and my IPod with a new Jimmy Buffett album, "Take the Weather With You". Buffett just sounds better when you're on the water. Actually, I had time to listen to all three of my Buffett albums and some other tunes along the way, that's a big piece of water.

I started a couple hours earlier than I had planned so when I got across the Strait of Georgia I just continued on up Malaspina Strait all the way to Lund where I planned to stay at the dock. (N 49 degrees 58.84' W 124 degrees 46.09'). That made for a long day at 61.7 nm. That might not sound like much but it took 8hrs. and 15 minutes. I got a phone call out in the middle from a guy I work with. Can you hear me now?

Lund is a very small harbour and is home to a commercial shrimping fleet. Here is a photo of where I had to dock. Yes there is a dock in there somewhere. Singlehanding does have it's trials.

There is some kind of an orange colored algae bloom going on up here and Lund seemed to be getting its share as can been seen in the photo.

The last time we were in Lund they had WiFi but not this time so this post is a day late. I did have cell service so I got to talk to one of my kids which is a big treat!

Here is today's parting shot

A good day to cruise.

Hello from Nanaimo, British Columbia! I did not have a chance to take any interesting photos today so I will post one I took last night in Prevost Harbor after my last post. I have never anchored overnight where it was as calm as it was last night. Absolutely like glass all night.

As beautiful as it was this morning, it didn't get off to a very good start. I had pulled the anchor and was almost to the mouth of the bay when I realized I had not hoisted my Canadian courtesy flag. I would be in Canada within 30 minutes so I bailed out of the rear cabin, opening the sliding door but not the overhead hatch. I climbed up on the roof of the rear cabin and as I was attaching the flag I realized I needed some tape so back in I went on a dead run. Do you see where this is going yet? I thought I had all the square corners worn off the boat and me, but NOOOOO! On the way back out, I headbutted the hatch at almost full power. My ears started ringing louder than they usually do, my teeth made a sound like my dentist just made another payment on his Mercedes and I almost took a nap. But I didn't have time for one. I grabbed my head to sooth it a little but before I could get back on top of the cabin, the blood soaked through my hat and started running down my face and dripping off the end of my nose. Remember, I'm still adrift. I went back inside and grabbed a paper towel, folded it about 5 or 6 times, stuck it where most of the blood was coming from, pulled my hat down tight and headed for Canada. If I wasn't otherwise occupied, I would have taken a photo. Maybe you have seen the guy who does the ads for that famous bear spray. The one that got mauled by the grizzly. I did at least find the Neosporin so now my head looks like a bird pecked a hole in it and then crapped on it.

The rest of the day went much better. I made Canadian Customs just after 0800hrs. and headed north. I missed the slack tide at Dodd Narrows (tidal rapids) by 1 1/2 hours but I ran against the current anyway. About one knot more current and it wouldn't have happened.

I am fully stocked up on Canadian groceries and Canadian money and am now sitting at the dock on Newcastle Island across from Nanaimo where the weather is beautiful.

It looks like there might be favorable conditions for a crossing tomorrow. The currents will ease beginning about 1000hrs. so hopefully, I will be crossing the Strait of Georgia in the morning.

Break on through to the other side!

I spent yesterday working on a big engine problem which I managed to solve after 11 hours. Thankfully, I discovered it at the dock or it would have been probably too big to solve. Here is a photo of the problem but the explanation is strictly on a need to know basis.

Today is a totally different story though!. As of 1330hrs., I am sitting at anchor in Prevost Harbor on Stuart Island (N 48 degrees 40.697' W 123 degrees 11.639' if you would like to GoogleEarth that).

This place is kind of out of the way in the San Juans and I am about .6 miles from any structures east and west but the WiFi signal is 100%. There appears to be some cell phone coverage also.

I'm getting the boat squared away and am actually beginning to enjoy this! Tomorrow I will clear Canadian Customs at Bedwell Harbour (I have to go with the Canadian spelling now) and continue north. I haven't calculated the slack at Dodd Narrows but if it works I might just make it to Nanaimo.

Launched DUNVEGAN at 0900hrs. this date. Atallo, the yard manager was once again the key to making everything happen. They need to pay this guy more money.

All systems seem to be up and running, at least after the mechanic straightened out the wiring they had already straightened out.

There appears to be at least four other Sundowner Tugs here. That is a lot in one place since they only made sixty some of these. I met the owner of ADAMANT, a 32' who has a long history with Sundowners and is quite knowledgeable. I encouraged him to look up the owners association.

Weather has improved and I am getting a lot of the little odds and ends taken care of. Took on fuel and water and am topping off the batteries. I have a slip here for two nights and then it's probably going to be on the hook somewhere in the San Juans.

It is nice to hear from you, Ben. That nice side view of DUNVEGAN is one of Ben's photos and I need to give him credit. Everyone should know that Ben is about to charter a 36' Grand Banks in the Bahamas for about ten days. That's gonna be a real nice honeymoon! Your big adventure is about to begin too! You know, if you blogged your honeymoon, it would be a WAY more popular site than this one!

I have finally pulled the trigger!

After working day and night on DUNVEGAN for three weeks, hustling to get most of the necessary projects finished, I finally backed the truck up and hooked on! Sunday, the 20th of May, 2007, I towed DUNVEGAN 560 miles from Missoula, Montana to Anacortes, Washington. I am thankful for my IPod and XM Radio.

Anacortes is wet! Driving rain and windy, 50 degrees. I am already in survival mode. Just like the reality shows on TV, I could die right here in the parking lot. Soaking wet, hypothermia setting in, no place to sleep. The boat is still on the trailer as I cannot launch until tomorrow. Boats function better in the water than out. This one sits about 20 degrees bow down on the trailer but I can sleep onboard tonight. I'll make a little nest in the foc'sle and probably end up in a ball in the anchor locker in the morning.

I was able to fire up the Dickenson propane furnace which is taking a little bit of the chill off so maybe I won't die tonight after all. Another thing that has helped is that I am parked next to the Flounder Bay Cafe and the clam chowder and calamari are excellent! Well, I'll probably get by.

I must say though, I could not have made it this far without the support, understanding and encouragement of my First Mate and loving wife. Thank you! I want to thank my kids for their love and support also!