Cruising in a Foreign Country...but Not Foreign Waters

On Monday, May 12th, Greywolf and Crew cleared Canadian Customs at Port Sidney: “the easiest Customs clearing ever”, according to the skipper.  And he would know. We made plans with friends Don and Carol for a play date for “The Girls” the following afternoon and dinner with The People in the evening.  

Bainbridge Island could take a few lessons from Sidney about parks 

that allow dogs off-leash.

Thank goodness he is guarding the Port.....

  I’m sure this is the front because of the sign....
that I neglected to photograph.

This lady is is obviously heading out at a right smart clip.  
Allie wanted to hire her for dog walkies.

Taking a break from shopping for a doggie toys and a new dog bed. 

In addition to the wonderful art, Sidney has great pet stores.

Allie isn’t usually this friendly with cats.

  Float planes are the vehicle of choice for many people in Ganges on
 Salt Spring Island, our Wednesday stop.  They taxied past 
our galley window all afternoon.

 One of the many “vintage” vessels anchored in 
Ganges Harbor. Like many of us, they often look better 
 from a distance.

Looking toward the Straits of Georgia through Porlier Pass, from 
Trincomali Channel, headed for Gabriola Pass.  Trincomali is a lovely 
name, eh? ’Tis among my favorites. I had to include it in the blog, 
although only three people reading this have any idea of where it is.

Mainland BC from  the Straits of Georgia; we had both the 
wind and the tide with us.
Yahoo!

For those of you who have followed the blog, you’ve been here before: 

 Madeira Park in Pender Harbor, 

Greywolf’s home for the next two days.

Boat names we liked,  

thought were unfortunate,

or found downright surprising.

Doug wouldn’t let me take her with us.

Dusk.  Headed home.

This radio controlled plane was doing stunts over the school playground 
as we walked to the store.  We asked his owner if he had others.
“Twenty-five.”
“Do they ever crash?”
“Until last Sunday, I had twenty-six.”
Ouch.

Teacher Jean only had one student on this day....

What ARE these?  Are they actually butterfly nets? 
 I saw a lady carrying one in Sidney. 
 I saw them at the Save-on-Foods in Sidney.  
I saw them in the IGA at Madeira Park.  
Good price: $1.49  
Are there really that many butterflies in coastal BC???

More air traffic.  This group arrived for a wedding at The Painted Boat,
 a lovely resort on one of the many bays in Pender Harbor.

Pender Harbor has over 60 kilometers of beachfront, although it is only five kilometers long. (You don’t have to speak metric to understand the ratio.) The First Nations people had a large settlement in Garden Bay before the Europeans arrived, where an estimated 5,000 people lived in the wintertime.  In the spring, when marauding bands descended from the north looking for slaves, the people relocated in summer villages in Jervis, Salmon, and Marrow inlets to fish.

Today the population fluctuation on the Sunshine Coast is the opposite: it swells in the summer with an influx of tourists and people from Vancouver who have built lovely homes on the rocky shores and it declines in the winter.  I guess the bands looking for slaves have gone elsewhere.

We planned to leave on Friday morning, but the frothy water caused by a 20 knot southerly and an opposing 12-foot tide in Malaspina Stait sent Greywolf scurrying back to the dock.  

Saturday morning brought kids and parents out for a fishing derby for the
community May Day Celebration.  The last Saturday in April is April Tools Day.  
The Rona Hardware store delivers wood and tools to registered teams of
four to six people who have two hours to build a boat.  The boats are then 
launched and The Race Begins.  There are several rescue boats on hand.
This community knows how to have a good time.

Prizes to be awarded to many happy fishers!

Wind and tide did not allow us to stay for the parade.

This little girl is Lola.  Her dad said she’d never been around so many

 people before, since they were from a small town.  

We thought Madeira Park was a small town.  

Maybe even a village. 

“Where are you from?”
 “Eggmont.”

Ah, yes.  That would qualify.

We first met the skipper of this vessel in 2007.  He and his wife built the 
boat many years ago and boat is named for her.  Good-natured and 
out-going, he is still enjoying his life on the water, although he now is alone.

“High Bank Waterfront” on Malaspina Strait.

Heading North 

And Now We Begin...Again

Greywolf waved her substantial stern in a fond farewell to the Glen Cove, one of the tugs that lives behind her in Eagle Harbor, as we got underway shortly after O’dark Hundred on Saturday, May 10. A proud toot of her horn was answered by Top Priority, wishing Greywolf and her crew fair winds and following seas.  The plan, as always, was to leave the harbor and turn left.

The following seas were obviously scheduled for another day.  We have crossed the Straits of Juan de Fuca many times in the past 40-plus years in various boats ranging from a 19 foot Seaswirl outboard to our present stout 40 footer, encountering a variety of weather and sea conditions. If this had been our first crossing, we would never have done it again. 

As Greywolf hugged the Whidbey Island shore to avoid the notorious bad water off Point Wilson, we found ourselves in a tide rip.  Tide rips are to be expected in these bodies of water. Our tide rip became a four-hour washing machine with a 3-4 foot westerly swell that would not allow us to keep both our course and our breakfast.  We opted for breakfast.

By the time we realized our tide rip was more than a passing condition, it was too late to to safely deploy our stabilizing poles and the fish that keep Greywolf on a (more or less) even keel.  The weather forecast was for winds below ten knots, so stabilizers were not even on the radar screen. And the forecast was accurate: we never had winds above six knots.  

Greywolf at anchor last summer with her poles out to minimize the ropy-poly effect of passing boat wakes.

The bell outside the pilothouse door did ring, but the dog did not throw up. (That has always been the sequence in the past.)  However, she did look miserable as she slid back and forth from one side to another on the settee. I sat next to her to hold her in place.  Looking out the side windows in the pilot house, I alternately saw water, and then sky.  We were not in danger and it was a beautiful sunny day, but we soon tired of going up and down and back and forth and holding on and going up and down and back and forth and holding on.  Truly a disgusting crossing.

Allie wishing she lived on a farm.  Or maybe in an apartment.

When we got in the lee of Lopez Island, the water started behaving better.  We picked up a buoy at Watmouh Bay on the SE corner of Lopez late in the afternoon.

Waiting  permission to board the dinghy.  One of the “fish” for the stabilizer poles  is behind Allie.

The only other boat in the bay; Anacortes in the background.

Wonderful individual and community action.

Great walkie in the early evening

You don’t actually “pick up” the buoys, of course; you pick up the ring and put your line through it.  We bought an amazing

gizmo at the Boat Show to help the crew on boats with Substantial Bows reach the ring in the buoy.  You slip the hook through the ring and somehow your line gets threaded through the ring.  I still do not understand it and we’ve used it twice now.  Of course, I’ve sewn dress shirts and blazers (WHY would anyone do that???) and I don’t understand how a sewing machine works, so why would I understand our Buoy Buddy???

 Imagine the cable is a buoy ring.  See if YOU can figure it out....

Sunday afternoon: Greywolf on another buoy in Reid Harbor on Stuart Island and a Much Happier Poodle.

Life is good.  She withdrew the SPCA complaint.

Look!  A water bowl right here on the top of the hill!

The little white dot at water’s edge is A Poodle.

Next stop:  A Foreign Country and Doggie Play Date