Big Trip to Canada Days 11&12 (CB)

CB 12 September, 2008
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 Tuesday-Wednesday 22-23 July 2008

Short day today, no rush to get up early. No tides to worry about, we made a quick run out to retrieve the Shrimp and Crab pots. Got a few Shrimp but no crab.

The original plan was to head out and go to Roscoe Bay. Ghost left about 1/2 hour before we did and called on the radio to let us know that Roscoe Bay looked pretty crowded, and that they were headed for Pridieux Haven instead. Pridieux Haven is probably the most popular spot in all of Desolation Sound. And from what we’ve heard is alway full of boats.

There must be a reason that it is so popular and despite our desire to avoid crowds, we wanted to check it out. So we decided to go there with Ghost as well. The entrance is a little tricky to navigate, but with an eye on the depth sounder, one on the charts and Tawn on the bow sprite as lookout we got in with no problems.

Once inside it was crowded, but with our new learned skill of stern tieing we found a little spot in the northwest corner of the bay and made our selfs at home.

Pridieux Haven is pretty nice, and pretty well protected. And there are tons of tiny little nooks and crannys every where for exploring in kayaks and dinghys. Andlots and lots of power boats. I can see why it’s so popular. Not our favorite spot, but to each there own.

Another reason it might be so popular is due to the fact that a lady by the name of M. Wylie Blanchett wrote a book (The Curve of Time) way back in the 30’s about the area. She was a widow (Ye olde speak for single mom) with 5 kids. She would pack them up each summer and cruise around this area with them. The book was written about the places and people they met on there trips up here. The book is not a bad read, but it’s definetly made better if you have some sort of connection to the area. And after having spent a few weeks up here, I read the book on the way home and thought it was pretty cool.

While we were here we hiked on a couple trails that linked the different coves togather and are mentioned in the book “The Curve of Time”. And while hiking on these trails we had another encounter with our industrious little friends the hornets. Tawn did the stepping on this time, but luckily she did not get stung. I stand corrected, she actually did get stung.

Hornets: 3

Tawn & CB: 0

For no particular reason at all, I think I should give a mention to our little dink.While out cruising this little guy is our car, pack mule, entertainment… The list goes on.

Most boats have a name or nickname for their dink, we for some reason have not come up with a good one. We usually just call it Dink. I thought I should a least include a picture of it here since I seem to mention it so much. Oh and if you enjoyed that awesome picture of our beat up little dinghy, check out this action packed video of the Dink in action:

Just prior to that video I was out setting our crab and shrimp pots. I just got down watching the video I took while I was setting the crab pot, I realized just how retarded I am. I used hotdogs for bait…..?? That did NOT work, and a rock I had grabbed from the shore. Not sure why, but I’ll post the video here too, be warned, it is boring. :)

We also did some hiking while we were here and found a rope swing tied to a tree that we had a blast swining off of into the water.

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Big Trip to Canada. Days 9 – 10 (CB)

CB 30 August, 2008
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Monday & Tuesday July 21 & 22:

The next couple of days in Tenedos Bay were spent alot like the days in Princess Louisa Inlet. Lots of hiking, swimming and exploring via dinghy. We also did some crabbing/Shrimping.

As usual, you can follow along on the MAP.

Directly behind the spot were Palarran was anchored was a couple hundred foot tall cliff. From the cockpit of the boat it looked like there was a spot or two on top of which we could get some really cool pictures both the bay and the boat. With that as a plan we took the dinghy ashore and tied it up. There was no trail to follow so we started bush whacking our way up the hill. The first thing that became evident was the fact that we should have worn pants. Our legs are still healing from some of the scratches we got on that hike. But after an hour or so of scrambling and climbing we made it to the top of the cliff. And we were rewarded with a pretty awesome view of the bay below and some really cool pictures of Palarran.

This picture was taken almost near the top of the cliff looking southwest. The opening in the upper far right if the photo is where we came in the day before.

Ghost and WindDancer would be coming a few hours after that photo was taken, they ended up anchoring in the southeast corner of the bay, which is to the left and around the corner. That is the spot we had planned on anchoring when we came in but there was no room at the time.

You cannot see our boat in the picture above, we had to climb about 20 feet higher to the top of a outcropping that we could see out over the edge of in order to see Palarran.

We took a number of photos from up here, but I think these two are the best:


The trip down had one little bonus that we did not count on. Hornets! God damn, those little bastards are mean. We had the hardest part of the climb down behind us. The only bit left was to make sure we found the right ridge line to follow that took us back to were we tied the dinghy to shore. Since Tawn has no sense of direction in the woods….or town. :) I was in the lead and as it turns out going the wrong way. But that is not really important. What was important was to be on the lookout for a threat we did not know existed in these parts. That threat being the aforementioned Hornets.

I had just stepped over a small fallen log when at the bottom of my line of sight I see that i’m about to step in what looks like a small hole in the ground. My foot is already headed for it. Sorta like that split second you know your about to shut your finger in a car door, but can’t do anything about it. As I focus on the hole in the ground I realize there are a dozen or so, small little something or others flying around the hole. Abour half a second later as i’ve stepped into the hole there are countless pissed of something or others zooming straight up out of the hole and right at me.

Me and Tawn have been togather for over 15 years, and in that time we have developed something of a shorthand form of communication, some might suggest a bit of telepathy. So as I turned towards her, wild eyed and screaming “FUCK! SHIT! RUNNNNNNNN!!!!”. It’s like she somehow instinctivly knew to turn and run or she would be trampled by me as I ran back up the hill at full speed. I only got stung twice.

Final score:

Hornets: 2

Tawn and CB: 0

After that mad scramble we decided a bath would be refreshing, so we jumped in the dinghy and headed over to the trailhead that leads to Lake Unwin. From the shore to the lake is an easy 1/4 mile hike. The water was fresh, clean and warm. We crossed a pile of old logs and found a nice boulder to jump off of and went for a swim. The first of many.

On the hike back we found a little water fall that I just had to sit in…Tawn just had to take a picture of it.

**WARNING** The following picture contains A Farmers Tan, Beer Belly, some retardedness. **WARNING**

We came back to this lake a few times with Scotty, Angie and the kids. We spent the rest of the next couple days hanging out. In fact a good number of the afternoons and evenings were spent on the spacious deck of Ghost and looked alot like this:

From Left to right:

Curtis, Tawn’s Box of Wine, Ellie, Scotty & CB.

We had a bonfire on shore one night. Made smores and played guitars and sang really poorly.

Set out crabpots and shrimp pots. Did not catch any crabs but managed to get a fair number of huge Prawns…..mmmmmmm! I love those prawns.

After a couple days here we decide to head a little further north to Roscoe Bay. We would stay in company of Ghost, but WindDancer had other plans and would be heading to Grace Harbor. They would be meeting back up with us in about a weeks times in Von Donup Inlet for Angies B-day.

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Big Trip to Canada Day 8 (CB)

CB 28 August, 2008
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Sunday July 19th:

We only stayed in Musket Cove for one day. We were anxious to get moving and get all the way up to Desolation Sound. Our plan was to leave early, stop in the town of Lund to reprovision and then continue on up to Tenedos Bay which is in Desolation Sound.

The trip north today was windless. Alot of motoring, we had a couple hours till we got to Lund and since we had been out for a little over a week we decided to take care of some laundry. Since we don’t have a washer/dryer on the boat, we did the laundry hillbilly style. Which is a bucket and plunger. :)

And with the laundry done, I put Tawn to work cleaning the decks….hahaha :)

With the chores done and the laundry drying we pulled into Lund and tied up the the outside of thier floating breakwater floats. The town of Lund was a pretty small place, but they had just about everything we needed. Beer being the main thing, wine second and fresh veggies a distant third….oh and some bacon.

The other reason we wanted to stop in Lund was due to the fact that the old Pan-American Highway (Highway 101) runs from here all the way down to the town of Puerto Montt, Chile. Which by the way is the town that me and Tawn are going down to next year on vacation and plan to move to after we finish sailing around the world. So we thought that would be a pretty cool thing. There is also a official sign/placard that states this fact. So we had to find this.

So before we went shopping we walked around for abit to find this…..how hard could it be? Right? Well, after looking everywhere and not seeing anything, we decided to ask someone…that someone told us that they took that sign down last summer……?? Dammit, but being determined tourist we managed to find this:

After getting our picture taken, garbage dropped off and stocked up on booze and Ice, we rowed back out to the boat and headed north toward Desolation Sound. Ghost and WindDancer decided to stay in Lund for the night. They would catch up with us tomorrow.

Still no wind so the rest of the day was motoring. As we passed the Copeland Islands we made plans to stop by here on the way back south in a few weeks.

Sarah Point is the point of land that that marks the entrance to Desolation Sound. The picture of course does not do it justice, but it’s nice to get a point of reference. The point of land in the right hand side of the picture is Sarah Point.

I’m not sure if we were just anticipating it so much or if it really was as awesome as it seemed, but as soon as we rounded the point the view somehow seemed to get even better. Huge mountains everywhere. Again, below is a picture that in no way does it justice:

We pulled into Tenedos Bay around 6:30pm. We had wanted to anchor and stern tie in the southeast corner of the bay, near the path that lead up to Lake Unwin. But all those spots were taken. So we headed to the other side of the bay in the Northeast side and dropped the hook and ran the sternline to shore. Our cozy little spot for the next couple days.

Being so far north the summer days are insanely long. Sunset is around 10:30 or so. So we went for a little dinghy exploring and a short hike on shore.

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Big Trip to Canada. Day 7 (CB)

CB 28 August, 2008
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Saturday July 19th Saturday:

I can’t remember now exactly what time the alarm went off, it was definetly before 6 am. Maybe even before 5am. Either way, it was early. But at least we didn’t have to haul up the anchor, washdown and stow the anchor chain and anchor bouy. We were tied to mooring ball, so all we had to do was untie a mooring line and take off.

Ghost and WindDancer were up and motoring towards Malibu rapids as we came up on deck and started getting things ready to go. They went around the north side of MacDonald Island, we went around the South side. Through the rapids with ease and out into Queens Reach. Unfortunatly, there was absolutly no wind. So we had to motor most of the way. As we got to Nelson Island the winds picked up a little and we put the sails up for the last 10 miles of the trip. Ghost and WindDancer motored on and soon turned the corner around the island and out of site.

Our destination for today was a small cove on Hardy Island called Musket Cove. The entrance was nice and deep and well marked, as long as you were actually in the main channel and did’nt get suckered in to taking what appears to be a shortcut. Ghost was anchored and running there Stern line to shore as we entered the bay. WindDancer was doing the same.

Stern tieing is an anchoring technique used alot up here in BC. The main reason it is used so much is that alot of the anchorages up here are small little coves with very steep shores. If some one was to anchor regularly you could only get 2-3 boats in a small cove. If everyone stern ties, you could get 15 or more boats in the same cove. The reason is since your boat is tied to shore you cannot swing on your anchor. You stay in the same position no matter what the wind or tide is doing.

This would be our first time stern tieing.  And to be honest, I had sorta been worrying about it. Palarran is a full keeled boat, which means that she does not like to back up. Not without a fight, so I had imagined all sorts of crazy ass scenerios unfolding as I tried to keep the boat in one spot as Tawn took the stern line to shore. None of which happened.

I’ll try to explain the operation as best as I can.

Once we entered Musket cove we drifted for abit, getting everything ready to go. Get the anchor setup, get the engine on the dinghy, get the sternline untied and ready to hand overboard to Tawn. Once all that is set, we motored around the Anchorage looking for a good spot to anchor. We found one in the Northwest corner of the cove. I motored the boat up as close as I dared to the shore, depth sounder showed 18 feet, I spun the boat around and headed about 100 feet out from shore and Tawn dropped the anchor in 35 feet of water. As soon as Tawn tells me there is enough anchor chain out and the anchor is on the bottom, I put the engine in reverse and start backing up, towards the shore. Tawn is letting out more chain as we do this. When about 90 feet of  chain is out, Tawn stopped letting out the chain and we let the anchor dig in. This is the normal technique and we do it all the time.

Now comes the new bit. Running the stern line to shore and back. Once the anchor is set, Tawn jumps in the dinghy and I hand here one end of the stern line. The other end is wrapped around a big spool I built and mounted on the back of the boat. As Tawn is headed to shore, I’m paying out more and more line (we have 600ft total on the spool). Once she gets to shore, she climbs up and finds a tree and runs the rope around it. As she is doing this, I am on the boat, keeping it in place or making sure we dont drift into other boats or rocks on shore. She then pulls as much line as she thinks she needs to get back to the boat, where she hands me the line and I tie it off to the boat. We pull the line tight and that is about it. We are now anchored in a little corner of the bay and tied off to shore.

I of course took a few pictures of the final result. This first picture was taken right off the back of the boat. You can see the blue line running to shore, around the tree and back to the boat.

This next picture shows just how close to shore we were anchored and the blue line running to shore and back. But it showes that you can really tuck your boat into some very small spots and tie you self in and out of some nasty weather.

Once settled in we did a little dinghy exploring. Scotty lost an oar and we found a bunch of oysters.

Map of the trip.

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