Aug 6 through Aug 22, 2010 - Canada Boat Trip

Our trip started with a wrinkle/twist.  We "lost" our generator a week before the trip when the raw water pump leaked salt water into the engine oil, rendering our generator inoperable.  There was no time to fix it, or to secure a replacement.  I will work on it now that we are back.  Before we left I took steps to "pickle" the engine and hopefully prevented further internal engine damage for the 16 days we were on our trip.

Without a generator we have no way to use our electric cooktop or oven.  We also lost our primary method of battery charging.  But, we came up with two workarounds:
1.  We are bringing our propane campstove along for cooking
2.  We will use one of our main propulsion engines for battery charging.  Last year I upgraded one alternator to a much larger (and intelligent) unit, so it can easily handle the charging duty now.  Phew, I'm really happy I did this upgrade.
.                                                                                                   .

Now onto our trip.  With more than two weeks to be out boating, we felt like we could get to Desolation Sound and really relax and enjoy our time up there.  We had no firm itinerary and wanted to "play it by ear" letting the weather guide us along.  We knew we wanted to get up there quickly which would mean one or two days of long travel.  Here is a chart showing where we went.  Each day of travel is a different color and is numbered (click any picture for a larger version).  We started with the red #1 at the lower right:

Map of our trip.  Each day of "transit" is a different color.

Leg 1:  Shelter Bay to Canadian Customs in Bedwell Harbor

Leg 2:  Bedwell Harbor to Prideaux Haven, Desolation Sound

Leg 3:  Prideaux Haven to Pendrell Sound (Redonda Islands)

Leg 4:  Pendrell Sound to Von Donop Inlet (Cortez Island)

Leg 5:  Von Donop Inlet to Rebecca Spit Park (Quadra Island)

Leg 6:  Rebecca Spit Park to Sandy Island Park

Leg 7:  Sandy Island Park to Tribune Bay (Hornby Island)

Leg 8:  Tribune Bay to False Bay (Lasqueti Island)

Leg 9:  False Bay to Nanaimo (Newcastle Island Park)

Leg 10:  Newcastle Island to Sidney Spit (Sidney Island)

Leg 11:  Sidney Spit to Friday Harbor (US Customs) then Shelter Bay

Rather than go into detail about each day, which would take a LOT of writing, we'll give you a "typical" day view of our trip and let the pictures do most of the talking.

~ MORNINGS ~

We would typically get up without an alarm clock.  The kids were sometimes up before us, other times we were first.  Mornings were very relaxed and loose.  Breakfast was anywhere between 8:00 and 10:30 with games beforehand.  After breakfast we might play more games or get ready to go to shore, or swim right from the boat.  On a few mornings with long travel plans, Kathy and I got up early to start our transit while the kids slept.  On Leg 2 we were pulling the anchor at 4:30AM in total darkness.  The kids slept for the first 5 hours of our longest day of travel, which was a rainy day (fortunately).  This allowed us to maximize our daylight hours with the kids, so we could spend as much time as possible doing fun things on shore rather than spending the day in the boat waiting to arrive at our next destination.

Playing Games before breakfast.

Playing in the warm water.  Prideaux Haven.

Cindy takes an early morning plunge!

~ AFTERNOONS ~

After lunch we would usually leave the boat to play on a beach, go for a hike, explore the area by dinghy, go swimming, or somehow play in the water.  With lots of warm water, and some really great beaches to explore, we were not on the boat much during the afternoons.  The afternoons were our "play time"; our afternoons were fantastic. 

Cindy tubing, Kevin is the spotter.  Pendrell Sound (73F water)

Are we in the South Pacific?  Tribune Bay, Hornby Island.

The kids built this driftwood tee-pee.  Sindey Spit.

Someone REALLY sailing.  This looks like fun.

Anchored in front of the "big" city of Nanaimo.

Kayaking in Melanie Cove, Desolation Sound.

Nice sand beach at Sidney Spit.

A float plane leaves Nanaimo just as we arrive.

Cindy "touches down" in Pendrell Sound.

Cindy on the rope swing at Pendrell Sound

Kevin's turn on the rope swing.

Air mattresses.  We were anchored close to shore.

Cindy skim-boarding at Tribune Bay.

Kevin and Steve go for a log ride.

Walking the beach.

Checkers, anyone?

Who's next on the rope swing?

We hiked to this beautiful little lake.

Millions of shells.  Sandy Island Marine Park.

~ EVENINGS ~ 

A typical evening would consist of eating dinner, followed by either some games, a trip back to the beach, or watching a movie.  We only turned on the TV 3 times during the trip and it was after dinner to watch Star Wars episodes 4, 5, and 6.  Our kids are really into Star Wars right now.  We didn't bring any electronic games on this trip.  One night we stayed up late while in Von Donop Inlet to watch the Perseids Meteor shower which was spectacular.  The kids saw their first shooting stars which were shooting by at about 1 per minute!  The Milky Way was incredibly visible as well.  We were miles from any source of light pollution so the sky was very dark and the stars vivid.

The sun sets on another PERFECT day!

Time for one last skimboard run before bedtime.

Walking the beach at sunset.

Exlporing False Bay after dinner.  Lasqueti Island.

Our Last night of the trip.  Sidney Spit, British Columbia.

Some unique events/adventures:

~ ADVENTURE ~

On our way up to Desolation Sound (in the middle of Leg #2) crossing of the Straight of Georgia the wind really kicked up.  For most of the crossing it was blowing about 7-10 knots, but near the end of the crossing it climbed to 30+ knots and make the water a bit lumpy.  When we were just a few miles away from the end of open water we had some adventure when our swimstep mounted dinghy started coming off the swimstep in the big seas we were battling.  This forced us to stop in order to secure the dinghy.  Once a boat is stopped in big waves it is tossed about like a cork in a wading pool.  It was not pleasant!  Kevin and Zappa (our cat) both got seasick and threw up.  Cabinet doors opened up dumping cans and packages of food on the floor, toppling over water jugs, even my heavy pilothouse chair fell over.  It made a big mess of our boat.  We couldn't get the dinghy back on the swimstep as it had hundreds of pounds of water in it.  Waves were crashing onto the swimstep up to my knees.  I quickly gave up on the idea of getting the dinghy back into position as that was far too dangerous.  So, we had to tow it.

Towing our slightly damaged dinghy.

What a mess!  Sick child and cat.  Things EVERYWHERE.

Following Seas; a roly-poly ride.

~ INTERESTING ~

In Prideaux Haven A couple in a dinghy stops by Sunday afternoon to talk to us.  They were the original owners of our boat and just had to stop to say "hi" and to introduce themselves.  We never met them when were buying our boat.  They now own a custom built Ted Hood designed power catamaran.  It is an impressive vessel for sure.  They said they have been looking for our boat ever since they sold it, and were happy to hear the we use it so much, and that we love our boat.

Synergy's original owner's new boat:  a custom 62' power catamaran.

~ RESCUE ~

In Von Donop Inlet there is a little waterway that connects a bay to the entrance channel.  At low tide the water rushing out of the bay through the waterway creates a river.  You can enter in a dinghy when the tide level is equal to the bay level, which occurs at about high tide.  We went back to check it out one day by dinghy and found a woman on a sailboat waving us down.  When we got to her she said she was worried about her husband because he had gone into the bay hours ago when the water was slack.  He was now struggling to get back out as the tide went even higher than they expected and he couldn't paddle against the strong current.  We went over and found him on this side of the rapids.  He was pulling his dinghy by hand while trying to walk on the rugged and slippery shoreline.  He had multiple cuts and brusises from falling on the rocks.  We got close to him, which was tough due to the velocity of the water and tied his dinghy to ours.  Then we had him jump into his dinghy and towed him back to his very grateful spouse.  I guess we did our good deed for the trip?

The "raging river" created by the level of the tide.

~ SUMMARY ~

It was a GREAT trip with fantastic weather.  The kids are now old enough to really enjoy the warm water.  We no longer have to watch them like a hawk which makes boating much more enjoyable for us as well.  Despite the lack of a generator we survived, in fact it wasn't that much of an  inconvenience at all.  Our boat performed perfectly during the trip, but we did discover that our small dinghy mount needs improvement.  Our new dinghy (the big one) worked out great, and I love the new Yamaha 4-stroke motor.  It is very quiet and burns much less fuel than the previous two-stroke outboard.

We only touched two docks with the big boat during 16 days.  Those were brief landings so we could clear customs when entering Canada, and then again when arriving back in the US.  Other than two nights on a mooring bouy at Sidney Spit, we anchored at every destination.  We never needed to stop for fuel or water despite travelling almost 500 miles. 

This was one of our best boat trips ever!!!  I think we could have stayed out a few more weeks, as we weren't ready to come home yet.  Maybe next year we can figure out how to get away from work for a month?

Update:  We have been out on the boat 20 weekends this year.  Aug 22 marked the end of week #33 in the ISO week number calendar.  There are 52 weeks in a year, so there are 19 weeks left in this year.  I think we can get out at least 6 more times over a 19 week span (26 weeks is half of the year).  This would allow us to meet my goal of "using our boat every other weekend" in 2010.  It looks like we will easily surpass my goal this year!!!