We have officially entered Canada - perhaps the most anti-climactic event of our trip. We left Henry island at around 11:30a and headed for Bedwell harbor. Henry island was a magical place in the morning and we wished we could have stayed another day, but we were eager to keep going - and it will be relatively easy for us to come back to Henry island in the future. We headed for a customs clearance point called Poets Cove and docked at the dedicated customs dock.
And what should we find but our friend from Elliott bay Marina - the M5. This is the tallest single masted ship in the world and it had been docked in Elliott bay for about a month before departing a day before we did!
Customs was a breeze - we even got help docking from a lady who was stuck at the doc with an expired US passport… :( I used one of the dedicated phones on the customs dock to call Canada customs and after a 5 min hold, I was asked for a bunch of daata off of our documents (passport numbers, boat registration info, etc) and I received a customs clearance number. The whole thing took less than 30 min. I even discovered that the “Irish Linen” had been in Canada before - and don’t worry, we updated the name with Canada customs to “Onward”. Given how quick the whole customs process was, we decided to proceed to the Ganges - a day ahead of schedule. The Ganges is a fun little town - complete with grocery, resteraunts, and marine shops (where I hope to get the parts I need to fix the AIS/heater). The Ganges reminds me of Taos NM - Art shops everywhere and that very eclectic hippie feel.
We went to dinner at a resteraunt to celebrate our crossing into Canada and we found a place called the tree house - with an actual tree growing through the middle of it. They served Sara a chocolate milk with a gummy worm in it and they had a little door for elves - which Sara got a huge kick out of (there was just a mirror on the other side).
The following day was a refit day - Sara did not like calling it rest day since we had so many things do to. Our first task was a hike for Sara and I to the marine shop where I called ahead about a VHF cable. They had exactly what I needed and we saw a hike on the map on our way back which we decided to take. It was short hike (1/4 mile) with lots of Salmon berry bushes along the way. We ate as we walked and about halfway through the hike we started to hear a woman singing loudly - as we approached, it was clear she was practicing something - what better place to practice your singing that the middle of the forest! I was able to install the VHF cable in early afternoon and the AIS fault issue seems to have disapeared - fingers crossed it doesn’t come back once we get underway. We spend the afternoon shopping/walking around town getting things we needed - this will be the last real town until Port Mcneil in 10 days. I spent the afternoon working on the deisel heater to no avail - Decided my best bet would be to call the Wallas people in the morning… We went out to dinner again at a place called the Salt springs inn since it will be our last time for a while. Not as good as last night, but we enjoyed it none the less.
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Our trip to Ovens island was much shorter than expected - we had a 1-1.5 kt current at our back the whole way, which turned our 5 hr trip into a just a little over a 3.5 hr trip. I got a new hat in the Ganges (my old one didn’t really fit and I didn’t like wearing it) and it worked great, very little sun compared to the day before. Ovens is as fun as we expected it to be - it is a tiny island with a doc and a 1/4 hiking trail that circumnavigates it. There are a few picnic tables and benches - but not much else. This was exactly what we were looking for - beautiful atmosphere and peaceful/quiet night.
Our speed sensor has a built in sea temperature sensor but, until recently, our display was unable to show it. When we left the Puget Sound, the sea temp was around 61 deg but it reached a balmy 73 deg by the time we reached Ovens island - I’m sure there is some current effect at play that I would love to learn about. 73 deg is by no means hot tub temp, but it’s good enough for swimming. Sara and I went for a short swim and then decided to head over to the neighboring island - about a 20 foot swim. After we made it, Sara proclaimed - “This is the proudest I have ever been”. I guess this was a good day!
In other funny Sara moments, we played a new word matching card game in the evening and Angela/I were cuddling on the couch while playing and Sara asked “Can I get in on that cuddle?”… :)
We took a rest day on ovens island the next day. Sara and I spend the morning plaaying ticket to ride again - she is really into the board games - while Angela spent some time ashore writing/drawing. A little before noon we took the dinghy into the town (which is where Pamela Anderson grew up i was told several times by Angela). It was a long dinghy ride and we almost used half the battery getting there - we were going to make it back, but it was going to be close! We had lunch on the pier and then walked into town to send some mail and get ice cream. Mail was a success, but the ice cream shop had the weirdest hours and wasn’t open on Thursday-Sunday… Instead we went to the pastry shop and picked up some treats - chocolate cupcake and some cocanut treats. We headed back to ovens that evening and tried out the hammmock - which runs between the jib and the mast on the boat. Sara and I spent about an hour up there until it started to get chilly - mostly doing math worksheets. We met our new neighbors and did some research on our crossing the next day. We took another hike around the island and found out that at low tide you can just walk across the channel that we swam across the other day!
We left early the following morning - after our workout on the doc, we pulled away at around 7:30a. We had to time our crossing of Gabriola pass at as close as possible to 9;51a to hit slack tide - the current can turn the pass into rapids with 9 knts of water flowing in either direction. it took us about 2 hours to get there so we kinda hung out for 30 min before braving thhe pass about 15 min early. We had no issues - the pass was still and calm. On the other side of the pass, we were to transit across the straight of georgia - which was going to be a 2-3 hour crosssing and for the first time in the trip we had real wind! It was a pretty consistent 12-15 knts for our whole crossing and we made great time - averaging 6-7 knts the whole time. The waves, however, made the trip interesting - they were a pretty consistent 2-3 feet high with the occasional 5 foot wave thrown in for good measure. It was a bit scary at first, but then the sea sickness started to kick in. Thankfully, everyone but I fell asleep for most of the trip and everyone came out the other side none the worse for wear.
All in, we went almost 35 nm today - our biggest day yet!
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We motored the last couple of miles into Plumper cove on Keats island where there is a marine park with mooring balls for boaters to use. The marine park has miles of trails and campsites for kayakers/canoers too use and is part of a system of parks that goes all the way up this fyord for almost a hundred miles. Sara and I went on a quick (1 mile) hike while Angela took a nap.
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We got back to the boat and finished a movie that Sara and I had been watching - by the time we were done, Angela was ready to go on a hike! So we headed ashore again and did a two mile hike this time!
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Sara found a new friend - the island’s caretaker’s daughter Willow. They ended up spending the next 2-3 hours swinging on a swing, playing on monkey bars, and making slime! Back to the boat at 7:30p for burgers!!
We left around 10a the next morning - headed up the coast to Garden Bay. We hit some big wind waves almost right away and we considered ducking back in to the cove to wait it out. The forecast called for winds to die down by late morning, but given the state of the seas we didn’t think that was likely. After about an hour of beating into the waves, we were all ready for a break and decided that we were going to pull out of the weather at Smugglers cove (which was about another hour away). By the time we got to Smugglers cove however, the wind had died and the seas were flat again. We did end up stopping for ~30 min in Buckaneer bay but the anchorage was really tight and it was not great holding. Our first anchor drop dragged and we moved to a second one that held - and Sara cut her finger cutting an apple in the middle of all that - it was quite a stressful 10 min! When I pulled the first anchor back up, there was a bunch of seaweed on it and a 2 foot aquatic centapeed was on the seaweed - I wish I had been with it enough to grab my camera! We decided to finish the trip with the last 2 hour motor sail up to Garden Bay and ended up getting in fairly late (around 5:45p). We checked in and found out the heater had not yet arrived, so I guess we will be staying her another night or two…
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Garden Bay has really nice grounds and it situated in a huge bay with probably 20 other marinas (private and probably public). Nothing was open when we arrived, but it sounds like we will have plenty to explore during our rest day tomorrow!
We met up with another boat here that we had met in Friday harbor a couple of days earlier - Shatze. I spent about 30 min with Roger and Lynne walking through the next couple of days and passing Cape Caution. He had some great advice on how to avoid spending too much time in the Johnstone straight and how to cross back into Alaska when we get to that point. All of the people have been super helpful, it’s been really great.
The following day, we had a relatively slow day - we took the dinghy out and Sara drove all day, to lunch, to ice cream, to dinner. She is both improving quickly and still has a long way to go… :)
Sara and I did lunch at John Henry’s cafe - which was a fun little cafe and shop. We did a little dinghy tour and then came back to get momma - then back to John Henry’s for ice cream. We had a goal of taking a hike next, but the dingy battery was running low (Sara is still working on her steering and I think we probably go twice the most efficient distance to get somewhere) so we headed back to charge it. We ran into the Voyageur crew again - Gary & Judy - and invited them to dinner. They are both in their 70s and they mentioned that they have both been cruising for 3-4 months a year since Gary retired in his 50s. We invited them to have cocktails at the club room in a few hours and played a rousing game of “unexploded cow” - a card game that Sara loves so much she chants it’s name when we aren’t playing it and then headed up to the “sunshine” room. After cocktails, we headed back to the dinghy and over to Mexican food for dinner. We had grocery shopping on the list, but given the heater had no chance of arriving today we decided to take it slow today and do our groceries tomorrow morning. Also, everything closes at like 6 or 7p here - definitely on island time!
Cortez island is next - hopefully we will take off later today or early tomorrow. We are currently at the whim of the FedEx guy!