Thursday, June 30 Allison Harbour

The rain & gloom continue and West Sea Otter continues to show 2-3 meters of waves.  We are stuck for awhile. We have everything we need so it is really no hardship.

passing time playing dominoes

trying to get our Globalstar phone to work

Tuesday, June 28 Port McNeill Our 25th Anniversary

We are just doing laundry and getting ready to leave dock tomorrow morning.  The drizzle isn’t letting up so we are heading out anyway to do a little shopping and walk Merlin.  On our way back from the grocery store Fred pulled me into the florist and presented me with a beautiful bouquet from Heather for my birthday which is tomorrow.  We are heading out to Gus’s Pub for our anniversary dinner.  All in all a peaceful day.

June 27 Port McNeill

Fred has some errands to do and I am going up to the medical clinic to get some prescriptions refilled.  It’s raining lightly but we carry on.  They have a pretty neat system at the clinic.  Walk in patients pay a $75 and one sees an MD.  The MD I saw today walked in, did not introduce himself and muttered something about a medical student there.  The MD pulled a prescription pad and asked “what do you want?”  He didn’t even take a history. Well, I got what I needed and headed down the hill to the pharmacy.  We have to stay another day to wait for the meds to come in.  It is illegal to mail prescriptions from one country to another so my regular mail order medicines will just stack up at home.  Because we are gone more than 3 months we need this refill mid trip.  We had a treat this afternoon; Lady M came in to dock. She is a 164 foot mega yacht that we had seen in the Broughton’s.  While we had dial tone, Fred took advantage of it and got the %$#@ Oceans e mail to work, so now, when we have “space phone” service, ie Globalstar phone service we can send and receive e mails. He also got the weather station to work. It had gone south several days ago after working flawlessly all winter. The thing is a Davis unit made in San Leandro, just a phone call away.

Davit is built into the upper deck railing

Lady M at Port McNeill

 http://www.charterworld.com/index.html?sub=yacht-charter&charter=luxury-motor-yacht-lady-m-1168

Sunday, June 26 Lagoon Cove to Port McNeill 3 hours

Another beautiful sunny day. We could become used to this. We got an early start out of Lagoon Cove to head over to Port McNeill.  Our journey today takes us through Knight Inlet and then out in Queen Charlotte Straight.  We saw dolphins playing by the shore in Knight Inlet.  We were hoping that they would come over and play in our wake, but no joy.  

http://www.town.portmcneill.bc.ca/

Friday, June 24 Blind Channel Resort to Lagoon Cove 5 hours 43 miles

We got an early start because the winds pick up Johnstone Straight in the afternoon.  We are always on the look out for wildlife.  It is so exciting to see wild animals in their own setting.  We were lucky to see two black bears today.  They were on the beach turning over rocks.  One was in Johnstone Straight and one was in the Blow Hole.  We find them by seeing big black "rocks" that move.  Wildlife blends in so well.  Our timing was excellent.  We made it thought Chatham Channel and Blow Hole without hitting and rocks. As usual, Fred was “a little up tight” because the “hole” is a small hole and this is a big boat.  We pulled into Lagoon Cove and met our old acquaintances here.  http://bluebookofboats.com/Marin/LagoonCoveMarina.htm
Bill Barber owns the place and is a charming fellow who is the best storyteller I have ever heard.  We had a nice time at Happy Hour up on the dock.  All of the family run marinas in the Broughton’s have a 5 PM Happy Hour on the dock.  The purpose is to meet other boaters and share stories and useful information. We met a number of interesting people. The family on the boat in front of us had a beautiful Sheltie. I don’t think we have ever seen one of these on a boat before. Diane (sheltie lady) suggested we take the dogs up the large lawn area and let them play. The Sheltie, MacKenzie, was a hoot. He was full of playfulness. Poor Merlin was overwhelmed.  They ran around a little together but then Merlin came up to me to be held. One of the reasons we got a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel was because they do not require a lot of exercise.

Lagoon Cove Marina

historic workshop

very cute place

Thursday, June 23 Blind Channel Resort

We listened to the weather and it sounds like high winds and chop in Johnstone Straight so we stayed another day.  It is rainy and dreary. I finally got tired of staying inside and we all went for a walk in the rain.  It wasn’t cold, just wet.  Merlin thinks nothing of rain.  The tide was out so I took Merlin down to the beach.  I figured I would give him a warm bath when we got back to the boat.  He had a great time.  He would go into the water up to his knees and pick up rocks from the water and stack then on the beach.  I wonder what he is thinking…  We met a lovely young couple on a beautiful 52’ Ocean Alexander (Ink On Paper”).  They are traveling with their two sons until August

Wednesday, June 22 Squirrel Cove to Blind Channel Resort 4 hours 38 miles

Merlin on the beach at Blind Channel Resort

Emerald Star is in the middle

Again we have beautiful weather.  We passed through Hole-in-the-Wall rapids and Okisollo rapids near slack water and then headed out into Discovery Channel and out into Johnstone Straight. Johnstone Straght separates the norther half of Vancouver Island from the mainland. The water can also be terrible but it was smooth and sunny and we had a lovely cruise up to Blind Channel Resort in Mayne channel. This place has about twelve 80’ docks and some nasty currents. It’s just around the bend from green point rapids and they can ruin your day. We were sliding side ways out in the channel, but it calmed down closer to the docks. Fred get very worried when we start to go sideways. We didn’t have a reservation but were only the third boat on the dock. This place is first class.  They come down and grabbed lines while we were docking and informed us that the restaurant was open. They have a well stocked grocery store with liquor (very expensive in Canada) and a giftshop attached.  The resort was started and is still run by a German family.  We had a nice German meal for dinner.  Fred had a goulash and I had weiner schnitzel.  http://blindchannel.com/

Tuesday, June 21 Pender Harbour to Squirrel Cove 5 hours 53 miles

We have been blessed with beautiful weather so far.  Our journey today takes up the mainland coast to Desolation Sound.  We have seen snow capped mountains in the distance on both Vancouver Island and the mainland, but here one is much closer to beautiful snow capped peaks.  We are heading north rather rapidly so we will have plenty of time to enjoy in Alaska.  Squirrel Cove has a lovely large anchorage.  We put the dinghy down and went over to the general store and craft shop.  We brought the laptop because we can usually get online there. No such luck. It didn’t work. Oh well. We were surprised to see a sign saying that all of Squirrel Cove, the restaurant, store and small dock is for sale. Not sure what things will be like next year. We each got an ice cream cone and let Merlin run and play on the beach. Back to the boat for the evening.  http://www.cortesisland.com/squirrelcove/

View of Desolation Sound

Canada geese in Canada!

Squirrel Cove

Monday, June 20 Bedwell Harbour to Pender Harbour 7 hours 90 miles

Our intended destination today was Nanaimo.  We had to plan our trip to pass through Dodd Narrows at slack water.  It is really nice that emerald Star is capable of speeds up to 18 mph.  We usually cruise at about 10 mph.  Our previous boat, Aquila, could only go 6-7 mph.  Therefore, we have much greater range. It’s a lovely sunny day and the water is nearly flat.  We passed through Dodd Narrows at 1:21 PM, at slack, with no problem.  Nanaimo is about 8 miles passed the narrows.  As we approached Nanaimo we saw that is was only about 2:30 PM and the weather and water is so good that we headed right across the Straight of Georgia.  This can be a nasty piece of work.  It is a very large channel that runs between Vancouver Island and the mainland.  Whiskey Gulf ( military torpedo practice range that is located just outside of the waters in front of Nanaimo )  was not active so were able to cross in a straight line to our destination, Pender Harbour.  We anchored in a new place, just out side of Madiera Park & Garden Bay. While Fred was deploying the anchor, the top of the winch un-screwed with the winch handle still in it. This was a grand surprise to Fred and he made a heroic grab for the thing and caught it. While this was happening, the anchor chain was merrily run out. So, after screwing the ^%$# thing back together, he got the chain stopped. We had no idea of how much chain was out there, but we were sure it was enough !!  The water was calm and we slept well.

Sunday, June 19 Van Isle Marina to Bedwell Harbour 1 ¼ hours 9 miles

Bedwell Harbour

Poet's Cove Resort

I was a little over an hour to Bedwell Harbour. This is rather large bay with mooring buoys around the edge. There were very few boats here. We were surprised.   Fred surprised me with a massage at the spa at the resort here, Poet’s Cove.  I love this place.  They have a marvelous steam cave,a jacuzzi, a relaxing room with a fireplace with green tea and ice cold water.  I made use of all of the facilities and had a wonderful relaxing afternoon.  Fred waited for me in their garden reading a book in the sunshine. http://poetscove.com/