Victoria, BC, 27-SEP-2018 – There’s no denying we’re back in civilization. The drop boards are in the main cabin way to keep out the noise, not the cold. The sirens sounded throughout the night. Jennifer slept soundly.
Continue reading “Victoria, BC – Back in civilization”Category: People
Posts that focus on people. Generally, people we have met while sailing, but not always. We generally identify people with as much information as we have, but often times we leave out their surname, sometimes because we don’t know it, other times because it wasn’t something we thought to include.
Resting and Reflecting in Hot Springs Cove
Hot Spring Cove, Vancouver Island, BC, 18-SEP-2018 – Two days ago, we regained cellular service after a two week absence. The first Messenger text to come through was a single, ‘‘Where are you? The pain is unbearable.’’ from a close, family friend.
This year we have an Iridium GO with us. It has allowed us to be in contact with world via e-mail, voice and text. It has been invaluable.
I did my best to make sure that everyone dear to us knew how to easily contact us. In the case of my Dad, who suffered a blood clot, this worked as planned
Continue reading “Resting and Reflecting in Hot Springs Cove”Waiting for weather on the Pacific Coast
Bunsby Islands southeast of Brooks Peninsula, 7-Sep-2018 — The random play on the tablet seems to have a penchant for 1960’s seminal bands: The Byrds, the Yardbirds to name two.
We’re in a cove nestled away from the Pacific, which won’t be very pacific for the next few days. Today is not too bad, twenty knots most of the day, but a low is moving in. The barometer will drop from 1018 to 996 in a bunch of hours at some point in the next couple, three days and 40 knot winds are scheduled to come ashore. Continue reading “Waiting for weather on the Pacific Coast”
Racor
Khutze Inlet, 27-AUG-2018 – While Jennifer sleeps, I research and fret over what to do about he junk that has accumulated in the bowl of our Racor fuel filter.
Kutze Inlet is a beautiful, big place, surrounded by mountains, with snow-cover peaks glimpsed around closer mounts. The water is flat and two water falls provide a constant aural accompaniment to the sights. Continue reading “Racor”
People, the RCMP and us
Lowe Inlet, Nettle Basin, BC, Canada, 24-AUG-2018 – Yesterday we stopped at a preserved cannery. Yes, there is an irony there.
The cannery is in Inverness Passage, a short drive from Prince Rupert, or about 15 miles by boat, if you don’t go over the shoals, which we do not.
It was another in the series of days of predicted northerly winds that do not show up. It is also the land of the mystifying currents.
We moored the day before at Cow Bay marina, which is the most expensive marina we stay in in our entire travels. It is the only marina that charges by the slip length, rather than the boat length, though we have been comped power. It also has a Canadian customs phone, which makes things easy.
When calling on the phone, the Canadians want you to be on a certified dock. You can’t just call in, as we do with the Americans. At Cow Bay is Robin, the manager whom we’ve gotten to know over the past two years. We’ve also seen him at the Seattle boat show.
This year we’ve also gotten to know Mango. Continue reading “People, the RCMP and us”
Port Townsend on Parade
Lord’s Pocket, AK, 14-AUG-2018 — I’m not writing as much as I’d like. To be honest, as much as I feel I should. Traveling in Caro Babbo has become life, it is not an adventure or a vacation. It is our life, or at least my life. Jennifer is feeling she has had enough of this trip and wants to return home, wherever that is now. But we are headed south and it is nice traveling.
We’ve traveled from Juneau to Baranof Warm springs, after Tenake springs, and then Cosmos Cove.
Cosmos Cove was lovely. It is wide with nothing particular to recommend it looking from a chart, but from inside it is silent with a focused view of the mountains across the strait. The trip to Cosmos had been a long 10 hour motor with mirrored water rather than the predicted 10-15 knots. We’ve been shadowed recently by two sail boats, Laiva and Balloon. We’d seen Laiva in Juneau, where it sat empty for a few days before showing signs of life. Continue reading “Port Townsend on Parade”
Leaving Glacier Bay
Icy Strait, North of Hoonah, 5-AUG-2018 — I lay in bed for a while this morning after the alarm went off at 4. I wasn’t tired, but I thought it might be darker than we wanted to leave. Sunrise is around 4:50 in the morning these days.
It probably wasn’t, but I lay there anyway. About 4:20, I got up, used the head and found my clothes in the main cabin where I left them. Socks are always the problem. Without turning on the lights, dark socks in dark shadows are generally found aboard Caro Babbo by feel: either underfoot, or on hands and knees. Continue reading “Leaving Glacier Bay”
Dear Dear Deer, Thoughts on Unintended Consequences
Dundas Island, BC 15-JUN-2018 – At Windy Bay, the Watchmen are two men named David and Tory. David is all teeth, practiced at dealing with visitors in his sixteen seasons, and is an eager talker.
Tory is handsome, tall, muscular with black hair streaked with gray. Between twenty-eight and thirty-two years old, Tory has been working in the Alberta oil fields for ten years. While Jennifer was speaking to David, he told me that he missed family; family was part of who he was. In the ten years he’d been gone, he’d only come back twice. He was home now and did not intend to live away again.
As we walked from the watchman residence, we saw a couple of deer walking out in the open, grazing. Tory told us he hadn’t asked what equipment he could bring with him onto the island: he would have brought his compound bow; he intended to kill all of the deer on the island. Continue reading “Dear Dear Deer, Thoughts on Unintended Consequences”
Hecate Strait: Advance Class in Feeding The Fishes
An unnamed cove west of Welcome Harbour, BC, 13-JUN-2018 – We’ve crossed Hecate Strait twice now. Jennifer says it’s not too bad this second time. In the past she is thought of this as the worst possible thing that could happen. Now, she tells me you just vomit and get it over with, again and again and again. No pictures in this post, the waves are never as impressive in pictures as they are on the water, and the rest of the activities we engaged in are not pleasant to watch.
Hecate Strait, we were told by more than one person, is the fifth most dangerous body of water in the world. It is quite shallow, generally less than 80 feet, winds of 50 knots are not uncommon nor are four meter waves.
You pick your weather carefully.
Continue reading “Hecate Strait: Advance Class in Feeding The Fishes”
Vacation after Adventure; Sailing the Portland Pudgy
1-SEP-2017, Matia Island, WA – Yesterday morning we motored just after sunlight from Port Roberts to Matia Island in the San Juans.
We had spent two nights in Vancouver’s False Creek, where, as we have whenever we are anchored there, we dragged.
The dragging isn’t serious. The bottom is sand. When the tide changes the anchor takes twenty or thirty feet to reset. But, it is tight anchoring and I suspect everyone is as fluid as we are. We powered up the first morning and reset. The second morning, we just raised anchor and left.
We didn’t wander around Vancover, visit museums, or even visit the community centers to shower (we have very good internet onboard, so we don’t need to go ashore for internet).
Continue reading “Vacation after Adventure; Sailing the Portland Pudgy”