The Quest for Kin, Celts, Casks, Kegs and Kilts

Ireland, then Home

2011-06-24T09:01:00.001-07:00

Here we are at Glasgow airport having finished our whirlwind of activity in Ireland. But I digress....back to the Ireland bit:

Bushmills proved to be a very interesting area. Just outside the town is the famous UNESCO site of the Giants Causeway which has unusual rock formations caused by lava flows.

Giants Causeway Pillars

Giants Causeway

Also nearby is the ancient town of Dunluce, which the MacDonnells once called their home and castle.

Dunluce Castle....home of the MacDonnels

If you look closely, you can see an old longship etched into the rock, here at Dunluce Castle, near a lookout post.

And of course the famous Bushmills Distilllery. Even though we'd visited seven distilleries in Scotland, we needed to compare here....so yet one more tour was in order.

Lesser known is a laneway overgrown by unusual tree formation known locally as the Dark Grove.

Driving in the "Dark Grove"

Besides admiring the local scenery we received help from a number of locals and managed to find the birthplace of Linda's grandfather and the marriage information for his parents. We also found several WW1 remembrance plaques in honour of him and two of his brothers (Linda's great-uncles). Several churchyards and graveyards had to be closely inspected, with a few interesting headstones found, and which will require a bit further research. We met with a fellow who had authored 9 local historical books, who led us to further investigate some other churches in the area. We were finding enough to warrant staying in the area a bit longer, so stayed at a B&B in Bushmills area for one night, and then in the nearby town of Coleraine for yet one more, where we could visit the library, with it's research facilities and (yes – you guessed it – microfilms and microfiche!) . That took a full day.

It was then time to continue on to see a bit more of Ireland before our remaining week ran out. So we wound our way westward, still following the coast, and then entering the Republic of Ireland, viewing the ancient walled city of Derry. With a bit more time to explore, we continued west and north, onto the west coast of Ireland, and found ourselves entering a much hillier terrain, with some great sea vistas.

Seaside Vistas

By late afternoon we'd stopped in the seaside resort and surfing community of Bundoran. We picked a hotel on the waterfront, planning on getting an ocean-view room – but the room we ended up with faced a non-descript brick wall. Ah well.....hard to look at the view when your eyes are closed, anyways.

The surfing/resort town of Bundoran

Next day we decided to cross back to the east side of Ireland, as time was running short......and we needed to check out the fair city of Dublin. By staying off the main roads we were able to wind our way through some pastoral countryside, dotted with sheep, hills, villages, and lots of green valleys. Early afternoon found us crawling in very heavy traffic all proceeding into Dublin. When we'd made it into the city, we learned that there were no rooms to be had for love nor money, as there were football games in progress, and the rock group “Take That” were in concert, with fans travelling in from all over the country. So we had a very short visit, taking a hop-on, hop-off tour bus around the city, before heading out. 30 miles north of the city, we still couldn't find accommodation, and the day was getting a bit long in the tooth! So we continued back across into Northern Ireland again, finding a B&B just north of the border in Newry (actually, the only way to tell you've crossed is the speed/distance signs on the highway go from KM to miles). So we hadn't seen a lot of the southern part of Ireland – I guess we'll just have to go back and spend more time! But we still had two days left, so followed the coast road along the Mourne peninsula, passing several more castles and seaside vistas, and even took a ferry ride across a Lough (aka Loch, aka Lake). We ended up near the village of GreyAbbey which has, strangely enough, a very old Abbey dating back about 1000 years – those monks were very busy back then!

An old Irish Fishing Village, with traditional whitewashed homes.

Next day found us heading back toward Belfast for our last day in Ireland. One particularly interesting stop was a museum commemorating the WW1 battle of the |Somme, in which the Irish Regiments were particularly involved (as were Linda's grandfather and gt-uncles). We had to stop at the Oldest Pub in Ireland for lunch. They tell us they have documentation to prove that they are indeed the oldest, although we had seen two other pubs also advertising the same claim. On the outskirts of Belfast, we'd planned to stop and visit the Titanic exhibit (she was built here), but the museum turned out to be closed on Mondays. So back to our hotel in downtown Belfast. We'd already scoped out a nice little pub for dinner, where we had to have Irish Stew for our last dinner in Ireland.....followed by and Irish coffee, before retiring early. Early is the watchword here, as we had to get up at 0430 for our morning flight the next day, returning to Glasgow.

We were able to check our bags at our hotel in Glasgow the next morning, even though we couldn't yet check in. Then it was a bus ride into town to walk in the rain around the town, and to try and finish off a few of our “things to do” in Scotland. For example, we'd heard that Glasgow was famous for its deep-fried Mars bars.....but now I'm guessing that it is some kind of urban legend, as we couldn't find this delicacy anywhere, and most people turned up their noses at the thought of it. We'd also tried to find, and try, as many different Scottish ales. In reality, although we were able to find and try about a dozen different ones, most of them were only average to below average tasting, and usually we were the only ones drinking them.....the locals seem to prefer Budweiser or Heineken! So we did try a few more ales, along with brunch, before busing back to our airport hotel for an early evening.

Again, we were up quite early, to check in for our flight home. After checking through security, we had a bit of time to kill.....hence able to catch up on the blog, but unable to upload it. So this last section has been written in the holding area for our flight.

Writing from home before posting : It was a long, smooth, but uneventful flight home. Clear skies welcomed us into B.C., with awesome views of the Rockies, and onto the coast. Our first warm sunny day of the trip was in Vancouver, as we took the Skytrain and bus to the ferry, and sailed across the Strait of Georgia to be met by our friend Tony, who'd been minding our car. A warm visit with Tony and Barb, and a barbecue, and we were too tired to stay up. Early to bed, and then up early the next day, for a short drive home. The opening of Costco has started a gas war at home, and we were able to fill up with gas at a savings of over 15 cents/litre. But now that we're home, I guess it's time to sign out of the Blog, at least until the next trip. Time to prepare for another sailing trip.

One week left

2011-06-13T13:20:00.000-07:00

Up at the crack of dawn the 35 minute flight to Belfast went by in a snap. We picked up what turned out to be an identical car to what we had in Scotland except for colour. Makes the adjustment a lot easier. Being a Sunday made for easy travel through the city as well as we got a feel for the country.

As it was still far too early to go to our hotel we decided to check out a nearby waterfront town that had a marina (Bangor) - and a fine one it was as well. Footpaths along the waterfront with lovely gardens, and lots of boats to ogle, made it an interesting stop.

Marina entrance at Bangor

We watched some men driving their remote-control model boats on a large pond....some were sailing boats, some warships, some freighters – all quite nicely detailed. We ended up chatting with a fellow with a large model aircraft carrier. He advised us of a nice drive along the coast, with a great place to stop for lunch. Already we were learning that the Irish tend to be less reserved than the Scots or English, and are quite happy to engage in quick conversations with strangers. We took the advice of our new acquaintance, and travelled south along the shore, and stopped for a great lunch at a restaurant a few miles away.

By early afternoon the clouds had dropped in, and were starting to throw out the inevitable rain – so we continued back into downtown Belfast to our hotel for the night. After such an early morning we were soon asleep. A nice afternoon nap, and then a short walk in the rain to a pub dinner.

Next morning Tomasina the GPS had her hands full trying to sort us though morning rush hour in downtown Belfast having innumerable one way streets and pedestrian precincts (streets for pedestrians only) to deal with. I'm sure she (it?) was quite as happy as we were when we finally got to quieter roads along the coast. First stop was Carrick Fergus a delightful little waterfront town with it's own castle right in the middle of town. We soon learned that just about every community along the way has it's own castle....a result, I guess, of having a long history of the towns needing to defend themselves from various invaders.

Another fine castle....this one at Carrick Fergus

After about an hour here we continued north through other scenic towns. The landscape was more rolling green hills of vegetation.. Not the craggy austere beauty of the Highlands of Scotland. So close yet so different. We stopped a couple of times along the way including this tiny harbour where we treated ourselves to ice cream.

Cute little Harbour....the area reminded us of Newfoundland.

As the afternoon was getting on, and we hadn't yet booked accommodation, we headed inland a bit, to the town of Ballymoney, where we booked into a B&B and then walked through town and had an early dinner. Back in time to check our emails and prepare another Blog instalment. We are now in the area where Linda's family from Ireland ties in, so will get to do some more family history in this area, as well as touristy things. But more on that after it happens.

Final Days of Scotland

2011-06-11T12:30:00.000-07:00

Thursday turned out to be another showery and cool day, but not bad for driving. We headed inland (East), passing the Trossach's (the highlands of Rob Roy fame) and Loch Lomond, ending up several hours later at Stirling, where Linda's mother's family hails from. The castle here is truly spectacular – it has an excellent exhibit and presentation, particularly referring to the history of James V and VI/I. It took us several more hours to tour the castle premises, and then a couple more of walking around the old town of Stirling, eventually having a late lunch in a 300 yr-old pub haunted by several ghosts. Our accommodation for the night was only about 20 minutes out of town, in Falkirk, so we made for that, and made ourselves comfortable.

On Friday, we discovered Falkirk was the home of an engineering marvel – the Falkirk Wheel. It is a unique lock system which joins up two different canals. Instead of traditional lift locks, it is a very large wheel which rotates a “tub” of water, and boat, to the level of the other canal. Apparently it is extremely power-efficient, using the equivalent of the power of a few toasters for the operation.

A view of the Falkirk Wheel. You can see the gearing, and the "tub" of water which carries the vessels up/down to the canals.

Another view....the top left channel is the waterway which joins up to the upper canal.

We spent a couple of hours marvelling at this, before heading out to find Linda's family. The area has become quite industrialized, and finding the graveyards and communities of 100 years past turned out to be challenging. We did find a few clues, and visited several cemeteries, but much of the evidence is now gone.

Linda is still searching for her kin.

By late afternoon it was time to head back to Glasgow, where we had our accommodation booked near the airport. Then we were able to return our rental car, and organize our luggage – we'll only be taking one bag over to Ireland with us, and storing the rest at our hotel, for pickup on our return to fly back out. Dinner, and a lazy night in our room. As we were eating dinner, a red fox sauntered by our window – a bit of wildlife we hadn't expected to see so close to civilization. For Saturday, we have an open day for doing a bit more exploring of Glasgow, and for catching up on internet and mail/etc.

So here it is, Saturday, with a day to explore Glasgow. We took a bus into town, looking around the town centre again – some of it seems familiar, as we were here a month ago....but we must have been a bit zoo ed out then, as a lot of it seems all new! Or maybe, with my age, I'm just easy to amuse with the same things! A bit of lunch, and then a bus trip to – gasp!- another distillery! We managed to find the Glen Goyne distillery at the end of the #10 bus line, and took our 7^th tour – each time learning a bit more. This time, we paid a bit more, and got a “taster's tour”, which included four extra tastes of various flavours of the Glen Goyne waters of life.

The stills of GlenGoyne

By the time we got back to the centre of the city, it was after 5 PM, so we decided to just walk around a bit. Amazingly to us, the streets, and especially the pedestrian malls, were filled with people. Apparently most of the city comes into town to shop and walk about on a Saturday evening.....it seemed that most of the city was there.

Even late on a rainy Saturday afternoon, the city streets of Glasgow get crowded.

We did manage to find our bus back to the airport and hotel where we're staying, planning on an early evening to allow a fairly early morning wake-up and flight to Belfast in the morning. So next you'll be hearing from us from Northern Ireland. Slainte.

Westcoast Rambling

2011-06-08T12:45:00.000-07:00

Monday morning was cool and misty – a perfect day for a big Scottish breakfast, followed by a bit of Talisker whisky. So after leaving our hosts at the Phoenix B&B, we toddled off down the road for yet another distillery tour. Talisker does a very nice and informative tour, and even though we've now done 6 of them, we seem to pick up a bit more at each one. The sample of Talisker was very nice.....the second one even nicer – so we decided to get a bottle to bring home. By noon we were driving into the main town of Portree, and had located the laundromat. Between washer loads we managed to walk around town a bit, to get a feel for the town. We then had clean clothes again, and celebrated with a bit of lunch before hitting up the local archive centre to do some further research. They did have a few odd bits of information to help us out in our genealogical quest, but mostly things we'd already found, and couldn't locate the records we've been finding extremely elusive. So we headed down the street to our next B&B, overlooking the bay in Portree. We were feeling still satiated from our previous meals, so decided to skip dinner this evening, and just stayed in our room to read.

Tuesday was more of a Scottish west coast day, with rainshowers throughout the day. We had an appointment to meet a local genealogist, Norma McLeod, at 11 AM, so dawdled through breakfast and brushed up on our background for our McInnes family lines before setting out to meet her. She is very focused and efficient, and I believe she can help us investigate this line. She had done a bit of preparatory work and confirmed our research to present, in locating the correct family for our Martin McInnes. With her resources and local knowledge I am hoping she can continue to flesh out our McInnes and Beaton family lines. We then headed south again, to investigate the Clan Donald Castle and museum, which has a family resource centre as well. The castle and gardens and museum are just added benefits to our principal reason for visiting the family history resources. Again.....too many lost or missing documents to help much, although they did have some interesting census data for the Isle of Eigg, which could be relevant to our Campbell family research. It was late afternoon by the time we`d finished there, so headed back into Portree, to look for headstones in the old cemetery, which Norma had told us about. It was unlikely that any of our people could be located, but I had to look. We did find a few names which may tie in, but none that we know about. For a change of pace, we decided to do Indian food for a change, so had dinner at an Indian restaurant before retiring back to our B&B.

Wednesday was our day to head south again, off the Isle of Skye, across the bridge this time. A serious accident on the roadway kept us waiting for over an hour on the roadway, but we crossed back to the Kyle of Localsh by noon. We had a short look around the town before continuing along the coastal route southbound. We did a bit of an inland detour to drive along a bit of Loch Ness.....but no monsters could be seen.

We passed this castle on the coastal route....it was featured in the end of Monty Python's "Holy Grail" movie.

Then back to the coastal route, ending up in Oban, which is a seaside ferry town (ferries to several of the Hebridean Islands), built on a hillside. We explored the town a bit, but decided to look for accommodation a bit out of town, so backtracked a bit north to stay in a B&B in Connel, 5 miles north.

The town of Oban

Right alongside our accommodation is a bridge over the loch, with a tidal flow reminiscent of Skookumchuck Narrows, called the Falls of Lora (tidal ebb over a rock ledge creates a bit of whitewater and waterfall). We walked over the bridge, and found a nice little pub on the other side, where we tested some local ales and Oban whisky, which I discovered I like! So back across the bridge to the pub beside our B&B, where we had some dinner and tested a couple more ales and whisky. So now we are finishing off the envening with the last wifi for a few days. Tomorrow we will be heading inland to Stirling to look for Linda`s roots there, before returning to Glasgow to give back our rental car and heading to Belfast (N. Ireland). Until then..........

Across the sea to Skye

2011-06-06T23:25:00.000-07:00

June 4 – Breakfast at the Captain's House was rewarding. We had a delicious, somewhat large Scottish breakfast followed by dessert of photograph albums showing Julia's ancestors, and some of her Finlayson family tree information. At her suggestion, we visited the Kirkton cemetery, where we viewed numerous Finlayson, Matheson, and Cameron headstones.

This castle, near Kyle of Localsh, Eilean Donan Castle, is the most photographed of all the many castles in Scotland.

Continuing with her suggestion, we skipped the bridge to Skye, and continued a bit south, past the palindromic-named town of Glen Elg, to view the 2300 year-old stone residences of early people, called Brochs.

This Broch is the remains of 1900-2300 year-old living (note the size, by the tree).

Then back to Glen Elg where we caught the very unique ferry to Skye. It is a very small vessel, holding only 4 vehicles on a turntable. The vehicles drive down a concrete ramp onto the turntable platform, which is then rotated for the 5 minute trip across the strait. Once the boat is tied up again, the platform is rotated again to allow the vehicles to leave. The strait itself was running with a good 7 knot tidal current, too.

The Ferry to Skye

We then negotiated a very narrow and twisty roadway inland a bit, where we got on the main roadway. Some of our McInnes and Campbell ancestors lived in the southern part of the island of Skye, so we negotiated ourselves down to the southernmost end of the island, at Sleat, where we could look across to the Isle of Eigg (some of the Campbell's came from there). Sleat itself is now only a couple of farms clutching to the sides of steep cliffs and hills, and isn't much of a place anymore, other than scenic. We turned back northward, and turned inland toward the west side of the Island, passing the Cullins, steep and rugged-looking hills, and checked into the Phoenix B&B in Carbost. This is a delightful B&B on Loch Harport, just a short walk up the road from the Taliker Distillery, and across the road from a fine little pub. We managed to enjoy the pub a bit, for an evening meal, and crashed for the night.

Sunday morning turned out to be another nice day (apparently not normal for Skye to be bright and sunny several days in a row). Time to explore a bit....so off we went, viewing another site of a Broch, and many miles of treeless hills with lochs.

Down one road we discovered an old, reconstucted croft house, laid out just as the homes of our ancestors had . They were known as “Black Houses” because of the peat smoke from the central, chimneyless fire inside. In behind was an illicit still, for making whisky in the traditional way. Nice to see how our ancestors lived!.

An old Crofters Home (a Black House)

Inside the Black House

Inside an Illicit Still

Continuing along the north side of the island toward the East, we came to Snizort Loch, where many of our McInnes and Beaton people lived. We found the cemetery there, near Glen Bernisdale, but although there were many of these surnames here, they were all too recent for us to make a connection.

This memorial perhaps refers to a latter-day cousin.

We continued on a loop on the northern peninsula of the island, with numerous views out to the Atlantic, and other Hebridean Islands. Spectacular scenery struck us at every bend in the road. One area we stopped is known as “Kilt Rock” due to the pleated nature of the terrain, like a kilt.

Kilt Rock

We found ourselves completing our loop of the island, after passing the principal town of Portree, and then returning to Carbost. We returned to the pub across the street for a magnificent repast of prawns. At least that's what they called them......they looked more like small (but delicious) lobsters, and tasted like it. The plate was piled high with them. I'd treat you to a photo of that, but alas – we didn't take our camera with us.....the Dutch couple sitting next to us promised to email a photo, so perhaps I can add that later. That made a full day. Time to retire. Internet a bit slow, so the Blog must wait for better internet.

Through the Highlands, To the Islands

2011-06-03T12:30:00.000-07:00

.....Glenfarlcas distillery to start the month with. Good but not a winner as our taste buds are getting more discriminating. Next on the list was the brand-new Archives in Inverness where we presented a document referring to an ancestor that gave his location of birth but that we couldn't interpret, and needed local knowledge/expertise. The first girl handed it off to the second followed by the senior member of the team who pored over it with his books and magnifying glass before giving us his professional opinion. Alas this didn't fit with other data but at least it gave us another perspective.

Onwards to Fortrose, where we had booked a night in a pub that has 200 whisky's in stock.. After a short walk through the local ruined cathedral we settled down to one of the best dinners we've had in ages (Don with Angus beef and Linda with duck) followed by 4 more tastes of single malts. Sooo many whiskys, so little time.

June 2 - Thursday

Guess what! We started the day at a distillery. This time we toured the Glenmorangie site not far from our B&B. This is the largest and most high tech one so far and VERY good. A keeper here!

Maturing Glenmorangie in Kegs

Just down the way near Tain is a Pictish site of some note, that we explored.

Pictish Artwork in Stone

Then we headed west over some spectacular highland country, sometimes on narrow single-lane roads, to the western side of Scotland and down the coast a bit to Ullapool. This location figures into some of our genealogy so we had to visit the local museum whose staff were very kind in their attempts to help us. We really need more information however before we can trace this particular group and that is hard to come by.

Later that evening we had pub dinner overlooking the harbour followed by a concert by the Ullapool district pipe band and highland dancing by local childrens' Scottish dancing school. The townspeople follow the pipe band through town to the concert, which reminds me of my many happy summers in Kincardine (Ontario) where this is also a tradition.

Highland Dancing at its Finest

We still managed to make a reasonable early night of it, and had a very quiet and restful sleep. This has been our very first warm and sunny day, and even reached 20C. Considering we were at 58 degrees latitude (the same as last summer in Juneau, Alaska) it makes sense that 20C is a warm day here. (For those of you thinking in Fahrenheit, that's about 71.

June 3 – Friday morning was another bright sunny and warm day. We had a nice breakfast in our B&B, and visited a short while with our hosts Simon and Anne, who have some family back in B.C. We drove south along the coastal route out of Ullapool, stopping to take in the many vistas overlooking the numerous lochs and glens along the way.

Highland Cattle

By 1400 we'd arrived in Plockton, which we believe to be significant in our family history – the trouble is proving or disproving it. Being a bit early to check into our B&B, we walked around the village and stopped into the Plockton Hotel for a refeshing beverage (we're also testing local ales). Then on to our B&B, the Captain's House, built by Captain Duncan Finlayson over 200 years ago, and (possibly) related somehow to our immigrant ancestor, John Finlayson. We were greeted and checked in, but our hostess, who is descended from the said Captain, was out – so we wandered about town a bit more, chatting with locals, and combing through the gravestones in the churchyard (finding no known ancestors, but a few names worth investigating further). When we came back late in the afternoon, Julia, our hostess, was here, and we discovered that she just didn't have the time to research her history, but knew that Capt. Duncan Finlayson was born abt. 1790, and that his family was likely the only Finlayson family in the area. So perhaps they were related – certainly contemporaries. Nothing further is to be found here, although Julia tells us she has numerous documents and papers dating all the way back – she just doesn't have the time to sort/investigate. Sigh.......

Dinner at the local hotel was very good, and followed by several more whisky tastings. Then onto the internet to get the Blog, email, news, etc. Tomorrow we will continue to Localsh, and then cross the bridge to Skye, where another several branches of our family wait to be discovered.

On to Speyside

2011-06-01T01:45:00.001-07:00

May 31 -last day of the month. Departing Aberdeen we wound our way north west through some of thehamlets where Linda's ancestors were known to have lived. We hit up several kirk graveyards on the off chance that we'd find some of their graves and were rewarded with one 'Eureka' moment in the village of Kemnay. Took a number of other photos as well on the off chance that one day they will all fit in. Lovely countryside and the first really sunny day we've had. Along one small road was a lay-by where we found a Pictish stone called the Maiden Stone which hails from the 9^th century.

The Maiden Stone, a Pictish monument.

Next stop was the Glen Garioch distillery where we lucked into having the tour guide to ourselves to answer our questions. The process of making whisky is becoming clearer as we attempt to educate ourselves. We didn't realize how much the shape of the still affected the flavour of the final product. Almost as much as the cask.

Distilling the "Water of Life"

North again to meet up with another of Linda's cousins. This time in Elgin, the heart of the Speyside\whiskey area. We spent the remainder of the afternoon and early evening having a lovely visit as Linda hadn't seen the couple for about 32 years. We had booked into a Victorian hotel in nearby Lossiemouth for the night and it proved to be a delight as well. It was like walking into an Agatha Christie novel.

We expected to run into Miss Marple at any time, in our hotel in LossieMouth.

The town has a yachting harbour so of course we did a walk about to check out the boats followed by retiring to the in-house pub to test 4 more whiskies. We are trying to be diligent about our search for the ideal whiskeys to bring home.

June 1 – a new month! Lots to do today so must run.......

Northbound Again

2011-05-30T13:02:00.000-07:00

Tuesday morning we headed back into downtown Norwich, to have a bit of a look around the city centre itself, and to visit the Family History Centre. The city seems to have at least, and sometimes several, churches in each block.....most of them very imposing, with spires and turrets. We walked around a bit, and found the Family History Society's building. Here, we were made welcome, and given a tour of the facilities. None of the family trees they have on record seem to match ours, but they do have a lot of access to historical documents of all kinds, most of which are available online, for members. So we joined up and became members. Then we walked around the town a bit, trying to find a pair of sunglasses for Linda, and just generally being tourists. By lunchtime it was time to move on. We bought an apple and an ice-cream in the market (lunch!) and headed on, driving back past Swaffham and then turning northbound. All through Norfolk and the trip into Lincolnshire, we passed flat agricultural land, well ahead of our fields back home. We stopped for the evening in Lincoln, which, I'd like to say, was named for my gt-nephew – but I don't think anyone would believe that! It's called “Historic Lincoln”, because of all the takeovers and regimes the area went through – but from what I can see, almost all of the UK is able to claim a great deal of historical authenticity!

We continued northbound on Wednesday, passing places such as Grimsby, Whitby, and other places similarly named back in Ontario. Much of the coastal route we followed was still several miles from the North Sea, so we mostly just got peek-a-boo views of the ocean, but still enjoyed the winding, narrow roadways with fields interspersed with little villages. So far, we've seen far more sheep in the fields than we'd expected. In fact, I swear there are many more sheep here than in New Zealand! A big factor in this, I believe, is the foot-and-mouth disease epidemic of a few years ago, when many of the cattle farmers were forced to kill off their herds, and turned to sheep instead. At any rate, we bypassed the mostly industrial, and large, city of Newcastle Upon Tyne, then turned back along the coastal route. Although we liked the village of Amble, but accommodation was all taken, so we were referred to the next village north, where we found a little B&B in Alnmouth (at the mouth of the river Aln!). While walking around the streets there, we met a fellow researching the same family line as the ones we'd been researching in Preston – a possible cousin! While standing in the street chatting with him, we were introduced to many of the locals, all out walking their dogs....but we eventually had to leave for a warm meal as it was quite cold outside, with a wind blowing in off the North Sea.

Thursday found us leaving England, and back in Scotland, headed for Edinburgh. Before leaving, however, we stopped to view a castle at Alnwick, which my new-found cousin had recommended. It turned out to be quite impressive, and some of you may remember details of it from the Quiddich matches in the first Harry Potter movie.

Quiddich Anyone?

With that stop, and a leisurely drive in the countryside, over a wide area of moors, where even the sheep won't graze, we entered Edinburgh in early afternoon, booking into our hotel by 4PM. That left us time to walk around town a bit, viewing the very imposing castle perched on an extinct volcano, and walking the “ Royal Mile”, which is a major tourist roadway extending from the Castle to the old royal residences a mile away.

Edinburgh's Castle perched above the City

There are lots of whisky shops here, with a selection of hundreds of choices. A bit of a challenge! There is also a locally celebrated dog, Bobby, who, after his owner died, continued to stay by his master's grave for 12 years as a loyal companion. Several shops and pubs have named themselves after this dog, and a statue memorializes him.

Bobby, memorialized.

Following a pub dinner with some local ales, and a bit of a wander, our feet were starting to get sore. We made it back to our hotel in time for a late cleanup, and then off to bed.

Friday we had a choice to make – with our limited time here, we decided to take our laundry to a laundromat nearby who would do it for us, leaving us more time to explore. The Scottish Records Office is also in Edinburgh, with all of the Parish and Genealogical records centralized here, rather than in various county offices and parishes, as it was in England. However.....almost all of these records are also available online – so we decided to give the genealogy a bit of a break, and we did the “Tourist Thing”. We walked into the city and took a tour bus, with a guide, to get the feel of the city and to learn about it in our limited time. Perhaps it was the noise of the city as we rode around in the top of an open double-decker, or maybe it was the scottish accent, or maybe it's just my very old ears – but I had a bit of a problem understanding the whole “spiel” of the guide, so we took the same tour a second time. By then I'd adjusted a bit to the accent, and got most of it! I managed to get a taste of some whisky while visiting a shop, and ended up getting 3 small bottles of single malts which I'd never tried, but was assured, based on my present tastes, I'd enjoy. Linda and I actually did enjoy them....so now I'm in a quandary as to what bottles to bring back with us. More tasting is surely in order! I was also tempted to get a kilt here, but at least for now, my practical side (Linda) has over-ruled that temptation.

Obviously, we didn't have time to see everything here, but we did manage to go through much of the National Museum, which has an extremely good presentation of Scottish history. We made it back to our laundry by 6 PM, in time to get our laundry – and then had our supper at our hotel.

By Saturday it was time to continue on, bound for Aberdeen. On our way out of Edinburgh, we crossed the Firth (a bay at the mouth of a river) of Forth (the Forth River) on a very impressive bridge. I'd promised Stan, a friend who'd seen us off in Vancouver, that I'd look for his cousins' cottage on the northwest side of the RR bridge there – but – sorry, Stan – I couldn't see it. Must have been the pouring rain, or the other 5 lanes of traffic passing me by! We entered Perthshire shorly, and then turned inland as we drove north, ending up in Pitlochry by 11AM – just in time for a tour of the Edradour distillery. This is the smallest distillery in Scotland, with a good reputation for fine whisky, so we had to check it out. A very good tour, and a tasty sampling! We even ended up purchasing our first bottle to bring back, a cask-strength whisky which can't be found in Canada. We continued on into the highlands, crossing into Cairngorm National Park, and scenery which I'd always considered to be typical of Scottish Highlands.

Driving through the Highlands in Cairngorm Park.

At the north end of the park we found ourselves passing the village of Braemar, where the castle for the Clan Chieftain of the Farqhar Clan (of which the Finlayson clan is a sept, which we are researching). The Earl's Hunting Lodge/Castle is here, so being an official Finlayson, we had to stop and see it. I was even asked to sign the guest book as a visiting Clan member.

Our "Finlayson Family Hunting Lodge"....seat of the Clan Farquharson

Sunday was another day of looking for kin – this time, Linda's. Her father comes from a town near Aberdeen, a place called Peterculter. We contacted some of her cousins, and then headed into the area to explore a bit. At the churchyard, we found some of her long-lost ancestors' headstones, overlooking the Dee River. Then we visited her cousins, Sid and Mary, and joined them for a pub lunch before visiting the Family History Centre and the graveyard to locate a few more kin. Several hours of visiting at their home, with some old family photos, and we headed back into Aberdeen for the evening.

Today is Monday, 30^th May. Internet useage is reasonably expensive or not available, at least where we've been stopping.....so this ended up being a long entry on the blog.....not sure if this will continue, but I'll try to update when I can. We went into Aberdeen itself today, to have a look around the Granite City, and to visit the city Family History Centre, where we found some books and records pertaining to Linda's family. By afternoon it was time to find another distillery – this time to Glen Garioch (pronounced Glen Geery), for another wonderful tour, and several samplings of their whisky. Back to Aberdeen for the evening, with just enough time to get this Blog updated finally.

Roaming the Roman Ruins, then – Religion!

2011-05-24T00:59:00.000-07:00

A piece of the Wall.

Today, Thursday, was a reasonable day of sun and cloud, so good for a bit of touristy stuff. Off to the north, to Carlisle, and then east to find the remains of the Roman ruins, Hadrian's Wall. There are only a few sections left partly standing, having been torn down over the last 1700 years for abbeys, churches, farmhouses, and fences. But still an interesting site/sight to see. We chose two of the old Roman Forts, of Birdoswald, and Housesteads, both very close to the centre of the country – in fact, we passed by the middle of the UK by only 1 mile. We walked around the forts and along portions of the wall. Others we met were walking the entire length of the wall – 77 miles! Our driving took us over some nice hilly, twisty roads - very popular with bikes roaring around the hairpin turns, and obviously enjoying the drive. Back by early evening, we cooked up some lamb chops for dinner and packed up our stuff for leaving the next morning.

Friday morning we left early (0700 is early for me), driving south to the town of Preston, on the outskirts of Manchester. The countryside became less hilly and more industrial and busy as we approached our destination. Here we hoped to track down some other ancestors at the Preston Records Office. We found the office thanks to the (almost) never-failing directions from Thomasina, the GPS, and were logged in researching the Parish Records by 0930. The entire day (until 1600, anyway) was spent looking at microfiche and microfilm documents, and copying the pertinent ones. We did find a few clues about my forebears here, but a day wasn't quite enough to be finished. A second day in Manchester probably would have helped. But....no such time! Back to check in to our hotel for the evening, which we'd located online for £29.00 per night (very reasonable). So far we've stayed in two Premier Inns, at this price, and find them extremely good value for the money. They also have a pub, with pub meals, also reasonably priced.

Saturday is not a good day for researching in archives, so we drove east and south across the country, bound for Norfolk County, where the Jarrell roots are to be found. This area has been a brick wall/dead end for my genealogical study so far, so hopefully we can make some progress here. Driving north/south in England is pretty straightforward, and most of the motorways and highways are set up for this, but east/west entails a lot of weaving and secondary roads. As we proceeded east, the hills disappeared, and by the time we were approaching Norfolk, it was flat agricultural country. We arrived at the small market town of Swaffham and found a nice little bed and breakfast, the “Horse and Groom”.

Our B&B - the "Horse and Groom"

It was only 2 so we had a chance to wander around the town and take in the old-country ambience of the town, and walk through the farmers market, as well as visit an eclectic local museum. Apparently the famous Carter of Egyptology, and his family, hail from here, so there is a large section devoted to him and Egypt, as well as to the local area. We had dinner at our B&B and then walked around town for a nightcap at a pub, before retiring.

A Typical pub (King's Arms)

Sunday found us well-rested, and following a huge English breakfast we took to the car to explore the area where my gt-grandparents and family lived before travelling to Canada in 1841. Most of our Jarrell, Tooke, and Burton lines were all baptised, married, and buried in two churches near Swaffham, so we set out to find them. 3 miles away we found the village of North Pickenham, and the church we were looking for.

Typical roadway - more of a lane- with not much room to pass! Speed limit here is 60 Miles per Hour!!

St Andrew's Church here was still having a service, so we walked around the graveyard surrounding the church, looking for familiar names – to no avail. Then I introduced myself to the Vicar, who turned me over to a couple of the church Wardens, and was given a list of the known graves at the church.

There are Ancestors here somewhere!

The other records have been sent to the records office in Norwich, where we hope to research further on Monday. The list was only of recent burials, however, and they had no idea of any of the older locations of graves (1824 and older, which is what I needed). Ah well....it was a photogenic church, at any rate. I got directions to the other church of interest, only 1.5 miles away, at Houghton-on-the-Hill. The church is all that is left of the community, and it is being restored from several decades of disuse and decay. The church dates back 1000 years, and has murals dating that far back, inside. We again examined the gravestones carefully, but still no luck on finding our people.

A doorway into the 1000-yr-old church.....I'm not tall, but I would have been, then!

That pretty well covered the family I knew about, but there is one other Jarrell group in Canada, who settled in Kingston at the same time as our line was arriving. They also come from Norfolk, so it behooves me to investigate this line as well, to try to prove, or disprove, a connection between the family lines. They come from Shelfanger, about 20 miles further east – so off we headed. Same story, different church. So we've drawn a blank from the Religion – at least the churches.....perhaps Monday's researching of records will change that.

It was still early afternoon, so we continued our scenic drive of Norfolk by heading for the main seaport – Greater Yarmouth. Here we discovered that the seaport has mostly now become a holiday resort town, modelled on Blackpool, or Atlantic City. We strolled along the beachfront promenade, but although the weather had dried up and warmed a bit, no-one was partaking of the water or beaches. Miles of touristy come-ons assailed us along the walk, but I just wasn't up for Bingo, Miniature Golf, or a ferris wheel at the moment. So back to the car, and on into Norwich, the county town capital, to find our hotel. Another great internet bargain, and very nice and clean. So now we're all set to go into town on Monday morning, and research the records.

Monday dawned bright and warm, and off we went into Norwich (again – the “W” isn't pronounced.....it's Norrich) to search the records. It was a full day of microfiche and film, but we made no great discoveries, mostly confirmation of the data we “sort” of had. At any rate – Praise God for Religion – without it, there likely wouldn't have been any of these records, and if there had, they may not have been readable!

By 4pm we were as done as could be, so left for the hotel, having a beer at the bar before a roast dinner at the Carvery across the street. We hope to find a bit more data at the genealogical society in town, tomorrow morning, before starting our trek northbound again, touring a bit of northern England before we re-enter Scotland in a few days.

Missing Kin

2011-05-18T11:41:00.000-07:00

Tuesday morning we woke up to a cold, wet and blustery day.....a very good day to spend mostly indoors. So with a warm bowl of porridge in our bellies, we set off for Kendal, once again, to try and complete our paper record search. We managed to get there a bit earlier this time, and were able to use the free parking available for early risers like us! The rest of the day was spent poring over microfiche records, and also very old paper and parchment documents, all relating to the parish and church bishop's records. By 4pm we were feeling quite cross-eyed and tired, but had accumulated almost £40.00 in photocopying costs....quite a haul! Much of the material we got was confirmation of what we already knew about our family, but sourcing and proof is everything in genealogy. We did find a few new gems, however, including birth and wedding records for my 6x gt-grandparents, Thomas and Isabell Waistell. The drive home was easy – by now we knew the way. And by 5pm we were back at the pub at our resort, enjoying a pint before dinner of pizza. Our jet lag is still obviously with us, though, as we were propping our eyelids open by 8:30 – so off to bed by 9:00pm.

Wednesday, today, was a mixed bag for weather, but much brighter – so we decided to further investigate the “old stomping grounds” of our ancestors, and to try a bit of “graving” (finding and photographing relevant gravestones). Our research indicates that our principal concern should be in Warcop, Sandford (only 1.5 miles from Warcop), and two other towns within about 5-6 miles of each other – Crosby-Garrett, and Kirkby-Stephen.

Apparently the Red Squirrels around here are something to watch for....vicious? really cute???

I think maybe just endangered - so don't run them over! ...... We didn't see any.

The roadway led us into Sandford first – a sleepy little hamlet (it even has a pub – closed on Wednesday, though). We saw no-one there, and ended up just passing through, continuing on into Warcop. Entering the village is the parish church where many of our ancestors were baptised, married, and buried. There is a graveyard around the church, but most of the old ones are unreadable, and we were unable to discover any buried kin from the 1700's or early 1800's.

The Parish Church at Warcop, where we believe many of our ancestors are buried.

A cousin, Jim Westell, had advised us to find a gentleman named Gregson, who was a 6^th generation grocer in Warcop. His shop, however, was no longer open, and his museum operation above the old store is open only on appointment (which we didn't have, and couldn't get in time – Mr. Gregson is apparently ill at the moment). Ah well – continuing on, we drove the very narrow and twisty lanes to Crosby-Garrett, and investigated the local church here. Some of the gravestones here were in better, more legible order.....and we may even have found a couple of kin buried here, although I haven't fully checked out the details yet. The church appears to be quite old, and the scenery around it very picturesque.

The village of Crosby-Garrett. The aqueduct in the background is a bridge for trains.

We decided to try a laneway leading another mile and a half, to the village of Waitby, but the road/lane was only as narrow as the car, and about half a mile into it, we met a tractor coming the other way, towing a trailer. With rock walls on one side, and a hedge on the other (not even enough room to open a car door here), we had to back up the half-mile to give the tractor room to pass – not an easy task when I'm used to reversing from the other side of the car, usually! So we decided to give Waitby a miss (could be more tractors out there!), and continued on the normal narrow roads to Kirkby-Stephen for a look around, and a bit of fish and chips for lunch. A short walk around the town, and we visited the son of Mr. Gregson from Waitby, the son now running a grocer shop in Kirkby-Stephen. He confirmed the details about his dad, and wished us well. So back to our accommodations again, in time for us to catch up on our accumulated laundry chores, with time for a quick Blog entry (this is it). It may be a couple of days before we can get back to another entry, but we will see how time and wi-fi availability goes!

The Quest for Kin, Celts, Casks, Kegs and Kilts

2011-05-16T12:27:00.000-07:00

Apologies to all – I know I promised to get this Blog going on departure, but it's been a few days with very little time, and not much internet either. But now we are settled into our timeshare in Cumbria for a few days, and there is wi-fi at the bar (very convenient!) Linda actually got started on a journal, and being lazy, I've borrowed the first few days from that. So....here goes:

Fri Jun 13,2011

4am Glasgow... awake....time to start the journal?Thanks to Tony and Barb for car sitting and the lift to the airport.Thanks to Bill and Diane for the pickup at the ferry and the wonderful dinner with old Aquanut buddies Stan and Bruce invited too. That Glenmorangie cask-strength blew me away, Bill, particularly with the few drops of water releasing the flavor. Had no idea that would happen. Wow!

Flight over uneventful. Crowded as only charters can be. Watched three movies en route, none of which we'd recommend......The Green Hornet, Burlesque and Gullivers Travels. Flight arrived early 04:15 am which is about 8 pm home time. Took awhile to get through immigration as only the night staff was on but everyone was in a good mood as to us it wasn't really 4 am! As we couldn't pick up the car till 9 am, we decided to leave our luggage at our hotel and as per their website, we were able to walk to our hotel a scant 10 minutes away. They locked away our suitcases and we killed time having breakfast in their dining room before returning to the airport to get the car which we then left in the hotel parking lot as we felt we were too groggy to drive.

This is our little diesel Ford Fiesta, (gives 60 mpg so far)

To fill the day, as we couldn't check in to our room till 2 plus we wanted to try and get into the local time zone, we took a bus to town and tracked down an inexpensive cell to use en-route.

After that we joined a double decker bus tour of downtown Glasgow and finished up with our first (of what no doubt will be many), pints before returning to the airport and the walk back to the hotel and checking in.

Glasgow has a great history of shipbuilding, with LARGE Cranes (BFC's) like this one!

We were starting to fade, so succumbed to slumber.

When we first found the website for the Premier Inn Hotel chain advertising accommodation at a mere 29 pounds a night we were a little nervous but so far we are totally impressed. The building is new and offers your basic room (eg no wasteful little soaps and shampoos although there is a body wash dispenser), and is clean, quiet (despite being so close to the airport and motorway) and not overly hot like so many hotels. Hopefully we'll enjoy their other locations we've booked as well. Apparently there are over 500 sites in the UK. So thumbs up for the Premier Inn and thumbs down for that brew we tried which we both found had a VERY strange flavour.....“St Andrews” by Belhaven.

Sat May 14 – Broom in bloom and leaping lambs…

The joys of jet lag. Couldn’t stay awake past 8:30pm. Awake at 4:30am. Staying at a lovely little B&B in the town of Dalbeattie. Had a good day yesterday as Don got used to our car, driving on the wrong side and being told where to go by “Tomasina” Tom Tom (instead of by me, for a change). He’s convinced all women like to tell you where to go.:-) BTW thank you Ray and \Kathy for the use of your GPS. It’s wonderful! Except when you miss an exit and it insistently tries to get you back on course sometimes going the wrong way on a one-way street!

To break ourselves in we headed first to the west coast from Glasgow then at Ayr (Rabbie Burns territory) turned south through the lovely green rolling hillside spotted with many white dots that occasionally spilled out over the road and became mother sheep with lambs.

The broom is in bloom making a gorgeous contrast of orange against the green of the landscape. Spring – life is in the air!

Sheep, watching us watch them.

The town of KirkcudBright is on the sea (Solway Firth)....so we stopped for a bit of a walk around, visiting our first castle, and then the marina, where the boats were mostly sitting on the mud due to the low tide.

Our First Castle, at Kirkcudbright.

Our First Abbey, founded 1142.

Local Marina at Low Tide.

Interesting Sign at the Marina.

We checked in to the Kerr Cottage B&B in Dalbeattie and learned that the man of the house had gone off on his first sailing expedition with some friends to sail around Skye. Alas the weather was so poor they were having a bad trip. Of course this made Don green with envy and he was sorry to not be able to hear of the fellow’s adventures. This area seems to have a bit of a sailing community as well. The large tide was out as we walked around the shore looking at bilge keeled boats all sitting on the sea bottom.

Kerr Cottage B&B

Liz, the hostess of the B&B told us that many of the houses in the town were built of local granite which led to the nickname of the town as the granite village (in contrast Aberdeen is the granite city) Their house had been built in 1826 and had remodelled beautifully without losing the old world charm. We also learned that the first officer of Titanic had come from this town. For breakfast Don sampled his first blood pudding which he very much enjoyed. Haggis was also on the breakfast menu, something we had previously only had for dinner.

We were off to Caeverlock castle and arrived to learn they were having a re-enactment that day. A bit of luck as we were able to chat with all these characters who were reliving the lifestyle of medieval times. Great fun. The castle itself was most impressive being unusual in being triangular and complete with moat. It’s in fairly decent shape and one was able to imagine how these ancestors may have lived. They must have been very tough for one thing as the wind whistled through the unclad windows and the only heat would have been the fireplaces.

Continuing on we heard on the radio that BBC 1 was having a huge concert in Carlisle with such stars as Lady Gaga, the Foo Fighters, Bruno Mars (and many more) performing. As we had to to through Carlisle on our way to the timeshare we anticipated slowdowns on the highway but this didn’t materialize as the concert was on the other side of the town.

We went into Penrith to purchase a few groceries for our upcoming week at the timeshare. It was a Morrison Superstore and incredibly busy possibly because it was a Saturday. It’s always fun to see what kind of items are sold in different countries. The food items seemed to us to be quite reasonable, compared to home prices.

We found the timeshare location about 8 miles away and checked in to one of the more unusual locations we’ve ever traded to. The entrance floor had one room with bunk beds, a Master bedroom with a double, and a tiny bathroom. The next floor had a room with 2 sofas, coffee table and large TV. Otherwise - bare. Across the hall is the kitchen and eating area. Then up another flight of stairs was another tiny bedroom with 2 singles. I’m sure the sofas made up into beds, so the place could probably have slept 8-10 people with this one tiny bathroom.

We managed to stay up till 9 pm before flaking out and slept all the way to 5:45. Progress with the jet lag. We cooked a breakfast of cut-up orange and strawberries with porridge which was much creamier that what we have at home, and followed up with instant coffee which seems to be a staple here.

Sunday 15 May

Time to explore the home country of some of our ancestors, the Waistell (Westell, now) family. We drove east about 20 miles, stopping in to view a little church and graveyard in the town of Temple Sowerby, where my gtx3 grandparents were married. As far as we could see, however, none of the family is buried here. Then on, past Kirkby Thore to the village of Warcop where most of our ancestors hail from, before leaving for Canada in 1835. The village is now a military training centre for the British Army, but still has narrow streets and beautiful old granite homes. The church and graveyard were at one end, and being Sunday, with little space to park, we decided to come back on a weekday when we could search more easily for our kin. So a short look around town, and we headed back to our lodging for a quick lunch. Then time to explore in the other direction (west), and we drove the 11 miles to Keswick, a market town at the head of a small lake. It's pronounced "Kessick" - no W's allowed in the middle of a word! The town was bustling with people shopping and enjoying a jazz festival going on in full gear. Very touristy area, and every second shop seemed to be selling outdoorsy clothing and equipment. Half of the rest of the shops sell food and beer. It was a pleasant afternoon walking around, enjoying some of the jazz venues, and admiring the flower gardens along the lake. Nearby, on our route home, was a pre-historic Stone Circle, made even more mystical by the light mist.

Castlerigg Stone Circles, in the Mist.

Back to our timeshare at Whitbarrow Village for a supper of chicken and veggies, and then, even though we still found ourselves trying to drop off to sleep we managed to stay up and awake until after 10 pm by watching the local rock concert on the television.

Monday 16 May

Forcing ourselves to stay awake worked.....we managed to sleep through the night almost until a normal waking-up time. Up and about by 0700, and after breakfast, southbound on the highway to visit the County Records Office in Kendal, to sort out some of our ancestors' records. It took a full day of searching, and almost going blind reading the microfiche files of the Old Parish Records of births, baptisms, marriages, burials, etc.

By 1545 we were a bit tired, so left the Records office for a quick lunch at McDonald's (I know – I almost don't believe that either!). Then across the street to visit the local library, for a bit more searching on microfiche for obituaries and to try to get a handle on the economic conditions prevailing at the time our 2xgt grandparents decided to emigrate to Canada (for a reasonable explanation for the big move). We did find one of the obits we were looking for, but nothing else conclusive.

The drive back north was on the scenic route, rather than the motorway. The narrow, twisting road climbed over a bit of a pass, through beautiful hilly country. There were lots of sheep and lambs in the fields surrounding us, and occasionally they seemed able to find their way onto the road. Although I was only driving at about 45 mph, most of the other drivers were a bit faster, and many parts of the road seemed only wide enough for a car and a half, rather than 2....but other than the occasional groan or involuntary cry of terror, Linda handled it well.....even when some of the sheep found themselves leaping out at us, right in the roadway. We made it home to our humble abode by 1900, with time to finally type up a quick issue of the Blog to post from the bar this evening.

Here's a short video of the re-in-actors, preparing to storm the castle.

Home in One Swell Fwoop

2011-05-09T13:38:00.000-07:00

Okay...I just gave up on blogging for the end of the trip, and left everybody sitting in Pt. McNeill. So here I am, almost a year from the start of our adventure, trying to end our story. I'm referencing the ship's log as a reminder, and hope to quickly run by the rest of our trip back to Comox. That's because tomorrow we (Linda and I) will leave home for a trip to Scotland, Northern England, and Northern Ireland - so then I guess it'll be time to change the name of the blog, and try it again, detailing this next trip.
But first, back to the sailing adventure! Tues. Aug 24 - We spent much of the day tidying up the boat in anticipation of the arrival of new crew. Linda arrived on the 1630 bus from Courtenay, and we celebrated with Frank and Marchien of Windbourn II aboard Jade. Wed. 25 Aug - Windbourn departed the dock at 0900......we took a bit longer, refueled the boat, and left at 1100, arriving at Telegraph Cove just down-Island a bit, arriving at 1430. They have a very interesting museum dedicated to whales, and great beer in the tavern. As we walked back to our boat at the dock, we watched a Coast Guard Fast Response Boat returning, performing CPR to an accident victim. They were followed closely by the whale-watch vessel Naiad Explorer, who presumably had been assisting in the incident. No information on what had actually ensued, though. Dinner of spinach salad and pizza, followed by nice hot/long showers.
Thursday, Aug. 26 - We departed at 1100, with a following tidal current, hoping to view some Orcas as we passed Robson Bight - but no such luck on this leg! So a few miles further on, we pulled into Port Harvey, which has a nice new marina (only 2 yrs old) at 1600. The restaurant has a good reputation, and we partook - very nice meals, with excellent dessert of wildberry cheesecake. Afterward, we watched a movie (Invictus) onboard while outside the skies opened up and it poured. We dropped a crab trap off the end of the dock for the night.
Fri. 27 Aug - The rain was easing up by mid-morning, so we decided to push on. Our crab trap yielded four nice keeper Dungeness Crabs. We left the dock at 1120, running back down Johnstone Strait, and then into Sunderland Channel on a broad reach, anchoring for the evening at the Douglas Bay anchorage in Forward Harbour. We plotted our journey for the next day to time our tides for the 2 rapids we had to run, and had a vigourous discussion on a variety of quasi-political topics following a wonderful dinner of crab, pasta and salad. We were able to get some cell-phone coverage, so called Jan & John in Refuge Cove to let them know we'd be there in a couple of days, and then called Oleo's Restaurant in Frederick Arm to see if they might still be open for dinner the following night (Yes - still open, and happy to have us!).
Sat. 28 Aug - Several other boats in the anchorage were leaving when we got up at 0800, even though our tide calculations hinted at a later time - however, in talking with them on the radio, it appeared we were probably right in waiting another hour or two, so stayed put for a great breakfast of crab omelet. When we left at 1000, we made good time through Whirlpool and Greenpoint rapids, and ended up pulling into Oleo's Gallery in Frederick Arm at about 1500. There we met Ruth, the widowed owner, and visited in her gazebo for happy hour, followed by a wonderful dinner of Louisiana Chicken and roast duck. We chatted until well after dark.
Sun. 29 Aug - We were up at 0800, but we couldn't leave until later to get the slack tide for Dent Rapids. Ruth had baked us some humongous cinnamon buns and a loaf of bread.....yummy! We actually got underway at 1300, transiting Dent and Gillard Rapids, and arriving Refuge Cove at 1900. Kelcy prepared some delicious fajitas enroute, for supper, and on arrival we had a nice visit with John and Janet on their floathome. Friends Terry and Denny, aboard "Night Moves", were also there - so it was a bit of a party/get-together.
Mon 30 Aug - Very nice, sunny weather, but forecast for gale-force southeast for next day. So instead of staying for a visit, we decided to leave, departing at 0920. With light winds it was a motorsail across Georgia Strait, and into Comox, arriving home at 1500.

That's about it for our sailing adventure to Alaska. A week later, we sailed down to Nanaimo to pull the boat out of the water, to check the rudder from the earlier log hit. Got the bottom painted at the same time, and back to Comox in a gale, arriving back on 26 Sept.

If you're interested in the next adventure, stay tuned.....tomorrow (10 May 2011) or the next day, I hope to start the next instalment of the blog, renamed for our adventures in trying to find our Roots in the U.K.

Crossing to Vancouver Island

2010-08-22T18:17:00.000-07:00

Friday, August 20th was day 100 of our adventure! We had the anchor up and were underway at 0830, motoring out Kwakshua Channel eastbound, then turning south into Fitzhugh Sound, bound for Rivers Inlet, just south of Fury Cove where we'd spent some time on our way north. We had scattered clouds, light and variable winds, and rippled seas, so motoring was the order of the day. We did some brunch underway and by 1200 it was starting to cloud over with a Southerly breeze starting to throw up a chop. We spotted several humpback whales along our port side. By 1300 we were off Fury Cove, where we started seeing lots of whales, some of them breaching, and waving their fins, flapping their tails.

A whale on his side, waving his fin

This whale action continued right across Rivers Inlet, with one whale waving his fin at us as we approached Duncanby. We were tied to the dock by 1500, and filled up our fuel. Duncanby Landing is a nice spot, with a marina/fishing lodge operation, a restaurant and lounge - but it is very expensive....they wanted $10.00 each for a shower, $20.00 for a day of internet, and moorage was $1.50/ft......so we did without showers, and had dinner aboard, but we did manage to drink a beer on the patio overlooking
the bay. Several whales actually came into the bay and cruised by our boats less than 20 feet away - one of them even breaching nearby. Quite a nice show for our dinner in the cockpit.

A Nearby Breach

We went to bed early (2030) in anticipation of an early day crossing the Strait for Pt. Hardy the next day.
Saturday, August 21 we were up at 0500 and full away by 0530 under overcast skies, rain, fog, and a light Southeast wind. By 1200 we were past Cape Caution....I called Comox CG Radio to tell them we were there, and have a chat. Shortly afterward, the southeasterly started to kick up to 15-20 knots with a confused sea as it met the ever-present westerly swell from the Pacific. We were already sailing close-hauled, and decided to stay that way and make straight into Bate Passage, which would give us a bit of shelter from both the westerly swell and the southeast seas. We entered Bate Pass and motored down and into Goletas Channel, now motoring against both wind and current (but smooth again!). At 1432 we copied a Mayday
call from a sportfishing boat further down Goletas Channel, on fire....but we were still an hour away. Three other boats were nearby, and with them and Coast Guard assistance, they and their boat were not lost, but towed into Pt. Hardy. By 1700 we were tied up in Pt Hardy ourselves. It had been a long and tiring day, so we treated ourselves to showers and a
pub dinner. Internet, though free, was slow to non-existant...so we had another early night, going to bed by 2100.
Sunday we were intending to stay in Pt Hardy, and catch up on some grocery shopping and stocking up. We got up fashionably late, at 0900. The weather forecast was for light northwesterlies, followed by several days of southeast winds, rain, and otherwise trip-disabling weather. So we decided to push on for Port McNeill while we had the weather, and stay there a few days instead. Linda is thinking of joining us in Port McNeill on Tuesday, and this way at least we'd be there! We got underway at 1045, motoring in very light airs and calm seas, under a broken layer of cloud. We managed to do a brunch underway. I'd been trying the last week to contact another Ontario 32, "Windbourn", who is supposed to be on the Central Coast
or the Broughtons. Today I got a weak reply from them when I called, but it was too weak and scratchy to make out any details of where they are or what their plans may be....perhaps we will still meet up with them somewhere along the way. I wrote that last part on our way to McNeill....when we arrived, we ended up right alongside "Windbourn", and had a nice visit with
Frank and Marchien. They had heard my radio call, even though I couldn't read them. We managed to find a bbq'd chicken and some salad at the grocery store, and even found an ice-cream cone (something I'd been dreaming of for awhile now). We have internet here, and Linda will be joining us on Tuesday for the rest of our trip south.

From Canada By Land

2010-08-19T21:52:00.000-07:00

"From Canada by Land".....that's the inscription written by Alexander McKenzie in July 1793 when he arrived at the Pacific Ocean after crossing North America from Montreal. That was also 10 years before the more famous crossing by the Lewis and Clark expedition. So it was a place I had to see. We left Ocean Falls on Tuesday, August 17, motorsailing back down Cousins Inlet and then sailed a broad reach northbound into Dean Channel.
By 1215 we were off the Government-installed cairn, with McKenzie's rock just below it. Kelcy was not that keen in going ashore to see it, and the anchoring there was poor. So we launched the dinghy, and Shane and I rowed in to have a look, while Kelcy motored around a bit on the boat.

McKenzie Rock

By 1315 we were underway again, still northbound in Dean Channel, and at 1430 entered Eucott Bay, anchoring off the hot springs there. As we were finishing up on our lunch, a fishing vessel, "Miss Molly", called out on the radio for anyone in the area of Eucott. We answered,
and he explained he had a dead battery, and needed a boost....so we upped anchor and motored out and got him going, for which he donated 3 very large crabs. Kelcy also managed to catch a cod, jigging while we boosted the battery. Dinner was assured! Back to the anchorage, I cleaned the crabs and took a short swim, while Kelcy and Shane took the dinghy out to see if they could catch some more fish or crabs. They did manage to bring back another cod, which went into the fridge. Following a huge crab feast, we rowed over to the hot springs for a soak. Very, very hot!
These are by far the warmest hot springs we've yet encountered. It has an inlet control to slow down the incoming water and thus cool it a bit, but that takes many hours to cool down a lot. We did manage to get in for a short soak, however. Then back to the boat for a relatively early night.

Shane at the Hot Springs

We departed at 0700 next morning, under cool overcast skies. The plan was to get an early start before the inflow got going, to get out of Dean Channel. We were motoring soutbound in 15 knot inflows, which quickly became 25 knots, with fog and rain. No sign of any of the forecast northwesterly winds. Ah well......more motoring! With the chop and the current against us (in theory it was ebbing with us, but the inflow winds create a stronger current the other
way) it was slow going - in fact, by 1300, we contemplated turning back into Ocean Falls as we approached the end of Dean Channel....but the weather started to ease, so we continued southbound, turning into Fisher Channel, and eventually arriving in a beautiful anchorage across from Lama Pass, called Codville Lagoon. As we entered, the clouds broke up, and the sun started shining, the winds eased. There were already several boats in the east and north (favoured) anchorage spots, but we found a nice spot in the north end, and were surprised to see our old buddy Steven, on "Kharma" there. We hadn't seen him since Ketchikan, so rowed over and shared some stories, as well as a bit of rum and scotch. The other boat in our end of the anchorage, "Dream Catcher", is run by Marge and Chuck Simpson, and were friends of Steven. They rowed over to "Kharma" and joined our little party. By 2000, we decided we'd best get back to Jade for some supper (leftover crab - yummy!). By the time that was all done and cleaned up, it was time for bed.
Wednesday, August 19 dawned bright and sunny, with light airs. We motored out of Codville Lagoon at 0815, southbound Fisher Channel, into Fitzhugh Sound, and past Namu, turning into Hakai Passage and then down into Pruth Bay. Herewe anchored off a lodge which offers wireless internet (weak, but useable - if you're reading this, it stayed that way!). They also have a couple of trails through the woods to the other side of the island. We hiked across to the beautiful sand beach on Hecate Strait, then walked up and over to Hakai Pass, to another equally lovely sand beach.

Kelcy contemplating at the Hakai Beach

There are even a few buoys and fishing paraphernalia hanging around the end of the trail, which have Japanese writing on them - obviously stuff which had floated across the Pacific and had been found here on the beach.

A note in the sand

We got back to our boat at 2000 for another late dinner (fish and chips, this time, with a go at my beer batter). Then it was time to catch up on blogging and logging before hitting the sack again.
We hope to head out tomorrow for Rivers Inlet, where we can get some more fuel (Dean Channel headwinds and the light airs today have used up a bit of that) at Duncanby Landing, and stage ourselves for a crossing of Queen Charlotte Straitinto Pt. Hardy. We can spend day 100 of our trip in beautiful downtown Duncanby Landing!

Ocean Falls

2010-08-16T08:44:00.000-07:00

We departed from Shearwater the following morning, eastbound through Gunboat Pass, and then across Dean Channel and up Cousins Inlet, with a brisk outflow wind against us, visibility increasingly deteriorating to less than 2 miles in haze and smoke. Otherwise, it was a beautiful sunny day.....apparently much of the interior of BC is burning in forest fires, and the smoke was filling the Central Coast with the outflow. We arrived at Ocean Falls in the early afternoon, to be greeted by Neil, the wharfinger, who welcomed us warmly.

Approaching Ocean Falls

Ocean Falls is a town in transition. It was built at the site of the Link River pouring into Cousins Inlet, with a hydro-electric dam being built in the early 1900's. This provided power and water for a pulp/paper mill and Ocean Falls became a bustling and thriving one-industry town, owned by paper company. In its heyday the community was very busy, with some 4,000 people, a busy deepwater port, hotel, swimming pool, bowling alley, etc......until the company pulled out. The provincial government bought the town out and kept it running until the early 1980's, but it became an uneconomic proposition, and the mill and the town shut down. It became a ghost town, with only a few dozen people remaining. There are now about 30 full-time residents, and in the summer about 80 more. BC Ferries operates into here twice weekly, and the dam still provides electric power for here, as well as Bella Bella and Shearwater. Although Bella Bella is running low on water, Ocean Falls has plenty of very good water....in fact, we were encouraged to use it to wash our boats and fill our tanks (there is a dam renovation happening, and they want to lower the water levels).
The docks are well maintained, internet wifi is available for free, and the remaining people are very friendly. We walked around the remaining townsite where many of the buildings are beyond restoration, and then up to Link Lake (created by the dam) where we enjoyed a warm, freshwater swim.

A refreshing dip in the lake

Back to the boat for dinner and some internet, and meeting a few of the other boaters who'd arrived.....4 other sailboats and several powerboats.
Sunday morning was another bright sunny day, albeit still quite smoky. We utilized the plentiful fresh water to scrub the decks and clean the boat. Then a few of our fellow boaters and ourselves joined a local fellow, Norman, in a tour of Norman's hobby.....creation of a museum, where he's collected things from all over town and organized them into a historical collection of the town's history.

Norman is presenting Kelcy with a "California Raisin" figure.

Back to the boats, we all decided it was time for a dock party. Dave, from the sailboat ahead of us, had collected/caught quite a few crabs, and a few of the others also had some...so it became a crab-fest. Of course, we hadn't caught any, so we and a few others supplied appies and dessert. I was also able to introduce many of our new friends to Pyrat Rum!
The party rocked on until the ferry arrived at midnight, and we all called it a night.
Monday morning, due to the night before, was a lot slower and quieter. I managed to wash off the hull of the boat before Shane and Kelcy were stirring. Then a slow walk into the other part of town, about a mile down the road from the marina end of things. There, I watched a Grumman Goose taxi down a ramp and depart, and picked some blueberries and huckleberries from along the roadway and beside the Martin River.

These blueberries are fresh!

We'll likely head out of here tomorrow morning, and if weather permits, we'll head up Dean Channel to view Alexander Mackenzie's cairn, and visit the Eucott Hot Springs. The smoke has mostly dissipated with a strong inflow breeze, but if this breeze continues, it may make it hard to get to the Hot Springs or the cairn....we shall see.

Sun, Snappers and Soaks

2010-08-12T21:52:00.000-07:00

Lots of catching up to do, with no internet for a full week!
We left Prince Rupert Wednesday, 04 August, motoring out at 0730 in dense fog and light winds. We continued southbound Chatham Strait, and by 1100 the visibility was improved to a full half mile. We stopped for a short try at fishing, off Smith Island - but no luck - I think I would make a very poor fish, as anywhere I guess as a good spot for a fish, does not appear to be the consensus of opinion for the fish! By 1230 we were off the south end of Arthur Pass, with nice clear and sunny weather (the fog just lifted suddenly, the wind picked up to Northwesterly).
With 15 knots of breeze on our starboard quarter we sailed a nice broad reach through Ogden Channel, and sailed into Captain Cove, on the north end of Pitt Island. On the way in we dropped off a couple of prawn traps, then anchored inside. Being a nice and sunny afternoon, we just relaxed and read, and even tried a bit of fishing off the boat, with no luck. Following a lovely dinner of stuffed roast pork and veggies which Shane prepared, we played a bit of cards,
had a short row around the anchorage in the dinghy, and called it a night by 2200.

We got underway again the following morning, at 0730. The anchorage was overcast with a low layer of cloud trying to join the fogbank outside in the channel. We found our traps in the fog, and hauled up a catch of 4 lowly prawns, which ended up being lost over the side when we used the bucket they were in for a quick deck rinse. We continued southbound in Petrel Channel, with the fog lifting by 0900. The wind picked up again, and again was northwesterly to allow us a motor-assisted broad reach down the channel on a broad reach. By 1200 we were crossing into Principe Channel, with a pod of porpoises playing alongside the boat. As the wind increased, so did the seas....and we pulled into Monckton Inlet for an anchorage for the night, anchoring in a small bay on the northwest side, after resetting our prawn traps in the inlet. The bay is very small for swinging to an anchor, so we put out a stern line to shore for the first time in months. We caught a couple of nice rock cod for dinner, and used the carcasses for bait for our crab traps. The Coleman shower was set up in the cockpit for nice warm showers, and I took a short row around the anchorage before we settled down for a short bit of reading, and bed.

Friday morning (06 Aug) we were up at 0700, but by the time we got our stern line, anchor, crab traps, and prawn traps all settled away, it was 0815 before we were full away. Another overcast, rainy, and foggy morning, but this time the wind was against us, Southeast at 15 knots, forecast to increase. With a building sea, it was good we'd made it into Monckton Inlet, as we only had 8 miles to go southeast before rounding eastward into Otter Channel, and finding calm seas. We crossed Squally Channel (well -named, as we were getting strong gusts of SE winds) with the genoa out for steadying and additional speed. Then across Wright Sound and past Gil Island, ending up at Hartley Bay for 1400. We had to wait awhile for fuel, and then found our old spot in the docks, so tied up there. I was able to get some cell phone coverage, to tell Linda where we were, but although it is rumoured to be possible to get internet access here through the Band Office, we were unable to arrange it. Hartley Bay was just as we remembered it from our northbound trip, with boardwalks and lots of rain. We did a curried mango pork dish with veggies for dinner, and watched a movie ("Cop Out") on board, getting to bed by 2200.

Saturday morning we departed Hartley Bay at 0800, motorsailing northbound into Verney Passage, and then into the Gardner Canal eastbound. Except for the large clear-cuts, Gardner is very scenic. We arrived at Europa Hot Springs aka Shearwater Hot Springs, by early afternoon, and tied up to one of the two nice new mooring buoys there, provided by BC Parks. We were the only ones there, and enjoyed a hot soak in the springs, and even did our laundry, hanging the
wet clothes out to dry in the sunny weather we were getting.

Three of us enjoying Europa Hot Springs

Shane and Kelcy even jumped into the cold water off the boat (too cold for me!). We celebrated our nice weather, beautiful surroundings, and great soaking, with a dinner of stir-fry and drinks (rum for me).

Leaping into the Briny Cold

Shane and Kelcy returned for an evening soak in the springs while I remained onboard the boat and read, and retired.

Sunday, 08 August saw us underway from Europa/Shearwater at 0800 in clear and sunny weather, and light winds. We motored back down Gardner, and into Ursula Channel, now southbound again. Just prior to reaching Bishop Bay, about a dozen white-sided
dolphins joined us and played alongside for a half hour, leaving us as we entered the bay.

Watching Playful Porpoises

By 1400 we were tied to the dock in Bishop Bay, and went off to the springs for another soak. These hot springs are noticeably cooler than the other ones we'd been in, but that just allows a longer, and comfortably relaxing soak. Also alongside our dock was a sailing vessel, "C'est Si Bon", out of Melbourne Australia. The couple had been sailing out of Oz for 8 years, and last year had arrive fromJapan into Alaska, and sailed the north and west parts of it. Without enough time to explore Southeast Alaska (the part we had just done), they'd sailed to Victoria BC for the winter and returned to Alaska to do the southeast part. Now they are southbound for Mexico. We also met a couple from Stony Plains Alberta, who shared a garbage fire and a bit of rum with us.

Monday morning saw us underway from Bishop Bay at 0800, motoring southbound Ursula Channel and Finlayson Channel. It was hard to believe, but again we were experiencing a clear sunny day, with light winds. By the time we passed Butedale at 1200, we were motor-sailing on a broad reach, and decided to go past our original destination of Khutze Inlet, anchoring instead about 8 miles south of there, in Swanson Bay, off a stream and the ruins of an old pulp mill. In theory, the current from the stream should have kept us from swinging toward the shallow water and shelf to shoreward, but we dropped a stern anchor to ensure that. We managed to catch a couple of rockfish for dinner, and for crab-bait. Following our fish dinner, we watched another movie, this time a documentary - Michael Moore's "Capitalism - a Love Story".
Tuesday morning saw us up quite a bit earlier, up at 0530 and underway by 0600, turning into Heikish Narrows and Sheep Passage, for a look at Fiordland area. This is a recently protected conservation area with deep fiord-like scenery. Sheep Passage has lots of Fish farms alongside, but we did start into the wild fiords as we entered Mathieson Channel. We caught a couple of
beautiful yelloweye rockfish (I thought they were red snapper, but confirmed otherwise in a book we carry aboard). We had a lunch of clam chowder with a bit of grilled snapper/rockfish....then we continued into Kynoch Inlet, sailing on
a broad reach.

Nice Catch, Kelcy!

Kynoch has steep granite cliffs with snow-capped mountains on either side, and numerous waterfalls...very picturesque, and fiord-like.

Looking up Kynoch Inlet

We anchored at the end of the inlet, where the water shallows out very quickly....we anchored in 100 feet of water, with the boat sitting in 20 feet of water and a drying shelf immediately astern of the boat (I could have jumped off the stern of the boat and waded ashore in ankle-deep water!). With the wind strength increasing, and no place to drop back with more anchor scope, I got a bit nervous and set our anchor kellet, a weight which improves the holding power of the existing anchor and rode. My knot obviously was not as good as I'd planned - the kellet dropped off...so we resorted to using our second anchor as a makeshift kellet. By midnight, the winds had dropped, and we ended up having a peaceful night after all.

Wednesday morning was another early day, with us underway again by 0600, retracing our way out of Kynoch Inlet, and turning south into Mathieson Channel. Again....a beautiful day, once the fog and low cloud had a chance to burn off in the early morning. Although the winds were forecast to be strong northwest, we were getting very light southerlies, so just motored down the channel. By noon we were in the southern reaches of the passage, dodging numerous logs and bits of wood in the water. I find it interesting, and curious, that we saw almost no logs or wood debris in the water in Alaskan waters, but almost as soon as we entered BC, found ourselves dodging the debris. We entered Reid Passage and anchored in Oliver Cove which we'd found very nice on our way northbound. This time, however, there was a westerly wind building, and putting us on a lee shore. We chowed down on a curried fish dish, and then pulled the anchor in search of a less treacherous anchorage. With Shearwater/Bella Bella being only 15 miles away, we decided to head that way. It was after 1800 by the time we got underway again, and had a 25 knot westerly wind behind us as we sailed a broad reach, and wing-on- wing, down Seaforth Channel. We arrived Shearwater at 2200, just after sunset, and all of the docks were full. The anchorage off the marina, however, had space, so we settled down at anchor for the night. It was a long day, but we were safe in a quiet anchorage instead of facing a full gale (which it apparently had become outside) in a marginal anchorage with a lee shore.

Today is Thursday, 12 August. Finally we are tied to the dock in Shearwater, and have been busy all day taking care of long-neglected chores (laundry, internet/blog/facebook/emails, repair outboard motor, showers). I sit at my computer on the boat with a rum drink before me....it has been another fine sunny day, and our chores are about done. It must be time to post this update, and go to the pub for a celebration!

Into the Great White North

2010-08-03T13:11:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning, July 31 saw us up at 0700 and off the dock in Ketchican..... a quick fuel-up, and we headed south into Revallagigedo Channel, in clear skies and light winds(forecast to become moderate NW by afternoon). As we continued, we sailed through a few fog patches which tended to dissipate as we proceeded.....but no sign of our NW winds - instead it was building SE, on our nose. By 1230 it was SE 15-20 with a nasty chop, so we motored into Foggy Bay for the night to wait for our westerlies. After a dinner of spaghetti and a bit reading and cards, we reset our watches an hour ahead, to be on B.C. time, and hit the sack.
Sunday morning we departed Foggy Bay at 0900(BC time) and continued southbound in Revallagigedo Channel, into Dixon Entrance. The forecast winds of moderate to strong northwest were still missing, and we found ourselves motorsailing into a moderate southeast and a confused, choppy sea. Because of forecast Gales for the next couple of days, we continued to motor southbound for Prince Rupert, rather than head into Khutzemateen for a quick return visit with Greg and Lisa. Both Kelcy and Shane were feeling the effects of the motion, with Kelcy taking gravol and wrapping herself in a blanket midships below. It was slow going, and we eventually realized we'd likely be late at the Yacht Club in Prince Rupert, so without cell coverage, asked Rupert Coast Guard Radio to call the club to reserve/confirm a late spot for us....which they kindly did. We entered Venn Passage by1900, and docked at the yacht club by 2015. We were able to clear customs by telephone, check our internet, and call home to Linda. It had been a long day, so we made our way up the ramp for a pub dinner at the Breakers Pub. On our way back we spotted Greg(Khutzemateen) Palmer's boat at the dock, so were able to leave him his lens cap and a bottle of rum, with a note, before retiring at 2330.
Monday morning we were able to check in at the Yacht Club and tidy up the boat. We saw Greg and Lisa about to depart, so were able to have a quick visit with them. Our friend Art contacted us via Facebook, and visited the boat later in the afternoon, inviting us back to his home for dinner. It was a great visit, in which we had a great dinner, caught up on laundry, and got Shane a video-game fix. Art, his wife Angela, son Luc, and daughter Mariah were all very welcoming, and we had a great time....getting back to the boat at 2130, just in time to see the fog rolling back in for the night. Canada may be known as the Great White North for other reasons, but I suspect that on the north coast of BC, in the month of Fogust, it could be called the same for other, more "mist-ic-al" reasons!
Tuesday morning we had a sleep-in, then organized our payment to the Yacht Club, refuelling, and lunch. Art met us with a loan of his vehicle in early afternoon, allowing us to stock up our groceries. This is our last day in Prince Rupert, with plans to continue back south via the "Outside Inside Passage", still in protected inside waters, but further out near Hecate and Queen Charlotte Straits (Principe Channel to begin). It may be awhile before we again get internet access, but we will continue to post when we can.

Here is a map showing our return trip from Auke Bay(Juneau) to Prince Rupert. If you click on the image, it should show up more clearly.

Moving Right Along!

2010-07-29T13:32:00.000-07:00

Our final day in Juneau continued with a nice (no rain) day. Following a stint at the local waffle-house/internet cafe, we drove into the city of Juneau itself for the first time. With 3 cruise-ships in port, there was a fair bit of tourist traffic on the streets. Although we may be tourists ourselves, We try to avoid that sort of thing, and really aren't interested in, and can't afford, the glittery jewellery and mementoes being offered. We did manage to visit a few book stores - I even found a dictionary/thesaurus for $1.00, which we can use to settle any differences
of opinion when we play Scrabble. We visited a picturesque, old, but still functioning Russian Orthodox church, and viewed the city from the steep streets above the city centre. By late afternoon, we were back at cousin Barb's house for a last shower, and then off to the city again, for dinner.
A fine fish dinner at "The Twisted Fish" followed. Then Barb drove us around and showed us even more of the town environs. We ended up the evening across Gastineau Channel to Douglas, on Douglas Island - across from Juneau and proudly independent of the city. Here we visited Barb's favourite bar, and met a number of her friends who also frequent the pub. Up on the wall above the bar is a stuffed golden labrador head, memorializing Gus, a favourite dog here.

Gus is remembered by all in Douglas!

As we were preparing to leave, one of the regulars walked into the pub and rang the bell. Far be it for me to break one of my cardinal rules to not take advantage of someone buying a round! So we remained for another drink, when the same fellow, celebrating a good day, rang the bell again. Far be it for me.....so we stayed for yet another one. He rang the bell a third time - this time I broke my rule...we accepted tokens for a drink at a later date, which we gave to Barb for her later convenience - and we made our way back to the marina, and said our farewells to Barb, who'd been very kind and generous to 3 strangers, one of whom is kind of related.
Wednesday morning was overcast, misty, foggy, and rainy - but we left anyway, at 0600. Shane and Kelcy are now doing the trip planning, boat handling, and navigation....I'm just along for a bit of monitoring. We motored southbound into Stephen Channel, and against a bit of southerly wind and chop, arrived in Taku Harbor by early afternoon. This is a marine park about 20 miles south of Juneau, with a nice dock to tie to, as well as a bit of a trail and old abandoned cannery to explore.....which we did.

Pieces of the old cannery, and pilings, at Taku

We had a dinner at 1900 and by 2130 were already in bed.
Thursday was another motoring day southbound against a slight breeze and chop. We left early again, at 0600, to minimize the amount of wind, forecast to come up by afternoon....and to arrive at Holkum Bay, our destination, for slack water at 1200. Holkum Bay has a narrow entrance which needs to be entered at slack water, and once inside, there is only one suitable anchorage place as the rest of the two arms extending out from it are essentially too deep. But this is the base point for Tracy Arm - the picturesque glacier, so here we are. Even in Stephen Channel, 8 miles north of Holkum, we were starting to pass large chunks of ice adrift from the arm. Inside the anchorage, the very large chunks of ice can't make it past the rocks at the entrance, although there are still some sizeable chunks which seem to find their way in. We had an early night, in anticipation of an early morning travelling up the arm to the Glaciers, although we did manage to squeeze in a movie ("Taken"). We were up at 0530 the following morning, motoring the 25 miles up Tracy Arm against an outflow wind, and dodging bergy-bits. In spite of rain and mist, the scenery was still spectacular, with 5000 ft. cliffs and waterfalls surrounding us, and ice bits flowing in the channel.

Waterfalls streaming down the cliff sides of Tracy Arm

By 1230 we'd made it to the foot of the South Sawyer Glacier - it was very slow going through the ice, with Shane on the bow pushing some of the bits away with a boat hook, and following large charter yachts through the thicker stuff.

Our Ice Lookout

A waterfall near the base of the glacier opened things up, though, and we were able to get quite close, and watch the glacier calving.

South Sawyer Glacier

The trip back was again against the wind, as it had switched to a quite strong inflow, up to 25 knots. We made it back to the anchorage for 1800 - tired, but happy we'd done it. Dinner and a movie ("Oceans 13"), and bed by 2300.
Saturday, 24 July we were up at 0600 to make our slack water out of Holkum Bay. We motorsailed southbound into Stephens Pass, bound for Gambier Harbor, in a cool, overcast and foggy morning. We did french toast underway for breakfast. By 0900 the weather had improved, with visibility over 15 miles, and the wind picking up to allow a bit of motor-assisted sailing on a close reach. By 1130 we were off Gambier Island/Harbor, in almost calm conditions, but sunny and warm. I was even able to pick up some cell phone coverage, and called Linda to touch base. It seemed to pleasant or early to stop for the day, so we continued southbound into Pybus Bay, Cannery Cove (we'd stopped here on the way up, and liked it). By 1545 we were anchored up for the day.
Sunday 25 July saw us up and underway at 0800, southbound for the village of Kake. We managed to pick up a short burst of internet wifi on the way out, as we passed a fishing resort, so quickly checked our emails. It was a mostly sunny day, with a light wind on our nose...motorsailing again. By 1400 we were approaching Kake, and were surrounded by numerous (at least 30) humpbacks, all blowing, sounding, and breaching. Quite a spectacular thing to see....and impossible to figure out exactly how many there were. We stopped at the fuel float on the way in for a fuel top-up and water, then continued to the marina 2 miles south of town. There are few services here, so we showered on deck. We met a couple (Robbie and Elaine) who live in Kake and manufacture and sell dry bags for kayaking/camping, and they
offered to drive us into town. They showed us around, including the hatchery, where several bears were prowling around, and offered their telephone for Shane to call home, then drove us back to the boat. Any clouds in the sky were disappearing, and we enjoyed a beautiful evening. We were able to clear out some of our garbage, and tidy the boat.
Monday morning was a beautiful summer day, with a light northwest wind, and sunny skies. With the tides also right, we decided to go for the dreaded Keku Strait, with Rocky Pass in the middle. This is a twisting, narrow, rock and kelp-filled passage with strong tidal currents. A challenge for any navigator...but with good visibility, good tides, and a chart plotter, we decided we could do it. With Shane on the bow as a lookout for rocks and kelp, Kelcy following our navigation very closely with both the paper charts (notated with notes from our pilot books) and electronic plotter, and me steering and manoevring the route, we managed to clear the
two worst spots - "The Summit", and "Devil's Elbow". By 1530 we were clear of Rocky Pass, at the south end of Keku Strait....with a following wind of 15 knots. So we raised the sails, turned on some Jimmy Buffet tunes, and had a celebratory rum drink. We sailed on a broad reach a further 20 miles, entering Pt. Baker, a small community of about a dozen homes, and tied to a dock. We chatted with a few sportfishing boats, and called it a night.

Shmoozing in Pt. Baker after our successful run through Rocky Pass

Friday, 27 July saw us underway from Pt.Baker at o800 on another fine sunny day. We motorsailed eastbound through Sumner Strait, turning southbound into Snow Passage, with the wind picking up astern of us, and the tide giving us a nice push. We sighted several whales sounding, and by 1235 we were on a broad reach entering Clarence Strait, bound for Ratz Harbor. I worked for awhile on fixing the heater, which seems to have a clogged fuel line...but was unable to repair it. By 1530 we were off Ratz Harbor, but with another fine sunny day, and the wind astern, we kept on going, and tied up for the evening at Meyer's Chuck, where we'd spent a day on our trip north. The fishing vessel ahead of us on the dock had been singlehanded by a fellow from Seattle (John), who chatted with us for awhile. We invited him over for some drinks, and shared our dinner with him (Shane barbecued some chicken and roast veggies). We were in bed by 2200. Wednesday 28 July saw yet another fine day. We were up at 0530 to catch the end of the ebb tide and get a southbound push. We got a nice wing-on-wing sail southbound in Clarence Strait, and by 1300 were on the approaches to Ketchikan. This time we got a dock near the centre of town, at Thomas Basin. The entrance to the boat basin is quite interesting when the cruise ships are in (there were 5 of them in town), as the entrance is partly blocked by one of them tied along the breakwall. It is necessary to slide around the end of the cruise ship with very little room to get in. We now have internet again, and laundry facilities nearby. The plan is to stay here for several days, and then head south again, to be back in BC by early next week. We walked to the harbormaster's office to check in, and discovered our friends on "Irish Dreamer" were tied up near the boat basin there....so visited for a short drink. Also tied up there was Stephen, on "Kharma", who joined us at the head of the ramp, at a very nice restaurant, for a catch-up of news, and a restaurant meal (Ihadn't had prime rib for awhile, so that was my deciding factor here!).
It is now Thursday morning, 29 July. Getting caught up on the blog, and then trying (again) to repair the heater will finish up much of my day.....then on to laundry and reprovisioning. We've agreed to meet up with Stephen ("Kharma") at a pub at 1800, so we'll see what we get into in the next few days before continuing into BC.

It's all downhill from here!!

2010-07-20T12:25:00.000-07:00

Click on the map to see it better....a general idea of our routeing from Sitka, via Peril Strait, with stops in Tenakee, Hoonah, Glacier Bay, Juneau.

We've been having a fantastic time in Juneau, thanks mostly to cousin Barb's generosity. In addition to showers and laundry, she's organized some great trips for us. With three bikes and the loan of her car, we drove up the highway to a biking/hiking trail which leads to the Herbert Glacier. It took us about an hour of biking in the 5 miles, then hiking the moraine and boulders below the glacier before we decided we couldn't get much farther.

On the bike trail

We were treated to absolutely stunning views, as well as having much-needed exercise.

Hiking along the river below the Herbert Glacier

Following the hike/bike trip, Barb provided us with nice hot showers and laundry, and a wonderful dinner of tacos with freshly baked chocolate chip cookies for dessert.
The following day (Monday), required a bit of work before the play. We changed the engine and transmission oil on the boat, replaced the furling line to the jib, which was showing some wear, and did some battery maintenance. Then it was time to play again - thanks again to Barb, we had the use of her room-mate's truck and three kayaks, which we took to Mendenhall Lake (below the Mendenhall Glacier), and paddled up to the glacier. That took us a very scenic and enjoyable 4 hours, and we discovered a few new (or at least dis-used) muscles.

Kayaking below the Mendenhall Glacier

On the way back to drop off the kayaks we managed to load up the truck with enough food to restock the boat for awhile.
The original plan was to leave this morning, southbound toward Taku and Tracy Arm. In fact, from here, it will be all southbound (downhill) all the way to home.....not enough time to continue north for Haines or Skagway. We decided to spend one more day here in Juneau, as we still hadn't seen the downtown area yet. So at the moment, I sit at the local waffle restaurant (with free wi-fi), getting the blog updated as I feed my face. Then it's off to downtown, and then we will take Barb out for dinner before retiring for the night on our last night in Juneau.
You may think we've had enough of glaciers by now, but Tracy Arm, 2 days south of here, is reputed to have one of the most scenic glaciers of all......so of course we will have to check that out on our way back.

Glacier Bay and Juneau

2010-07-18T13:34:00.000-07:00

After uploading the blog at the Hoonah Library, we managed to get in a last shower for awhile, and then depart the dock at 1000, crossing Icy Strait and bound for an anchorage on the north side of Pleasant Island, just across from the town of Gustavus. This would allow us easy entry into Glacier Bay Park the following morning. We motorsailed on a beam reach, with the tide current assisting us most of the way, spotting several whales surfacing around us. As we rounded the west end of Pleasant Island, the dock at Gustavus appeared free and clear, so we tied up at the dock (our guides warned it is usually full, but we found lots of room). It was cool and overcast, with rainshowers, but that didn't stop Shane and I from taking a walk along the road into town to explore a bit. Although there is a golf course, several restaurants, a grocery store, a gas museum, etc.....all was closed because of it's being a Sunday. We did manage to pick some wild strawberries along the side of the road, though, which we used in our salad in the evening meal. Back at the dock, several sportfishing boats were returning with their catch....lots of salmon and halibut, including 1 halibut weighing in at 293 pounds!!!!

Cleaning a very large halibut

We had a dinner of pork chops with salad, and then watched the movie “Lovely Bones”.....at least the first half, until the memory on the computer choked up and we had to shut it down. It was time for bed at any rate, as we needed an early start the next day.
Which we got....up at 0500, and off the dock at 0530, motorsailing in light airs for Glacier Bay. It was a nice sunny day, with Mt. Fairweather (15,300 ft +) plainly visible to the north.

Entering Glacier Bay, with the Fairweather range in background

We managed to arrive at the dock at Bartlett Cove, at the Park Entrance – just in time for the Ranger Station 0800 briefing and check-in (mandatory for all arriving visitors). We topped up the fuel, and were underway into Glacier Bay Park by 1000. We saw lots of wildlife the first day into the park. With warm, sunny weather, we enjoyed watching many humpbacks, sea otters, and a family pod of Orca.

A Sea Otter drifts by

A Family of Orca

We passed several colonies of stellar sealions, and later viewed 3 wolves loping along the beach. 30 miles north of Bartlett Cove, we pulled into Blue Mouse Cove for our first anchorage in the park.

Sea Lion Colony

Humpbacks

We had a dinner of leftover pork chops, and then finished our movie (“Lovely Bones”), making it to bed by 2230 – a very pleasant day, both weather and wildlife-wise!
Tuesday morning, July 13 – we woke up at 0700 to overcast skies, and less than ¼ mile visibility in fog and rain, with a north wind (the direction we were planning to go!). So back to bed for a bit, and relax at anchor. By 1000, the fog was lifting a bit, so we headed out to view some glaciers. At 1300 we passed by the carcass of a humpback whale on the beach with a brown (grizzly) bear feasting on it.

Brown Bear eating a whale carcass

We proceeded past the Reid and Lamplugh Glaciers, both of which were stunning glacier views. The weather was starting to close in again, so we returned to anchor in the inlet off Reid Glacier....as we anchored, the weather lifted again, so we stuck some food in the oven and rowed to shore, walking up the beach to the glacier itself.

Up Close and Personal at Reid Glacier

We returned to the boat with some pieces of bergy bit, for a glacial rum celebratory drink, and a slightly overcooked dinner of ribs and roast potatoes. We managed to have showers on deck, with a pre-wash in extremely frigid glacial water, followed by the warmth of our coleman shower.
Wednesday morning started with a howl. Actually, howling winds.....a very strong wind roared down the glacier, at full gale force, very cold, and very noisy....at three a.m. Our anchor was holding nicely, although I let out some more scope to 10:1, with a kellet, to be sure. I then set up an anchor watch for the rest of the night (although it's hard to call it night, as it was already light outside). A power boat also anchored in the bay dragged anchor and left. By 0730, the wind was still blowing, but down to 20-25 knots, so we raised anchor and motored up Tarr Inlet, weaving around various bergy bits and then facing the magnificent Margerie Glacier, also called “the Performer” because of the movement and calving of the glacier. We shared the area with the cruise ship “Ryndam”, and while we were watching, the glacier rumbled like thunder, and cracked and roared, dropping off several large chunks of ice.

Margerie Glacier Calving

We continued past the Grand Pacific Glacier, which is quite large, but also very dirty-looking (hard to tell it's actually ice). At this point we were at 59 degrees 3 minutes north latitude – likely as far north as we'll get on this trip (57 miles south of the Arctic Circle) and only 1 mile from the Canadian border, which crosses the glacier just inland.

A Seal adrift on a bergy bit

We then turned south again, passing Russel Island, and across the bay to check out the dead whale carcass.....this time with 2 smaller grizzlies nearby. They walked up the beach and then swam out to the carcass (it was high tide, and the whale was partly submerged), and started ripping and tearing at it. We then continued back to our previous anchorage at Blue Mouse Cove, anchoring at 1830. We had a nice dinner of spaghetti and salad, and hit the bed at 2015 after a very long and tiring day.
Thursday, July 15 was to be our last day in the Park. We were up at 0730, and underway by 0830. A cloudy day (some breaks), good visibility, and light and variable winds greeted us. We crossed over to have a look at a large rock face, and viewed some mountain goats.....a kid with its mother, with the ram on a ledge overhead, keeping eye.

Mom and Kid

Dad watching over them

We then motorsailed back southbound on the east side of the bay, spotting dolphins, and a mother bear (black bear) with a very small cub. Several more humpbacks surfaced and breached throughout the day. There was not much wind, and a lot of current against us, but by 1700 we were finally getting a bit of a nice sail, as the wind finally picked up from the southwest. We docked off the ranger station in Bartlett Cove at 1845, and checked in with them, getting a transit permit for anchoring overnight in the cove and then leaving in the morning, instead of having to leave the park by midnight. We were able to have a quick supper on the boat (Shepherd's Pie), then visit the Glacier Bay Lodge for showers and a go at the Internet, and a beer. With a limit on the number of people allowed on their wifi, we had extremely limited use of the Internet, so just managed to have a quick look at email and Facebook. We then had to move the boat off the dock, and anchor for the night.
Friday morning we moved the boat to the fuel dock and topped up our diesel again (we'd used 11 gallons of motoring and heat in the park). We got underway by 0930, clearing the park just over an hour later. We managed to get a good push from the end of the ebb tide, out of Glacier Bay, and then caught the flood to push us eastward again, down Icy Strait. We were bound for Funter Bay, at the east end of Icy Strait, north end of Chatham Sound, and the south end of Stephen Channel (they all meet there). It was mostly a motoring trip, with no wind, but only ½ mile visibility in fog and rain. I did manage to pick up some cell coverage for awhile and chatted with Linda. We tied up to a float in Funter Bay at 1830, barbecued some steaks for dinner, then had a quick game of Scrabble before getting to bed by 2300.
It is now Saturday 17 July. We got underway at 0810, but lost a fender outbound and had to return to retrieve it, getting away again by 0830. In spite of a forecast for northwest winds of 15-20 knots and 3 ft. seas, we were experiencing Southerly winds instead, so got a very nice sail northbound in Stephen Channel, running wing-on-wing. By 1100, we rounded Pt. Retreat into Saginaw Channel, bound for the north end of Juneau at Auke Bay, now motorsailing in an easing wind. We did manage to spot several more whales in the channel, and at 1240 we passed “Star of the Winds” outbound from Auke Bay, with a fresh crew on board, and bound for Glacier Bay. By 1345 we were tied up at the dock in Auke Bay, and called Customs and Border Patrol for clearance into the port. We also called Linda's cousin, Barb Bonner, who lives in Juneau. She had just been kayaking in front of a calving glacier – obviously an exciting experience!
Barb showed up at the boat a short time later, and took us in tow for a bit of a tour – starting with the Alaskan Brewing Company brewhouse. Barb has been reading the blog, and knew that one of our big interests may lie here – very astute! We tested the 8 available types of brew available, and were appreciative of them all....although I found myself most attracted to the darker ales. While there, we met one of Barb's room-mates, who, with some smooth-talking from Barb, volunteered us the use of her truck, to allow us to avail ourselves of the use of 3 bicycles and 3 kayaks which Barb and her room-mates own. Barb then took us for a tour of the area, suggesting some interesting places to go with the bikes and kayaks, and viewing the Mendenhall Glacier.

Barb and Kelcy enjoying the view at Mendenhall Glacier

We all trooped into a very popular Thai restaurant for dinner, and found that the reason for its popularity is it's great food.....and large portions, too! In fact, even with Shane along, we couldn't finish it all. We retired for an early night at the boat, and were in bed by 2130. More adventures from Juneau to follow.

On to Icy Strait

2010-07-11T09:10:00.000-07:00

We enjoyed the fireworks in Sitka, but discovered that THE FIREWORKS (July 4^th.....and, auspiciously, also for Kelcy's Birthday) had been postponed – the ones we'd seen (quite good, actually!) were just some private displays visible from the harbour. We celebrated Kelcy's birthday on the 4^th with a nice sleep-in. The weather continued to pour down rain, but we walked through the inclement weather into town, and found a nice warm and dry restaurant for our lunch (it was far too late for breakfast). We had a nice window seat, and watched the 4^th Celebration Parade from the comfort of the restaurant. Being a national holiday, not much was open, but we walked around town. I was planning on treating Kelcy to a restaurant meal out for her birthday dinner, but all the restaurants were closed by late afternoon – so we found an open grocery store and got some food for dinner, returned to the boat, and fixed some stroganof for dinner with an attempt at baked alaska for the birthday dessert.....it's hard to beat egg whites into a merengue using just a fork, but I managed, kind of, and the baked alaska turned out reasonably well until the ice cream inside melted and we had a merengue slide.

July 5^th continued to be damp (I hesitate to call it rain, per se – more of a steady drizzle and mist, with fog). A bit more exploration of town filled our day, including a trip to the local computer shop to try and repair my ailing boat computer. The hard drive was making scratchy noises and I felt it was about to fail, so managed to get the drive copied onto a new one just before it crashed. Whew! That is the computer we use for chart plotter/tide calculations, etc.....as well as onboard movie entertainment and internet from various harbours. I do have my laptop for backup, but the boat computer is much more convenient. Our day was followed by the promised night out for dinner. We found a very nice place called Van Winkle's, and managed to enjoy a very good meal before walking back to the boat in the rain (by now, the rain was back with a vengeance).

The next morning dawned foggy and misty, but with our radar and navigation lights on, we departed at 0700, northbound again through Olga and Neva Straits. We'd been hoping to head for Icy Straits and Glacier Bay via the outside from there, in the Gulf of Alaska, with a promised lull in the weather. The lull arrived, the skies cleared, and the weather put out a small craft warning for the Gulf waters due to sea conditions.....so we continued back on our previous route, for Peril Strait northbound and eastbound. We found a convenient mooring buoy in Shultze Bay, just west of the beginning of Peril Strait, and spent the night on the buoy. The following morning, we were off at 0630, to catch the tide for the narrows.....and discovered that it was July 7^th, and not the 6^th....the tides we'd planned to catch were almost an hour later than what we'd been planning on. So we dawdled a bit, and then headed into the Strait, waiting for 3 large fish factory vessels and a tug with tow (Western Mariner) before running into the narrows. By early afternoon, we were motorsailing on a broad reach, eastbound in the strait, with whales sounding all around us. One of them actually surfaced right beside us, less than 3 feet away, and eyed us over, before rolling over and diving under the boat. I was worried that we would hit it, or that it would hit us (either way, we'd likely get the worst of the encounter). But the whale surfaces on the other side of us and swam lazily alongside us about a boat-length away, then dove and disappeared.

The curious whale....you can see how close he got!

As we approached our anchorage for the night, at Hanus Bay, Portage Arm, a couple of orca swam by us.

Greeted by Orcas

The anchorage was quite nice, and we especially appreciated the finally clear skies, sunny weather, and warm temperatures.

Enjoying the sunset with popcorn

We opened up the boat and hung out our bedding to air. Shane and I rowed to the nearby island and walked around the sand beaches, watching a small deer nibbling on some seaweed near the shore.

Going for a walk on a deserted island

A garbage fire took care of our burnable waste, and we had a pleasant evening in a protected and scenic anchorage, with a fondue for dinner, and drinks watching the sunset (okay....it sets at about 10PM, but it stays light for hours afterward). A late night movie (“Rescue Dawn”), and bedtime a little after midnight.

The next day, 8^th July, was another beautiful sunny day. We started off with light winds and motored out of Peril Strait and into Chatham Sound northbound. As the wind picked up, we were able to sail on a close reach, into Tenakee Arm, and then wing-on-wing another 8 miles, to Tenakee Springs. This turned out to be one of our favourite towns so far (maybe a village is more like it). They have roads, but no motor vehicles, except for the fire truck and garbage vehicle. Everyone walks, bikes, or golf-carts around the town. There is a hot spring here, with a bath house surrounding it. It's basically a rock cleft with the hot water, and the town has posted hours for separate bathing for men and women (no clothing is allowed). They also supply some well-used bicycles for people like us to borrow and get around, so we managed to ride our borrowed bikes the length of the roadway and back, before taking our baths.

Exploring Tenakee by bike

We got some limited internet from the town bakery, so were able to post a bit of news on facebook, check emails, etc.....but not enough bandwidth for the blog. Dinner of barbecued chicken (still nice weather.....it actually hit 78F, which for here is quite warm) and Kelcy made her way into town for her bath, joined by most of the teenaged girls of the town. I discovered the diesel in the day-tank for our heater was dripping into our hanging locker....so made some temporary repairs, and hit the sack.

The following day, 9^th July, started out warm and sunny for our departure. We motorsailed out of Tenakee and back into Chatham Strait, still northbound. By noon we were turning westbound into Icy Strait, with the wind following us around the corner for a broad reach. A pod of dolphins greeted us into Icy Strait, as did a few more whales. By 1400, we were turning into Hoonah Bay, and sailed past the cruise ship “Royal Princess”. All tied up at the Hoonah waterfront, we walked into town, and caught a shuttle bus to a restored cannery/museum and toured the area. The cannery is run by the local natives, and is a cruiseship destination. Lots of crafts and stores around the museum, all quite interesting.

Visiting the Cannery/Museum

By the time we left the cannery, we were back to clouds and showers, with a mile and a half to walk back to town (shuttles only seem to run out to the place, for the cruiseship people). Instead of getting wet, we hitchhiked a ride (first car stopped) back into town. We then went to a local pub for a beer, before returning to the boat for dinner, and a movie (“The Spy Next Door”).

A friendly bear outside the pub in Hoonah

Saturday morning dawned bright but early, for a 6 AM telephone call.
I telephoned the ranger station at Glacier Bay to apply for a short-notice permit to enter the park. They require reservations 2 months in advance, to get into Glacier Bay Park....but I was unwilling/unable to accurately predict our timing for this. So I took a chance on getting a short-notice permit. The Rangers allow 24 private boats per day in the park, and hold back 6 to 10 permits for a short-notice, requiring 48 hours notice. By calling them at 0600, we were able to get a permit to enter on Monday, for 4 days. Perfect!!! So the rest of the day I spent ripping apart the faulty day-tank and replacing some of the fittings and lines to correct the leak. Kelcy and Shane got the laundry and grocery shopping out of the way. After a dinner of sweet & sour pork, we moved the boat to a slip with power, to allow us to charge the batteries and really cool down the refrigerator/freezer. I'm working on updating the blog with the hopes of uploading this in the morning before we leave for an anchorage across the strait, near the Glacier Bay Park for the following day's entry. The local internet is at the library, across from the high school. Because of that, Facebook is blocked from access, and Shane and Kelcy were unable to update anything from here. I'm hoping I can get a quick upload of this before we leave in the morning. If you're reading this, I was successful!

Shangri-la, flamingoes, and whales

2010-07-04T11:16:00.000-07:00

There is a lot of time and experiences passed since the last entry in Wrangell. This may be a long, but eventful entry, as we now have an internet connection in Sitka.
So....to go back a week, to our departure from Wrangell the morning of 27 June, bound for Petersburg. We wanted to time our arrival at Wrangell Narrows, 20 miles distant, for the end of the flood tide....so we left at 0800, on a cool, but sunny morning, and entered the start of the Narrows at Alexander Point, on schedule at 1130. The channel was well-marked, but quite narrow in spots. With a bit of larger traffic it could have been a problem, but we had very few other vessels joining us in the waterway. I posted Kelcy and Shane on the bow to watch for hazards and mark our progress through the twists and turns, following range markers and lateral buoys for another 24 miles.

Kelcy & Shane navigating us through Wrangell Narrows

Just past halfway through, the tide changes direction, so we were able to ride the current all the way through with a bit of a push. By 1530 we were tied up in the north harbour at Petersburg, beside a large Nordic Tug (a very skookum and well-appointed motor yacht), "Reflections". We did a bit of a walk-around in town, and tried to find a bolt for our windlass at the two hardware stores. I had thought Petersburg would indicate some of Alaska's Russian history, but instead discovered that the name has nothing to do with St. Peterburg, or Russians, but rather a Norwegian Community history and spirit. Many of the buildings have Scandinavian-style shutters, and there is a viking ship in the centre of town.

Petersburg homes

We were able to get a bit of internet here, and managed a few Skype calls, but somehow missed updating the blog.

Exploring Petersburg

The following morning was a bright, sunny, and almost warm day! It was a good day to further explore the town, and get our laundry, showers, shopping in order. We went over our charts and sailing plans for the next few days (allowing Kelcy and Shane to do the planning now) as we were going to make for Sitka, on the West Coast, for Kelcy's birthday on July 4.
Tuesday, 29 July had us up very early for a long run out of Petersburg and down Frederick Sound. We were up at 0530 and underway by 0600 with only scattered clouds, and light winds, no seas - a very pleasant day. We spotted our first bergy bits, small icebergs which had calved from the glaciers around us.

This Bergy-bit had been carved by nature to resemble a wolf

From 1300 through 1500, we saw lots of humpback whales sounding and breaching, and by 1630 were anchored in a corner of Pybus Bay, Cannery Cove.

This whale waved goodbye as we approached Pybus Bay

"Reflections" was anchored here already, and radioed over to us to invite us for drinks and appies. After a pleasant motorsail, with lots of whales to entertain us, it was a nice way to finish off the day, chatting with our new friends Harry, Pat, and Phil. We didn't make it back to our boat until 2030, so fixed a quick "Hamburger Helper" type of meal, cleaned up, and hit the sack.
Wednesday, June 30 was back to cold and cloudy....visibility down to 2-3 miles in rain and fog, and a bit of a chop was building. We needed to sail 20 miles to the end of Frederick Sound, against the wind, and did so with reefed sails and a motor assist to allow the boat to point into the wind a bit better, and shoulder into the building steep chop. Until we rounded the corner into Chatham Channel, my crew was feeling a bit green around the gills. But with the wind astern of us, northbound int Chatham Channel, all became pleasant again. We pulled into the small village of Baranof Warm Springs, and managed to get the last spot on the dock, by 1600. The village has a hot spring pool beside a scenic waterfall, and have piped water down to a boardwalk beside the water with public baths available. So we were able to soak in a beautiful handmade wooden tub, and relax looking out over the snow-capped mountains.

Time for a warm bath with a view

With the whales and pleasant sailing yesterday, and the warm springs and baths here, perhaps we'd discovered the Shangri-la may actually exist in Alaska! After a nice dinner prepared by Shane, we walked up the trail to the actual hot springs, and found them to be actually quite hot...not warm, as the village name suggests.

The Trail to the Hotsprings

Again we had a nice soak, and walked back to the boat, to be invited onto a 51 foot power vessel, "Allegra", tied to the dock. Vic, the owner, stays here the summer, playing his guitar and singing, and carving wooden masks, for charter/cruise ship visitors, to pay his way here. He feels sorry for sailboaters with their limited size and amenities, so we and another sailboat, "Raven", enjoyed his singing and playing , while sharing some wine and cookies.

Entertainment at Baranof

We had a very enjoyable time, and managed to get back to the boat in time for a 10PM bedtime.
We got underway from Warm Springs Cove at 0800 on Thursday, July 1, motorsailing northbound in Chatham Channel. We had to weave around numerous Seiners....there was obviously a salmon fishing opening happening around us. It was a cloudy and cool day, with only light winds, until we approached and entered Peril Straight, a 49 mile stretch of water which runs westward. The wind picked up on our nose, and we found ourselves bucking a bit of current as well as a head-wind. Our fuel was getting a bit low, with all of the motorsailing, fighting of currents, and weaving....so we emptied our jerry can of fuel into the tanks, and motored another 18 miles to a very protected anchorage named Appleton Cove, being greeted by another humpback whale at the entrance. We were well set with the anchor down by 1600, and celebrated with some fine Appleton Rum which had been kindly passed on by our friends Ray and Kathy on "Summer Breeze", way back in B.C. We had a barbecue of steaks with roast veggies, and continued to enjoy some Appleton Rum in Appleton Cove, while we watched "Pirate Radio" as our movie-du-jour.
Friday July 2 was another cool and cloudy (but not rainy)day. I still wasn't happy with the level of fuel in our tanks, so drained our heater daytank to add a few more gallons of diesel. As we motored out, a crab-boat was entering the bay to check his traps. I radioed him to see if he might have a bit of diesel fuel to spare, or some crabs for sale. He did have some crabs, and actually gave us three very nice Dungeness crabs....a nice treat for us to celebrate Linda's birthday (my wife, at home, for those of you unfamiliar). To conserve fuel in spite of the current and wind against us, I motorsailed at idle speed along the edges if the channel, picking up the back-eddy, or minimizing the current. We had 18 miles to go in Peril Strait to time our transit of Sergius Narrows, which had to be done at slack tide. We actually managed to arrive in time to anchor just off the narrows and wait an hour. Another sailboat, "Kharma", who we'd seen off and on since before Prince Rupert, was doing the same. He radioed over to us to confirm the slack water time, and then followed us out through the narrows, and then continuing a further 10 miles out of Peril Strait, and into Sukoi Bay, for a calm night at anchor. "Kharma" offered to give us a bit more fuel, which we gladly accepted....although sucking on the siphon tube to get it out was a bit tastier than I'd really liked. We shared some drinks with Steven, the single-handed sailor from Seattle, and then headed back to the boat to devour our crabs in honour of Linda's birthday. Yummmmmmmm!

Our boarding party at "Kharma"

The wind and current continued to fight us the following day, as we motored out of Sukoi Bay in rain and fog. We were now southbound in Neva Straits. As we passed a small island, a passing power boat radioed over to us to look closely at the northwest corner of the island. According to him, there is a little-known area here where a flock of flamingoes spend the summer, nesting here. We thanked him, and looked carefully ......there they were! It was amazing to see such birds so far north. I called up Kharma, following us about a mile astern, to tell him....he was dubious. We looked again, very carefully - some clever Alaskans with a sense of humour had put a bunch of plastic (or maybe wood)pink flamingoes in the trees. Very clever....very funny....we'd been had!

Flamingoes nesting in the trees, Neva Strait

As we continued southbound in Neva Strait, a pair of humpback whales decided to join us, and followed alongside, sounding every few minutes. I slowed down to let them get ahead, but they stayed alongside....so we continued, and they stayed with us for a full 20-30 minutes. Truly an enjoyable and awesome sight here in Shangri-la.

These whales followed alongside

We exited Neva Strait for Olga Strait, which leads into Sitka Sound, and Sitka. The wind was forecast to be southeast 25, so we had tied reefs into the sails, and secured everything for a boisterous approach to the city. A line of islands protects the inside waters of the Sound, however, and we made an uneventful sail into Sitka, tying up by 1500. We've been warned by the harbourmaster of the possibility we may have to move, or raft onto another boat, as all of the slips are assigned, and the one we are in belongs to a fishboat out on the salmon opening, but may return. I managed to hike around town a bit, admiring the Greek Orthodox Cathedral, and the old-style buildings in town, including a Fur Store (you don't see many of them anymore). The two chandlers in town didn't have any sail batten material, so I ended up with a yardstick from a hardware store to improvise until I can find some to repair a broken batten.
Steve, from Kharma, joined us in the evening for a bit of scotch and Pyrat rum, and we watched the fireworks bring in the 4th of July, and Kelcy's birthday.

Although that made it a late night, we were able to sleep in today, and will shortly walk into town for the 4th celebrations, including a parade. Until the next wifi connection, we have finally caught up to present-day Blogging, again!

Where the Heck are we now???

2010-06-26T18:34:00.000-07:00

Today was a lay-day in Wrangell, with a nice sleep-in, brunch (steak and eggs), and a bit of time to update internet and boat stuff. We walked into town and caught up on showers and laundry, found a new fleecy for Kelcy, and generally played tourist.
I've been receiving some requests for more maps - a reasonable request, since I wasn't sure where Wrangell and some of these places are, and I'm here! So in aid of keeping things perfectly clear, I'm adding a map of our journey from Prince Rupert to here, and then threw in a dotted (sort of) line from Wrangell to Petersburg, our destination for tomorrow. If the resolution is too poor to make out stuff, try clicking on the map to view it:

Ketchikan to Wrangell

2010-06-25T20:11:00.000-07:00

The rain continued throughout the night, and by 0600 the following morning, the near-gale force winds had subsided and we were looking out at moderate rain and fog. We were underway by 0630, making use of our radar and chart plotter to motor-sail out of Tongass Narrows and say goodbye to Ketchikan. Several hours later, the fog had lifted, and the wind picked up , as we crossed into Clarence Strait. By 1100 we were broad reaching with 15 to 20 knots of wind astern of us, and having a great sail. A pod of orcas passed us by....strangely, the first orcas we'd seen so far on the trip.

An Orca greeting us in Clarence Strait

There was a bit of a swell running cross-wise to the waves, so the motion was a bit lively - Kelcy took some gravol for a queasy stomach, and promptly fell asleep for the rest of the trip. By 1300, we'd tied up to the state dock in Meyer's Chuck, a very small inlet with about 20 homes, a post office, a dock, and a craft shop. We'd been in only a short time when 3 large power boats arrived, and filled the rest of the dock space - lucky for us we'd left (and arrived) early enough to get a spot! Several more boats tried entering, so we called a sailboat newly arrived, and offered to have them raft onto us, which they did. "Irish Dreamer" is a 45 foot Unison, from Poulsbo Washington, and the 2 couples onboard were grateful to have a tie-up spot. Shane and I hiked a trail through the village, visiting the craft shop and ending up on a beach overlooking Clarence Strait. We got back to the boat at 1630 to find Kelcy up and only a bit groggy from the anti-nausea drugs. Dinner of chicken quesadillas, and we decided to swap positions with " Irish Dreamer" tied alongside us, as we'd be leaving early in the morning, and they were planning on staying. So we swapped over, with us on the outside, and then came aboard the boat for some wine and a visit. By 2300 we were calling it a night, and hit our berths.

On Thursday (24th), we departed at 0630, motorsailing out of Clarence Strait and northeasbound into Ernest Strait. There wasn't much wind, and seas were smooth, although the weather was misty with a few rainshowers. By the time we pulled into Anan Bay, at the east end of Ernest Strait, the rain had disappeared, and the weather was a bit warmer. We tied to a Forest Services float (normally not allowed, but the area is still not officially open for summer so we were allowed a short stop). Tied to the other side of the float was "Star of the Winds", a boat from our sailing club in Comox! We dinghied ashore, and followed a boardwalk leading to a blind built specifically to watch bears, which congregate here to catch the salmon which will soon be running up the river. Along the trail we ran into Rick, the owner of "Star of the Winds", so we agreed we'd meet together after our bear-watching, and sail to Berg Bay, about 10 miles further north. We then continued along the trail, and as we rounded a corner to approach the blind, a bear walked out on the trail immediately in front of us. He just looked at us, and ambled off, while we took some pictures and ambled into the bear blind. Another bear walked by us, when we realized we hadn't closed the gate to the blind....but the bear didn't care, and just kept going. We managed to view several bears, and then departed back to the boat for the rest of our day's sail.

Black Bear at Anan

By 1730 we were tied up to another Forest Services Float, this time in Berg Bay, with Rick's boat alongside the opposite part of the float. The weather had turned quite cool and wet again, so we fired up the heater for a bit, while we prepared our dinner (a nice curried chicken prepared by Shane). A visit with Rick, and it was time for bed.
For a third day in a row, we set off at 0630 again, this time to make slack water in Eastern Passage and the Narrows just before that. Again, we were in reduced visibility in rain and fog, using the radar and chart plotter to navigate. Again, as the morning progressed, the weather improved. By 1030 we were rounding Wrangell Island, and approaching the town of the same name...Wrangell. We got tied to the dock by late morning, giving us a bit of time to check in with the harbormaster and customs (Canadians now have to report in to customs at each port), and then head out on the town. Shane and Kelcy headed for the golf course - the only one in Southeast Alaska, while I shopped for some boat hardware and groceries, and then walked about town sightseeing. I visited a local beach with Petroglyphs (stone etchings by long-forgotten natives), and was greeted there by a very friendly black labrador who insisted I throw a stick for him.

Petroglyphs

My friend, the lab.

I complied about a hundred times before tiring out and returning to the boat. Rick and I telephoned our club for their TGIF beer call, and to wish our friend Wendy a happy birthday. Shane and Kelcy returned from the golfing, Shane having scored an eagle on a par-four hole.

Kelcy and Shane, enjoying the golf course in Wrangell.

We enjoyed a bbq'd steak dinner, before settling down for a bit of internet updating, and a movie, before retiring for the night.

Spending the Solstice in Sunny Ketchikan

2010-06-22T14:28:00.000-07:00

We got nicely settled into our berth at Bar Harbor Marina in Ketchikan, and decided to "do"a bit of the town. Being a Sunday night, the town was basically shut down.....but we were able to pick up some quick groceries at the Safeway nearby, and then to walk toward town, checking out the occasional bar on the way. (Okay.....we did a pub crawl into town).

This bar has an interesting theme!

By 0200, we were done - literally - and crawled our way back to the boat.

After several hours of pub crawling in Ketchikan, this is what we look like!

Monday morning was a very slow time on the boat, as no-one was feeling too frisky. But with a nice sunny day, I couldn't waste it. I left Kelcy and Shane to sleep it off, and hiked into town for a bit of a self-guided walking tour of the town. The Discovery Center has a good presentation of Alaskan wildlife and history, and the town itself is quite interesting. Many of the old brothels have been left in 1800's style, but are now shops and restaurants (I'm pretty sure). The main marina/boat basin has some very skookum-looking tide grids, and is well set up for the fishing community here.

Some of the old brothels, now shops.

During our pub crawl the previous evening, we'd learned about a local celebration for honouring the Summer Solstice - we couldn't miss that!
So following a bit of dinner at Godfather's Pizza, we took a free shuttle from town, to the small fishing port/pub called "Hole in the Wall", a trip of about 12 miles south of town. Many hundreds of locals (dare I say perhaps close to a thousand?) come out here to party and celebrate the longest day of the year.....here in Ketchikan, the sun sets about 10PM, the skies stay "twilightish" for a few hours, and then the sun is back up again at 3AM. There were so many people crowded on the floating docks, that at times they were awash with seawater as the docks sank with the weight. A rock band in the pub, and then fireworks, made it an interesting exdperience. We caught the midnight shuttle back to the boat, although the party was only just getting going.

Fireworks for the Solstice

The dock is getting heavy!

Today is Tuesday, the 22nd of June.....we've been luck up to now with the weather (sunny, and nice - perhaps a bit cool).....but today the rains have reappeared - actually, this area is famous for it's plentiful rainfall of over 300 inches per year. We have topped up the fuel tanks and are now about to stock up the groceries from Safeway. A bit of exploring to do, and then tomorrow morning we'll be off for Meyer's Chuck, a small place about 34 miles north of here, and about a third of the way to our next town of Wrangell.

Bears.....and Alaska

2010-06-20T19:03:00.000-07:00

Sunset over Prince Rupert Harbour

We left Prince Rupert bright and early (yes....it was a nice, sunny day on Thursday!). I wanted to transit out of Rupert through Venn Pass and Duncan Bay, which can claim boats on sandbars....so we were underway for high slack tide, at 0600. Very little wind for our trip northbound, until around noon when we started picking up a fresh following wind into Steamer Channel. We sailed into the channel, and the wind picked up even more, as a quite brisk inflow. Broad reaching, and wing-on-wing, we followed the channel into Khutzeymateen Inlet, sailing at 8-9 knots straight into the inlet. About 4 miles down the 13 mile-long inlet we came to the float home/cabin owned by Greg Palmer, with a beaver aircraft tied to the dock. We sailed in, and tied up, visited with Lorne, the pilot, until Greg and his friend Lisa drove back in (on a Rigid-Hull-Inflatable boat) with the tourists who'd flown in. They made us feel very welcome when we introduced ourselves as friends of the Coast Guard folks in Rupert, and of Reyann. We broke out the scotch, and rum, and wine, and started to party. Greg had lots of crabmeat which we all devoured with crackers and cheese, and followed up with a special garlic caesar salad created by Greg, and followed by more scotch, and an evening sauna.

Inside the Floathome of Palmerville

Relaxing on the deck - Pictured: Lisa, Greg, Kelcy, Don

Friday dawned bright and beautiful, and Greg and Lisa took us out in their high-speed boat to drop our crab traps and to check theirs. We hauled out 16 beautiful large crabs, which became dinner that evening.

A catch of crabs

Cooked up, and yummy!

Then they took us further into the inlet, bear-watching. Near the crab pots were three grizzlies - a male, and two females which he was working on seducing. We later saw three more grizzly bears, alone and munching on their sedge grass along the shorline.

Sedge Grass makes a tasty appetizer

"What are you looking at?"

A visit to the ranger station was interesting, as well, with informational data on the area, the bears, and the natives in the area. Back at Palmerville, which Greg calls his place, we decided to utilize the inflow winds which had again developed, and took the two of them for a sail in the inlet - they hadn't experienced sailing in brisk winds before, and found it quite exhilerating.

Jade 1 tied up at Palmerville dock.

I found it thirsty work, so we went back to the dock for some refreshments, and cleaned the crabs for dinner. Al and Jerrod, the two rangers from the station, dropped in, and we made a night of it noshing on a crab / pasta dish created by chef Greg.
Saturday morning was another beautiful sunny day, and yet another early departure.....I wanted to avoid the inflow winds which begin late morning. We picked up our crab traps on the way out, and discovered I am a true jinx at crabbing, as no-one should be skunked at catching crabs here - but we were! We motored out of the inlet and channel, into Dixon Entrance, westbound for American waters. As the wind picked up we were able to sail close-hauled, and by 1100 were across the border and into Alaska. As we passed Lord Islands we were able to fall off the wind a bit for a nice beam reach northbound. There was a 2 metre swell runnning, with a bit of wave action on top, so we were experiencing a bit of movement in lots of directions.....enough to have Kelcy feeling a bit queasy, but not bad for only two bouts of seasickness in over 35 days of sailing.
By 1400 we were picking our way around the rocky entrance to Foggy Bay, Alaska, where we had a nice peaceful anchorage for the night.
I am now sitting on the boat in Ketchikan, following another good sail. The day started out quite cool and cloudy, but broke out into another fine day as we approached Ketchikan in the early afternoon. Ketchikan is a lively tourist city of 8000 citizens, and as we entered the Tongass Narrows to approach the harbour, were met by a cruise ship (Carnival Spirit), outbound, with very little room in the narrows for the two of us.

Ketchikan

Downtown Ketchikan

In the harbour, two more cruise ships were docked at the city centre. We found a spot at the marina, and managed to clear customs quite readily. A walk to the local mall found some bbq'd chicken for dinner, but very little wifi for uploading pictures. There is a weak signal near the marina, which I'm using for posting this blog entry......not sure if the pictures will work or not, so if you're reading this without pics, then check back later ......we will find a way to add them!

Farewell to Rupert

2010-06-17T00:00:00.000-07:00

This is just a short posting, following a bit of a party at the Crest Hotel in Prince Rupert, as we say farewell. Today was productive, in that we got our propane tanks refilled, the boat restocked with groceries, and we put a foot valve onto our bilge pump, which backs up a bit and overworks (now fixed, I think). Art had left us his car to use for the day, which also allowed us to do our last laundry and grocery shopping .... we didn't want to disturb Shelley, who had been on a night shift last nights. We also managed to check in with US Customs in Ketchikan to get permission to cross into their waters, and to anchor in Foggy Bay in the trip up. All of that in hand, and it was time for dinner - so we did a sushi restaurant, nearby, which turned out quite well.....and then Kelcy and Shane went for a date night....finally alone without me.....to see "The Karate Kid" at the movies, while I went to the hotel for a party to celebrae the checkout of 2 new Marine Communicators at the Coast Guard base....Shawn, the son of a good friend fromComox, and Lindsay, who also recently made the grade. The party was also to bid farewell to a young woman who was leaving the job to become a veterinarian in the interior. Because of the multiple celebrations, pretty well all of the people from the Coast Guard Centre were in attendance, and a good time was had by all! We met a good friend of a guide from Khutzymateen, where we are heading next....so maybe we will be able to look up the fellow and better experience the area. It is now midnight, and the light is fading....so this is it until we can find some more internet, likely in about four or five days, in Ketchikan. Many thanks to our friends here.....especially to Art and Shelley, who made the stay extra special. For those of you who think of Prince Rupert as solid rain, I have to admit that although we experienced a bit of rain, there was equal amounts of alternate weather experiences, including some sunny weather.

Catching Up

2010-06-15T09:41:00.000-07:00

This Blog entry is basically to catch everyone up....I know many of you don't know where these places I've been talking about are, so here are some maps with our routes on them. We will be staying here in Prince Rupert a couple of days more, to get an oil change on the engine, do some more restocking and organizing, and to wait for the present northwest flow to either ease or change direction. In the meantime, we have internet, so can catch up with the Facebook and Blog entries, and with our other connections back home.

The maps may appear a bit blurry from the upload, but if you click on them, they should appear much clearer.

Shearwater to Klemtu via Oliver Cove

Klemtu to East Inlet (Klewnugget)

Hartley Bay to Rupert via Klewnugget

North Coast of BC to Rupert

2010-06-14T22:05:00.000-07:00

Time flies when you're travelling, with no options to upload to the Blog! Lots of catching up to do, with our adventures and experiences for the past 10 days to relate.
We said our farewells to Ray and Kathy on "Summer Breeze", as they sailed off to the south out of Shearwater. They'd presented us with a lovely dome/puck light for our head, making our night trips to the toilet much easier. But now we were on our own again....so we untied the boat, and rounded the peninsula, crossing into New Bella Bella (a distance of just about 5 miles), where we topped up our fuel tanks with 32 litres of fuel, and our water tanks with very nice clean water (Shearwater had a boil-water advisory and very brownish coloured water). A quick look around town, however, made us decide to continue on, with little else to attract us to the village. So north and west we went, past Ivory Island lighthouse, and into Pierce Passage, where we found a very nice little anchorage all to ourselves, at Oliver Cove Marine Park. Although the day had started out a bit cool and cloudy, the sun greeted us as we anchored, and a juvenile eagle sat on the Marine Park sign, watching us.

This Eagle greeted us into our Oliver Cove anchorage

It was still early afternoon, with fair weather, so Shane and I launched the dinghy and headed back down the pass to have a go at fishing for dinner. We were successful in catching a rockfish and a ling cod, so supper was fresh fish. The heads and tails and offal from the fish were placed in our crab traps and set out for the evening....but although they resulted in several crabs, they were too small to keep. The days are getting noticeably longer now, and with a clear day, it was very evident at 23:30 that we are getting further north, and closer to the summer solstice - the sun was set, but twilight remained even then.
The following morning found us up and ready to go at 0730 with another pleasant day approaching....only scattered clouds, and light winds. We motorsailed out of the Cove and into Mathieson Channel, with no other boats evident for several hours. By 1100 we were turning west into Oscar Passage, with a moderate headwind developing, but an hour later, as we crossed out of Oscar Pass into Finlayson Channel, the wind was a brisk southwesterly 15 to 20 knots, and we sailed on a beautiful broad reach into Klemtu, a native village of about 150 souls. Here we tied to the town dock along with a couple of other sailboats, and walked up to the roadway. Some folks we met there suggested we visit the Big House, a ceremonial large house where the locals have celebrations and invite other villages to party. They called the local taxi driver, Shane, who promptly showed up and took us along to the Big House for a tour.....his grandfather had traditionally given these tours previously, but had died last January. It was a very interesting tour, with carvings and totems to represent the local peoples, a firepit in the centre with long benches around the walls, and drums and further totems at the head end of the building. Ceremonial masks, coppers, and photos were displayed in a separate area.

Totems guarding the entrance to the Big House at Klemtu

Following the tour, we walked around the village, admiring several totems outside of peoples' homes, and visiting the local general store, stocked with a bit of everything. Back to the boat for dinner, followed by a game of cards.
In an effort to catch the end of the flood tide, for a push up the channel, we left Klemtu at 0730 under a cloudy sky with little wind. By 1030 we were following alongside Princess Royal Island, looking closely for the renowned white bears, called Kermode or Spirit Bears. They inhabit this very large island, and often are seen along the shoreline. Alas, they weren't wandering along our shoreline. By 1200 the wind was up again, astern, and we were sailing quite nicely along the channel, on a broad reach bound for Butedale. But at 1330 the skies decided to close in on us, with a torrential downpour and fickle winds. We were approaching a point and inlet leading into Khutze Inlet, so motored in and anchored beneath a beautiful waterfall. Khutze Inlet is one of the more beautiful anchorages I've visited, and reminds me a lot of a cross between Princess Louisa Inlet with its waterfalls and high-sided terrain, and Glendale Cove in Knight Inlet, with a river mouth opening out on grassy flats (ideal bear terrain).

Anchored off the Waterfalls in Khutze Inlet

The skies had cleared again, and we were now experiencing alternating showers with sunshine. We set out in the dinghy to explore along the river and look for bears - none were spotted in our travels until we were returning to our boat and saw another sailboat at anchor watching something on the flats behind us....it turned out to be a grizzly, right where we'd been looking earlier. By now, however, we could only view the bear from a distance, through our binoculars.

Khutze Inlet Falls

It was another beautiful clear and quiet night at anchor, and after dinner we watched a movie before settling in to bed at 2330.
Fog developed overnight, and was thick around us when we rose at 0700. But by the time coffee was made, and anchor up, it had cleared into another nice sunny day. The wind was light northwest, against us, so we motorsailed up the channel, and by 1130 we were passing Butedale, another abandoned cannery.

Butedale has seen better times

There is a spectacular waterfall beside the ruined docks and buildings, which still supplies electric power. There was no reason for us to stop, however, so we continued up Finlayson to cross McKay Reach, and into Ursula Channel, pulling into Bishop Bay Hot Springs/Monkey Beach Conservation Area. At the dock here, there was a 51 foot sailboat who offered to let us raft alongside (it's a small dock). The other side of the dock was the park ranger's boat, with the Rangers doing work on the facilities at the hot springs. So we visited with the family sailing their boat, "Northern Passage", back home to Seldovia Alaska from California, as the park Rangers completed their work. Our Alaskan friends had a quick soak once the work was done, and then left, leaving the dock to us. Interestingly, the Monkey Beach part of the name is from rumoured sightings and stories of Bigfoot living in this area......not that we saw him! So after our dinner, we wandered into the pools and soaked in the springs, joined by the Rangers for awhile, and then by the crew and several paying guests on the charter boat "Maple Leaf", which pulled up and anchored off nearby. Another evening arrival was a Kiwi, from Wanaka, NZ, who is kayaking from Haines Alaska, down the Inside Passage for Alaska. Amazingly enough, he'd only kayaked a few times previously, and bought the kayak for something to do while his girlfriend climbs Denali. He'd been averaging some 50 to 60 kilometres per day, which I find quite amazing.

Bishop Bay Hotsprings Pool

The following day, June 9, was a lay-day, with beautiful sunny weather, and a hot spring nearby. We opened up the boat and pulled out and aired out our bedding and cushions, to get everything nice and dry and aired out. We cleaned up the boat, and had a fire on the beach to get rid of some of our burnable garbage. We moved the boat as far back on the dock as possible, to allow a couple of fishboats to raft up ahead of us on the dock. Then, after a dinner of lamb chops, Shane and Kelcy enjoyed the beach fire while I soaked in the pools, and caught up on my log.
Moving the boat back on the dock hadn't been as good an idea as I'd thought - early the following morning, the tide was extremely low, and we were in danger of going aground at the dock....so we untied the boat and departed quite early (0530). We continued up Ursula Channel, into Verney Pass and Devastation Channel, to arrive at yet another Hot Spring, this one with a couple of mooring buoys. We tied up to one, which put us close to shore, so moved to the other buoy, and then enjoyed the WeeWanie Hot Springs, all to ourselves. The pools are warmer than those at Bishop Bay, and both places are unique in that there is no sulphur smell at all....just lovely warm spring water in pools.

Looking out from WeeWanie Springs Pool

I'd made some bread while underway to here, and had enough dough to make a pizza for lunch, utilizing some of our ready-to-use-up meats and veggies. By late afternoon the wind had picked up to Southwest 25, with a bit of a sea rolling by the bay. Even in our protected bay, some of the chop made us rock about a bit, but by bedtime all was again quiet.
We untied from our buoy the following morning and worked our way south, back down Douglas Channel, and against a bit of wind, to arrive at the native village of Hartley Bay by 1430. We'd done a bit of motoring in this last section, so refilled our fuel tanks (69 litres this time), and our water tanks, before moving onto the docks. Unfortunately, there was still no internet available here, but we managed to get a cell phone signal to call Linda at home and advise her of our position and status. By now it was quite cool and rainy, but we still took a walk around the village, with its boardwalks throughout town. Locals run golf carts and ATV's around the community on the boardwalks.

Enjoying the rain and the Boardwalks of Hartley Bay

After dinner we visited with Garth and Doris Riggin on their liveaboard boat, GD Riggins, from Comox....and called it a night at 2300.
Saturday morning, the 12th of June, was very wet and breezy. We left at 0630 in order to enter Grenville Channel at low slack tide, and we were rewarded with a lovely following wind and tide pushing us northbound through the channel. We made such good time, sailing at over 9 knots, that we passed by our destination of Loewe's Inlet, and continued a further 10 miles into Klewnugget Inlet, to anchor in East Inlet for the night. We had a further go at crabbing, with no luck, but had a quiet night at anchor.
To continue with our early morning theme, we again arose early, to catch the end of the ebb tide and then get a push from the flood tide later on (the tide changes direction in Grenville Channel, so it needs a bit of planning). We were off the anchor at 0530, and had a very nice sail with Southwesterly winds, clearing Grenville Channel by noon, and continuing on a very lively sail into Chatham Channel. Prince Rupert came into sight, and we arrived in town by early afternoon, tying up at the yacht club docks. First thing on the agenda was to find some showers, and then connect to the internet. We managed to link up with friends from Prince Rupert Coast Guard, Shelley Clark, and Art Statham, who joined us in the evening for a few beers and a pub dinner at the pub beside the yacht club.
Today is Monday, June 14. It was a very productive day, thanks to our friends Shelley and Art. I met up with Art at 0800 and rode into work with him, and then had the use of his van for the day. That allowed us to pack up our extensive collection of laundry, and take the lot to Shelley's place. It was several loads, with in-between trips to the grocery store for some replacement supplies, and a look around town. By late afternoon, we were returning the van, and Shane and Kelcy got a tour of the Coast Guard Centre. Shelley was working a night shift, so we joined Art for a delicious meal at a Chinese restaurant, and then Art showed us around some of the sights of the area.....made even better by a spectacularly brilliant sunny evening, and sunset. We ended up back at the boat by early evening, and had time to catch up on the Blog. More adventures to follow.

On to the Central Coast

2010-06-04T23:18:00.000-07:00

I am sitting at my navigation station, tied up in Shearwater (very near Bella Bella) trying to catch up on a week away from the Internet, and hoping to get the Blog caught up-to-date.
Saturday the 29th saw us waving farewell to Linda, as we departed Port McNeill to cross Queen Charlotte Strait. We were up by 0600, and motor-sailed out at 0700, getting a nice push from the ebb tide. By 1030 we were past abeam Port Hardy, mid-Straits, and northbound in Ripple Passage. Up to this point we'd encountered only a very light chop on the water in light winds, but as we neared the top end of Vancouver Island a bit of a westerly swell worked itself into our world. It was only 1 to 2 meter swells, but the rolling motion of the boat with little wind to steady things made my crew start to feel a bit queasy. By 1300 we were approaching our anchorage at Skull Cove, greeted by a raft of sea otters.....Kelcy by this time was feeling too sick to look at them. But inside the anchorage the seas calmed, and all became well again. It was a pretty spot, with good shelter, and we were the only boats (Summer Breeze rafted to us) in the anchorage. Shane and Kelcy borrowed the kayaks from Summer Breeze and had a good exploration of the shoreline.

Kayaking around Skull Cove

Next morning (Sunday) saw us departing at 0630, following the mainland side of the Strait, past Cape Caution. We had a light following wind but still needed to motorsail to maintain speed. At one point we thumped against a very large log adrift but mostly submerged....no apparent damage, but a bit of a scare nonetheless. I called Comox Coast Guard off Cape Caution to say goodbye to my friends there, as we were leaving their Area of Responsibility. Egg Island Lighthouse passed us by on our starboard side, with the wind picking up a bit, we were able to gybe our sails onto a nice broad reach to our next destination at the entrance to Rivers Inlet. Anchored between Penrose and Fury Islands we had a great anchorage, shared by 4 other boats. Shell and sand beaches on the shore made the spot look a bit like a South Pacific island, but the cool temperatures and passing rainshowers reminded us where we really were. We were now officially into the Central Coast area of BC, with much of the open waters behind us (Inside Passage waters ahead, with myriad islands protecting us from much of the "Big Waters"). We dined on Summer Breeze with roast beef and steaks, and Ray introduced us to his newest drink invention, a martini made from Pyrat Rum and Drambuie - yum! There had been no seasickness on this part of the crossing, so things are looking up.
From Fury Cove, we continued next morning on a short sail northbound into FishEgg Inlet, and anchored in Joe's Bay. The protection here is amazingly good, and we felt quite snug and secure here as the winds outside increased to full gale force, but in the anchorage hardly raised a ripple.
The north end of the bay has an interesting set of tidal rapids, leading to a large lagoon. The turbulence from the waterfall/rapids creates foam in the seawater which drifts out for several miles.

Tidal Rapids/Waterfall, and foam. The green on Kelcy is her jacket...not motion sickness!

We stayed here, safe from the gales outside, for two days, and managed to catch a couple of keeper-sized Dungeness crabs, as well as a pail of mussels for a steamed mussel dinner. In spite of the cool weather and incessant rainshowers, we managed to have some hot showers on deck, and clean up the boat a bit, as well as explore around the bay.
By late Wednesday morning, the gales had eased a bit, and we sailed out of Joe's Bay, and had a lovely beam and broad reach up FitzHugh Sound, arriving in mid afternoon at the deserted cannery town of Namu. Once a bustling cannery, and before that a native site (with 11,000 years of continuous habitation Namu is thought to be one of the oldest such sites in N. America), it is now a ghost town, falling back to nature. We met the entire population of the town, all three of them, within a few minutes of arriving at their dock. These three caretake what is left of the place for a vacant landlord. They have created amazingly rich gardens throughout the town, and many of their vegetables and flowers would rival those in Victoria. We were warned to watch for grizzly bears, however.....but the only four-footed creature we met was the caretaker's dog.

A walk around Namu.

We had an evening fire in a rustic firepit area of the docks, and then retired fairly early.

Namu Firepit

The next day , Thursday, was again showery, but the wind was with us, and we sailed northwest with our sails out on either side, wing-on-wing. As we were entering Lama Pass, the BC Ferry "Northern Expedition" passed us by, apparently with my friend and ex co-worker, Art, aboard, on his way to his new posting in Prince Rupert. We passed by Bella Bella for a more promising dock a few miles east of there, in Shearwater. Here we luxuriated in hot showers, and made use of the laundry facilities, and pub. In fact, it was time for a dinner out, so we treated ourselves. In the pub after dinner, we met a couple from a commercial fishboat which had come from Comox. They were killing time on their way to a fishing opening in the Queen Charlotte Islands on June 15....so invited the five of us (Summer Breeze and the three of us) to go out on their boat and have a go at some sport fishing.
Adam and Jill on "Rennel Sound" made us very welcome, and we spent the entire day Friday trying to catch fish.....mostly to no avail - we managed to get two salmon on the line, but didn't land them, and ended up with a couple of rock cod.

A day on a Commercial Fishboat.

View aft from the flying bridge of Rennel Sound

Being Friday, there was a hockey game on - so off we went to the pub to watch the semi-final match between Chicago and Philadelphia. Likely the only game of the finals we will have been able to watch on tv. We treated ourselves to a prime rib dinner, and then back to the boat for a tidy up, and bed.
Tomorrow we continue our trek northward, toward Klemtu...although we will likely only get about halfway there. Summer Breeze is heading back south again, as we continue on our way. It will be sad to say goodbye to Ray and Kathy- they've been great adventure-mates!

Sailing and Stitching

2010-05-28T09:20:00.000-07:00

Monday was a mixed bag of choices for us, as gale force winds were forecast for Queen Charlotte Strait, just outside of our docks at Echo Bay. We also received word from Ray and Kathy, on " Summer Breeze ", that they would be sailing for Echo Bay from Lagoon Cove. So off we went to see Pierre, and organized another session of painting for another day of moorage. We painted the white trim on his lodge, and by early afternoon our friends were sailing into the bay. Cocktails were then in order, followed by a dinner on Jade-1.

Summer Breeze arriving Echo Bay - notice the lovely white railings and trim on the lodge, painted by us.

By Tuesday (25 May), the winds had cooperated, and it was time to move on. The two boats left Echo Bay and sailed out through Arrow Pass and into Queen Charlotte Strait, bound for Alert Bay. We had beautiful conditions with 20 knot winds on the beam or behind us the whole way.....and a following tidal current, as well. By 1430, after a boisterous (but not rough) sail, we'd arrived at the village of Alert Bay which is a mostly First Nations town near Vancouver Island. We walked to the U'Mista Cultural Centre, a museum with a great deal of First Nations artwork which had been taken from the natives during the "cultural cleansing" and anti-potlatch times.

Masks at the Museum Alert Bay (photo borrowed from Internet, as no photos allowed inside).

The town also has a large number of totems, especially in the burial ground. Although the weather was wet and cool (about 13C), we had a good walk around town, and returned to the boats for a fine dinner on " Summer Breeze " . Wednesday morning we walked into town to have breakfast in a restaurant, but they were all closed, and we ended up having Egg muffins and sticky buns at the deli at the supermarket.

Totems in the burial grounds, Alert Bay

Following a short walk about town, it was time to head across to Vancouver Island and Port McNeill, where Linda was planning on meeting us.
With no wind and flat calm, it was a short motor across to the marina, and within an hour of tying up, Linda had arrived. Of course, that gives us reason for another party....so cocktails it was!
She'd brought along some supplies from home, which we planned to use for restocking along with supplies purchased in town. Summer Breeze also had a major sewing job, as their sail had ripped on the way across to Alert Bay. We spent all of Thursday shopping, stocking, fuelling, laundering, showering, and otherwise preparing for the next leg beyond Vancouver Island.

Our route so far, from Blind Channel, to Matilpi, Lagoon Cove, Kwatsi Bay, Echo Bay, Alert Bay, and then to Pt McNeill.

The sewing and stitching on Summer Breeze's mainsail was an all-day project, and although we managed to get it repaired, the cloth seemed to be mostly sun-weakened and aged, and unlikely to last much longer. Mort MacDonnell, however, a friend from Courtenay, emailed us that he had a spare sail to fit. With Linda's having driven up for the visit, we had our car available. So as I sit catching up on the blog, Ray and Kathy are presently driving back to Courtenay to pick up Mort's sail. The weather forecast was unsuitable for our proceeding today, and looks good for tomorrow....so hopefully tomorrow (Saturday) morning will find us crossing Queen Charlotte Strait toward Cape Caution - as far north as I've (to date) sailed on this coast.

Port McNeill Harbour

Into the Broughton Archipelago

2010-05-23T19:59:00.000-07:00

We enjoyed our visit to Lagoon Cove, but decided to push on into the Broughton Archipelago, so-named for the numerous islands in the vicinity of Broughton Island, itself a very large island.
It was a bit cool and showery as we set out, motorsailing (wind on the nose again) northbound, across Knight Inlet into Tribune Channel. At one point a pod of Pacific Whitesided Dolphins swam by, but didn't come over to the boat to investigate or accomany us, as they often do. Kelcy made up a terrific stir-fry as we continued underway - so far we have had no sign of impending seasickness from her. After proceeding 22 miles we tied up in Kwatsi Bay, and were greeted by 3 other Canadian sailboats already tied up.

Happy Hour at Kwatsi Bay

It is a common practice for such places to have Happy/Appy Hours, so we all sat around the deck of the dock, sharing stories and appies, and consuming a bit of wine & beer. By 1800 we all headed back to our boats and prepared supper....we had some steaks which needed to be bbq'd, so that was dinner. Then a relaxing evening in the cockpit, sipping wine, and visiting with Al, one of the other boaters. Another quiet night, with occasional rainshowers pattering on the deck, was followed by a cool but somewhat sunny morning.
We had a delicious omelette prepared by Shane, for breakfast, before showering and tidying up the boat....then set off back into Tribune Channel, and then southbound in Queen Charlotte Strait, past Viner Sound and into Echo Bay.

This float home has been pulled up onto the rocks at the entrance to Echo Bay, the bay so-named for the effects of the cliffs behind the home.

We arrived by 1300, and met up with Pierre, who runs the marina. We had arranged with him to do some work in exchange for free moorage, so shortly after our arrival we were painting a new verandah on the store. Then it was showers and laundry, and a bit of relaxation time, with internet available. Unfortunately, my calls on Skype seemed to get garbled, in spite of a good wifi signal.

Pierre's Lodge at Echo Bay

So back to emailing and catching up on the Blog. Shane volunteered to repair our sailcover which needed some restitching, and did a very professional job of it. Dinner, wine, and a bit of hot chocolate to round off the evening, and all was well with the world. Although we're presently sitting in very light winds, the forecast is for gale force Southeast late tonight and into the morning, so we may end up staying here and extra day, or head for Alert Bay in the afternoon if the wind has eased enough by then. Stay tuned!

Sunshine and Happiness

2010-05-21T19:37:00.000-07:00

We left Blind Channel yesterday, Thursday, while the wind was still howling and the rain still pouring. But....having faith in the weather forecast, we set out under reefed sails, and proceeded up Mayne Passage, through Greenpoint and Whirlpool Rapids (at slack water), and out Chancellor Channel into Johnstone Strait. By then the rain had stopped and the wind was a nice 15-20, behind us. So we were able to have a lovely sail with the sails out wing-on-wing, and decided that we should perhaps this time make a bit of distance seeing as the wind was cooperating nicely. So we continued over 25 miles up Johnstone Strait, turning off into Havannah Channel, where we found a nice little anchorage off a deserted Native Village, Matilpi. We were anchored behind a couple of small islands, off a shell beach (a midden of shells from native feasts over many years). As we prepared our supper, we saw our first bear foraging on the beach. Because of the unsettled previous night, we had an early night this time, and even slept in a bit.

Our First Bear Sighting

Today, Friday, we were underway to Chatham Channel, aiming for an 1100 slack tide (made it nicely, as it was only 25 minutes away), and under beautiful sunny skies made our way into Lagoon Cove Marina, which is a very friendly spot with picturesque walking trails, exercise stations (chop wood for their winter fires), and a get-together with the other boaters, with lots of prawns supplied.

Kelcy insists Shane gets his exercise!!!

We were the only guests this time, however, but we still enjoyed the prawns with the staff and owner. They have internet here, too....so here is another issue of the blog!
Hopefully we will have another go at the internet in two or three days.

Kelcy is enjoying the view at Lagoon Cove

Still in Blind Channel

2010-05-19T17:59:00.000-07:00

Here is our routing so far.... Comox across the Strait of Georgia to Copeland Islands, then to Tenedos Bay, then to Refuge Cove, up to Octopus Islands, then to Blind Channel, where we are now.

It is now Wednesday, 19 May. We spent most of yesterday getting a few problems sorted out on the boat (intermittent autopilot, problem stereo speaker, clogging head) so managed to get them all repaired. The plan was to leave bright and early this morning, but the anchorage in mind for tonight wouldn't be too comfortable in forecast Southeast 40 Knot winds. So instead, we stayed tied to the dock, slept in a bit, and completed some laundry. We took the local yellow dog for a walk on the local trails (he loves to guide the tourists on the trails). As I sit now at the computer, Shane is building a fine dinner of pork tenderloin with lots of fixings, Kelcy is organizing photos.
Speaking of photos, I've finally got some to share on the Blog! So here they are:

Our Garden (parsely and chives for fresh stuff / garnish on our meals)

Trying to get internet at Refuge Cove (that's our friend John in the background)

Contemplation with Coffee

Rained in on the Wet Coast at last!

2010-05-18T17:56:00.000-07:00

Since Kelcy and Shane arrived, there was lots to do, and we never got around to adding to the Blog. So here ia an update..........albeit without photos yet, as our internet connection can't handle larger files (satellite connection). We departed Comox on Thursday, and sailed across the Strait of Georgia to the mainland side of the strait, and turned north to anchor in a little bay in the Copeland Islands. Managed to catch a bucket of prawns for the next few dinners, too. Nobody getting seasick, which is a good thing. The following day we motored, then sailed, into Desolation Sound, to Tenedos Bay, where we managed to load up on fresh oysters (not many prawns, though). The weather continued to hold bright and sunny throughout. Next on to a small community (11 people) with a dock and a store - Refuge Cove - which is where our friends John and Janet live on a float home. We had a nice visit with them, and managed to kill a bit of wine and rum, and had a deck party, with a fire and all. Next morning it started clouding over a bit, but still pleasant, and we managed to time our passage through " Hole in the Wall " , a fast-running piece of water when the tide is running. We anchored in the Octopus Islands, exploring the area by dinghy and by foot ( a short hike across a peninsula) and tried (to no avail) to catch some crabs. We spent that day and yesterday (Monday 17 May) there, before leaving early this morning (again to catch the tide at the right time), and motor-sailing out into Johnstone Strait, and then into Mayne Passage, where we are now tied up at Blind Channel Resort (a small resort with fuel dock and mini-store). Also a chance to catch up on a bit of internet. Even managed to skype out for a couple of quick phonecalls, as there is no cell coverage here. The rain has started in earnest now, and will likely continue with moderate rain for a few days, so the crew may now finally find out about the cause of rainforests!

Ready At Last

2010-05-12T22:00:00.000-07:00

Last week Kelcy and Shane arrived from Ontario, and we have spent the time getting the boat stocked and ready. Lots of food and spare equipment has been stowed in every nook and cranny. We took a short shakedown cruise out to Tree Island and Henry Bay, for an overnighter, to make sure the crew would be comfortable with the small, moving environment. So far, so good!
So first thing tomorrow, we will set sail, crossing Georgia Strait for the Copeland Islands, where we will have our first anchorage of the trip. More details will follow as we actually get into the trip, and can upload from a wifi connection. Kelcy has also created a Group on Facebook, with lots of photos. It is an open group, so anyone can join in to view/comment.....look for "Alaska Bound" in Facebook Groups if you want to check it out.

Getting Ready

2010-05-03T08:53:00.000-07:00

Jade 1 under sail

It is now May 3, and we've spent much of the winter preparing the boat, Jade 1, for the next adventure......northbound via the Inside Passage, to Alaskan waters (and return). Many of my friends have asked me to continue with the Blog, so here it is.
There aren't a lot of places enroute where we will be able to get internet access, so the entries may be spotty at times, but we'll try to keep a running commentary and then upload when possible. Linda is not keen on doing 5 months of sailing this time, so this trip will be crewed by my niece, Kelcy, and her partner, Shane. With any luck we can share the log/Blog entries. Kelcy and Shane fly in today from Ontario, and we'll be spending the next week to 10 days in stocking up the boat and getting them familiar with sailing and the boat itself. Actual departure date will depend on the weather forecast, and we'll start off slow, with a bit of a sail into Desolation Sound, before crossing the tidal rapids and proceeding into more northerly waters.
I've entitled the blog "Journal of a Journey to Juneau", mostly because I like the alliteration - no guarantees we'll make it as far as Juneau or Skagway (over 1000 miles each way) - that will depend on the weather we encounter, the serviceability of the boat and crew enroute, and, of course, what interesting diversions we fine in between!
I hope you enjoy hearing of our adventures....let me know if there are any questions about the trip.

A Final Few Fascinating Factoids for the Finale

2009-09-30T10:29:00.000-07:00

Saturday started out fine, with a forecast for moderate to heavy winds later on in the day, so we sailed out of Refuge Cove and headed south, with the wind, and anchored in Grace Harbour, about an hour and a half south of Refuge. It was a peaceful anchorage, with couple of other boats also in there. We just relaxed for the day on Saturday, and spent the evening listening to CDs, sipping wine, and playing a bit of Scrabble, before retiring. Sunday was another mostly-lazy day, with a bit of cleanup on the boat. On listening to the weather forecast, it seemed appropriate to sneak out of Desolation Sound to the Copeland Islands, where we could easily jump over to Lund to drop off Linda for the car, and then head back, when the gales of the next couple of days had blown out. So that's what we did, and anchored in an quite blustery Southeast wind. With a change of direction forecast for later in the night, we also set out a second anchor to hold us safe in a Northwest Gale. Then we settled in, even turning on our diesel heater as the temperatures dropped. Off and on rainshowers and gusty winds prevailed through the day and night, but the forecast for the northwest gales changed, and got delayed a day. So instead of crossing for home on Wednesday, as planned, we decided Tuesday morning was the day for that......up early, we motored into Lund, and Linda leapt off the boat onto the dock at Jack's Boat Yard, to get the car, and drive home using the ferry from Powell River. I sailed off, and arrived at our berth at Comox Marina by early afternoon, after a very pleasant sail in light to moderate breeze. Linda arrived shortly after. We had agreed to leave our house to the house-sitters until the end of the month, so we will spend the night on the boat in Comox, before arriving home on Wednesday. We'd managed to not spend a lot while staying on the boat, with just a few groceries our expense for the 8 days, and Linda's ferry trip. So time to see how we did at the end, and overall for the trip.
Week 19: (plus 1 day -Wednesday): Distance travelled: 109.7 KM plus 56.7 Nautical Miles (on the boat) Gas: $20.00 Food: $212.65 Accommodation: $0.00!!! Other: $45.65 Total: $278.30 Over $400.00 under.
And for the trip, our totals to Wednesday, Sept 30 (one extra day over the 19 weeks):
Time on the trip - 134 days/nights - At $100.00/day, total budget is $13,400. Total spent : $13, 374.00 - We made it, with $26.00 to spare!
We rode on 8 ferries in total - cost for all 8 was $925.30
One bridge (PEI) with a toll: $42.50
For accommodation, in total, we spent 76 nights in a tent, 24 nights in peoples homes (friends and relatives), 1 night in a ferry (to NFLD), 19 in Kamping Kabins, 5 in Motel/Hotel room, and on our boat - 9.
We visited 44 relatives, and visited 50 friends, of whom 31 were "old" friends, from past days.
Total Distance travelled over the whole trip: 26,996 KM. (this total is from our odometer in the car.....by adding up our weekly totals, we get 26,135 - obviously we missed a few days of addition somewhere!

Refuge

2009-09-26T11:15:00.000-07:00

The boat launch went well, although the previous Blog entry didn't get uploaded until a bit later.....the boatyard wifi couldn't handle the bandwidth. Thursday morning we had the boat all done with what could be done (a few more things to do in the water). The travel-lift hauled the boat back down the hillside and lowered her into the water, and we tied up for a short time to change the water in the tanks, and set up the sailing rigging. Then we were off, heading up Thulin Pass to Desolation Sound. The wind was brisk, but directly against us, so we motor-sailed until we got into the Sound, and then sailed for Refuge Cove, where our friends John and Janet have a floathome and a sailboat. We were tied to the dock in Refuge Cove by early afternoon, and spent a pleasant, warm, sunny afternoon visiting with them and sipping on Vino Tinto.

Refuge Cove

John has made friends with a local heron, "Harry", who comes to the dock each day, and waits for John to throw some pieces of bread or scraps of food in the water. This attracts lots of little fish, which Harry then fishes out of the water.

John, Janet and Linda watch Harry fishing

We had J & J over to our boat for dinner, and even enjoyed a wee dram together. John has wireless, so the following morning I was able to upload the week 18 section of the blog (finally). Friday morning was spent on finishing off the various jobs left to do on the boat (going aloft to check the standing and running rigging, cleaning up after the boatyard boots, adjusting the stern gland to allow less water ingress from the shaft)

John and Janet prepare a bbq

John and Janet had us over for a Friday bbq, which we finished off with a wee dram, and some more vino tinto. By Saturday morning, the wind was up to Northwest 20-25.
Time to sail southbound, for a small harbour in Desolation.....Grace Harbour.
We said farewell to John and Janet, and sailed off at noon for a fair anchorage, not too far away.

Week 18

2009-09-25T09:17:00.000-07:00

Friday night in Hope was a wash-out - literally. When we set up camp and went to bed, it was a clear and beautiful sky, so we didn't set up our tarp. Sometime around 3AM the rain started. In spite of getting the tarp out, it was too late, and the water managed to collect around and in the tent. We broke camp while it was still raining, and headed out on the highway, stopping in Chilliwack for a bite of breakfast. In the immortal words of our buddy Stan, who we were planning to visit in Langley: "Don't camp in a Valley" . Good advice! Instead of stopping into Langley to visit, we decided we'd best just continue on through, to get to the boat where we could dry out our stuff, and have a dry berth. By the time we got to Horseshoe Bay, waiting for the ferry to Langdale and Gibsons, the sun was out and it turned out to be a beautiful warm day. So instead of continuing to the boat, when we got to Sechelt, we took a campsite again, and set out our things to dry all over the camp, moving foams and tarps, tents and blankets, into sunny areas. Most of it dried, and we set up camp again. There was no rain in the forecast, but just in case, we set up the tarp. Good thing, too - we got a few showers overnight, but nothing got affected this time. We packed up and continued north along the Sunshine Coast, crossing Jervis Inlet into Saltery Bay.
Crossing Jervis Inlet on the ferry

We found a very pleasant picnic spot near Saltery Bay, and made our lunch, and basked in the warm sunshine. From here it was less than an hour to Lund, to the boat. We arrived Sunday afternoon, opened up the boat, and settled ourselves in. Jack's Boat Yard is a very traditional style yard, with lots of help and locals to keep one entertained.

The boat awaits us in the boatyard

Monday was a workday....sanding the boat's bottom in preparation for painting, and checking out the various systems to make sure all was working well. Tuesday was another day of working on the boat, with the first coat of antifouling paint for the bottom, and cleaning the decks and hull. We also managed to do a bit of work on the battery/electrical system, and recheck the stuffing box. As I sit in the main saloon of the boat, typing this portion of the Blog, we are both feeling a bit sore from doing a bit of work rather than just sitting and driving, or walking. One more day of painting and readying, and we will launch the boat Thursday back in the water for a short cruise to Desolation Sound. We can't go home until the end of the month, because of our house-sitters....so a short sailing cruise is in order.
Today being a Tuesday, it is another Day of Reckoning. So here are the totals for week #18:
Distance Travelled: 671.0 Km Gas: $88.07 Food: $273.64 Accommodation: $108.20 Other: $122.18 Total: $592.09 This week was $108.00 under budget! With one week to go, I don't think we can save enough to make up for all of the over-budgets, but we don't have gas or accommodation costs, with the boat. One more ferry to go, for the run across the Gulf to Comox.

Kelowna

2009-09-18T19:35:00.001-07:00

Albert, in happier times, when he was sailing with me around the north end of Vancouver Island

The news of brother-in-law Albert's passing left me in a bit of a funk for the rest of the day on Wednesday. We have a very close family, and I felt a need to travel back to Southern Ontario to be with my sister, nieces, and nephews during this time. However, having thought about it for awhile, it struck me that with the family closeness comes the support that wouldn't really need me there.....I'd be best off to continue, to get Linda and our car home, and rather than spend a lot of money on air travel, could donate that toward his memory....to the Niagara Hospice.
So we continued southbound out of Vernon, stopping at a cemetery overlooking Duck Lake, near Kelowna. Here we found the resting spot for my uncle, Ray. We then went into Kelowna itself, and set up camp in a park near the lakeshore of Okanagan Lake.

These ducks kept mooching around the campsites, looking for handouts

There was still time left in the afternoon for some family research, so we arrived at the city Museum, with its archives, and spent the afternoon sifting through documents, voters lists, city directories, old school yearbooks, and such, to find traces of Linda's family. Then back to our camp for an early night.
Thursday morning we called Linda's cousin, Ernie to set up a visit, and decided to meet at a local coffee shop. Ernie and Linda have been mostly in communcation via email, but had met many years ago. The meeting was quite a friendly get-together, and after a bit of a visit, Ernie joined us for our trip to the Kelowna Cemetery. The people at the Cemetery were extremely helpful in helping us find the many relatives we had to locate, and with their help we were able to track most of them down within 3 hours.

Linda with cousin Ernie, checking out the Kelowna Cemetery

We dropped off Ernie at his home, promising to return later for dinner. Then back into town for a quick internet check, a bit of shopping, and a change of clothing. By 1700 we were back at Ernie and his wife Alma's home, where we had a scrumptious dinner, and a great visit, including viewing of many family photographs which Linda hadn't seen before. We made it back to our camp for a later bedtime of 2300.
Friday morning it was time to tackle the city Library where the newspaper archives are held. We spent much of the day there, finishing up our family research around 1500. A short walk around town to stretch our legs, and to photograph the war memorial which has several of Linda's relatives named on it - and then we were off to find another campground a bit closer to home. We headed west again, crossing over the Coquihalla Connector for Merritt. When we got there, however, it was still reasonably early, and the closest campsites would require a bit of a backtrack.....so we continued on, over the Coquihalla Highway, and arrived in Hope just in time to set up camp, make dinner, and finish up this section of the Blog. We are now in easy range for the lower mainland tomorrow, and then on to the Sunshine Coast, eventually ending up in Lund to put the boat back in the water.

A Night to Remember

2009-09-16T09:28:00.001-07:00

We dawdled getting out of Revelstoke the following morning, having a leisurely breakfast and showers. But by 11:15 we were on our way, and turning south toward the Okanagan Valley a short time later, as we passed Sicamous with hundreds of houseboats moored up for the season. By 13:00 we'd arrived at Vernon, Linda's home town. On the north edge of town is a nice little RV/camping park, lying along Swan Lake (although we couldn't see any swans.....just ducks), so we set up our camp there. As I prepared lunch, Linda called her cousin Janet to see if we could meet up for a visit and a chat - and got invited out for dinner that evening. It was then time to get our exercise walking the local graveyard, photographing family members at rest (Linda's family this time). The Vernon Museum has a very good display of the area's history, and also houses the archives for local newspapers and photos. Coincidentally, it is also located on the site of Linda's family home - in fact, I think I was sitting in the location of their old kitchen, while we were researching the archives! (You gotta have a bit of imagination here, as the house has been gone for over 30 years). We did manage to find a few tidbits of family history from the newspaper archives, and finished up by late afternoon. With a bit of a cleanup back at the campsite (I don't clean up very well - but I try), we were ready to go and visit cousins Janet and Henry. They made us feel quite welcome, and served us a beautiful dinner - enough, I think, for us to have brought along 6 or 7 more people. It was a night of reminiscing about growing up in the Okanagan, and stories about the Smith/Badley/Craig Family histories. Linda, Janet, and Henry all had stories and memories of the area, and Linda elicited more family information with her tree and photos flashing out from our computer. Unfortunately, we forgot to take any photos of the event, so this entry will have to remain pictureless. We even managed to find a few drams of Bushmills's, which meant that Linda had to drive home to our tent later on. I now sit at a picnic table under the willow trees, looking at the ducks swimming by on the lake, and typing up this short entry......it is Wednesday morning, so that means that yesterday was the end of another week of travelling (week 17), and hence a day of reckoning.
Last night also marked night 70 spent in the tent - the rest of the nights having been spent under a roof of some sort (friends homes, Kabins, etc). So here are the totals:
Distance Travelled: 1371.3 Km. Gas: $$258.87 Food: $ 137.53 Accommodation: $ 277.72 Other: $42.74 Total: $716.86 Close - but still over by almost $17.00 for the week! I really thought we might be able to make it this time, but the oil change for the car added a bit of extra expense and put us over - or was it one night too many in a Kabin, instead of a tent????
We will be continuing with our genealogical quest here in the Okanagan for a few days, heading down to Kelowna later today. By the weekend we should be headed back toward the coast.
After having uploaded the blog this morning, I downloaded my emails. I am very saddened to hear of the passing of my brother-in-law, Albert. He passed away quietly last night, and although he was still young (67), he had lived a very fulfilling life.

Spectacular

2009-09-15T07:45:00.000-07:00

Friday morning was another very cool morning, but promised to continue with the bright sunny day. We went to the West Edmonton Mall - just to see it. At first, it just seemed another mall, but bigger. But as we walked around it, the differences were apparent. We passed an ice-rink, with people skating around.

Skating in the Mall

And a huge wave pool, with palm trees and bikini-clad swimmers. There is a ship - Columbus's "Santa Maria", in a large pool surrounded by submarine tours of aquatic life. We watched a sea-lion show, and passed a casino, several hotels and gaming areas for kids and adults alike. One wing of the mall is made up like chinatown, another like a street in Paris. And there actually stores in the mall, too - over 800 of them. One of them was a specialty liquor store, which actually carries my favourite kind of rum (Pyrat) - something not seem in the other provinces we've visited (all of them). We managed to kill over 5 hours in the mall, just wandering around. But then it was time to hit the road - so westbound we went, to the Pembina River Provincial Park, about 120 Km. west of Edmonton, and set our camp up alongside the Pembina River.

Pembina River Gorge

Our latest travels had been a lot of driving, and not much exercise - so we decided it was time to get our legs back in gear, and took a short hike to a scenic lookout over the 200 foot gorge carved out of the landscape by the river. Being a Friday, the campground filled up quickly, as campers arrived through the late afternoon and early evening - it was a good thing we'd arrived reasonably early! Once the sun had set, the temps dropped quickly, and we snuggled up in our tent.
Saturday morning was another fine day, and again frosty. We continued on to the west for a couple of hundred kilometres, to the KOA campground, where we had a Kamping Kabin reserved for the Saturday and Sunday. These Kabins were similar to the ones we'd used before, but also had heaters, small refrigerators, and a television - so we were set in luxury for the weekend. We met the couple in the Kabin beside us, who were returning to Victoria after he'd just completed biking across the country from Victoria to Halifax, in a bid to raise funds for diabetes - he being a diabetic himself. Yves Provost (try Googling him - you'll find lots of stuff about his amazing trip) kept us entertained with stories of his trip, and the many trials of dealing with his illness, trying to raise funds, and maintain the energy and will to complete the gruelling trip. His website, if you're interested, is: http://www.oneguyonecanada.com/ The KOA people were also doing a bit of fundraising, and sponsored a hot-dog barbecue/corn roast around the campfire pit....so we joined into that for supper and at the same time helped in their cause for Cancer. The night again was cold and frosty, and we were glad of the heated cabin we had for the night.
Sunday, the fine weather was continuing, and we left our stuff at the cabin, driving out into Jasper and Jasper Park to view the sights. Although a few words might describe the scenery around here, and into the Columbia Icefield Parkway (Rugged, Majestic, Awesome) I think the most appropriate might be spectacular. We'd seen a lot of very impressive scenery across Canada, but this, so far, was the most spectacular.

Athabasca Falls

We spent the day viewing the peaks and waterfalls, the glaciers and icefields, and all the time kept our eyes peeled for the wildlife. The scenery, as I said, we saw in spades.

Athabasca River Valley

The only wildlife, however, was the tourists grazing at the roadside stops, or wandering around the scenic viewpoints - where we joined them. By the end of the day we'd driven over 350 km and hiked hither and yon. We refuelled in Hinton and returned to our Kabin for the evening, this time visiting with new neighbours from Austria and Taiwan who also seemed impressed by the local scenery.
Monday morning found us back on the road. Linda started the driving as I sat in the passenger seat, typing up this section of the Blog for upload tonight (I don't know how I manage to get so far behind, so quickly!). Today we are headed back down the Columbia Icefield Parkway, from Jasper to Banff and Lake Louise, and then westbound again into British Columbia and Revelstoke for the night.
We continued through gorgeous scenery, past Lake Louise, and west, through the Rogers Pass.
We were now back in BC, had crossed into the Pacific Time Zone and over the Continental Divide where now all the water flows into the Pacific. By 1700 we were happily ensconced in our Kabin at Revelstoke. The next couple of days are forecast to remain good, so we may be able to go back to the tent. We'll be on to the Okanagan Valley for a few days, where we have ancestors to find, and friends and relatives to visit.

Alberta Bound

2009-09-10T18:07:00.000-07:00

We continued out of Lanigan at about 10:30, still on the Yellowhead Trail. North Battleford had an ancestor who'd died in an industrial accident in 1920, so we had to pop in.

"Don't Fence Me In" Sculpture of a Bison,
created from barbed wire.

At the city library, we met a very bubbly librarian who was extremely eager to help us in our search. We found the report of the accident and the ceremony commemorating his death (he ended up back in Tiverton for his final rest) in the archives of the local newspaper, and Wendy, our librarian, looked up his old address and directed us to it, as it still exists. In fact, the house is for sale, so we stopped and took some photos of it. Then it was onward to the west, eventually crossing another time zone into the Mountain Zone, and entering the town of Lloydminster, which straddles the Saskatchewan/Alberta border. We found a grocery store for some dinner staples, and then continued on into Alberta for about 50 Km, stopping at a campground in Vermilion. The campground was basically shut down from Labour Day on, but still had sites available, and washrooms - so we set up under an ominously overcast sky, putting out Linda's new tarp for extra cover, and cooked our supper. We went to bed shortly after dark, just as the rain started to patter down on us. It was a showery night, but by early morning the rain had stopped, and in spite of the cold (we could see our breath - I'm guessing about 5C) it was a pleasant morning.

Southbound Vee's Like This keep us
Westbound.

In spite of the rainshowers overnight, it was quite dry all around us. We got the camp all packed up again, and were underway again around 0930. Just in time, too - by 1000 it was spitting rain again.

A distant rainbow over a hayfield....typical
scenery in central AB.

We stopped at the town of Vegreville, to view the giant Pysanka (Easter Egg) - we hadn't stopped at anything "biggest" in quite a while! I'd been hoping to get to the world's largest beaver, but that would have meant a very large detour to the north reaches of Alberta. Instead, I settled for an overdue oil change (for the car).

This is a Pysanka....an Easter Egg, this one very large indeed!

Then it was onwards to Edmonton. We found the Alberta Archives by 1400, and had very little success in finding our ancestors. We did find a few newspaper articles on fiche, but the reference system for birth/marriage/death is not totally user-friendly, and they will not allow any photocopies of the information....only handwritten notes (in pencil) of whatever is found. We spent a bit over 2 hours there, and decided to give it up and find a camp for the night. At the Southwest side of Edmonton is a park/skihill which also has campgrounds - so we set up there for the night. Compared to last night, it was much busier with numerous campers in the park. We plan to spend the night, then we have to go and see one of the world's largest malls - West Edmonton Mall. It is unlikely we will need to return to the archives, so we will spend a few hours at the mall, and then head out of town for the night. We've reserved a KOA Kamping Kabin near Jasper for the weekend, before we return to BC.

West to the End of the Recession

2009-09-09T07:59:00.000-07:00

By the time we were about 50 Km East of Thunder Bay it was getting time to find another campsite, so we turned off the highway to the south, and found a site in Sleeping Giant Provincial Park. The topography of the land on this peninsula which juts into Lake Superior looks like a Sleeping Giant Warrior, most often as viewed from Thunder Bay. Today we were camping on the Giant.

The sun setting on the Sleeping Giant....actually, this is the bottom of his head, and his chest...the panorama I took didn't work - but you get the idea!

After setting up camp and having dinner, we walked to the nearby lake, Louisa, and watched the sun set over the Giant's head. Being a Saturday evening, and a long weekend (Labour Day), the park had a talk in the ampitheatre by a visiting amateur astronomer, followed by a session on the beach viewing heavenly bodies through a telescope. The moon, being just past full, was one of the objects we viewed, as was Jupiter, which we could see clearly, with several red bands and 4 of her moons. We also viewed a double, two-coloured star.....most of the nebulae and galaxies were too faint to be seen with the competing moonlight. I did find the presentation quite fascinating.....as a much younger person, I'd taken a keen interest in astronomy, but had let things lapse in the course of over 45 years.
The following morning, summer continued.....and so did we. Occasional fog banks greeted us in the morning drive along the rest of the north shore of Superior, but dissipated as we left the lakehead behind, continuing west through Dryden, and finally stopping at a campsite near Vermilion Bay, at Crystal Lake. We crossed into the Central Time Zone, as well as out of the Atlantic Watershed and into the Arctic Watershed, where the rivers flow into the Arctic Ocean. Crystal Lake was another beautiful site, with a sand beach on a small lake (with resident loons calling). Wifi was reasonable, although the Blog wasn't ready for upload yet. The summer weather along with the previous weeks of rain had created a large mob of mosquitoes, however, so as the sun set, we zipped ourselves safely into our tent, safely away from the busy biters, and called it a day fairly early.
Monday morning we continued out of Ontario, and into Manitoba. Rain and thundershowers were forecast for late night/early morning, and we had ancestors to investigate in Winnipeg, so we opted to drive into town and find a reasonably-priced hotel - which we did. At $68.00/night, it was almost within budget range, and it was only three blocks from the Manitoba Archives building where we planned to do our research. Linda was a bit nervous about some of the clientele in the hotel, and the people lurking around the streets and parking area. We emptied out much of our "irreplaceable" things (mostly genealogical paperwork, etc) from the car and settled in. We were only a few blocks away from Portage Avenue, right downtown, so we took a walk through downtown, and had extremely plain fare for dinner in our room. We don't get much tv while camping across the country, so we watched a couple of hours of that before retiring. A fine Labour Day it was.
Tuesday, although not officially the first day of fall, seemed a bit like it. The sky was dark and cloudy, but the rain hadn't started yet when we got up. We walked to a nearby Tim Horton's for a quick breakfast, and then reloaded the car, which had thankfully not been broken into. The Archives building was a bit unlike the other ones we'd visited, and they could not help us with birth, marriage or death records. The only will we were interested in didn't seem to exist. The referred us to the Legislative Library next door, to look up obituaries and wedding notices, and to the Vital Statistics Building on Portage Ävenue, for birth, marriage and death records. By 1300 we had scanned numerous old newpapers via microfiche, with the help of the friendly staff in the Legislative Library, and we then set out to find the Vital Stats office. Find it we did, but the Province of Manitoba requires requests for the records needed, and then produces Certified Copies or Certificates for each birth, death, or marriage, at $25.00 each. Since our budget could not stand that kind of strain, especially with some of the requests being for people we are fairly sure are correct, but not certain, we decided to go with what we have and do a bit more home research before sending in any expensive requests like that. Everywhere else in the country, it is possible to photocopy the records from fiche for a very small (comparably) fee - but Manitoba seems to think that only certified records will do. Hmmmmmmmm.......
The rain had come and gone while we were researching, so it was time to leave Winnipeg. Westward we went, through Portage la Prairie, and then turned northwest onto the Yellowhead Highway, which runs through Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and BC, north of the Trans Canada Highway. Not only the scenery is Prairie, but the ads on the radio are quite different and local as well - Boston Pizza was advertising free deliveries to your farm for the harvest, and soybean and corn prices were the top issues for the stations.

Prairie Landscape

The Yellowhead gets its name from an Iroquois trapper who had a touch of yellow hair, and led the settlers and trappers westbound through the Yellowhead Pass in the Rockies. The route he followed stuck. The plan was to get a few hundred Km west of Winnipeg, and set up camp, but we continued to drive in and out of rainshowers, so decided to celebrate 16 weeks of travelling, and to reward Linda for her bravery in the "less-than-ideal" hotel the previous night. We have some ancestors we wanted to photograph, in the cemetery in Langenburg, Saskatchewan....and according to our CAA book, there is a reasonably priced motel there. As it's just over the border from Manitoba, we headed there. For the first time in our trip, as we approached Russell, Manitoba, near the border, we started to see No Vacancy signs on all the motels. Okay.....it's kind of scenic here, so I guess lots of tourists enjoying the end of summer! We arrived in Langenburg late afternoon/early evening, and found our motel full. So we found the cemetery and took photos of Gt-Aunt Polly Berger, and Ralph Schentag, and their family, and then headed west again. It was getting too late to consider setting up camp (I HATE setting up in the dark), so we continued on to Yorkton, a much larger town. Enroute, the towns had some motels, all full. Same story in Yorkton. Apparently there are construction crews building pipelines and some kind of Potash plant, and the crews are taking up all available accommodation. Recession? What Recession? None apparent here in North-Central Saskatchewan! We were getting hungry by then, and the sun was setting, so we dropped into Boston Pizza for a bite, tanked up on fuel, and continued west. All motels for several hundred Km were full. At 23:30 we were passing the town of Lanigan, about 100 Km east of Saskatoon. They still had a vacancy, so we took it. So here we are, halfway across Saskatchewan already. We really blew the budget this last week, which was week 16 of our trip. Being a Tuesday, it is again a Day of Reckoning. Totals:
Distance Driven: 2716.4 Km Gas: $300.26 Food: $ 331.89 Accommodation: $300.71 Other: $109.85 Total: $1042.81 Wow! Almost $350.00 over budget - sometimes I wonder if I need to continue this test....but for continuity, and for general interest, we will see it through to the end. For some reason, I am unable to upload my photos for this section of the blog, so this one is read-only! Edit note Sept 10 - added a couple of pics from Edmonton, to complete this section. dj

Backtracking

2009-09-05T11:18:00.001-07:00

The ferry trip on the "Big Canoe" (that's what Chi-Cheemaun means in Ojibwe) was a pleasant two hour ride across the mouth of Georgian Bay and past the north tip of the Bruce Peninsula, to South Baymouth on Manitoulin Island, home of the Great Manitou. Our drive from the ferry landing across the island was uneventful, with a short 15 minute stop at the swing bridge at the North Channel, where several sailboats were making their way along the channel.

The lighthouse at the end of the Bruce Peninsula

We arrived in Espanola by early afternoon, and picked up some groceries for later. Then we were back on Highway 17, westbound toward Sault Ste Marie, on our first backtrack of this journey. Most of Northern Ontario will be a backtrack, at least to Thunder Bay. We found a campsite just east of Thessalon and a few km north of the highway, on Brownlee Lake. This spot was good value for the money, as their rates were reasonable, the site was very clean, quiet, and nicely laid out. They even had a sand beach and swimming area at the lake. We've been noticing the leaves on the trees are now noticeably going into autumn mode, with lots of reds and yellows evident in the forests. And the geese are definitely practising their formation flights. Just as well we're heading back - we won't be dawdling much now, until we get to Winnipeg, where we start looking for ancestors again.
Friday morning was yet another fine day - this is the longest and nicest run of summer we've seen yet, extending almost to a full week, with several more forecast to continue. The nights are cool, but our sleeping bag is warm enough to belay that problem. After a leisurely breakfast, we de-camped and headed into Thessalon, for a quick bank stop and email check (libraries often have good, free wifi). Then we continued the 60 Km westbound to Sault Ste Marie, where we set up camp again at the north end, returning to the Glenview Campground where we'd stayed on our first stop into the Soo. We'd organized a lunch visit with cousins Jarrell and Arlene, and ended up not only doing lunch, but also sharing the best part of the afternoon with them, catching up on summer happenings, and visiting. They'd taken photos of the 5 gravestones we'd missed on our first trip, so we were able to get those from them, rather than return to the Cemetery.

Cousins Jarrell and Arlene pose for a farewell picture

By late afternoon, we were stocking up on butane and UHT milk, both of which we'd found in short supply through the prairies. We also needed to replace a few refrigerables, as yesterday we'd managed to reverse-plug our plug-in cooler, and turned it into a heater - which made a bit of a mess of our butter and such (Happily, we'd been travelling reasonably light in the grocery department). Then it was time to meet up with Anna and Hal, our friends from some years back. Hal was working long hours, and decided not to join us, so Linda, Anna, and I went out for a dinner and a get-together. By 10 PM we'd said our goodbyes, and headed back to our camp for the night.
Saturday morning was a continuation of the good summer weather. We decided to get up a bit earlier, today, and break camp, and skip breakfast (still full from last night's big meal, I guess!). We parked in front of the campsite office to get our wifi, and sent a congratulatory email to Linda's sister, who is celebrating her 50th Anniversary today. As we drove along the shore of Lake Superior toward Wawa, Linda was driving, as I typed up the blog for later. Salmon seem to be running, as fishermen are casting their lines in the rivers, and boats are trolling. Panoramic vistas pass by us at Batchawana, Old Woman River, Montreal River. We stopped for brunch at Tim's in Wawa, switched drivers, and then continued westbound.

Someone with a sense of humour named this road, which leads to the Barrick Gold Mine.

I now sit at the Information Kiosk in Terrace Bay, halfway across the top of Lake Superior, where we are stretching our legs before switching drivers again and continuing toward Thunder Bay.

Leaving Bruce

2009-09-03T12:49:00.001-07:00

The motel was expensive for the budget, but cheered Linda up quite a bit. Monday was a bright sunny day, and we set off for a campground in town.....nobody there for check-in yet, so off to Kincardine Cemetery to find some more graves. The caretaker there, Terry, was helpful in telling us where many of our sites were located, but we were still going to walk the entire cemetery (1500+ graves) to try and get every one that would be relevant. We phoned Aunt Orlo, back from a bit of a holiday, and organized a lunch break with her at Tim Horton's. We had a very good visit with her, and she had an old family photo for me, as well.

Visit with Orlo

After lunch, it was back to the cemetery. By late afternoon, we'd "bagged" over 110 ancestors. Then back into town, to check into the campsite just down the street from my Mom's old house. We fixed up a dinner, and then as the sun set over Lake Huron we walked out onto the pier to the Bagpipes coming from the Lighthouse.....the Phantom Piper. There is a legend of a piper who, during a fog, piped his family safely home into the harbour. Now, in the summertime, there is a Phantom Piper who plays from the Lighthouse each evening at sunset.

The Phantom Piper

A Lake Huron Sunset

Next morning was another fine sunny day, and we wasted no time in getting out to the South Kinloss Cemetery, Armow Cemetery, Bervie, Glammis, Cargill, Tiverton, and Inverhuron Cemeteries. We managed in all to bag another 130 ancestors. Back to our campsite for a quick shower, and then we dropped in on cousin George and his wife Mary Lou, for a short visit. We organized to meet back at the campsite for a continuation of the visit over a bottle of wine and KFC, while we watched another spectacular Lake Huron sunset.

Visit with George and Mary Lou

George and Mary Lou are keen sailors, and keep a boat similar to ours, in Florida. We also discovered that not only was I related to George (which I'd always known), but also to Mary Lou on my father's side of the family. After the sun went down, it cooled off considerably, and we said our goodbyes to George and Mary Lou, and crawled into our (thankfully) warm sleeping bag.
Being a Tuesday, this is another day of reckoning. Totals for this week:
Distance driven: 683.3 Km Gas: $ 76.01 Food: $232.30 Accommodation: $317.70 Other: $80.56 Total: $ 706.30 Over budget by 91 cents a day! Close....but no cigar.
Wednesday morning was yet another bright and sunny day. As we were sipping our morning coffee, George drove in and dropped off some family history sheets to detail our relationship to Mary Lou and her Norman family lines. Then a short visit with Uncle Jack, before setting off down the road to Southampton, where the Bruce County Museum has an impressive archives. The archivist on duty, Sue, was extremely helpful in suggesting places to research, and helped us a great deal. We were able to glean a bit more information on various ancestors, including a copy of Gt-gt-grandfather Alex McKinnon's will.....but our attempts to further information on BlackJack McKay proved fruitless. By 16:30 we left the museum, and decided to head further north, to the end of the Bruce Peninsula, From here, we could take a ferry the Chi-Cheemaun, to Manitoulin Island and start our trek back across northern Ontario. A fresh fruit/veggie stand provided us with fresh corn, and after setting up camp in Tobermory, we had a bbq with freah corn, then walked to the beach to watch our last Lake Huron sunset....again photo perfect.

Our Last Lake Huron Sunset, this time in
Tobermory.

Thursday morning was a continuation of the fine weather we'd been seeing, and we lined up for the ferry at Tobermory.....where I presently sit, in a lineup, catching up on the Blog.

Rooting around for Roots

2009-08-30T15:13:00.000-07:00

At 5AM we woke up to the patter of rain on the tent.....so we quickly grabbed our tarp, and pegged it down over the tent, and then back to bed for a few more hours. When we finally got up at 8:30, we were between showers, so packed up the camp, and then had a quick breakfast before heading into London for some more family research. Timing was good....the rain started seriously to pour, and stayed that way while we were in the London Library downtown, studying microfiche films of old newspapers and historical records. We were able to find some of what we were looking for, but we still have a few mysteries which will need to be solved elsewhere......perhaps in Kincardine, or Southampton. By early afternoon, we were visiting my gt-uncle and aunt, Bill and Grace, and my cousin Linda, all interred in the St. Peter's Cemetery. We also found Grace's father there. Then, with a short stop for groceries, we were northbound out of London. There are numerous sweet corn stands along the road, so we had to pick up a few cobs of freshly picked corn for dinner. As we passed the village of Birr, just north of London, we searched for some Hodgins ancestors, but we either had the wrong cemetery, or our people are not marked there. The general store in Birr specializes in ice cream, though, so we refreshed ourselves with a big ice cream cone each, before continuing north, and finding a campsite just north of Goderich. We set up camp, and barbecued some trout we'd bought, along with our corn, and then sat overlooking Lake Huron to watch a lovely sunset - something this side of Lake Huron is famous for. Thursday morning was overcast, but no rain was in the forecast, so we packed up, and headed into Goderich for a look around. We visited the town museum, which is surprisingly large, and very thoroughly presents the history of the Huron Tract and Goderich area. Included in our $5.00 admission was entry into the Marine Museum, at the harbour. The wheelhouse of an old freighter serves as this part of the museum, and has many interesting photos and paraphernalia relating to the history of Goderich area marine life.

Goderich Marine Museum

I was unable, however, to shed any further light on my gt-gt-grandfather, John McKay, who was a captain in schooners and steamers in Lake Huron in the mid to late 1800's. We then set out to find some more of our interred ancestors, this time in Ripley. We found many, but a few still eluded us. One in particular, Allen McKinnon, was the first person buried in Ripley.....but we found no sign of him. There was rumoured to be an older, pioneer cemetery near Ripley, however, so we set out on a quest to find it. I questioned the postmistress who thought there might be the remains of an old Presbyterian church just south and east of Ripley on the 6th Concession, so we set out. A farmer passing by us (we looked lost, so he stopped to help us) advised that his boys played at an old cemetery back in the bush.....he pointed the way, but didn't know any easy way to get to it. So we set out, walking the fields between rows of Soy Beans and Corn, and then followed a riverbank, crawling under a fence-gate, and then over an electrified fence, before we found the cemetery. Somebody has gone to a lot of trouble to preserve the remaining stones, and some are even restored.....but I'd be surprised if many people make it here, a little over a half-mile from any roads, and well-hidden in the bush.

Linda crawling under a gate to find the old Pioneer Cemetery

We found it, but none of our ancestors. From the looks of it, most of those interred here are Scots from the Lewis migration to Bruce. We had time to search the Lucknow cemetery, as well, and found a few more of our people there. Then it was time to camp for the night. So west and north we went, to the south edge of Kincardine, setting up camp in the Aintree Park, near Boiler Beach. We're to meet my brother here on Friday night, when he drives a camper in, and we will spend the weekend visiting, and seeing my aunt and uncle who still live here. This is also the weekend of the mass bands, when the Kincardine Pipe Band joins up with many other pipe bands for a Scottish extravaganza. I do happen to have a fair bit of Scottish blood in my veins, so a weekend of pipe bands sounds pretty good. We took a walk along the almost endless sands of Boiler Beach, before going to bed.
Friday morning we moved our tent to the site next to the one we'd stayed in, in preparation for meeting up with brother John in the evening. Then we headed south and east again, to find more cemeteries. It took us quite a while to find the one in Kinlough, where we were looking for ancestors of a cousin we'd offered to help......unfortunately, although we found the cemetery, most of the stones are gone or unreadable, and most of those we were looking for were unfindable. Whle searching for the cemetery, we'd stopped at Lois's Hairdressing Salon for directions, and got Linda a haircut. Then it was time to investigate the Kinloss Cemetery. You'd think that it would be in the village of Kinloss, but it isn't - it's actually the South Kinloss Presbyterian Cemetery, and it's in the north end of Lucknow. We had just arrived, and found the first of several ancestors we were trying to find, when the rain started. I don't mind walking in the rain, but the lettering on the headstones disappears when it's all wet - so we had to call it a day for that, and headed back to Kincardine. I called my Uncle Jack to invite him out to dinner, and he and his partner, Myla, asked us to come for a visit first. They live only a few blocks from the phone booth, so we were there in less than five minutes, and enjoyed a good visit. We ended up sharing a couple of wee drams, and got a pizza and wine for dinner. I also managed to hand off the audio books we'd been listening to in the car, as Jack, in his 90th year, is losing his eyesight, and I felt he might enjoy listening to some books. My aunt, Orlo, was away on vacation, but due back soon......so perhaps a bit later on we can get a visit with her. By 8PM it was time to head back to our campsite, to meet with brother John on his arrival. He rolled in with a beautiful big motorhome, and rolled out a big awning over the picnic table - at least we'd be able to eat and stay dry in the numerous rainshowers we were still getting - and which were forecast for the weekend.

Camping with John's Motorhome

By the time he was all set up, and we'd had a few beers and rum drinks over a catch-up, it was after 1AM, and time for bed, so we crawled off under our tarp for the night.
Saturday morning was still cloudy with occasional rainshowers, but we still managed to fit in a walk on the beach with the dogs, and to visit with John and Louise. We then piled into our car and headed into town, stopping for a visit with a family friend, Gordon Campbell, and then continuing on to the Legion for a few beers and to have a go at winning dinner through the Meat Draw. The beers went down well, and we got in touch with Uncle Jack, who walked over the two blocks to join us for a short time.

Visiting at the Legion with Louise, John, and Uncle Jack

Then back to our camp for a quick bite to eat (bbq'd hamburgers and salads), and back to town for the event of the summer - the mass bands. Kincardine has a very traditional Scottish air about it, and every Saturday in the summer, the Pipe Band marches down the main street and then throws a concert in the park. The last weekend of August, they host a Highland competition for Pipe Bands from all over, and in the Saturday evening, the bands mass together for a giant parade. In spite of the pouring rain, it was well attended by both bands and onlookers - likely about a thousand people lined the street and followed the huge band down the street and back, and listened to their selections. It took me back many years to the days I used to do the same thing. We managed to sleep very well that night in spite of the pouring rain. Sunday morning, the rain had not yet let up, and we huddled under John's awning for a bit of breakfast, then gathered up our tent from under the tarpaulin and got it put away without our bedding or foams getting too damp. The tent, however, was by then lying in a pool of water, as the ground had finally become saturated. Our next campsite will need to be dedicated to drying things off a bit. The showers finally abated, and John, Louise, Linda and I took the dogs to the beach for a romp, and then we packed up John's motorhome and bade them farewell.

Walking the dogs along Boiler Beach

We drove a couple of blocks to a small motel nearby, to reorganize and dry off, and catch up on laundry and internet. It is now August 31, and it appears we may need to occasionally do a motel to maintain our sanity, as fall is now approaching - and it wasn't exactly a great summer for camping! With a month of travelling left before arriving home, we will no doubt be in need of occasional comfort stops.....but the weather will dictate that more than anything.

2009-08-25T15:51:00.000-07:00

One day at the archives was not nearly enough......so we returned for another day on Wednesday, followed by a visit to Brampton and a friend from the "old days", Carol.

Carol made us welcome in Brampton

We shared a pizza and beer before heading back to our Kamping Kabin again. Then again on Thursday, we spent the best part of the day scanning microfiche and getting what we could. By Thursday afternoon, however, we were at a point where anything further would require extensive time which we didn't have....so left that, and headed out, this time to Burlington, to visit cousins Ray and Susan, who'd invited us for dinner. We had a lovely visit and dinner with them, while a torrential downpour hit the area outside.

Cousins Ray and Sue in Burlington

It was then time to head back to St. Catharines, to sleep over at my brother John's house. My niece Kelcy was there, so we managed to get in a visit with Kelcy and her partner Shane. Friday morning was showery, and apparently the storms last night had become tornadoes in several areas of Ontario. We had a few projects......pick up my suit from the dry-cleaners, who were pressing it after being balled up in the Thule throughout the trip.......and pick up a blouse for Linda's new outfit - all in preparation for Saturday's wedding festivities. We had a lunch visit with Mom, as well.

visiting with Mom and brother John

With visits to the two main malls in St. Catharines we were able to find Linda a blouse, and then head out to Oakville, to meet up with Linda's cousin for dinner at a very nice restaurant. The waiters were very understanding about our slow speed of dining, as we were getting such a good visit with Diane and Steve. When we finally left, it was extremely coincidental to find that although we'd arrived about 20 minutes apart, in a very large parking lot we'd managed to park our cars beside each other!

Steve and Diane met us in Oakville for a pleasant visit and meal.

We drove back to St Catharines in time to take the dogs for a bit of a walk, before my brother arrived back from a Pink Floyd tribute concert. Time for a short drink/visit, and off to bed.
Saturday morning was one of the only dates we'd actually preplanned for the entire trip......so we left brother John's place in the morning to arrive at Port Colborne for late morning, to old buddies "Jaybee" and "Freddy", whose only daughter Jocelyne was being married this evening. We arrived in time to give Jaybee some meaningless advice for his Father of the Bride Speech, and then we all trooped out to the Niagara Parkway to attend the ceremonies.

The newlyweds with flower girl, Brooke

There was barely a dry eye in the church (did I tell you that I always cry at weddings?), and with Jocelyn and Jason all married off, we visited with some of Jaybee's pilot friends before heading out for a night of frivolities at the reception.

Jaybee and Freddie - proud parents!

Luckily, Jaybee had pre-arranged a limo for the drive home for the lot of us staying at his place, so we didn't need to worry about DUI problems. Arriving home, we managed to tuck into a few wee drams of scotch before actually calling it a night at 4AM. By 10AM we were sort of up and about, cooking up a storm of breakfast for the myriad people staying or dropping in, and by early afternoon we were off to pick up the cars and items left behind at the wedding the night before, and to visit a local airstrip, run by friends of Jaybee and Freddy. I was amazed to find an old friend sitting there, Leon, who'd been a flying instructor with me some 40 years ago. He'd just flown a Harvard in, and was chatting with a group of people there ....very nice to catch up again.
Back to the home in Pt. Colborne, for a pizza night, with beer and scotch (of course), and then an early sleep for all.
Monday morning we bade farewell to our friends, and drove across the Peace Bridge into Buffalo, NY (the only part of our trip in the USA), to visit with Linda's Aunt Ruth. Although she is over 90 years of age, she is more able, physically or mentally, than either myself or Linda. We went out for a lunch of Thai Food, and picked up a few groceries for dinner, then went back to her home for a visit. I was honoured to help her lay to rest the ashes of her beloved dog. It was a very nice visit, and made us appreciate that retired life really can be quite good for some time.
Tuesday morning found us back in Canada, westbound toward London, where we plan to visit some more graveyards in search of our family history. Enroute, we were able to meet up with cousin Sharon, who lives in London, but was travelling the opposite direction to us. But we at least got a catch-up over lunch, in Brantford, before continuing on and finding a mostly vacant KOA campground for our tent. It's been awhile since we've actually tented, as all of last week has been under a welcome roof....but the weather is fine, and forecast to remain so for at least a few days.
Being a Tuesday, this is also another day of reckoning, so here are our totals for Week 14:
Distance driven: 845.8 Km Gas: $101.52 Food: $216.41 Accommodation: $85.28 Other: $29.00 Total: $432.21 Almost $300.00 Under Budget for the week, thanks to generous accommodation and food help from friends and relatives, and less driving costs!

Into Southern Ontario

2009-08-21T07:30:00.001-07:00

Holy Cow (or should that be wholly cow?)......a whole week just flew by, and NADA entered into the Blog! Sorry about that, to those of you following our trip. This entry, although it covers the entire week, will be rather short, but at least it will get us up to date again.
We had a cool night surrounded by fog from the St. Lawrence. The wifi didn't work at all here at "Rayon de Soleil" so nothing got uploaded on the blog. It was a nice bright sunny day, however, and we decided to push on past Montreal. By late morning we were crossing the St. Lawrence on a huge bridge, looking at the city of Montreal....but we continued on past it, heading for Ontario. We made a short stop in Cornwall, on the Ontario side of things, where I managed to find a barber and get a haircut which was badly needed - I was really getting into a "Bushman Look". Then on to Kingston, where we cruised along the waterfront, and made a quick lube stop (third oil change for the car so far). From here it was a short drive into the picturesque mill town of Spencerville, where we were able to track down a gt-uncle, Bert Jarrell, who was buried here, along with his family. Genealogy duties complete, we treated ourselves to an ice cream cone - the weather was definitely feeling summery (actually, quite warm and sunny) - and then continued a short distance to Mallorytown, where we pitched our tent for the night. From here I was able to contact some friends, Heinz and Marie, who live in Oshawa, and organized a visit for the following day.
In the morning, it was still summer, and threatening to continue for some time! We continued our westward trek, stopping for a memory-lane-moment in Port Darlington, Bowmanville, where we'd spent our first days together on our first boat, "Bronwen", a 37 ft Alberg which was our first home together, for 3 years. The place has changed a lot....not enough water for sailboats, and beer in the patio lounge priced for the upper-crust crowd (we had two draught beers for $16.00). Then it was a short hop into Oshawa, to visit our friends Heinz and Marie, who we'd first met in our Pt. Darlington days, and since remained good friends.

Heinz is showing us his woodwork.....Marie had already left for work.

We had a very nice visit into the night, and camped on their living room floor for the night. We saw Marie off to work in the morning, said our goodbyes to Heinz, and continued on through Toronto and around the Horseshoe at the end of Lake Ontario, into St. Catharines, to my brother John's home.

Pool cleaning and family bonding - brother John and myself.

This became our "base of operations" for the next few days, with visits with my brother and his partner, and my niece. My mom also lives in St. Catharines, so we also got in some serious family visiting time there. One evening, while walkiing the dogs (4 dogs at my brother's place), we had a "skunk encounter", and had to do a bit of dog-washing.

Brother John, Niece Elyse on de-skunking duties

My sister Marg, and her family, are going through a very rough period with Albert, my brother-in-law, and friend, being quite ill. We were able to get in a couple of short visits there, and nephew Jonathan managed to squeeze in a family dinner get-together for one evening which gave us a great chance for a catch-up and visit with much of my sister's family. Through these four days summer continued hot and sunny, and we managed to get a lot of quality family time in. As well, we managed to find Linda an outfit for the coming wedding, which we'll be attending next weekend in Pt. Colborne. And we also managed to get some preparation time in for our genealogy trek back to Toronto, to visit the archives.
Tuesday morning we headed back into Toronto, and found the Ontario Archives waiting for us at York University. It's a very modern and new building, and took us awhile to familiarize ourselves with the details of doing our research here. Due to the huge numbers of records here (Births, Marriages, Deaths, Wills, Property records, and County Histories) everything is indexed on microfiche, and to find anything takes a process which is a bit time-consuming, but reasonably efficient. We managed to find a number of our ancestral records, but left by early afternoon because of the rush hour traffic. About 45 minutes west of the city we set up camp near Milton, in a KOA Kamping Kabin (possible thundershowers and we needed more room for organizing the records than a tent could provide). Having another blown budget for the week, we decided " What the Hell" anyways, and had our dinner at a local pub, before adding up our final figures for the week:
Distance driven: 1487.9 KM Gas: $ 153.47 Food: $ 418.50 Accommodation: $ 90.01 Other: $ 91.29 Total:$ 753.27 Another over-budget week!