Working west while waiting for wind

It has been several days now, since being able to put anything in the blog....so time for a trip update.

We had stopped at Stuart Island, waiting for slack water to get through Gillard Pass and Dent Rapids. As our departure time at 1100 became imminent, we went to start up the engine – nothing happened. With a bit of quick troubleshooting, it became apparent that the starter button contact itself was the problem....so a bit of contact cleaning, and we were running again, and off the dock by 1115 – just in time to make the slack water. The weather forecast, however, was for strong northwesterly winds. So instead of fighting that, we turned down Nodales Channel to anchor up in Thurston Bay, which is a nice little anchorage, and also a Marine Park. With the dinghy in the water, we did a bit of exploring around the bay, and set out our crab traps. Barbecued pork chops for dinner, and an early night of it. The following day (19^th May) continued with strong westerly winds, so we stayed put. None of our crab traps had anything in them, and in fact, one of them went missing. We had seen a small (local?) powerboat in the vicinity of our traps, and suspect they may have taken the one trap. At any rate, we moved the remaining three closer to our anchored boat. Then we decided to have a go at fishing, so dinghied out of the bay (no fin fishing allowed in the park, but OK outside) and spent the better part of the afternoon trying to catch something. Weeds and bottom turned out to be our only catch, so we returned to the boat to finish off our leftover chicken (except for the big pot of soup which remained in the pressure cooker). From the forecast, it was looking like we might get lighter northwest winds by Wednesday, so decided to push on, heading through the “backwoods” instead of Johnstone Strait (Cordero Channel and Wellbore Passage), to stage ourselves in Forward Harbour for Wednesday. Again, tide demanded we time our passage to arrive at Greenpoint Rapids for slack water (made it right on), and then got a bit of a push through Whirlpool Rapids, and into Forward Harbour. As we nosed into the bay, our radio indicated a call from our friends Donna and Cosmos, on their 56 ft. Morgan sailboat, “Koukla”. They called to see where we were....and ......surprise.....it turned out we were both in Forward Harbour! So it was a bit of a reunion, with Ray and myself invited over to Koukla for appies and dinner. Next day (Tuesday) was another waiting for weather day....so we took Cosmos' very powerful and larger dinghy to the east end of the bay, hoping to catch some crabs. The anchorage started to fill up, and by supper time, there were 9 other boats anchored in the west end of Forward Harbour. We managed to burn our burnable garbage on shore, have a shower, and prepare dinner for ourselves and Koukla. Our traps again yielded nothing in the way of edible fare. We will just have to keep trying. It was a pleasant evening with our friends, as we reminisced and listened to the patter of the rain on the coachroof. Surprisingly, we had the heater going even though it is late May.

So today is Wednesday, 22 May. We are motoring in calm seas, about to turn out of Sunderland Channel into Johnstone Strait, with a very light tidal current against us, and no wind. Just abeam are Yorke and Fanny Islands, which are of interest – Yorke Island was the site of a WWII gun emplacement to guard against sneak attacks by Japanese or German boats coming up the inside passage, and Fanny Island is a reporting point for Comox Traffic. We can get telephone service from a cell tower near Kelcy Bay, and using Ray's Iphone, with his hotspot app, we can get this blog published. From here, we'll be heading up Havannah Channel today, and then working our way further west in the coming days.....not sure when we'll get another shot at wifi, but as soon as it happens, we'll post again.

Yorke Island, Fanny Island, and Calm Seas