C-Cakes and I had a great time on our abbreviated Gulf Islands cruise. I was really intrigued with how different the Gulf Islands are from the San Juans. It was very nice, and fun, to meet new C-Dory friends. And, I encountered some new and interesting mishaps along the way. :wink: :wink: Can't wait until Patti and I can get up there.
Stayed in Reid harbor on Stewart Island Sunday night, pretty and quiet. There were several boats moored but no sense of being crowded. Took some pictures that turned out very well. All was fine until trying to weigh anchor Monday morning. I could not get the Bruce to budge. Forward, backward, in circles, nothing moved it so finally I let out about 50' more of rode and motored out briskly. Finally got it to move but it was still really hard to pull up with my Armstrong windlass. When I got it up to where I could see the anchor I discovered a nylon cable about 1 1/2" in diameter over the flukes. I was able to get the anchor up high enough to reach down and free it by hand. I think it must be a mooring cable for those useless "linear mooring fixtures" at Stewart.
So, off we, (Dreamer, Sea Pal, C-Cakes) went to Bedwell/Poet's Cove to clear Canadian customs. Dreamer and C-Cakes had no trouble except I forgot and had some nectarines and plums which got donated to Canada. Sea Pal however must have appeared suspicious because in short order a customs vessel motored in and a giant Canadian customs officer boarded her, something about smuggled cherry pits I think.

. Anyway, after Sea pal was inspected, we started on the way to Nanimo and I felt something was out of kilter. My starboard engine had shut off. On checking I discovered that I had hit the key with my knee, hard enough to bend the key about 80 degrees so it would not fit in the ignition. Fortunately I had spares aboard and after a quick, tossing things about, search, got the spare and was on the way again. Took more good pictures. A special thanks to our guide, Dreamer, who was kind enough to slow down to about 19-20 knots so we could keep up on the way to Nanimo. (Ever seen a TomCat mush for 3 hours??)
Newcastle Island was beautiful, a good place to be. Lots of good pictures and good times. Jim and Joan of Wild Blue were kind enough to give me a ride over to Nanimo on their dinghy so I had a nice walk around the town, a good lunch at the marina and rode back to Newcastle on the water taxi. I was last to head south towards Pirate's Cove and saw about a 50' Nordhaven just north of Dodd Narrows. That in itself is not all that unusual but this one was towing a C-Dory so I headed over to see if one of our group was under tow. When I got close I saw that it was a 22' cruiser And IT WAS THEIR DINGHY :shock: :shock:. So, after recovering from my newfound sense of inadequacy, went south and joined up at Pirate's cove.
Pirate's Cove was also beautiful and fun. Took lots of pictures of the area, Nootka, sea life, etc. and got my first Canadian sunburn sitting out on the bow drinking Canadian beer. The tide was down so the reef guarding the entrance was fully visible and impressive!
Spent Wednesday morning exploring possible places for Patti and me to visit on our trip to the Gulf Islands. Went out and then in Porlier Pass. About 1' standing waves and a twisting route with less than 2kt current. I'll bet that could be really exciting with the reputed 8-9kt currents. Poked C-Cakes nose out into the Straits of Georgia, its a long way over to the mainland. More good pictures.
Montague Harbor was pretty, anchored out between Dreamer and Nootka and hitched a ride with Dreamer into the docks (Yes C-Cakes has a dinghy but rowing it to a destination is not one of my favorite pastimes.) and rode the Hippie bus up to the Hummingbird Cafe. Had dinner with Dreamer and Wild Blue, pretty good food and lots of it but our C-Dory friends out at picnic tables on the lawn weren't so lucky, no food after more than an hour and then they had to rush it to catch the last bus for a fast downhill trip back to the harbor. That was exciting, especially when Bob Burke of Sea Pal (who's in the tire business) noted the tires were bald and I noticed the performer/driver/aging hippie, was holding the bus in gear with his hand while standing up and doing one-legged kicks out to the side at about 35MPH :shock: .
The next morning Nootka and I had to head back so we left about 9:15 and had a nice trip to Sucia for customs clearance. No trouble there but as we were leaving a gaggle (pod?) of about a dozen sea kayaks came to the customs dock, in from Canada and the ICE agent was trying to figure out just what to do with them.
All was well until we started up San Juan Channel and then it got fairly ugly, 3'-4' chop into the wind and current, so Nootka opted to split off and C-Cakes headed over towards San Juan where the water was a lot less lumpy. Nootka opted to stay in the washing machine for a more exciting time. The water was ugly all the way down to Friday Harbor and the end of Shaw Island. C-Cakes hung out in Hicks Bay to watch for Nootka as there was a lot of debris and the water was still ugly. Nootka said to go ahead so I motored out and was so busy watching for logs and bouncing. that I missed one and hit something at about 9kts, hard enough to lift one motor out of the water. Scary but no apparent damage, vibration, etc.
Headed out into Rosario Straits, beautiful scene of Mt. Baker with a two masted schooner sailing in the foreground. More good pictures. Took a picture of the Chinese tanker "New Amity" with Chinese characters under the English spelling and a registry in Monrovia, Liberia.
Then...when I got home and was downloading all those beautiful picture to show Patti, discovered that somehow I had hit global delete and had DELETED EVERY SINGLE ONE!! Aarrgh!! I'll take the chip to a local computer guru and see if there is any possibility of retrieval. But, making lemonade, that disaster just makes it more desirable to take Patti up there soon.