South West Coast Vancouver Island to Seattle

Westview Marina to Seattle

Heading south on Tahsis Inlet

Well, I'm back in Seattle after 2 years of cruising around in the NW. I'm parked at a place called Yacht Masters, which is a company that is doing some work on Blue Bossa, which needed a bunch of work to keep it going strong.  Part of that is pulling the mast, change all of the standing rigging, put in a solent jib (removable staysail for windier times), update my electronics which have started to falling apart, and change my very tired head (toilet), which has been a challenge because of the space limitations.

Friendly Cove - Uchuck III approaching

Uchuck III - backpacks and camping gear are on the wharf

Yesterday, on a Friday, I was invited by the Yacht Masters crew to join their group on an outing to watch the Blue Angels practice over Lake Washington.  They were able to borrow a 68' mega-yacht powerboat with all of the comforts and gadgets that you can imagine with a fuel consumption of 40 gal/hour.  The mega yacht was joined by about a kajillion other boats by the south end of Lake Washington, all converging from a million marinas and launch ramps, all partying down with a myriad forms of music blaring out on speakers.  Since the temp was about 90, there were all kinds of bathing-suit dressed people, drinking all kinds of alcohol.  Our group was a sober bunch, the skipper of the boat working hard to avoid hitting all of the other boats around.  He was naturally worried because he didn't want to scratch his client's VERY shiny and clean boat, so he was busy working the two diesels and all of the thrusters on the boat to avoid any connection to the boats.  And to think that the Blue Angels flying these unbelievably fast jet planes at supersonic speeds with only a few feet between them were just practicing for the main event, which was Saturday and Sunday.  The crowd on the lakes today will be a small gathering compared to what's coming.  I couldn't picture me bringing Blue Bossa in that mess.

Church - turned into museum

So the day was really fun EXCEPT for the fact that, while I was adjusting to using my new G4 iPhone as a camera, I accidentally dropped it overboard.  When I realized what I did, I yelled: "GOD….bless."  Now I have to wait a few days to get another phone (I was insured, but the insurance company for AT&T has to send the phone, AND, it still costs $200 deductible. I'm not sure insurance is worth it.)  Dumb.  I'm wondering if it's smart to have a smart phone, since  this is the 2nd one that I have lost in as many weeks.  Ugh!

Living on Lake Union brings back some old memories, not the least being that it's noisy in a city environment.  Thankfully I'm only going to be here through August or less, then I'm out of here. But one thing I like here is the great jazz station that also plays NPR.  Not only do I get great music, but i can stay up to date with news. Before I leave, I'm going to have to visit 1 or 2 jazz clubs.

Inside the "church"

Looking down from the lighthouse

Last I wrote, it was in the Westview Marina in Tahsis Inlet. After thoroughly spoiling myself on showers and good company from the various yachts visiting, I left to head south, working my way down Tahsis Inlet, then a right into Princesa Channel, then a left to Kendrik Inlet which works into Nootka Sound, where I anchored in Friendly Cove, a small Indian village called Yuquot ("Place of Many Winds") right on the north base of the notorious Estevan Point.  One of the boats that I met in Westview came down to Friendly Cove too.  On board was a Brit and his Irish wife who have been living in Vancouver for the last 20 something years, but he still had a very British accent.  He mentioned that the village had a small fee ($12) for visitors to go ashore, and thought it was outrageous and he wasn't going to visit - I could sense of hint of racism in his statement. I thought, what the hell!, why not donate to the cause?  So I went to shore, just after the coastal freighter MV Uchuck III  had stopped to let off passengers and some supplies off.  This small freighter stops by many villages along the west coast of Vancouver Island during the summertime, dropping off hikers, kayakers, residents, and food to many isolated places that cannot get supplies by any other means.  I always wonder what happens during the winter times.

I took that picture?? Friendly Cove

After getting on the wharf from a nearby float, I checked out the Uchuck (also known as "Upchuck" to many of the passengers), I ventured into the interior, climbing up a low hill until I reached a church (there were a few tourists doing the same from the Uchuck). After paying the $12 fee at the side office of the church, I took a look at the church itself - it almost seemed "pagen", because instead of having anything symbolizing Christianity, it displayed colorful totems and other art made from the village of Yuquot, as well as some interesting stained glass windows depicting some history in the past.  I guess you could call the building more of a museum.  The benches instead of facing the alter, were divided, one set facing the other.

Reefed main and jib - starboard tack

The terrain outside was really beautiful, sunshiny with wide open fields, surf and strong westerly on the outside of the bay, and a very scenic Nootka Lighthouse standing on the rocks of Yuquot Point. It took me a while to find the path that leads up to the lighthouse, and once there, the lighthouse keeper and his wife were very friendly, used to showing off their lighthouse with many summer tourists that come to visit.

Buddy boat

The forecast was for gale force north-westerly for the next 5 days, so I decided to head south anyway around Estevan, which is a low-lying point that stays shallow 2-3 miles out. The wind can really rip through there. The couple that I met wanted to go too, and we decided to "buddy-boat" around the point.  Which is what we did, leaving at 6 am.  I thought it would be calm that early, but as soon as we got out a couple of miles, the wind started getting stronger and the waves got bigger.  I had my main and jib reefed and had a ton of control.  In retrospect, I could have sailed around the point easily with the jib all the way out.  Unfortunately, the autopilot just wasn't able to keep up with the heavier seas (I've seen indication to that a couple of other times in the past), so I generally had to steer most of the time, which was ok because it was fun to try and surf some of the waves.  Once it was time for the jibe, the buddy boat called me via VHF and asked me how I was going to do it. I decided to do a chicken jibe with the motor on, which I did with no problems. Once on the proper course, we split up.  They went to Hesquiat Harbour and I went to Hot Springs Cove.

The hotsprings and falls are left and to the right of the tourists

Board walk with carved boards of boat names

Steam from the HOT waterfall

Hot Spring Cove is a very well protected long cove. I ended anchoring close to the head of it, which is about a half mile from the main park on the south side.  The north side has a small Indian village.  The park is famous for it's geothermal spring with a strong and VERY HOT waterfall which lies very close to the entrance to the bay. The day I arrived, I took the dinghy to the entrance and took some pics of a dozen or so tourists lazing on the rocks after a good hot soak. During the summer, there are a lot of tour boats that take tourists from Tofino out to this place, and it can get really crowded.  There's not a lot of room in the series of rock pools positioned to receive the hot water that pushes through it.  I decided to try it first thing in the morning.  So to the wharf, then walking west about a mile of boardwalk, many of the boards carved with boat names, apparently a long tradition of boaters. I got there with the first load of tourists, most of them young (like in their 20's). Ho boy!  As I was the first to get in, I slowly but surely migrated to the very end of the series of pools, while the place started to fill up.  I had a very lovely conversation with a young German woman who lives in New Zealand. I asked her what New Zealand is like, and she said it's very much like here. Well gee, I guess I don't need to visit New Zealand after all!

The next day, I headed out, outside of Tofino (which, after talking to a lot of boaters, elected not to stop there) and ended up in a little but crowded fishing village called Ucluelet. It is sort of the civilized boating center for all boats cruising Barkley Sound which lies just to the south. Barkley Sound is a destination spot for many Canadians boat owners as well as boaters from Washington and Oregon, whom I met a few.  The dock master was super friendly in a gruff sort of way, and went out of his way to make sure I was docked right. I was able to go to a small supermarket and catch up on some emails. 

After two nights of Ucluelet, I left to go to my jumping off spot to enter the Juan De Fuca straits. Diving into Barclay Sound and the "Broken Group" of islands was interesting - it wasn't as crowded as the San Juan Islands, but it had a lot more boats than I normally saw in Vancouver Island. There is a ton of great anchorages to be had in all of the islands there. I could have spent at least a couple of weeks visiting each anchorage.  But instead I stopped by for lunch at a place called Joe's Bay Anchorage, which was a really nice spot to kayak (there were at least 3 separate kayak tours going on - pretty busy).  It looked like I was the only one anchored there, although there was a number of yachts going through and checking it out. I ended up staying the night at Dodger Channel, where I spent the evening paddling the paddle board to shore and walking around enjoying the solitude.  Only one other small fishing boat anchored that night.

Dodger Channel - Cape Beal in the background

The next morning at 5 am, I left, rounded Cape Beale and proceeded to head up the Juan de Fuca Strait.  I stayed on the north side as close to shore as I could to avoid the worse part of the ebb current where it stayed pretty glassy.  When the tide finally started flooding at about 1 pm, I started to go across the strait to the US side, finally getting a good 2-3 knot current boosting my speed.  By the time I got to Port Angeles, the tidal current had almost run its course.  I barely made it to the docks on time to go through customs.

Back in the US of A.

This place is HUGE

Right now, the mast is off. It's been great getting a closeup of how the mast is put together.  It's in pretty good shape.  Here in Seattle, it's still hot (80 - 90 degrees, fans on, all hatches open, ports open). I'm starting to grasp the idea that having a dark-blue hull may not be a great idea in places like Mexico.  I'll have to figure out if I want to change the color or not.

Here's where I'm at now, Lake Union

Once I'm done here in Seattle, I'm heading to Friday Harbor to hang out a bit, then Alex will fly up to meet me near the end of September, then we'll scoot down the west coast to San Francisco before winter starts to show it's ugly head.  That should be an adventure!