Sunshine Coast Part 1

Pender Harbour - the little purple sails are marinas - Pilothouse Marina is north in Garden Bay

Sailing across Strait of Georgia

4/3/11

Pender Harbor Entrance

Here we are, tied up to Pilothouse Marina in Pender Harbor, one of many in this all-weather cove.  As you can see, it’s a big natural harbor with lots of little coves, all jammed with assorted marinas, most of them sort of run-down, or at least a bit funky.  Because there are so many coves in this harbor, to drive or walk from one marina to the next is really far.  For example, there’s a pub that’s not more than a hundred yards where I’m tied up to, but it’s at least a half-mile to walk there.  Going to one place to another by dinghy is the way to go.  I already took the dinghy across the harbor to Madeira Park (about a 5 mile drive by auto, only a 1/4 mile drive by dinghy from here), tied it up, and walked to a large grocery store to get some fresh stuff.  I may take the dinghy to the pub tonight to indulge myself to a dinner there, if it stops raining. 

Pilothouse Marina in Pender Harbor

Pender Harbor is a halfway point along the Sunshine Coast going north to Desolation Sound. It’s a natural stopover for boats heading north or south.  According to the nice lady working for the Pilothouse Marina, this place jams with a ton of boats and huge traffic.  I’m glad I am visiting it now. It’s very scenic; the harbor is nestled against steep mountains, this time of year with snow.

Going back last week (3/27/11), in Nanaimo, I ended up with a very good electrician who diagnosed the charging problem to a bad regulator, which was replaced.  As well, I replaced the frozen shut-off cable.  All-in-all, a worthwhile 3 day stay. I was anxious to leave Nanaimo, as the port marina is really noisy (and expensive), so, on the 30^th of March, we left about noon to head north to Schooner Cove, about 5 miles north of Nanaimo, surrounded by lots of rocks and reefs.

Schooner Cove is a marina tucked up against steep hills – there is no place to anchor.  It is mostly a rundown hotel (that was closed for the winter), but it had the marina office open, inside the hotel.  The guy running it was this really nice old guy who let BB stay overnight for free!  I guess there was too much going on moving their office to another building, so he just said, “enjoy!”, which I did.  Showers were free!  The shower was actually in one of the hotel rooms.  No time limitations!  Utter luxury, although I didn’t have any shorepower.  Oh well, you take the bad with the good.

Next morning, BB and I left Schooner Cove to sail across the Strait of Georgia in beautiful and clear northwesterly winds – a great sail!  We ended up in a really hard-to-find place called Smuggler’s Cove.  What a jewel!  It is a completely enclosed cove right in the middle of a protected marine park.  It tucks in deep, from one anchorage spot to another to another.  I ended up at the very end of all of the anchorages, feeling very much like I had been placed in a large pond, as there was algae floating around the boat and it was incredibly quiet, with just the peaceful sound of running water from a creek. There were lots of ducks and geese, but I didn’t see any otters or raccoons. 

One of many boardwalks on the trail in Smugglers Cove Park

Immediately, I pulled out the kayak to go explore the tons of nooks and crannies. Because of really clear water, I could see all kinds of shapes of reefs and underwater boulders, although I didn’t see any fish.  If I had diving gear (ie: a really thick wetsuit), I may have done a bit of free diving (when the sun was out).

Entrance to Smuggler's Cove

The second day I was there, I took the kayak to shore and walked a beautiful trail in the marine park to the road. It wound around a bunch of big ponds, the trail often times assisted by long boardwalks close to the ponds.  Because it rained earlier that day, I trudged through a few puddles…luckily I was wearing my reef walkers. When I got back to the kayak and tried to get in, I sort of tipped over (only 25% submerged).  Ha Ha!  I was glad there was no one to see my embarrassing lack of coordination.  Looks like I need to practice getting on and off that kayak from land.

Schooner Cove - arrow is where BB was

The weather during this time was changing all of the time.  You can tell when spring is coming, as the northwesterly, when it is here, blows hard and cold but with nice sunlight.  If you’re in a wind-protected spot, it can get really warm – my first day kayaking in Smugglers Cove, I just wore a bathing suit and a t-shirt with my lifejacket.  But, in just 6 or so hours, it can change around to rain, blowing southeasterly and getting cold, which it did while I was there.

A little history of Smuggler's Cove

It rained the first night.  It cleared about noon the next day, with the northwesterly picking up hard towards the end of the day.  That night it blew really hard (I was glad to be tucked in), the boat tacking on the anchor line, the chain roller making all kinds of noise with the chain moving across the roller (I need to devise a harness to lessen the noise).  I got up about 4 or 5 times that night to check for dragging, as there’s not a lot of room to spare (it was good sticky mud, so there were no problems). The next day it was still blowing hard, but I decided to take a peek to see if I could make it to Pender Harbor.  It was too rough (I could have made it easily enough, but it would have been slow and I would have used a lot of fuel), so I opted to go to Secret Cove, which was only about 2 miles north of Smugglers Cove.

They should call it: "Smuggler's Pond"

Secret Cove is another narrow entrance cove, but instead of being totally isolated, there were about 2-3 marinas.  I found a spot towards the south end of the cove where I could anchor safely and took the dinghy out to explore.  By and large, all of the marinas were closed (this on a Saturday).  I talked to one of the guys on his boat who told me that they don’t open until April 15^th, which seems to be the opening of most marinas on this coastline. During last night, the wind turned around to come from the south, and I left to Pender Harbor this morning.

So here I sit, typing on this computer, with the wind getting stronger from the south and starting to rain a bit.  I may leave tomorrow and make my way up to Lund, about a 30 mile trip, especially if the wind holds from the south. I expect to be in the town of Campbell River on Vancouver Island by the end of this coming weekend.  I’ll probably stay there for 3-5 days, mostly to get mail, write a blog, and do some projects that need to be done (oil change, fix a cabinet door, etc.).  So stay tuned!

 PS:  It's now raining hard.  Guess I'll stay on the boat and make dinner.

PSS: I decided to go anyway - so what if I get a little wet and cold.  As it turns out, I had a great fish & chips (halibut), and there was a nice local blues band playing, which made me miss playing music with other people.  Still enjoyed though!