Salish Sea on a sunny day

We sailed back into the sunniest and hottest summer in many years here on the West Coast.  Avoiding Comox we traveled to meet friends on Cortes Island which started a couple of months cruising in the Desolation Sound area.  This was blissful, though not without a few repairs, bottom paint, putting the boat on a grid in the Gorge …..  Now that 2016 has started and we have returned to the work a-day world, we look longingly back at the wonderful people  and places that filled our lives in the last year and half.  “Whats next? “-  is the big question, in the mean time we are taking time to appreciate the wonderful things in our lives hoping, clarity will come with time.   Since returning many adventures are worth chronicling so I will fill the blank over the next few posts.

Sun shining through the ???

We spent a few days anchored behind DeCourcey Island hiding from the NW.  Here we reconnected with our great friend Ruth and Roland on Baron Rouge.  Weather has been constantly warm and dry which on one had is great for our Mexico thine blood but this is NOT normal weather for our home.  This morning we woke the yellow skies and ash fall like a light snow fall in winter.   BC is on extreme fire alert with states of emergency called in numerous areas.  Again on this trip we are reminded of the tenuous relationship humans have with the planet.  The news is full of  the “economy must grow”  propaganda and the weather is changing at astounding rates everywhere.  I wonder when the penny will drop, oh right, we no longer have pennies in Canada so my guess is its much too late.

Smoke on the water!

Mill Bay, sunny and calm.

Mill Bay was our next destination, to reconnect with family and begin the process of re-establishing our lives in Canada.  I would take Josh to Comox to finish his Grade 11 exams, plough through a years mail and make it back to Mill Bay where our summer cruise in Canada would continue.

Look out coming in for a landing!

To begin with our car did not store very well, in fact it made it to Victoria where repairs might be possible – (computer failure) , then the litany of beaurcacies began to heat up our MasterCard – insurance, cell phones, and the list goes on.  I was beginning to feel like a duck out of control on landing.  The simple life was fading fast!!  Finally we gave up on the list, had a great time with family and left for Saltspring Island.  The month of cruising coming up is a blessing,  giving  us time adjust.

A family selfie at the Custom’s dock.

Here we are back ing Canada.  Our Custom’s agent welcomed us back, hard to believe 10 months ago we were leaving on our trip to Mexico.  Im sure we will have time for reflection but now we will cruise our beautiful BC for a month or so before heading back to work!!

Passing Cape Flattery

We finally got a break with a weak low making it through the pacfic high, so we headed north on a straight run to Cape Flattery.  The trip was a perfect motor – calm seas and no wind.  Thirty six hours after leaving Newport Oregon we turned passed the cape and headed into Neah Bay for fuel.  It was still early in the day with the flood in our favour and a NW breeze to help us down Juan de Fuca to Victoria.

12 Knots!!!!

Well that breeze soon turned into 35 knots and Adesso with full sail up screamed past Victoria all the way to Darcy Island Marine Park near Sidney. We averaged 10 knots for the 8 hours trip but maxed out at 12 knots – the picture is evidence!!!

Our group of trapped boaters- wind starting in the morning.

Although the locals say winds are early this year we have been caught by the Pacific High that heats the interior of Oregon and California creating a low pressure zone over land.  The result is a squash zone between the two and every day from 9 am to midnight the NW winds blow, somedays over 35 knots.  Even the harbour channel is often closed as the ever increasing wind swells hit the ebb currents over the bar.  Newport Oregon is one of the better places along this coast to trapped but patience is beginning to fade. Every day the rigging is screaming, walking is a challenge and cold ( at least for us ).  We have made friends with the other boaters on the transient dock as we commiserate on the weather every day.  I have to laugh as the comment in the mornings is often “looks like we might get a break in a few days” but these have all evaporated so far.  This is the longest we have stayed on a dock during our whole year away,  and never have we been trapped so long, so we now are practicing the spiritual quality of “surrender”.  Movies, books, boat projects, food, beer and finding new and interesting hiking keep Sue and I occupied.  Josh has been working out and spending time with the kite surfers down at the beach.  He’s thinking that will be a sport to check out when he returns to Comox.

Favourite things so far are the Surf Town Coffee shop – they do their own roasting, and the Saturday farmers market – so good to taste local veggies again, and  then England Marine Supply – one of the best small town chandleries I have ever seen.

We had a great run up the coast to Newport Oregon, which had a quick stop in Crescent City, CA for a few hours sleep and an early morning fuel up.  We decided to stop and have a rest, tour the Rogue Beer facility – craft beer being one of our favourite pastimes, and generally be a tourist for a couple of days, hoping that our luck with wind would continue.  A week later we are still at the dock with NW winds blowing in our face every day.  We are not alone waiting, four of us wait for the next break in the wind north and two French waiting are heading south.  We are now doing boat projects, potlucks, hiking the beach and reading a lot to pass the time.

The best surprise was meeting Vitalii and Larisa from Russia.  He sailed from his home near Vladivostok to  Seattle and now joined by his wife are sailing south, through the Panama Canal, up the Eastern seaboard to Boston, then across the atlantic to St Petersburg in Russia.  They were great fun and it was so exciting to meet a Russian cruiser!!!

Vitalii and Larisa with us.

San Francisco, more accurately Sausalito was our refuge for a few days waiting for the next weather window north, another small low would soon arrive north of Cape Mendocino.  We were also looking forward to meeting up with Paul Guenette who was to meet us in San Francisco last fall for Thanksgiving.  As it turned out his project list was too long, although he made it to San Francisco early November we had headed south to Mexico.

Paul presenting the leavers package.

Aside from sharing beers and stories he was in possession of our Blue Water Cruising Association’s leavers package.  Paul was and active volunteer in Vancouver and would see Jennifer Handley, our Commodore before we would have to time to meet so he was handed the job of presenting it to us.  We missed Paul in the fall but now on our way back to Canada we meet for a very late Thanksgiving and officially receive our leavers package!  Here we are almost home and celebrate leaving !!!

Adesso crew with our leavers package.

Paul also had his vehicle in San Francisco which was very helpful getting our shopping list done in short order.  Laundry done, Adesso fuelled and the food supplies topped up we passed under the San Francisco bridge, leaving, not knowing if we would ever pass this way again.

Southwestern Yacht Club were very generous again, we found ourselves meeting up with other cruisers headed north not to mention our saviour Frank!!!  I had a list of repairs to do: repair the freezer, the boomvang  and a full engine maintenance.

Captain Frost  – Bill came to look at the freezer and we found that a small bit of moisture in the coolant froze in the expansion capillary tube which kept the freezer from working.  This “ is a common problem with early keel coolers” so he put a  descant in the loop of the coolant and we were back up and running though a few $$ poorer.  At some point in time we would have to upgrade the keel coolers to the new ones.  One of the great things about being in Shelter Island is that all you boating needs can be met within walking distance.  This made it easy to to prep Adesso for the next leg of our trip in just a couple of days.  Sue did the trips to Costco and Safeway to replenish the food stocks that had melted away.  Looked like a window was coming our way so fuelled up we headed to Dana Point.

Dana Point was to be a short overnight stay and then continue on, here we should have heeded Predictwind but went anyway, which resulted in our stop only 20 miles north in Newport, CA.   With our window closed we anchored in the public anchor area for the Memorial Day weekend which is the first big party weekend of the summer in the states.  Waiting for the winds to drop we ventured to Balboa Island, walked the beach, and took our dinghy around looking at all the amazing waterfront houses with yachts attached to them.  Josh was especially impressed with an that was at least 120 feet long!!!

Biggest cat I have ever seen!

Finally we got our window north, a quick stop in Santa Barbara for fuel, an over night stop in Coho anchorage just south of Point Conception to hide from the afternoon NW and then straight to San Francisco Bay.