Going – Going – Gone!!!!

We have done it – left the dock that is.  All the projects are not done, we have less $$ than we wished for but carp eh diem!!  We were done sitting at the dock doing the “LIST”,  I packed up my office, took our car to its storage spot, Tilly’s off to her great new home for a year and we cast off the lines.  There will be blog catchup over the next few weeks on projects. We didn’t get far the first day but Henry Bay was far enough.  We need a day to decompress Barb and Bob were out on their boat and had cocktails with us that evening.  That was repeated the next evening as Mal and Sandra Walsh and Jim Edgar joined the Tease’s for a pot luck aboard Adesso.  A good time was had by all and now our new adventure begins!!!!

Argh Matey

Mal and Sandra with their friends Zinda and Robin Fitzgerald were headed out on a Irish mission to Hornby and back.   Somehow Sue and Sandra conspired to have us all meet in Henry Bay for a drink or two… and dinner.   It turned out to be a beautiful evening, not to mention, being surrounded by the Irish is a workout, on your face’s laugh muscles.  I often wonder if the “Irish humour” is actually a gene and when an Irish child is born their first words are a joke! When the sun shines at this time of year our “backyard” is undoubtably one of our planets most beautiful areas.

Enjoying the evening on Adesso

The Irish hard at work!

View of Denman Island over Chance.

We are going!

Hurray  – or –  Akkkk what have we done!!!   Sue with great excitement gave her leave notice so we are committed to our offshore adventure this fall.   The boat list is small ( I hope it stays that way) , our piggy bank has no where near enough $$$, the list of what we need to organize seems way toooooooooo long but throwing caution to the wind we are off.    You might find us at Costco in future year getting the $1.50 hotdog special to survive but as I often say ” you never know what might fall out the sky”.    Josh is enrolling with PIE education for school and is very excited to be off traveling the less traveled road.   Tilly will have to find a temporary home while we are gone because she is terrified at sea and really needs a few sheep to keep her occupied, Kayto on the other hand will join us, Yeh

Bluewater Cruising Association (which we are members) put on a one day safety at sea course for those of us that have never had the misfortune to use that expensive piece of safety equipment call the ” Life Raft”.  Our thinking was it might be a good idea to have this experience before we were actually in a crisis, in fact our inflatable lifejackets had never been activated either!   So off the whole family went to dress in full gear, jump into the pool and try all this out. Was it worth it  – YES!!!!!, and it was a lot of fun.

In thirty years of cruising we have never fallen over board, need a life raft, even had to use a flare gun but you really don’t want the first time you use these to be in a real emergency when the stress is high and a wrong decision could cost a life.  I recommend this for all sailors whether your going offshore or not.  What were the big lessons?

Class of Spring 2014

1.  Mustang lifejackets were great but you need a bum strap.  Without this the jacket tends to ride up and you could slip out if your being tossed around in chop.

2.  Know your life raft.  Every manufacturer has different features and the position of the gear in the raft is different.  Spend the time to study your particular raft.  Our is a Givens and are happy to know its design features are great.  We had trouble getting in the DBC because there was no ladder and with an inflated life jacket this is no easy feat!

We lost our beautiful spring like weather to a foot of slush, ugh. The last few days have reminded us why we really are looking forward to our trip South. Slush is worse than rain as it doesn’t run off, just piles up putting water in places that you never imagined!

Adesso in the Snow

I must say that though my feelings about furry crew is that life without is easier, Sue fell for Kato (his name now) at the local pet store and showed up aboard.  He has adapted well considering we failed at the “head” training attempt #1, and has taken a couple of winter time dips in the ocean. If you can imagine a cat leaping out of frigid water so fast you didn’t even notice how he got out.  On our first trip with him this Christmas we found out he loves a moving boat, as soon as we were off the dock the cat was roaring up and down the decks, my thinking was we were going to get a cat overboard drill on the trip!  So welcome aboard Kato, I’m sure we will be posting your antics in the future.

Kato the cat

Sunset at Henry Bay

A quick get away for the night to Henry Bay proved to be a little exciting. I have been cut polishing the top sides and in the rush to leave our slip we forgot the hose on deck, yes it was still attached to the dock. No damage done but we were a little sheepish. The lesson learned is ALWAYS walk the boat before casting off ! Josh and his friend Greyson played Tarzan off the bow but it should be noted that the warm water is gone. It’s amazing how beautiful this spot is so close to our home.

Josh at Henry Bay.mov

Greyson at Henry Bay.mov

The days were very foggy in the Broken Group so we decided to make a run for Victoria  and the sunshine!!  The westerly gale that sets up in the Juan de Fuca Strait should just push us there, at least that is what we thought!  It turned out that the two day trip back to civilization was without a breeze and mired in fog the whole day.  Ugg.  As soon as we rounded Race Rocks 4 miles from Victoria the fog disappeared and a breeze stared up, as if it was waiting for us to arrive via motor.  None the less we were happy to be back in the warm so after a fuel up we ventured over to Hidden Harbour Marina where our friend Jim and a slip awaited.  From here to Comox we would have a packed social schedule which was wonderful.  We had time to visit with so many friends and family.  Tilly was loving all the visitors thinking they had all come to see her and she was happy to see the end of all that swell.

Tilly greeting Uma, love at first sight.

The last couple of weeks of our trip went like a blur which results in the blur of a post. Due to all the distraction no pictures were taken and even though we covered a lot of ground this story is condensed into a few lines.

Josh people watching in Victoria.

Victoria

– saw Chris, Lisa Uma,Jim Cookie,Al,Zoe

– shopped for t-shirts, shorts, beer, coffee

Canoe Cove

– on mooring buoy to have the Backstay adjuster repaired

– saw Jim and Kathy

Mill Bay

– saw the Smith and Bannister clans

Walace Island Marine park

– break to swim and hike with just us

Step-in out on the town!

Vancouver

– very busy!!!!  Granville Island tasties!!

– saw Jeff for dinner

Jedediah Island

– couple of days in our favorite Marine Park close to home

Comox

– on our mooring for a quick laundry and grab food

– pic up Glenn and Asheya

 Now we were off to Cortes to witness Tim and Elizabeth getting married…  The sun and fun seemed like it would never end!  Well, rain was in the forecast for the first time in a month and a half.

We head out of Ucluelet for an easy jaunt over to the Broken Group. Not much wind or swell and since we are also outta fish, its definitely a good fishing day! Josh, my 15 year old son, and I check out charts using Navionics to determine best fishing hole between Ucluelet and Turtle Island and decide that its definitely the southeast side of Sargison Bank. This is called ‘womanly-fish-witching/tuition’ – no knowledge or experience required! We have pretty funky fishing gear, not much experience, little patience and mostly we are good at finding baby cod in little nursery holes. So totally unprepared, a 40 pound halibut latches onto one of our measley rods…. Josh on the other end with excited expletives abounding! Josh reels his prize within 15’ of the boat. We look the fish, our net, one-another… now what? There is just no way the cod-baby-net is going to snag this monster…

This is a picture of the 4 foot long Halibut from the boat.

At this point Josh is demanding, “Ted, call someone!” I’m encourage, “We can do this, guys! We can get this fish!” It quickly becomes evident that we do not have the equipment to haul this fish aboard, but we are sure that we can claim our fame and land this prize!

The Plan: drag it ashore using the dingy (despite that only a rocky outcrop on puntsy islet is available nearby), bonk it with a hammer, flop it into the dingy, and get properly anchored on Adesso so we can do the cleaning and processing. Sounds good, right? It takes an hour to get to the islet

So I lady-the-helm on Adesso, equip the dingy with meagre tools-of-halibut-steak production, and Josh and Ted head off in the dingy. The dingy lands, or bounces around on sketchy rocks and Josh quickly leaps out and starts dragging his prize on a barncle ridden rocky outcrop. Ted stays in the dingy to navigate the rocks and bouncing dingy. When I look over my shoulder towards shore i see a mammoth fish up on the rocks with Josh trying to drag it higher. Next look… Josh is getting yanked into the ocean, but somehow manages to sit and straddle the fish.

Josh’s legs took a beating, this is the goods one!

Ted is out of my line of sight. Then i see this wildly flapping fish tail with Josh riding it hard rodeo style. Afterwards Josh it was like being violently jiggled ontop a slimy mount while his legs and knees took a bloody bashing. The next thing that happens is most unfortunate. A large swell rolls ashore  swamps both Josh and fish into the ocean.

The fish dove as soon as the water hit it and  Josh stood, threw up his arms, and let out a new batch of expletives.

A very large and wiser halibut still lurkes along Sargison Bank and we hunkered into Joe’s Cove to lick our wounds and drown our disappointment.

Entry by Sue

Walking the board walk to the hot springs

We had confused seas around Estevan Point and then a run into Hot Springs Cove.  Surprisingly we shared the anchorage with only two other boats and after 7:00 pm all the daytime people had left.  We had the evenings to ourselves, warm spring water, beautiful sky, a whale and its calf hanging out in front of the spring, eagles flying overhead, need I say more.   My aging bones truly loved this stop.  The next few stops were Matilda Cove and a hike to White Sand beach, Tofino for dinner, Ucluelet to do laundry and restock the cupboard a little and walk the trail around Amphitrite Point, then off into the Broken Group for a couple of days. One theme that started once we rounded  Estevan was fog, at times very thick, the radar came in handy!  Also the temperature dropped  – burr almost had to find the woolies.

View of the sky fromthe hot springs.