September 11, 2008
Greetings from the Straits of Juan De Fuca. Everything for the most part has been good though we had a bit of excitement one night in Nanaimo. The town was nice & everything was in walking distance. There was a city park on an island that we wanted to explore so we decided to spend an extra day. The morning of the second of the day, a harbor patrol boat came over & told us we were anchored outside the general anchorage and had to move. The day we came in the anchorage was quite full & we took a spot on the outside – now we had to move closer in. We did so but other boats were quite near us. Because of this, we couldn’t put out as much scope (anchor chain) as we would have liked. Normally, this wouldn’t be too much of a problem unless the wind picks up which of course it decided to do. It had been blowing steady throughout the day but around midnight we started to get gusts of over 30mph. We could hear a lot of noise from our bedroom because it is located below the waterline. We could hear the waves & the anchor chain pulling. At one point, after I dozed off, Pete noticed the noise had stopped. He got up to check just as our anchor alarm went off. Sure enough, we were dragging & being blown towards another boat. It’s not a fun way to wake-up but you sure do wake up quick. Luckily, Pete was on it pretty quick. We started up the motor & picked up our anchor & tried to reposition ourselves. As we were doing this, another boat started to drag their anchor & came close to hitting us. Luckily, they didn’t & we were able to set our hook. This time we put out a lot of chain & though we anchored again outside the general anchorage, we got up early & left before the patrol boat came around. Fun times.
The next day was great. We headed over to Cowichan Bay to meet up with Dan & Deanna, the owners of Seas ‘N Ticket. We had first met them in Namu (they were the ones who gave us the tip on using prawn bait instead of fish heads to catch prawns) and then continually met up with them in various ports. Dan had also told us about the bears in Lowe Inlet & the Eucott Hot Springs - both great stops. We met up with them & it was great to come ashore & actually know people. Dan had mentioned a place he knew that had great burgers. I also had my first Caesar – the Canadian equivalent of a Bloody Mary. Very tasty! We also showed them around our boat as they are thinking about getting a larger boat & doing more extensive cruising. Look forward to having them visit us in SF.
We left Cowichan late in the afternoon & headed to Russell Island, a little speck of a Gulf Island. We have started to watch the weather on the coast & realized this would be our last bit of Canadian quiet before we head out so we ended up spending two nights there. It was a mellow place with a great beach & lots of blackberries. What more could you want. We had a very relaxing day reading & kayaking & lounging around. It was heavenly.
So now we’re headed to Pt. Angeles. We plan to provision there & then head to Neah Bay. This is an Indian Reservation on the US side, right next to Cape Flattery. We’ll be able to get a early start Saturday morning as we start to head south into the Pacific. We plan to stop in Newport Oregon to fuel up and also to possibly pick up a third crew member. Our friend & neighbor Richard, who lives at Galilee Harbor, is hoping to meet us there if he can find transportation from SF to Newport. Seems it’s a bit harder to do than you might think.
We hope to be home within a few days but you never know as it’s all weather dependant. To anyone reading this in the SF area, Pete’s band the Harbor Rats, have a gig on Friday, Sept 26th at Ireland 32 in SF. Would love to see you there & catch-up in person.
Will write again when we have computer access. Until then…
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