boatcruise07

Day 13 - August 8th Victoria Harbour

2007-08-09T17:01:00.000-07:00

The clouds and cooler temperatures that provided a brief intermission from the monotony of the typical sunny weather we've had. I know, boring...right? Well, the good ole' boring sunshine is back and we're looking to walk about for a bit for the usual shopping and sightseeing. But first, food. By 10:00, we were showered and on our way over to a restaurant we saw the day before that looked like it might be a good spot for breakfast.

Arriving at the restaurant just before 10:30 (I've been including time frames on my updates just in case I find myself in need of an alibi), and were immediately seated. The hostess then asked us to please not sit on the floor in front of the entrance. She then lead us to a nice little booth, where we enjoyed a delicious breakfast and were on our way by 11:20.

We began our walk up Douglas Street on our exploration of the local retail establishments before heading over to the Royal Museum for the Titanic exhibit, when about 15 minutes into the walk, Lysa began not feeling well and having difficulty walking. This sometimes happens when her fibromyalgia is especially bad. I suggeted we head back so she could lay down, but she wanted to walk a bit more to see if things would improve. We agreed to walk towards the harbour just in case things did not improve and we could get back to the boat sooner, rather than later.

On the way back, we encountered a street performer who was made up to look like a bronze statute of a cowgirl. She looked incredible and hopefully the photo can capture some of the detail that went into her costume.

Arriving back on board, Lysa laid out in the sun for a bit, before heading down to bed for a nap. I decided to work on the previous day's update and then sat up on deck to soak up some sun myself. Later on, we walked up to the market to buy some provisions for the trip home on Friday, and on the way Lysa noticed a sign on the front of a building that looked like a prop from a Monty Python skit, which read in part, "Office of the Conflict of Interest Commissioner".

We'll try again for the Titanic exhibit and some shopping tomorrow. For now, it's a beautiful evening on the water in this very cool place to da' north and we'll just see what tomorrow brings.

Day 12 - August 7th Victoria Harbour Marina

2007-08-08T12:01:00.000-07:00

We awoke around 9:00 to the sounds of the harbour waterfront; tourists bargaining with the street vendors, boat engines starting up and the chime tower in front of the Royal Museum. Soon the kilted (are there any other kind?) bagpipe player will start his extensive repertoire on the corner about 150 ft. from our spot on the dock.

By the time we got up and got to the showers, it was almost 10:30. A weather system had moved in making it a gray, muggy day with the wind now blowing at only 10 knots from the south. As we made our way back from the showers, located on the other side of the harbour, we decided to stop at Milestones for some brunch as it was on the way to the boat and well, damn it, we were hungry...sorry, I get cranky when I haven't eaten for a while.

After a very nice brunch (see how much my disposition has improved now that I've had something to eat?), we walked through the waterfront gauntlet of tourists, the local craft vendors, artists and musicians back to our dock, where we unloaded our shower bags and grabbed the camera to take along on a walk around Victoria. Since we had decided to extend our stay in Victoria to Friday morning, we're looking forward to navigating our way around the waterfront activities for a couple more days.

As we strolled up to the corner with the intention of going to the Royal Museum to pick-up some information on the Titanic exhibit and accompanying Imax film "Titanica", we noticed something taking place on the grounds in front of the Parliament building and walked over there to take a closer look. A girls marching band carrying flags bearing something that closely resembled the Microsoft logo (when did Bill Gates buy Canada?), performed for dignitaries and onlookers assembled on the steps of Parliament.

Being the astute observer that I am, I noticed a beautiful memorial statute dedicated to those who have served and died in the line of duty as part of the Canadian Armed Forces. On the other side of Parliament's "front yard" was a very cool totem pole called the "Knowledge Totem" with the "Loon, Fisherman, Bone Game Player and Frog representing lesson of the past and hope for the future". It was carved by members of the Cowichan Tribe to commemorate Victoria's role in hosting the XV Commonwealth Games in August 1994.

Leaving the ceremony being played out in front of Parliament, we walked across the street to the Royal Museum and grabbed a brochure containing a schedule of the Imax schedule for use either tomorrow or Thursday. We then walked over to Douglas Street, a main business artery, and walked the six or seven blocks up to the business district, as which time we decided to cut back towards the harbour checking out shops on the way.

At one point of our walk, I saw a cool old car (I think it was a 1946 or 47 Mercury Sedan) pulling into a parking space across the street and thought it would make a nice photo. We crossed over towards the classic car and noticed a gate leading into a courtyard with a large fountain just beyond the sidewalk. Since the guy was still parking the car and not wanting to be intrusive while he was trying to parallel park a car that most likely lacked power steering, we walked into the courtyard to have a look and would come back for the photo.

As we moved closer to the fountain, we heard live jazz music being played off to our right and looking in that direction, we saw the outdoor stage with a small, but enthusiastic audience enjoying the show. We walked over and sat down on an open bench. The band consisted of a xylophone player, guitarist, drummer, bassist and electric piano player. They sounded quite good and the guy on the xylophone rocked the house...or as much as one playing jazz could rock out.

After three songs or so, we headed back to where the classic car was parked only to find it had left the scene. Apparently, it was too much of a parallel parking challenge for the guy driving and he moved on for a spot more accessible. Oh well, it was worth missing out on the photo as we got a surprise concert and a short break from our walk.

We proceeded down some side street to check out some cool little shops as we headed towards the big shopping mall "The Bay" to look for a carrying case for our new camera. After going from store to store with no luck of finding the camera case and needing to use the restroom, we found the mall directory and discovered that they're only on the bottom floor, so down we went. Once done using the "facilities", we turned the corner from the restrooms and found a small Rebok carrying case that would work just fine in the second store down.

With our camera properly protected, we walked towards the harbour and back to the boat. On the way we saw some of the beautiful old architecture of Victoria and marveled at how well they had been preserved given their age. But hey, that's part of the charm of this cool place.

Arriving back at the Reaper around 2:30, I made a sandwich and got to work on two day's worth of updates on the blog, while Lysa took a much needed nap. Since it was even more cloudy and the winds blowing even more, I decided to hang out in the cabin for some "quiet" time on the computer, so once done with the blog update, I read the Seattle Times and watched some news videos on CNN.

Lysa's awoke from her coma around 7:00 and we dined on leftover salmon and salad, then took a short walk to restock the ol' ice supply and were done for the day by 10:00. The weather is supposed to clear up tomorrow, which may be a good time to duck indoors to check out the Titanic exhibit or we'll just see how things play out.

Day 11 - August 6th Ganges Marina to Victoria

2007-08-07T16:56:00.000-07:00

We were up and showered by 8:00, then it was off the the B&B for some "B", which was quite good and reasonably priced. Being an equal opportunity carnivore, I tried the lamb sausage and eggs, which were quite tasty, while Lysa enjoyed her eggs, bacon and pancakes. With tummies full, we were ready to head back and prepare for our cruise down to Victoria.

Arriving back on the Reaper, we began the process of getting underway by re-stocking our ice supply, stowing any loose items that might go flying once I take off to get up to cruising speed, unhooking the shore power, then warming up the twins. We headed out just after 10:00 among a handful of other boats setting out for the next destination of their trip. As we convoyed in single file though the speed controlled area of the harbor, the winds began to pick-up and start pushing the water directly into our bow as we headed south.

Once out of the speed controlled area and with the water now beginning to show signs of whitecaps as they broke as waves, I throttled up the engines and got the Reaper's bow up sticking up at nearly a 45 degree angle until I reached planing speed of about 18 knots. I then applied the trim-tabs (hydraulically activated plates attached to the bottom at the very back of the boat, that are raised and lowered to allow control the "trim" or level of the boat) and got her down on plane and set the speed for 22 knots.

As we proceeded out of Ganges Harbor and into an area called "Captain Passage" (I know, it sounds like some obscure superhero...Captain Passage, protector of bowles and colons everywhere) that leads down between Salt Spring and Prevost Islands. Once I reached the southern most point of Salt Spring Island, I turned right and headed towards the Saanich Peninsula of Vancouver Island just north of Sydney.

As things were starting to really get rough with 2-3 foot swells causing us to bounce around just a bit, I pulled in behind another boat just a little larger than mine and used their wake to help offset the fast moving current. This helped to smooth out the ride quite a bit until I had to turn off of the other boat's course and head down through "Shute Passage" which leads to a chain of small islands on route to Sydney.

The waters off the Port of Sydney were still pretty rough, but as we made our way south of Sydney and into "Cordova Channel", the waters calmed down substantially due to the protection offered by "James Island" just off to our left (or for those of you who have been paying attention, port). Once through Cordova Channel and the wind still blowing very hard from the south, we headed out into "Haro Strait" where the swells had now reached 3-5 feet and were bouncing us around all over. After about 30 minutes of this, I decided to try and head inland a bit to see if things were less bumpy there. They were, but not much.

We continued down to the south-eastern most point of Vancouver Island, where we would need to turn just inside of the small island chain that lies just beyond this part of Vancouver Island. That's when things got interesting.

Apparently, this was a popular time to enter the narrow channel leading to the "home stretch" of open water en route to Victoria Harbour. So, between the knuckleheads plowing their 40-50' power yachts through some pretty small passages of water AND the 20-30 knot winds pushing up swells of 4-6 feet, we kinda had our work cut out if we were going to make it to Victoria in one piece.

At one point, I had to take evasive action to avoid the massive wake of some jerk flying up from behind and to our left and the fast approaching swell that was fast approaching to add some "umpf" to the boat wake. As I swung around to my right, narrowly avoiding the tidal wave created by both man and nature, I saw an opening in the lane and powered up for the ride through "Mayor Channel".

As we rounded "Gonzales Point" and headed into "Enterprise Channel", the water was less violent and the break in our "white-knuckled" boating was most appreciative, although short-lived. As soon as we passed "Trial Island", leaving the calmer waters of Enterprise Channel, we found ourselves in the exposed waters of the Strait of Juan De Fuca and with the winds still blowing up 4-6 foot swells, the "fun" would continue right up until we reached the entrance to Victoria Harbour and was compounded by the large power boats leaving Victoria.

Having been extremely shaken (but not stirred), we finally made it into the flacid waters of Victoria Harbour and began figuring out how to make contact with the public marina office as we were hoping to secure moorage at the floating docks located in front of the Empress Hotel.

We found the radio channel for the Greater Victoria Harbour Marina and were told that moorage was available and then given directions to our assigned dock, which is very close to the Parliament building and has a great view of the waterfront area where the street performers display their craft and local artists set-up booths to sell their art work or jewelry.

Once we were tied up, I pulled out the power cord to get juice to the boat and got the hose out to wash off the saltwater that had been sprayed all over by the winds and rough swells. Lysa went off to pay for our slip and by the time she returned, I had completed the wash down and we were both ready for a strong drink. It was almost 2:00, so we walked up to a very nice Irish Pub to order some lunch and get that much needed drink.

At this point, we plan to stay in Victoria for two-nights, but given what it took to get here, we're also considering staying until Friday, when we would just cruise over to the San Juans for customs check-in at Roche Harbor and then take off for home.

Day 10 - August 5th Ganges Marina

2007-08-07T15:15:00.000-07:00

Waking to yet another beautiful, sunny day in the Gulf Islands; we showered and headed to a nearby bed & breakfast for the breakfast part.

Having already missed out on exploring the vast retail opportunities (okay, maybe vast is overstating just a bit) the previous day due to our late arrival and the town's early closure, we ate up and walked a couple of blocks into town, where we came upon the local shopping centre (remember that Canadian law I mentioned about spelling certain words differently?).

We moved about from touristy gift shops to toy stores to book emporiums to a hardware store (Mouats Hardware) that seemed anything but, as it also carries a number of non-hardware items such as furniture, kid's toys, boating, fishing and camping accessories, looking for that elusive perfect souvenir or cool gift for the grand kids. After a few hours of "browsing", we narrowed down our search to a few souvenir t-shirts for the grand kids and some paperback novels that somehow had gone unread by Lysa, who was now going to make-up for the oversight.

After picking up a few items at the market, we hiked back to the marina for some much needed "hydration". Once back on the boat, we enjoyed some music and the last few glorious hours of sunshine before turning in for the night. Tomorrow, we make the long cruise to Victoria, where I hope to finally learn her secret...ah yes, I can hear the moans all the way from Canada.

Day 9 - August 4th Roche Harbor to Ganges Marina

2007-08-06T16:59:00.000-07:00

With our newly repaired muffler, we left Roche Harbor for Bedwell Harbor, South Pender Island, around 10:30 and since the conditions were pretty calm, we took it nice and easy cruising along Stuart Island at 10 knots. As we were about half way across Boundary Passage (the area of water between the US and Canada, the winds began picking up and made the rest of the trip to South Pender Island a bit bumpy.

We pulled into Bedwell Harbor around 12:30, and between the amount of boat traffic and the wind pushing hard from the north at around 20 knots, getting to the Canadian Customs dock and then tying up was quite a challenge, but with a bit of luck and skill, we made it with only a moderate amount of stress and no damage.

Checking in at customs consisted of calling from a bank of phones set-up just outside the customs office, and after providing some information on us and our boat, we were on our way within half an hour to Ganges Marina on Salt Spring Island, which lays off the coast of Vancouver Island between Sydney and Naniamo, and is the largest of the southern Gulf Islands.

After a beautiful sightseeing cruise past North and South Pender Islands, we arrived at Ganges Marina just after 4pm. Once the Reaper was tied to the dock and we paid for our slip, we took a nice walk into "town" or village would be more like it. By the time we made the short 10 minute walk to the business district, most stores and shops were closed, so we checked out a cool little candy, chocolate and gelato ice cream shop, then walked across the street to a small shopping center and as it was with some of the other businesses, most of these shops were also closed for the day. Since there was no use in doing any more sightseeing in Ganges, we walked back to the boat and got things set-up for dinner.

Once the grilled brats were consumed, we hung out on the back (aft or stern) of the boat while the sun began its decent just behind us and played Yahtzee, which my competitive side is pleased to report that I won 2 out of 3 games by quite a large margin of victory. Oh, I can roll the dice, I just can't put words together using little square letters and playing off other words that are spelled out. I guess, you just have to play to your strengths and I guess tossing dice into a card board box top is one of mine.

After the Yahtzee match, we broke out the "entertainment" centre (see, we're in Canada and apparently it's the law that you have to spell words that end in "ter" as if you had dyslexia) to watch "The Black Dahlia", which I thought was a Spike Lee Joint, but turned out to be about two LA cops who were assigned to solve the infamous murder of Elizabeth Short, a wannabe actress who got in with the wrong sort of people while trying to "make it" in movies, which made it a Brian De Palma Joint. Oh well, you can't win em all.

Tomorrow is looking to be a day of shopping and just checking out the local sights, then relaxing on the boat. Not necessarily in that order...

Day 8 - August 3rd Roche Harbor

2007-08-04T15:34:00.000-07:00

Our last day at Roche Harbor began with Bill's arrival to install the repaired muffler. Once it was in, the moment of truth was at hand. I started the engine and she fired up with no problem, and sounded just fine. Boy, what a relief. We gratefully handed a check over to Bill and made sure to get some of his business cards to pass out to marina neighbors who venture up this way and find themselves in need of help.

With Bill and his son Cody taking off in their inflatable dinghy, we walked up to the cafe for breakfast as it was 9:00 and we had not heard from Ross. As I got in line to order, Lysa went inside to secure a table for our meal. Inside, she found Ross placing his order, with Kristina seated outside at a picnic table. We sat together for about an hour, eating and chatting as the other boaters wandered by on way to a gift shop or to catch the shuttle into Friday Harbor.

After breakfast, we bid Ross and Kristina happy paddling (in their kayak) back to Pearl Island and headed back to the Reaper, where I needed to perform some needed maintainence to our batteries by filling the cells with distilled water. Once that was done, it was time to update the blog.

After lunch, we walked up to the shore for some shopping and a little ice cream. With a few souveniers in tow, we stopped to restock our ice supply and headed back to the boat, where we just kicked back in the sun and relaxed. As we soaked up the sun on the back of the boat, people stopped by to ask about our boat and the plans for the rest of our trip. For the most part, folks either visiting Roche Harbor or those deemed to be "residents" of the marina, are very friendly and as boaters, we all have that commen bond to boats and our love of seeing the world from the water.

I grilled up some pork chops for dinner and Lysa cooked up some pasta for a light summer dinner. After our tasty meal, Lysa went up to find a shady place to do some reading and I hiked up the hill behind the town to find a good vantage point for taking some sunset photos. Getting to the top and down the road to find just the right spot was a good little workout, and well worth the effort as I was able to take some nice shots of the marina as the sun was beginning to set.

Once back in town, I took a few more "parting" shots of the general store, the hotel and the building called the "Quarry Mall", which contains some offices and a very high end furnishings store. By now, it was well after 9:00, so I headed back to the boat, where this evening's feature is a quirkly english film called "Hot Fuzz", which started off well, but petered-out half way through and it was all we could do to stay awake until the end.

We'll be getting up early in the hope of leaving Roche Harbor for customs check-in at a place called "Bedwell Harbor" on South Pender Island, then it's onto the Ganges Marina on Salt Springs Island for a nice two-day stay, then it's off to beautiful Victoria, where we hope to get a first-come-first-serve slip at the small harbor marina in front of the Empress Hotel and be in very close walking distance to all the cool places, such as the Royal Museum, which is currently displaying artifacts from the Titanic. And we thought we had boat problems!

Day 7 - August 2nd Roche Harbor

2007-08-03T11:45:00.000-07:00

We slept in and enjoyed a late breakfast of bagels and eggs, after which, I worked on writing about the previous day's fun for the daily blog update. The rest of the afternoon was spent on projects (installing a couple of shelves into a narrow cabinet and resealing some trim on the exterior) and cleaning the grill for that night's dinner.

Just as I pulled the spare ribs off the grill, we received a couple of very special visitors, Ross Heyl and his lovely wife, Kristina (frankly, I just don't get what she sees in the guy, but I'm sure there's blackmail involved), who arrived from their place on Pearl Island by way of dinghy. After a nice visit, during which we recanted the whole muffler explosion and nearly running into the rocks story, Ross and Kristina boarded their small outboard motor boat to head back to Pearl Island. Before their departure, we made tentative plans to join them for breakfast at the marina cafe around 8:oo the following morning.

Later in the evening, we decided to walk up to the village for some ice cream. As we were heading towards some Rocky Road ice cream, we ran into Bill carrying our repaired muffler. He informed us that he was just taking it down to the boat to drop off and would be coming back in the morning to install it. We were thrilled to see the muffler back in one piece and to realize that soon we'd be back up and running again. After setting a time for Bill's return for installing the part, we purchased our ice cream from the local stand and found a nice spot to people watch while enjoying our frozen treat.

Once the ice cream was consumed, we took a walk around one of the marina docks to check out some boats. Returning back at the Reaper, Lysa took another load of laundry up while I cleaned the grill for the next boatside BBQ dinner. With the grill clean and stowed away, I proceeded with the nightly ritual of putting things away and closing the canvass at the rear of the boat. When Lysa returned with the laundry, we settled in to watch "The Astronaut Farmer", which we enjoyed very much.

With a very "quiet" day behind us, we hit the sack looking forward to our boat repair being completed and hopeful that we would hook up with Ross and Kristina at some point for breakfast. We're somewhat back on track with our plans for heading up to Salt Spring Island off Vancouver Island, then down to Victoria for a couple of days before returning to the San Juan Island on the last stop of our amazing journey.

Day 6 - August 1st Roche Harbor

2007-08-02T12:41:00.000-07:00

We woke up bright and early (at least for us) at 7:30 in preparation of Bill’s 9:00 arrival to remove the muffler damaged by the gas explosion back at Blakely Island Marina. After hitting the shower and grabbing some breakfast at the marina café, we went back to the Reaper to clear the cockpit area (backend of the boat) so Bill would have complete access to the compartment hatch for removal of the muffler. This entailed complete removal of the bench seat that goes nearly the entire width of the boat and is a bit on the heavy side.

With the help of a marina deckhand who happened to be nearby helping an incoming boat tie-up to its slip, we got the bench seat out onto the dock and had the entire area cleared in time for Bill’s anticipated arrival at 9am. While waiting for Bill, we flagged down the marina's "mobile" holding tank pump-out boat called the MV Phekal Phreak, whose motto is "We take crap from anyone" and fortunately, they took it from us.

When 11:00 rolled around with no sign of Bill, we gave him a call and was told that he had come by at 8:30 and thought we were still sleeping. So, he decided to go and take care of some other things on his list and intended to give us a call, but got involved with these other things and forgot. He made it at 11:30 and had the muffler out in 10 minutes, and was off to his shop to prepare it for the repair work by trimming the frayed edges and sanding the surface in order for the glasswork to adhere.

Lysa and I headed off to catch the 12:30 shuttle to Friday Harbor to pick-up some supplies and see a bit of the area. Arriving in Friday Harbor just before 1:00, our first stop was to find a place for lunch. We soon located a nice little Mexican restaurant and had a nice meal complemented with a very “refreshing” margarita.

After lunch, we made our way further into town and located the hardware and marine store for a few of the items we needed, then it was off to the market for some food provisions. By this time, we were ready to head back to meet the shuttle for the return trip to Roche Harbor. With nearly a half hour until our shuttle arrived, we found a bench in the shade near the shuttle stop to wait.

While waiting for the shuttle, I noticed one of the most beautiful 1966 convertible Mustangs I had ever seen parked across the street. After taking a couple of pictures, I returned to our bench and after about 10 minutes, an older couple probably in their 60s (most likely the original owners) came out of a store, got in and drove off. We then headed to the shuttle pick-up spot and in line at the ferry loading area; I spotted a beautiful Olds Cutless, which looked to have been made around 1969, or 70. After snapping off a couple of pictures, we boarded the shuttle for the short ride back to Roche Harbor.

Once back on board, I went to work giving the Reaper a much needed bath while Lysa went up to the shore to find a nice shaded spot to hang out and read one of her many paperbacks. Cleaning the boat was hot, sweaty work, but well worth it as she was really in need of a good scrubbing. After all the cleaning supplies were stored, I treated myself to an ice cold Corona and crashed in the padded deck chair until it was time to head up to the store to restock on ice and yes, beer.

After the colors ceremony, Lysa went up to do a load of laundry while I hooked up our “entertainment” system to watch a video, “The Departed”, which was an amazing piece of cinema and an incredible story plot. Tomorrow, we’ll take care of a few miscellaneous projects and go for a tour of the marina to check out the incredible yachts that are moored here.

Just another day in paradise….

Day 5 - July 31st Blakely Island - Roche Harbor

2007-08-01T17:36:00.000-07:00

Today we say goodbye (finally) to Blakely Island as we await the arrival of our towboat to take us to Roche Harbor, where Bill will remove our detonated muffler and re-glass the 12” top back onto the main muffler piece.

When our tow arrived, it was a simple matter of tying their short harness line to our bow for the short ride out into the bay, where the line will be lengthened for the rest of the 2-3 hour ride to Roche Harbor.

The towboat skipper was having a bit of a problem keeping his engine running and upon restarting for the third time, poked his head out of the helm to inform us that he just switched fuel tanks and there shouldn’t be any further problems…yeah, right.

I was sitting at the helm of the Reaper (just in case) when I noticed a couple standing next to their sailboat watching us being towed. So, I took the opportunity to yell out “We really save on gas this way!” and actually got a grin from them as we drifted on by. The Grin Reaper strikes again!

Heading towards the sharp left turn leading out of the marina, the towboat slowed for the maneuver and just as he made the turn, his engine once again died. As he fired up the engine and put it in forward gear, it died again, and again, and again. By now we were drifting towards the rock wall that lined the side of the marina entrance/exit. Each time he got the engine going, it died as soon as he put in gear to move. With only a foot or two to spare before we drifted into rocks, thus adding one more thing to “write home about”, Lysa yells for me to start our good engine and get us the hell away from the wall. With that, I fired up the port engine and threw it into reverse, just narrowly avoiding the loud “crunching” sound of braking fiberglass as we banged up against the rocks.

Oh yeah, by using our engine to keep us off the rocks, we also kept the towboat from suffering the same fate. You know things aren’t going well when the tow-ee becomes the tow-er. Once clear of the rocks, the towboat skipper (not me) got his engine going enough to get us moving and out of the marina. We headed out into the bay, where we slowed while they let out some line for the rest of the cruise.

Lysa and I settled back for the long, slow trip to Roche Harbor, during which, I had the rare opportunity to kick back like a real passenger on my own boat. While Lysa read, I made a sandwich and took bodacious amounts of pictures, including the ever-obligatory “Ferry” shot. Or in this case, shots.

The conditions could not have been better for being towed, with virtually no wind and a glass-like water surface. All of which helped tremendously in facilitating our arrival to Roche Harbor just under the 3-hour ($500) towing time limit for which we’re covered under our insurance policy.

As we pulled into to the Roche Harbor Marina, we called in and were given our slip assignment. Stopping just short of the marina entrance, the towboat skipper untied the bowline and moved around to our starboard side (that’s still right-side as you’re facing the front of the boat) to tie up for maneuvering us into our side-tie moorage slip. With no further engine problems, the towboat captain skillfully moved us to our “home” for the next few days and with some help from a couple of marina dock-hands, we were tied up and secured in no time.

Still a bit shaken from our close call at the Blakely Island Marina, we headed up to the local watering hole for a cocktail and appetizer. From our window table inside The Madrona, we watched as the daily ritual known as “the colors” was being played out. This sunset ceremony basically brings all marina activity to a halt as the Canadian and American national anthems are played while each nation’s flags are lowered and then folded to some snappy little tune that sounded a lot like the theme music from The Bridge Over the River Kwai.

Once the cannon is fired (man, it’s fun to watch folks dive for cover when that thing goes off), everything goes back into full swing as if this were some sort of “Stepford” marina that has all staff and guests programmed to stop in their tracks while the “colors” ceremony begins to play out, then it’s right back to the hustle and bustle of a very large and busy marina operations once the cannon is fired. It’s a pretty cool thing, but also a bit unsettling at the same time.

Making it back to the Reaper around 9:30, we set-up the DVD player and our 20” monitor to watch one of our favorite boating movies, “Sahara”. Just as the opening titles were rolling, our mechanic, Bill, appeared on the dock next to our boat with his son of about 12. He stopped by to see how we were doing and was extremely upset about the “incident” at the Blakely Marina. He also wanted to let us know that he would be by around 9am the following morning to remove our muffler to take back to his shop for the necessary repair work. We chatted briefly, then said our goodbyes and took Sahara off pause to enjoy our movie under the star filled sky.

At this point, we’re playing it by ear until we know how soon the repair will take and how much we’re looking at for the cost. At that point, we’ll decide whether to continue our trip to Canada as planned or make some modifications to those destinations.

But for now, we’re enjoying the complete 180-degree difference between the quiet little Blakely Island Marina and the large bustling Roche Harbor Marina. It’s all good just the same.

Day 4 - July 30th Blakely Island

2007-07-31T13:09:00.000-07:00

We awoke to sun filled blue skies and temperatures already in the low 70s. This was going to be an awesome day…little did we know. With a minus tide of just over 2 feet, and our bottom almost touching the marina floor, we decided to do some work on the boat and figured that by 2pm, the tide would be in enough for us to make our way over to the Friday Harbor Marina for our next stop.

I worked down below going though our various storage areas to re-organize some things in order to stow some stuff that was cluttering up the place and wasn’t being used all that often. Lysa worked above cleaning the vinyl seats with this great conditioner that made them look almost new.

Just before 2:00 we had finished our work and the tide was in well enough for us to be on our way. With Lysa ready to untie us from the dock, I went to fire up the starboard (right) engine, and that’s when the fun began. As I turned the key, the engine cranked, but would not start. I then tried the port (left) engine, which started right up. So, I turned off the port engine and then tried the starboard engine once again with the same results.

We called our mechanic in Seattle, who could only recommend that we check a few things that may be the cause of the problem such as the coil, distributor and electrical harness that are all tied into the process of starting and running the engine. After checking a few things with our limited knowledge on engines, we decided to try and find some local help in getting the engine started. While I went to the marina office to inquire about contact information for a local mechanic, Lysa canvassed the docks to see if any boaters could help us figure this out.

Sally, the marina manager told me there were no marine mechanics on the island that she knew of, but she recalled allowing “a guy” who works on boats, to leave his business card in the laundry room. As I went to retrieve the card from the laundry room, Lysa found someone on the dock who was willing to at least take a look. Hillary (I’ll never make fun of guys with girl’s names ever again), was up in the San Juans with a group of friends from Gig Harbor and has experience working on his 34’ Silverton Flybridge boat.

As “we” worked (I sat and watched, while handing the occasional tool to Hillary) to figure out why our engine would not start, he determined that we were not getting any spark from our coil to the distributor. By then an older gentleman who Hillary referred to only as the “professor” arrived to take a look. To test the possible theory of the coil being bad, Hillary switched the coil from the other engine. With that done, we again tried to start the engine, but for some reason it still would not start.

So, with the coil being ruled out as the cause, a few other things were switched over (something called the ignition amplifier and coil wires) in the process of elimination that is usually part of the electrical diagnosis process, all without success. By now, two more of Hillary’s friends had joined us to offer input on things we had already tried. After nearly 3 hours, everyone was out of possible reasons for the problem given the parts we had switched from the “working” engine did not work on the non-working engine, but the parts we moved from the non-working engine, performed just fine on the port engine, which started right up with the “suspect” parts from the little engine that couldn’t.

Now it was time to call the mechanic, whose card I removed from the laundry room. It was nearly 5:30 when we reached Bill, who was in the process of towing a boat to Anacortes for repairs and said he could “swing” by on his way back to Roche Harbor. He arrived just before 8:00 that night and proceeded checking some wires while we recanted the efforts of Hillary and company earlier in the day.

Within 10-15 minutes of tinkering with some wires, Bill instructed Lysa to try and start the engine by giving it very little throttle and being prepared to shut it down immediately. With that, Lysa turned the key and behold, the engine fired right up! Within a second of this triumphant turn of events, there was a loud explosion as a fireball erupted from a large cylindrical object just below where Bill was perched while Lysa started the engine.

Once everyone recovered from the unexpected 4th of July display coming from the engine compartment of our boat, Bill explained that two little wires at the base of the distributors had come loose and all he did was to tighten them using his fingers to fix the problem. Just two stinkin’ little wires that were missed while looking for something “bigger” being the problem.

As for the resulting explosion, Bill said that because we had attempted to start the engine so many times without it working, there was a build up of gas in the exhaust system that caused our muffler to blow up. Good to know. Now the boat is really out of commission, as we need to replace or possibly repair the muffler before we can run the engine. The term “out of the frying pan and into the fire” instantly came to mind when given this latest bit of news.

So, between the cost of getting the Reaper back up and running, and the time it will take (1-2 days) to make the repair, we’re looking to make some major revisions to our trip plans and the bulk of our visit to Canada will have to be cancelled. As I write this update, Bill has informed us that he’s been unable to locate a replacement muffler for our boat and will have to perform a repair to the Fiberglas of the exploded muffler. This will involve him towing us over to Roche Harbor, where he has the equipment to make such a repair and where we’ll be for the next 2-3 days.

I’m a firm believer that all things happen for a reason and now that I can reflect back on yesterday’s events, I can see the positives that came from two stinkin’ little wires coming loose from our distributor. First, had we not decided to stay put with the change in the weather, we would have been stuck in Blind Bay or some other cove in which we decided to anchor for the night.

The decision to stay in Blakely Island not only allowed us to be “somewhere” when our engine failed to start, but also gave us the opportunity to once again validate the kindness of our fellow boaters given the help we were able to obtain by just asking. It also showed us that there are people who like Bill, who came to look at our boat after what must have been a very long day and who was able to get right to the problem, even if that did lead to a much bigger issue in terms of cost and delay in assuming our “plans”. The main thing is that no one was hurt and we met some great people who just wanted to help. So, I guess it did turn out to be an awesome day after all…and I finally got my ice cream.

Day 3 - July 29th Blakely Island

2007-07-30T10:21:00.000-07:00

Well, the plan was to check out of the Blakely Island Marina today and after taking nice sight-seeing cruise, head over to stake out our spot in Blind Bay, just north of Lopez Island, and drop anchor for the night. However, when it comes to boating, the operative word is “flexible”, and as the weather started to look like it was going to get pretty rough, we decided to just stay put for another night. As it turned out the skies clouded up quite a bit and the winds picked up, but by early afternoon, things had calmed down enough for us to take a short cruise to explore the waters between Shaw and Lopez Islands. Even though the weather ended up not raining on our parade, we were still glad to have errored on the side of caution.

Heading down through the channel between Shaw and Lopez Islands, we came upon a nice spot called Indian Cove, just off the south-east side of Lopez Island, where we dropped anchor for a couple of hours while we had some lunch and just relaxed. The overcast skies and placid waters were a nice compliment to the solitude of the cove as we were the only boat around. We headed back to Blakely Island Marina around 4pm, across calm waters that included a lot fewer boats out and about.

Arriving at our new slip (the one in which we had been staying was already reserved, so we needed to moved down three spots for our extended stay), we again performed the ritual of hosing down the boat in order to remove as much of the salt as possible, then proceeded to clean up a bit before settling down to enjoy a cold brew as I read a magazine…okay, while I looked at pictures in a magazine. So what if I’m not “hooked on phonics” and prefer to leave reading to people with much better powers of concentration than I. Not after I started paging through my boating magazine, a guy walked by and told me not to work too hard, at which I replied “I’m doin’ my best, but at some point, I’m gonna need a refill”. He told me to just pace myself and I thought that was some pretty darn good advice.

Having finished my second beer (fortunately, I paced myself while refilling) and subsequently losing interest in the pretty boat pictures, I dragged myself out of my padded deck chair and threw a couple of turkey burgers on the grill as Lysa finished a load of laundry. Man, them was some tasty burgers, even if they weren’t from a cow, mad or otherwise. After dinner, Lysa and I had a rousing game of Scrabble, and as usual, she beat me like a drum. Although, I did put up a good fight and would have won were it not for her disallowing me to use the word “xmen”, which as anyone who reads comic books or has seen the movies will tell you that “xmen” is a word for the super mutants who fight the evil mutant forces to keep us mere mortals safe from harm. Oh well, it was worth a try.

After the less than fair Scrabble game, we headed up to the marina’s general store so I could finally try out the delicious, hand-made ice cream I’ve been hearing everyone rave about, but to this point, had not timed my visit in order to sample this legendary frozen dairy delight. As we approached the door, we were struck with the sudden realization that the store closes early on Sunday and I had again missed out. While my taste buds were ever so disappointed, my bulging waistline let out a big sigh of relief. So, with the sun starting to set, I turned my attention to food for the eyes by sticking around to take some photos of the bay and cloud shrouded sky. While life is better with ice cream, there are some pretty amazing substitutes when the store is closed.

Tomorrow we head out for our two-night stay at Friday Harbor Marina on San Juan Island!

Day 2 - July 28th Blakely Island

2007-07-29T11:19:00.000-07:00

Our second day at Blakely Island started off a bit late as we slept in until almost 11am after staying up past mid-night watching Mission Impossible III (yes, Tom Cruise gets the girl, although he doesn’t know what to do with her, and saves the world), so I won’t have nearly as much to write about as yesterday, which I’m sure to some will be a relief…I know it is to me. After hitting the shower and having some breakfast/lunch, we headed up to the marina store for some caffeine and to access their wi-fi to download the photos and commentary onto our blog site for Day 1.

Once I finished with updating the blog, we headed back to take the Reaper out for a short sightseeing cruise to East Sound of Orcas Island and down the channel between Blakely and Lopez Islands.

Making our way up into East Sound, we soon discovered a minefield of crab pot buoys in just about every direction and if I didn’t want the line from those buoys wrapping around my propeller, I’d have to be on my toes just about the entire time we were out. It helped that we were only cruising at 10 knots, which made the whole zigzagging around buoys much easier.

Once we made our way up about a third of the way into East Sound, the view of bobbing green, orange and red Styrofoam pot markers started to abate and we could spend more time focusing on this amazing part of Orcas Island. Soon, we were just off shore of the Rosario Resort, where we’ll be spending the last night of our trip. It looks to be a very cool place and the location doesn’t suck at all.

Having reached the end of East Sound, we turned around and cruised south back to Blakely and Lopez Islands and through those damn crab pot buoys. Sorry for whining, but I just don’t get the attraction of dropping a basket with some chicken parts into the water in the hope some poor, desperate crab will wander in looking for an easy meal, where it’s out of the saltwater and into the boiling water. Yes, they taste good and are plentiful, but it just seems like an awful lot of work for what little meat you get from those little shelled critters…and wouldn’t it just be easier to cook and eat the chicken that’s used for bait?

Okay, enough on my lack of interest in crabbing. I’m just cranky for spending my afternoon avoiding those darn buoys. Anyway, we had great little trip exploring parts of Blakely and Lopez Islands that we had never seen before and the day was simply amazing with little to no wind and clear blue skies. We arrive back at the marina around 5:30 and took advantage of the excellent conditions to top off our gas tanks at the fuel dock located just beyond the protected waters of the marina.

As we pulled into our slip, we made acquaintances with our new dock neighbors, who were at the ready to offer help in getting us into the slip and tied-up. Fortunately, no help was needed as I managed to maneuver the Reaper back into the slip as if I knew what I was doing (and to some extent I do) and the couple to our right expressed some disappointment in not being needed as a dock crew. I think they were just hoping I’d screw-up enough to need their help and provide some much needed entertainment in the process. I then washed off some of the saltwater and started up the grill to cook up some BBQ crab bait (chicken thighs). While the chicken was cooking, a nice, retired couple came down to ask about our boat and to inquire about the name. They had brought their 30’ powerboat here from Arizona and we’re thinking about getting a larger boat similar to ours, as long as they could put it on a trailer.

So, with the clouds rolling in and the sun starting to set, I’ll just take a few more photos and call it a day.

Day 1 - July 27th Seattle to Blakely Island

2007-07-28T13:10:00.000-07:00

After staying up far too late making sure we had packed “everything” needed for the trip, the original time for waking up (6am) in order to take off at 7am was moved back an hour. Not that I got much sleep, what with it being Christmas Eve and knowing that Santa was bringing us a two-week boat cruise to the San Juan and Canadian Gulf Islands.

So, we managed to get out the door and head to the store for ice by 8:30. Thinking this was a “lucky” day, we also decided to buy Lottery tickets, but unfortunately, Safeway doesn't open its Customer Service desk until 9am. I guess anyone going to Safeway (or at least this Safeway) expecting customer service before 9am is going to be sorely disappointed.

By the time we got the boat loaded (still managing to leave a couple of items on the truck) and made our way to the locks, an armada of recreational boats were waiting for their turn to be corralled into a very confined space and tied to one another in order for the opportunity to explore the vast expanses of Puget Sound and BEYOND!

Once we had put the “bonding” experience of the locks behind us, it was 10:30 and time to head north for our destination of Blakely Island Marina. But first, we needed to make a “quick stop” for gas at the Edmonds Marina as the Reaper was down to a quarter-tank.

We pulled into Edmonds around 11:00 and were quite surprised to find there were no other boats filling-up, which we took as a great sign for getting out of there in 30 minutes or so…or so we thought. After docking, we had to call up to the office for someone to turn on the pump and after being told “I’ll be right down”, 15 minutes later, someone was right down.

As I pumped the gas in the first tank (yes, two are better than one – and more expensive), we noticed that the digital readout on the pump wasn't moving very fast. More than an hour later, we completed the slow, painful ($3.70 per gallon, ouch!) process of filling our tanks and pulled out of Edmonds at 12:30, for the long cruise ahead to the San Juan Islands by way of Deception Pass.
Making great time cruising at 24 knots, we proceed up through Saratoga Passage with massive Whidbey Island to our port (left) and Camano Island to our starboard (the other left). At 2:30, we approached the northern most part of Whidbey Island; I hung a left and headed for the rushing currents of Deception Pass, our gateway to Rosario Strait and the San Juan Islands.

Between our cruising speed and not having to contend with other boats also vying for position through the pass in either direction, the journey through Deception was blissfully uneventful. This fortunate set of circumstances allowed me to take in the beauty of this most incredible waterway.

Once through Deception Pass, we came upon the extremely tranquil waters of Rosario Strait. In the few times I have traveled these waters, this was the most calm I have ever seen Rosario Strait as I was expecting the late afternoon winds to have picked up and made things a bit rough for the home stretch to Blakely Island.

As we approached Obstruction Pass (the entry to the north Blakely Island), I dropped my speed down to about 10 knots to enjoy the amazing scenery before us and to make sure I didn’t pass the marina entrance, which I almost managed just the same.

On our port (that’s left), we passed some very nice homes that lined the banks of Blakely Island, while uninhabited Obstruction Island rolled by on our starboard (that’s the other left I mentioned earlier – don’t worry, you’ll get the hang of it before our trip is over), we kept close watch for the marina entrance and nearly sailed on by before Lysa pointed out our first stop of the trip.

The Blakely Marina is a small (by comparison), beautifully maintained marina with a very friendly and helpful staff. This will be the first of a two-night stay with many more days of adventure ahead in this Northwest paradise.

Our Boat - The "Grin Reaper"

2007-07-16T11:56:00.000-07:00

This is our 1987 Sea Ray Sundancer 340 that we purchased in May 2006. Since then, we have enjoyed countless days on the "fresh" waters of Lake Union and Lake Washington with friends and family, and have even attended a few Husky Football games by cruising up to the stadium dock for some fun "tailgating" activities before and after the game.

Our boat is moored at the Nickerson Marina, located just east of the Ballard Bridge, which gives us easy access to both Lake Union/Washington as well as going through the Hiram M. Chittenden (Ballard) Locks out onto Puget Sound. It's also a quick 5-minute commute from our home in Ballard, which makes it even more conveinent to enjoy boating year round.

We are now planning our two-week adventure cruising up to the beautiful San Juan Islands and Southern Gulf Islands off the eastern coast line of Vancouver Island. Below is our scheduled itinerary that includes marinas we will visit and coves/bays in which we plan to drop anchor for the night. We will down-load photos and provide a daily log of the places we visit throughout our trip.

As we have never ventured up to the Canadian Gulf Islands, we're very excited to experience this incredible boating location and hope you'll enjoy the photos as part of our daily blog entry.

The Grin Reaper

2007-07-15T09:04:00.000-07:00

Mark came up with the name for our boat. It's quite fitting since smiles abound from everyone on board and they all ask "when do we get to do this again?" before we even arrive back to the dock.

Itinery

2007-07-14T21:43:00.000-07:00

San Juan/Gulf Islands Itinerary
July 27-August 10, 2007

1. 7am Friday, July 27th –
Depart Nickerson Marina

2. 1-3pm Friday, July 27th –
Arrive San Juan Islands – Blakely Island General Store & Marina for 2 night stay

3. 8-10am Sunday, July 29th –
Depart Blakely Island for day cruise and anchorage at Blind Bay (N. Shore of Shaw Island)

4. 2–4pm Sunday, July 29th –
Arrive Blind Bay, Shaw Island for overnight anchorage (Parks Bay will be the back-up spot)

5. 8-10am Monday, July 30th –
Depart Blind Bay/Parks Bay for day cruise and 2-night moorage at Friday Harbor Marina

6. 4-6pm Monday, July 30th –
Arrive Friday Harbor Marina for 2-night stay

7. 8-10am Wednesday, August 1st –
Depart Friday Harbor Marina for day cruise and overnight anchorage at Reid Harbor, Stuart Island (Prevost Harbor will be the back-up spot)

8. 2-4pm Wednesday, August 1st –
Arrive Reid Harbor, Stuart Island for overnight anchorage

9. 8-10am Thursday, August 2nd –
Depart Reid Harbor for day cruise and 2-night stay at Roche Harbor Marina

10. 4-6pm Thursday, August 2nd –
Arrive Roche Harbor Marina for 2-night stay

11. 8-10am Saturday, August 4th – HAPPY BIRTHDAY TALULA!
Depart Roche Harbor Marina for Canadian Customs check-in at Poets Cove Resort, (Bedwell Harbour, S. Pender Island)

12. 2-4pm Saturday, August 4th –
Arrive for Canadian Customs check-in at Poets Cove, S. Pender Island

13. 4-6pm Saturday, August 4th –
Ganges Marina, Salt Spring Island for 2-night stay

14. 8-10am Monday, August 6th –
Depart Ganges Marina for day cruise and Van Isle Marina for 1-night stay

15. 4-6pm Monday, August 6th –
Arrive Van Isle Marina

16. 8-10am Tuesday, August 7th –
Depart Van Isle Marina for Greater Victoria Harbour Causeway for 2-night stay (across from Empress Hotel)

17. 4-6pm Tuesday, August 7th –
Arrive Greater Victoria Harbour Causeway

18. 8-10am Thursday, August 9th –
Depart Greater Victoria Harbour Causeway for US Customs check-in at Friday Harbor Marina

19. 12-2pm Thursday, August 9th –
Arrive Friday Harbor Marina US Customs check-in

20. 4-6pm Thursday, August 9th –
Arrive Rosario Resort for 1-night stay

21. 8-10am Friday, August 10th –
Depart Rosario Resort – San Juan Islands for Nickerson Marina

22. 4-6pm Friday, August 10th –
Arrive Nickerson Marina – Home Sweet Home!