No Agenda

After saying goodbye to my parents, Brad and I had zero real plan between then and when we were set to meet Eric and Cheryl, and pick up Natalie and Allen in Powell River. We initially thought we’d take advantage of being at the marina to take the truck into Duncan for groceries, but a strange rattle on our road trip to the island eventually escalated to coolant gushing out in the parking lot after dinner at Genoa Bay with my family on their last night with us. I don’t know a lot about vehicle maintenance but I am pretty sure my truck is not supposed to spew that much liquid on the ground after I drive it? Ha. Anyways, it seems our water pump is broken but instead of dealing with it, we ordered the part and left the marina that afternoon to head back up island!

After a bit of discussion we decided our only parameter for the week was to go to places we’ve never been before. Our first stop was North Cove at the top of Thetis Island. As we dinghied into shore to walk the dogs, Brad and I both looked at each other and said, “Have we been here before?” Yep, we had. It was a quick overnight stop in December and our memories of the anchorage were of a cool, dark, winter evening and although the night certainly wasn’t cool or dark, it was undoubtedly the same place. Ha! We were off to a good start for meeting our objective.

The next morning we pulled the hook at the ass crack of dawn to transit Porlier Pass at slack tide and cross the Strait of Georgia. By 'we' I mean Brad, who happily gets up early and apparently enjoys the quiet time without me? I dozed for another hour or two and woke up in time to enter the strait into calm downwind conditions. It didn't take long for us to decide that it was finally time to try our spinnaker sail. For those unfamiliar, a spinnaker is essentially an extra large, extra lightweight sail designed for light winds. Splash came with one and we hadn’t yet made the effort to rig it up because it requires its own set of lines/sheets/halyard/spinnaker pole and we knew it would be a bit of a puzzle to get it working well. But with barely enough wind to sail and 25 nautical miles to cover, we couldn’t deny it was the perfect opportunity. 

After a quick YouTube tutorial and a detailed game plan, we got the thing up and flying! Pros to the spinnaker: heckin’ cool looking, super speed boost, champagne sailing. Cons to the spinnaker: the brightly coloured pattern bears an uncanny resemblance to the American flag. I kid you not, every time we hoist it up I can’t help but belt out the first line of the American anthem. It is heinous. After some market research it seems the resale value on spinnakers is low and the value of a new one is high. I’m going to start crowd funding for a new one that is slightly less patriotic… 

We reached Buccaneer Bay in the early evening at high tide and tucked in for the night after a walk down the sandy beach. It’s a really cool spot with some campsites and a long shoreline dotted with cabins and holiday homes. The next morning we learned just how much shoreline is revealed at low tide when we awoke to the sound of our rudder briefly grazing the sandy seabed. We both flew out of bed but before we could leap into action, the faintest breeze had already blown Splash back to deeper water and our rendezvous with the sandy bottom was over. PHEW! To be safe, we pulled up some of our chain and tucked deeper into the bay so we could go for a walk on the beach without worrying about the wind shifting us into shallow water again.

Unfortunately, this little snafu opened a can of completely unrelated worms and suddenly we noticed the clicking sound our helm had started to make, while the painter tape over our leaking window seemed more apparent. Brad let the long list of jobs overwhelm his brain and we dove headfirst into pulling apart our auto-helm and confirming it as the source of the clicks. Problem status: unsolved but diagnosed; not critical. We glared at the leaky window for a while and Brad suggested staying another night at Buccaneer so he could pull it out and re-bed it. I suggested a coffee and a walk before committing, so we took the dogs to the beach for over an hour of low-tide beach combing. Our worries ebbed with the tide and we decided to go for a short sail over to Pender Harbour where we would have access to provisions and some trails for walking if we wanted to spend a few nights to get some jobs crossed off our list.

Pender Harbour is somewhere we have been on previous charter trips but there are so many anchorages in the area and we snagged a spot in Madeira Park, a new spot for both of us. We walked to the IGA and with evolving plans to sail up the infamous Princess Louisa Inlet, bought enough groceries to last the week. We enjoyed a nice walk with the dogs and tucked into bed early for our 49 nautical mile sail the next morning. 

Letting Mother Nature finish the dry cycle

I helmed a good chunk of the day so Brad could get our new solar panel set up! First step: tear everything apart

Success! This bad boy brings in enough energy to power our fridge and freezer!

O' say can you seeeeeeee, by the dawn's early light! Or however it goes...

Beauty beach at Buccaneer Bay

Sunny evenings on the foredeck with the pups

They're both adjusting pretty dang well to life on board.

There is no job on board that doesn't involve taking something else apart. In the case of our steering and autopilot system, it meant pulling apart our bed because everything is housed underneath.

A long walk a low tide helped us remember that there will always be something to fix or improve but it doesn;t all have to get done right away.

Rewarded by the most beautiful sunset at Pender Harbour