Poached Oysters I never paid much attention to all the web site pundits and book authors who praised the cruising community. Having spent so much time in big cities, the concept of a "cruising community" was beyond this big-city boy. When we started sailing about 8 years ago, we met several really nice people –…
Well. It seems that we have had arranged for us (maybe) a subcontractor’s manufacturing recall of our boat’s windscreen. It sounds like a fairly straightforward refit but it has impelled us to make a 200-mile detour back south to have the Fox available for inspection at some now-indeterminate time in early May. In order to…
As lovely as Princess Louisa is, we had to move on: a small power boat rendezvous for Easter weekend and we simply couldn’t bear to have more boats in the anchorage. Plus, no fishing was allowed there so if one had a fishing license like GB had, why bother futzing about? There was no point…
Princess Louisa Inlet has long been a favored destination for many boaters in the PacNW. In the 1930s, many decades before it was a marine park, Muriel Wylie Blanchet visited frequently with her dog and 5 kids on her 25-foot motor boat*. According to some people Princess Louisa remains the holy grail of the world’s…
Unencumbered by any wind whatsoever, we circumnavigated Saltspring Island and on 29. March anchored in Montague Harbour at Galiano Island, one of our favorite places in the Gulf Islands. Sometimes when moving through the Gulf Islands one sees the coolest boats, like this tall old girl headed south in Trincomali Channel: The weather was nice,…
When we left Sidney, we took the advice of a friend and a couple of publications and checked out Maple Bay, just north and west of Sansum Narrows. On the chart it looked like a fine place to be sheltered from practically all weather. Alas. Maple Bay has a lot of McMansions in the process…
"Sailing Logs"? Not much to log, when one cruises the San Juan and Gulf Islands, and the southern/central Strait of Georgia, other than "no wind today…foul current turning to fair as day progressed…motored 7 hours…anchored in sticky mud in 30 feet…13-foot tidal change…" and so on and etc. As a boat travels further north, "dodged…
We had a fine time before we left Sidney on March 28. We had spent two winter months there just like we had imagined years ago during our first winter trip to Sidney. We were able to accomplish many of the boat projects we had not completed while still in Seattle; and we had a…
We left Princess Louisa Inlet on 4/6/2007 heading South. Anchored in Thunder Bay – a 44.5 mile run. No wind. We departed TB on Sat morning – sky overcast, still no wind, but a gale warning 75 miles to the north. Destination LUND – another Canadian let down – no room at the Inn. Diverted…
We left Sidney five days ago headed to Maple bay – no wonder the Canadians looked at me funny when I said we were heading there. Although given rave reviews by at least two publications (who probably got paid for the complements) Maple Bay was filled with skanky livaboard tugboats – with no room to…