Jeff's Log ~ Friday, October 10th, 2008

Friday Morning, October 10, 2008 Port Hardy, British Columbia, Canada 0229

I guess that I must have turned in a little too early last night because here it is at 0230, and I am awake and raring to go. The days are blending into each other, and time is flying by, even though it seems like it is dragging by slowly. We are now at about 160 miles from our final destination for the winter, which is in Vancouver.

We left Shear Water Marina on the eighth, at about 1000. We stopped at the fuel dock and topped off the two fuel bladders, to make sure we had enough fuel for possibly motoring all the way to Vancouver. We then continued our trip down the Inland Passage to Fish Egg Inlet. The morning weather was fine. It was possibly some of the nicest weather we have had since entering Canada. After lunch it turned stormy again, with blustery winds and hard cold rain. It was pouring as we entered Green Island cove and set the anchor. I cooked dinner of fried chicken, mashed potatoes and corn, and made a dessert of apples baked with cinnamon sticks and a crumb topping. After the cold and rainy afternoon, the food was comforting, and as the night turned totally black, we both went to bed rather early.

The fore and aft heaters still are acting up, so we warmed up the boat with only the main salon heat. It got really chilly at about 0200. I broke out my heated back massaging pad and laid on it with the heat on, and quickly fell back to sleep. We woke to clear skies and after morning coffee, pulled the anchor and got under way once again. We had about seventy miles to Port Hardy. The morning was again absolutely beautiful, as we traversed Fitzhugh Sound, and the Queen Charlotte Strait. There were storms building west of us that provided excellent sailing breeze. There was a slight problem though. In Shearwater, with high winds predicted, I had lashed the mainsail and closed the cover. In order to put the main up, I had to undo all of that. We sailed under jib alone for a while, but it was very ineffective with the wind so far behind us. I got up on the boom and began releasing the cover clips, but in the large quartering swells, I decided that it was a little too dangerous to be up there.

We poked along, until after lunch and a slight turn in our course put the seas a little more behind us. I pulled the boom to the side, stood on the dingy, and got the rest of the clips undone. There was some motivation provided by another sailboat that was closing on us from behind. When I see another sailboat, it is always a race; I don’t care where I am! Scott turned Pipe Dream into the wind, we raised the main, then resumed our course, and the other boat quickly shrank and disappeared over the transom. With the large quartering waves, the autopilot did a little too much wandering for my taste, so I drove the boat. It was good fun and a little bit of a workout, as we had twenty plus knots of breeze from directly astern and three meter quartering seas. I needed some practice driving downwind, and got it. After a while, I was confident enough to close my eyes and drive by the feel of the wind on my neck and ears. I have never been able to do that before. We picked up some kelp on the keel, and the boat slowed to fewer than ten knots, and down below it sounded like a machine gun rapping on the bottom of the hull. The turbulence caused would make the whole boat wobble as we surfed down the waves. We had to jibe in a short while, so I drove her like that to the jibe point.

Jibing is the act of taking the stern through the wind, and the main has to be swung around to the other side. Because of the kelp, we had to tack the boat around to the other board, using the engine, and allowing the boat to stop and begin moving backwards. Tacking the boat puts the bow through the wind. As we suspected, a very large bunch of kelp came off the keel. As we stated to sail, we could see that we were still dragging it, so we put the bow in the wind again, and let her back until it was clear. After getting rid of our underwater baggage, Pipe dream felt like a sports car. Our course took us to a beam reach, and the wind freshened to twenty-eight knots. It sure didn’t take long to complete the last four miles. I was a little occupied watching the course over ground instrument to avoid shallows to monitor speed, but when I did glance at it, it was twelve and a half knots. That’s Cruisin’!!! As we approached the small harbor, we sadly had to drop the main and end a very nice day of sailing, becoming a power boat again for the short trip to our dock. Port Hardy is a small resort town. The marina is quiet and the people are friendly. The restaurant is a cozy kind of place, with hockey on the TV. After having the special of ribs and chicken, and a piece of cheesecake, I called it a night. Tomorrow should be a fairly easy, short forty mile day. Our slip in Vancouver will not be available until Monday, so we will take our time finishing the journey.

Friday Night, October 10, 2008, 2100

This morning, after coffee, I was going to have breakfast up at the pub. As I stepped onto the dock, I realized that the entire dock was covered in frost. That is something that I haven’t seen in a long time. The last part of the floating dock before the ramp was extremely slippery. After the treacherous walk, the restaurant was found to be closed temporarily, so I reversed course and slipped and slid my way back to the boat for an English muffin with jelly.

The weather God smiled on us again today. We could not sail, but it was a totally clear, sunny day and the mountain tops were all covered in fresh snow as we started this morning. Visibility was at least twenty miles, and the wind was light and on the nose. As the day progressed, we watched the snow cover disappear from the lower elevations due to the warm sun. Tonight we are anchored in a place called Pott’s Lagoon. It is a very clear night, and the half moon is so bright, that I thought that maybe sunglasses would be needed to comfortably look around. There are four floating homes nearby, but only one is occupied at present. As we anchored and got settled, we observed a middle aged couple tending to their chores. It was pretty neat when we pulled up and saw the smoke coming from the chimney. Scott at first did not like the idea of anchoring in close proximity to the cabins, but after a while, he was ok with it. This place is so quiet and sheltered from the wind, that for the first time ever, we could hear a sea gull land in the water at a distance of seventy five yards. They are actually quite noisy when they take off and land. This evening’s dinner was spaghetti with meat sauce and a bottle of wine. It is tough being a pair of bachelors on a sailing adventure.