Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Moving on


After enjoying a great day at Tahsis, we were ready to move out and around Estevan. We stopped at Santa Gertrudis for the night, and fished a bit in the morning. We had a great sail then tucked into Hot Springs Cove for the night.

Pets are not allowed on the board walk at Hot Springs Cove so we had to leave Diesel on the boat - he didn't care too much for that! The walk is 1.2 km each way and both the walk and the springs were a big highlight for us all.

The boardwalk has several that boaters have carved their boat names into, it's very cool. There are lots of stairs and a couple of nice view points.

Wednesday, August 02, 2006


We left Blind Harbour and headed up Johnstone Strait towards Telegraph Cove, it was not a very windy day, so we motored the whole way except for about an hour or so when we stopped to watch the orca's off of Robsons Bight. It was excellent!
When we were in Telegraph Cove we were able to visit the whale museum which was of particular interest to Jocelyn.
We left Telegraph and moved on to Port McNeill where we stocked up, did some schoolwork and internet banking. We took a day and took the ferry over to Sointula on Malcolm Island. It is an old finnish settlement.
We left Port McNeill and headed straight for Bull Harbour at the top of the Island, on the way we were visited by a group of dolphins which, to our delight, rode our bow wave for a short time!
We wound up spending two nights at Bull Harbour while we waited for the weather to improve. We walked over to Roller Bay where we enjoyed the big crashing waves. On the walk there, Diesel saw fit to roll in the first of many dead frogs on the road-YUCK! On the way back, we found a live frog which Diesel and Jenny both really enjoyed!
We are now on the West Coast of Vancouver Island after a successful cross over the Nahwitti Bar and past Cape Scott, in the fog no less! Put our radar and chart plotter to good use! We have visited many beautiful anchorages the first of which was Sea Otter Cove, pretty but had very shallow and tricky entry. This was just an overnight stop for us before continuing south into Quatsino Sound where we anchored in North Harbour for the night. When we left North Harbour we decided to fish for a couple of hours, a successful couple I might add! We had four bites, but landed the biggest fish of the lot. Here's a picture of Jay and the prize catch!
After leaving Quatsino, we sailed into Klashkish Basin, just North of Brooks Peninsula. We spent two nights in a small basin where the kids braved the 17 degree water, only for a few seconds mind you! Good thing we blew up all the toys for that day of swimming :) The entry into Klaskish Basin is very narrow. After leaving Kalshkish Basin, we enjoyed the best sail of our trip thus far, around Brooks Peninsula. We anchored for the night in Columbia Cove just at the entry of Nasparti Inlet. In the morning we took the dinghy around to the 4th shed beach for a little beach combing, but had a little fun beaching the dinghy in the surf! We were having a good time until a big black bear came and spoiled our fun. Oh well! We were too busy high tailing it out of there that we forgot to snap a picture.
We headed out from Columbia Cove down to the Bunsby's where we had hoped to spot some sea otters, but came up empty handed in that department. We did, however, get a good look at another bear!
We left the Bunsbys for Winter Harbour for water and provisions, but the supplies were very limited, so instead of staying, we moved on to Zeballos, another very old mining town and the end of Esperanza Inlet. We spent two nights there and got caught up on laundry which sadly follows you on holidays :( After Zeballos, we visited Esperanza which is a camp, on the way to Tahsis which is where we are now. We are at the Westview Marina, and the people here are so nice! We even got to have a Mexican Dinner out! What a treat!