More of Santa Cruz

Well, we had a first rainy day on Saturday - the day Jay and the girls had planned to go to the amusement park. Everyone was all dressed in rain gear and ready to go when we learned that Sunday's forcast was for sun, so we decided to stay another day so that the fair could be enjoyed in fair weather! Everyone had so much fun, they didn't want to come back! Averaging 8 rides per hour was a major accomplishment! Among the favorite rides were the antique carousel and the roller coaster and after dining on garlic fries and corn dogs and riding for over six hours the clan decided to call it a day.

Santa Cruz

We are now in Santa Cruz after a rolly sail down from Halfmoon Bay. It's really nice nere with a great beach and great surf. On the way, we were visited by about thirty sea lions who jumped and played in the water right beside us, click on the link to the left to watch a video clip they are really funny!

Yesterday was Jenny's 14th birthday and we celebrated with decorations, crepes for breakfast and an night in at the movies. We had hoped to visit the amusement park at the Santa Cruz pier but it's not open until the weekend so Jay and the girls will go at that time.

Heading South

Well we're getting ready to leave Sausalito after another few days in paradise. Our time here these past few days were marked by some excellent events: Us gals took the bus about an hour North of here to visit the Guide Dogs for the Blind and enjoyed a great tour, what a remarkable organization! Both Jocelyn and Jenny are thinking that they would like to work there in the future. We also met up with our some of our Vancouver friends, Steve & Linda and Peter & Dianna and we even briefly met a fellow from another Canadian boat that is cruising with two kids, 14 & 12. I hope we connect more with them along the way.

We had the great pleasure to meet up with our HAM Radio pal, Peter who lives here in Berkely,and together with Steve and Linda, we enjoyed a tour of the Bay model which is a huge (warehouse sized) model of the San Francisco Bay area, and a had a really nice time getting to know one another a little better. We always look forward to talking to Peter on the radio. Ron and Peter are there for us every night to make contact and relay any information necessary.

More of San Francisco

Well we've really been enjoying the past week here in San Francisco. We walked up and down Lombard St. which is know as the "crookedest" street, we rode the bus and the F which is an old restored trolly, and we visited the Martin Luther King memorial and we walked through China Town.

China town was so much fun! There were buildings with paper lanterns on the side and there was a street with lanterns strung across it and I guess we hit the main street at the most popular time (after work and before dinner). Delivery trucks stopped in the middle of the street to unload fresh produce were swarmed by patrons wishing to buy the first pick! People were buying fresh fish (really fresh - still swimming fresh!) from a rubbermaid bucket. We even saw a rubbermaid filled with live frogs! Bins of dried fish and herbs were everywhere and fruits and vegetables like we've never seen before.

We had our dinner while we were walking around, we had BBQ Pork (a family favorite) from one shop then stopped in at another for some Dim Sum and another for some Sweet and Sour Pork yet another for some egg tarts and lastly we picked up some egg rolls for later. Some of the vendors were really funny, we couldn't understand one another but we were all laughing, it was really fun. When we stopped for egg rolls, Jocelyn said we wanted four but she kept putting more into the bag, when Jocelyn reminded her that we only wanted four she stated "No! you save money! $2 for four, $2.50 for seven!" who could argue! We went home with seven!

As if that was not enough fun for one day, we decided to top it all off with an ice cream from Ben & Jerry's at Pier 39. I tell you, when you're on a tight budget you sure think twice about dropping $5 on an ice cream cone when you can buy a whole bucket for $3 at the grocery store - but we had travelled so far to get it we had it anyway - it was really good!

Last Thursday was the best of all! After renting a car in the morning and stocking up at Costco, we headed to the airport to pick up Diesel. We were so excited! Marg couldn't hold back the tears and was pacing while we waited.

I think the airline people were great but I don't think Diesel could get out of the crate fast enough! We really missed him, our family feels complete again. Life is too simple and fur free without him. He just curled up by my feet in likely, the smallest little floor space on the boat - under the chart table, he just wants to be touching, it's very nice.



We spent a few nights in Alameda at the Oakland Yacht Club where the people were most welcoming and friendly but decided to go explore Angel Island. Unfortunately, upon our arrival at Angel Island, we learned that dogs are not permitted, so we continued on and back to the Sausalito Yacht Club where they have been very accommodating. It's funny, the weather here always seems to be better than the weather just across the bay. The fog rolls in and stays on the city side but doesn't seem to round the corner into Sausalito. Hmmmmm?

We will likely leave here on Saturday to head South to Half Moon Bay and then on to Monterey where we hope to visit the Aquarium.

Oh yes, when we were at Pier 39 Jocelyn used a public restroom on the street - Here's a picture. You press a button to go in and out and after you come out, it automatically cleans the toilet and the floor! Jenny thinks this is an awesome port-a-potty upgrade!

San Francisco - Adventure

We are now moored in the Marina District of San Francisco, quite an exclusive neighborhood. There is a beautiful beach right next to us and we walked out yesterday to watch the windsurfers and kite surfers. The wind was really blowing and they were sure fast! We got to enjoy an absolutely gorgeous sunset after taking a stroll across the street to the Palace of the Arts and the Exploratorium. The Dome and pillars are almost 100 years old and are undergoing extensive restoration.

Today we spent another beautiful day at Alcatraz after riding the bus and the F trolley through downtown SF. The tour was excellent, and highly recommended if you visit. We saw the carousel on pier 39 and the fishermen at Fishermans Wharf. All along the streets you can find souvenirs and clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl. (I had that for lunch, it was really yummy!)

We made it!

Well, we are here in San Francisco after 5 days and 5 nights at sea. (we are experiencing a hardware failure which is preventing us from updating our position, we are NOT still in the middle of the ocean).

Our first big passage is over and the boat and crew handled it very well. We had favorable winds the first four days and had to motor the last 30 hours on a glassy sea! I had no idea the Pacific Ocean could be so calm!

We had front row seats for the lunar eclipse which was spectacular and lasted most of the night. The ocean is a very dark place without the moon!

As we were approaching land and the sun was rising, we were greeted by a pod of 6 dolphins that swam and played with us for about 20 minutes - it was an awesome experience! (click on the link to the right to see the video). Once they left, we were treated to a jumping show by a few seals! None of us had ever seen seals jump before, I guess it's the California way, BC seals are couch potatoes!

It was sunny and clear as we passed under the Golden Gate bridge - rare from what we hear. We are presently in Sausalito which has a very upscale strip of stores and will be hosting an arts event this weekend (lots of big name performers).

We plan to visit Alcatraz and Fishermans Wharf in the next few days and will be in the Bay area for a couple of weeks or so.

Still waiting...

Well, we are in Grays Harbour Washington still waiting for the weather off the Central Californian coast to improve. Winds at this latitude are quite favorable, however; the forcast for the approach to San Francisco shows winds of 35+ knots. Given that us girls are still a little green at this, we are choosing to wait another couple of days until the winds are a little more consistant.

Grays harbour is a sea side town consisting of mostly motels, rv parks, gift shops, fishing charter businesses and fish packers. We saw it all in an afternoon. There are several candy stores (chocolates and salt water taffy) but not a single grocery store.

Check out the link on the right side "Current Position", this will show a map or satellite image (whichever you choose) with a red dot showing exactly where we are. It updates everytime we send a position report through the ham radio.

Waiting.......

Hello all, we are in Port Angeles waiting for the low pressure system off the coast to move out of the way so the high can move in. It looks like we'll be here until Sunday before heading out to Neah Bay, oh well, at least we have internet. We spent the morning washing the boat - it looks nice and clean now. We've also been trying to sort out our weather fax reception....I think we're on the right track now. It will be important for us to be able to receive weather reports while at sea and the weather map pictures are easier to read than the text reports.

We have been doing alot of reading and playing games and the last few days have been so sunny and warm, we've been able to be in the sun. We do all of our errands on foot and are extremely thankful we brought along a collapsable dock cart for our groceries!

Gabriola and Victoria

We had a wonderful sail over to Gabriola and were pleasantly surprised to have friends join us for the crossing on a last minute whim! We spent three days visiting with friends and relaxing and playing. It was just what we needed after the pre-departure craze.

Thanks to our wonderful hosts Barry & Cynthia, we enjoyed tubing, fishing, settlers and more!

A hilight for Jay was fishing with the boys and coming home with a big ling cod which Barry "flayed" then battered and fried for all to enjoy! Watch out C-Lovers & Cockney Kings!

Another first for us city slickers was to feed the cows and to see a brand new calf just hours after it was born!




We had a wonderful visit and dinner with our friends in Victoria too, next year it's your turn! Poor Bentley sprained his ankel, but it didn't faze his sense of humour!

We're off!

Thanks to all of you who came out to visit us at the end of July, we really enjoyed a wonderful day visiting with family and friends. Those of you who were there have likely already heard this story, but I'll tell it again here, for those who weren't.

We had spent most of Friday cleaning and getting ready for our open boat, and we realized that we didn't have anything on board for breakfast or lunch. Jay and the girls took off to the grocery store while I had a shower and did laundry. I was just folding the last of the towels when a horrendous stink came wafting into the clubhouse, followed by a shriek "DIEEEESELLLL NOOOOOOOO!"

As I walked down the ramp to the boat, Jay came around the corner shaking his head to which I replied "tell me he didn't!" with a nod and a look of utter unbelief I was told the bad news. Diesel had just been sprayed in the face by a SKUNK!

It was just past midnight when Jay and Jenny headed back out to the store for tomato juice and I fired up the computer to find out how best to deal with our smelly dog. I donned the rubber gloves and fished out a bucket and some doggie shampoo. Diesel was looking very humble by this time. We saturated him in tomato juice - which he actually seemed to enjoy! Figures a dog would love to be bathed in food! We kept saying "don't shake!" but didn't quite finish the task unscathed.

Tomato juice, rinse, more tomato juice, rinse again, doggie shampoo, rinse, peroxide with baking soda, rinse, even more doggie shampoo, rinse and dry. WHEW!

We were finally ready to turn in around 1:30 am with a very confused and much better smelling canine pal. It will be a night we won't soon forget!

13 Days and Counting!!!

Well we're down to the last two weeks before we cast off and each day seems busier than the day before! We are well prepared, but I guess there will always be jobs to do - nothing that will prevent our departure mind you.

We would like to extend an invitation to all of our friends and family to drop by to say hello .... and goodbye on Saturday, July 28th. We'll be around all day so come when it best fits your schedule, we would love to see you before we go. You can find us at Burrard Yacht Club, 10 Gostick Place, North Vancouver, BC.

Homeschooling here we come!

Well, we've gathered most of the necessary materials for Jocelyn and Jenny's schooling over the next few years. The girls were both quite surprised to see the big pile of work just waiting for them!

New Washer/Dryer

Well the new washer/dryer is now installed. After a full 12 hour day for both Jay and Marg, the machine has be taken apart, cut apart squeezed through the door and reassembled in place. It looks great and we are looking forward to the convenience of being able to have clean laundry on the boat. How did the install go??? I'll let the pictures speak for themselves!

Crunch Time!

Well, we've finally finished night school - whew! Jay and Marg have been out at Jericho Sailing Centre two nights a week for the past three months learning Celestial Navigation and Weather Forecasting. Although it was all very interesting, the drive to Jericho after a days work was long and we're glad to have this phase of preparation behind us.

We have recently added a radar arch and solid life lines from the gate aft, it looks wonderful! We've purchased a 6 man Zodiac life raft and will soon be installing a washer/dryer combo machine in the forward shower. It's such a small space, we had to cut out the wall to the companion way and there's still not enough room between the opening and the mast, so we have to completely disassemble the machine to get it in the hole then reassemble it in place.

We've got a new drogue which we hope to never need and are looking at adding a Fortress anchor and replacing our Bruce with a Rocna anchor. We're about to replace all of the main cabin lights with LED lights which will draw a fraction of the power our present lights draw.

Jay is wrapping up the work projects he has on the go and Marg is presently training a replacement in her job which ends at the end of May.

June will prove to be an extra busy month as we pack up our house and move onto the boat! Major downsize!

We have a new offshore HAM Radio callsign - VE0MAL and will soon have email available through the radio as well.

School preparations are coming along, it looks as though the girls will have a fairly light course load while we're away, thanks to all of the extra hard work they've done this past year.

February already YIKES!

Well, the fall and winter brought about many changes for our family. We sold our home and soon after said a sad goodbye to Jay's dad after a very brief battle with cancer. He will be dearly missed.

Jay has been busy working on the boat most weekends, and as we both wind down our work schedules, we'll be aboard more and more.

New additions to the boat include an Asymetrical spinnaker, Sea Recovery water maker, cabin fans, and newly re-insulated fridge and freezer compartments (wow! what a job that was!).

Jay is currently preparing to install a vacuflush toilet in the aft head, which should help with odor and the number of days we can go on the holding tank.

Jocelyn and Jenny have been working hard, learning Spanish through homeschool in addition to attending school full time, and collecting as many additional credits prior to departure so that their work load can be a little lighter while we're away.

Marg attended the Womens Sailing Seminar in Seattle on February 17th and will be taking a canning course on February 24th with other Blue Water Cruising members.

Jay has been busy with courses as well, including boat electrics and basic and advanced diesel maintenance.

Over the next month and a half Jay and Marg will both complete Celestial Navigation and Offshore Weather courses.

BUSY...BUSY...BUSY!

Victoria and Home

We had a wonderful time in Victoria, sight seeing and visinting with friends. This was definately a highlight of our trip. Marg, Jocelyn & Jenny went for High Tea at the Empress Hotel, which was excellent and a must do. Expensive? yes, but still a must at least once!

Our friends showed us around town and took us to their favorite ice cream haunt - The Beacon Hill Drive-in, Yummmm!

Victoria was so much fun and we would highly recommend moorage at the Government Dock in front of the Empress. After all the solitude of the North Island, the hustle and bustle of the boardwalk was a nice change. We shopped at the vendors booths on the boardwalk, watched the juggler and of course the world famous Ferry Ballet! We could enjoy the musicians all from our boat, we will definately return!

After three days in Victoria, we cast off for the final days of our adventure.

We visited Saltspring Island for one night, then onto Maple Bay for one night before heading up to Dunsmuir Island at an anchorage just outside of Ladysmith to relax for the last 2 days of our trip. This anchorage was beautiful, quiet and warm. The kids finally got to swim again, the first time since Desolation Sound! Jay rigged up a rope swing and we all enjoyed just sitting put!

And so, with a great sail from Dunsmuire, across the strait to Vancouver, we end our shake down cruise around Vancouver Island.

South to Sooke & on to Victoria

We departed Bamfield in the dark at 0500. We were accompanied by numerous fishermen all seeking the biggest catch for the day! It's a long trip to Sooke and the sea swells are 8' with small waves and little wind. The crew is a little worse for wear!

As we turned to head into the Strait of Juan de Fuca, we were surprised buy a big humpack whale that surfaced about 50' off our starboard bow and then breached right beside us! It was awesome!

The much anticipated wind in Juan de Fuca never accumulated, in fact we had to motor almost the whole way on the glass calm water, huh!

We arrived in Sooke around 1930 and tied to the government dock for the night - cheapest moorage of the whole trip! Did a little blackberry picking and made some blackberry syrup for pancakes in the morning - yum!

We thought we'd wait for the fog to clear before departing, but that never happened so we left anyway. It was tough enough staying on the range coming into sooke, it was even harder when we couldn't see anything for the fog - thank goodness for the chart plotter! The fog off Sooke was unbelievable! less than 1/8 th mile visibility - yay for radar once again! The fog finally broke just after we passed Race Rocks and we enjoyed the sun and clear skies as we entered Victoria.

We thought we would have a tough time finding moorage in Victoria, but such was not the case, there was, in fact, plenty and we were fortunate to tie to the government dock right in front of the Empress! What a fun place to be! Lots of people and lots of activity. Here's a picture of Jay BBQing dinner on the back deck.

Barkley Sound

Sunset at Joes Bay, Broken Group, Barkley Sound
Jocelyn, Marg & Jenny at Bamfield

Jenny & Jocelyn swimming in the waterfall Jay watches as the girls hike up the falls

The South West Coast

We moved on to Tofino after Hot Springs Cove. We made the entire trip in thick fog. As we entered the harbour, we couldn't even see the huge coast guard boat anchored 1/8th of a mile away - good thing for radar again! The entrance is kind of tricky, you really need to mind the markers and if that's not challenge enough, it seems that every fisherman has a couple dozen crab traps down making things even more interesting!

The docks were all full, so, after much deliberation we decided to raft next to a similarly sized sailboat tied to the government dock. The crew of Genesis (from Calgary) proved to be great neighbours.

We spent three nights at Tofino catching up on school work, banking, email, groceries and of course....laundry ugh!

The hustle and bustle of Tofino proved to be a welcomed change to the solitude of the North Island anchorages. Of course, all us girls loved the shopping! Finally some shops to buy gifts!
We had some great fish & chips and an excellent coffee - all at a premium price mind you!

After paying our $2 to pressurize the hoses on the dock, we filled up our water tanks then departed the next day for Uclulet. We thought the entrance to Tofino was interesting, Uclulet is even more so. We consulted the sailing directions so we could dance around the many rocks and reefs surrounding the entry.

There was no room in the boat basin at Uclulet, so we tied to the 52 step dock which was quite quiet. 52 steps up and about a mile walk through town allowed us to see all we wanted to see, so we departed the next morning for Lucky Creek.

We arrived at Lucky Creek a little before high tide, which is the optimal time to take the dinghy up. Jenny and Diesel kept a sharp lookout for logs, as the waterway is very shallow in spots. We tied the dinghy to a big rock at the bottom of the creek and climbed up to a beautiful fairytail like waterfall, with crystal clear water!

We were a little worried about Diesel swimming in the rushing water, so Marg and Diesel hung out at the base while Jay, Jocelyn & Jenny hiked to the upper falls and enjoyed a nice cool (non-salty) swim! We were lucky to have Lucky Creek all to ourselves we would say it's a must stop for anyone visiting Barkley sound.

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.

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!

July 2006

We Departed Vancouver on Monday July 10th at 0800. Skies were cloudy and seas choppy, much to the dismay of Marg & Jocelyn.

>We arrived in Pender Harbour at 0915 after sailing wing on wing most of the way from Secret Cove to Pender Harbour. We spent a nice evening at the clubs outstation there then departed at 0915 on July 11th for Lund.

>We arrived at Lund at 1700 but we had a rainy night and morning. The girls had a chance to work on their Spanish and we were able to do a little laundry as well. There is a great bakery in Lund and we enjoyed cinnamon buns and lattes.


> We departed Lund at 1115 on July 14th and headed for Squirrel Cove. The winds were strong and we found ourselves making 8.8 kn at one point!

>We spent a still and quiet night at Squirrel cove before departing at 1115 to head over to Laura Cove in Desolation Sound. Since Laura Cove was full, we moved over to Prideaux Haven where we anchored for three days. It was sunny and warm and the kids swam and tubed and we feasted on over 70 fresh prawns!

>We departed Prideaux Haven on July 16th under cloudy skies and headed up to Blind Channel which is where we are now. This is a really pretty spot with an excellent shore facility.

>This morning, Jay and Jenny went fishing and Jenny is proud to show off her first salmon catch! Thanks to Jenny, we all enjoyed a fantastic salmon dinner YUM!

We are teaching the kids to play Canasta and they've caught on very quickly and are anxious to play tonight.

Tomorrow we are getting up early to make the 11 hour trip to Telegraph Harbour where we'll spend the night and next morning. We hope to visit the whale museaum and, if we're lucky, we'll see some whales on our way there!