It’s raining this morning.  I’d wanted to get paddling early, before the wind came up, because I’m paddling to the store, which is about a mile-and-a-half from here. I hope to pick up some fresh produce.  It could be 2 weeks before we get to the market in Port McNeill, and we could use some broccoli, cauliflower, whatever other fresh veggies they might have, and fruit.  Now, I have to wait for the rain to stop.  

By 1000 hrs, the rain stopped and I was able to set out for the store.  I noticed a local Indian lady on the shore digging for clams.  She was going at it with a vengeance.

And, she was really sacking ‘em up.  As tempting as it is, I don’t think we’ll be doing any clamming.  There’s just too much risk of paralytic shellfish poisoning.

The wind wasn’t blowing more than about 5-10 knots when I set out for the store, and paddling was easy.  When I got to the opening, however, the wind had picked up to 10 to 15 knots, and because of the spring tide, there were tide rips all the way to the store.  I almost turned around.  Then, when I got ashore, the tide was really low, so I had to carry my kayak up the beach far enough that it wouldn’t be carried away with the incoming tide. Since the tide was really low, that mean’t I had a long way to carry it up the oyster encrusted beach.  Not fun.

I finally staggered up to the store, caught my breath, and checked out their cold room for produce.  They didn’t have much, but I was able to pick up broccoli, cabbage, mangos and apples.  

I somehow managed to carry my kayak back to the water without breaking my ankle on the oysters, got my groceries secured,  and then headed back out into the tide rips, which were worse by now, and the wind was blowing about 20 knots.  Just before I got to the entrance, a big Canadian Coast Guard cutter and its tender, started heading for the entrance also.  I was going to have to deal with their wake, as well as the tide rips.  Now, if that whale shows up again, it’s really going to be fun.  I promised myself I would never kayak to this store during a spring tide again, ever….and kept paddling.  

Once inside the anchorage, I didn’t have to deal with the tide rips, and the wind was down around 10 to 15 knots… piece of cake!  

A few more boats have arrived since we got here.  While I was washing dishes this morning, I noticed a lady on a nearby sailboat rowing her dog to shore to do his business.  As soon as the lady got near to the rocky shore, the dog jumped out, found a spot that seemed to suit it, and then headed back to the dinghy where his mistress was patiently waiting for him

As nimble footed as this dog was, he was obviously an old salt.  He stepped right into the dinghy, like it was no big deal, and sat, imperially, waiting for his mistress to row him back to the boat.

Well, it was time for me to get out on the water.  When I was about half finished suiting up, I looked out the window and saw a Canadian Honker family swimming along the shore.  I quickly grabbed my camera to see if I could zoom them in enough for a decent shot.  They were moving pretty fast.

I decided to finish suiting up as fast as I could and, hopefully, I’d be able to catch up with them.  Finally, when I was ready to go, I looked out the window and saw two Honkers  swimming straight for our boat….moochers.  They came right up to the boat and started honking for goodies.  Being a soft touch, I hunted up some crackers and they seemed to enjoy them immensely.  I was afraid the Honker family I’d seen earlier was going to be completely out of sight by the time I finished with these two guys.  

I needn’t have worried, because I spotted not one, but two Honker families heading for the sailboat anchored next to us.  The people on the sailboat never saw them, apparently, and the Honkers continued on.  I did manage a couple of distant shots of them, but never saw them again.

It’s a spring tide today, which makes for extreme tides.  The low tide has exposed millions of oysters.

The sea stars, like these pisasters, are loving it. 

It’s hard to believe, but a pisaster sea star can pry open an oyster just wide enough to insert its stomach into the oyster, and then proceed to eat it.  I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to pry open an oyster, but it’s not easy.  But the sea star accomplishes this with its hundreds of tube feet, and the ability to hump and pull with its arms in more than one direction.  Its stomach can be extruded and spread over the prey, or inserted into a crack between its shells.  Pisasters are the oyster’s worst nightmare.  And, pisasters also fancy mussels, acorn barnacles limpets and other snails.  

On the bluff above me, I spotted these pretty wildflowers.

All of a sudden I heard a “HUFF!”  I’d heard that sound before, but I never thought I’d hear it inside Squirrel Cove.  But, sure enough, when I turned around I saw the vapor plume of a whale.  How on earth that whale got in through the narrow opening to Squirrel Cove, I’ll never know.  I got as close to the rocky shore as I could and waited to see where he would blow again. I didn’t have much of a wait.  He barely broke the surface. Not knowing where he would be surfacing, my chances for a decent photo were almost zero, as you can see from this photo.  I just wanted to prove to Al that I had seen a whale inside the anchorage.

To my relief, the whale eventually headed back out through the entrance and I headed back to the boat.  On my way, I spotted this seal lying serenely on a rock that is only exposed at spring tides.

 

It’s overcast this morning as I set out for a paddle.  I headed for the nearby lagoon to get some photos of the tidal rapids.

Way up in a nearby tree, I spotted this eagle, who seemed to be keeping his eye on the rapids too, maybe looking for a little breakfast.

The sea is like glass as we head out this morning.  It’s a beautiful day,  and all we can see for miles ahead is calm water.  We travelled all the way up Texada Island, all the way to Grief Point, with the wind never getting over 10 knots.  We were loving it.  Just passed Grief the wind picked up a couple of knots, but it was still good traveling all the way to Squirrel Cove, on Cortes Island.

There were only a couple of transient boats in the anchorage.  In a few weeks from now, this place will be packed.  We anchored in our favorite place, behind a little islet.

It’s raining this morning, but the wind hasn’t come up yet.  According to the weather forecast, we have about a 2-hour weather window, between 1000 hrs and 1200 hrs.  Then, the wind picks up to 15-25 knots out of the Southeast.   If we don’t cross Georgia Strait today, we could be stuck here for several days, according to the forecast.  We decide to go for it. 

I had already entered course lines to Boho, on Lasqueti Island, and to Pender Harbour.  However, the sea conditions looked like we could make it to Smugglers Cove, so I activated the course to Pender Harbour, just to get us up and around Ballenas Island; and then I plotted a course from Ballenas Island to Smugglers.  Only problem was, Al was steering, and I was totally concentrating on reading a really good book.  

As we started getting close to land, Al started seeing houses, which shouldn’t have been there.  “I don’t remember these houses at Smugglers,” Al said.  “You’d better check the course.”  Well, when I looked at the course we were on, I discovered that Al had stayed on the Pender Harbour course line, not realizing that he had to change over to the Smugglers course line once we cleared Ballenas Island.  We were looking at Pender Harbour.  Fortunately, Pender Harbour puts us 4 miles closer to Squirrel Cove, where we’re headed tomorrow.

We hadn’t been in to Pender Harbour in about 15 years, and were shocked by all the building that has gone on.  There were houses on almost every waterfront piece of property.  Sad.  On the upside, however, Pender is very sheltered from weather from all directions, so we had a peaceful night’s sleep.

The wind is blowing 10 to 15 knots when we awake this morning.  According to the weather report, the wind is supposed to blow 10 to 15 knots until this evening, when it will increase to 15-25 knots.

Our moorage is paid for until 1100 hrs this morning, so we have a leisurely breakfast before leaving the dock.  I assume we’re heading for the anchorage off New Castle Island, but at the last minute, Al uses the VHF to put out a call for sea conditions in Georgia Strait.  Some guy comes back with a report that it’s like a mill pond out in the Straits.   

So, out we go.  When we get outside, the wind is blowing about 10 knots.  The seas aren’t like a “mill pond,” but they’re tolerable.  However, the farther north we get, the uglier the seas become.  Pretty soon, we’re taking water over the bow, spraying seawater all over the windows I just cleaned.  Not good. Al says,  “I think we’d better head for Nanoose”.  Al’s always wanted to check out Nanoose, and this is his chance.  So, I put in a course for Nanoose.  

Nanoose is a place that looks great on the chart, except for the fact that the Canadian Navy uses the harbor for exercises and mooring, and log booms sometimes take up what’s left of the anchorage.  

To add to the already dismal situation, a huge pipeline is being constructed in the only area available for anchoring.  

Most of Nanoose Harbour is very shallow, so you have to be really heads-up threading your way through to the anchorage, which was small to begin with, but has been made even smaller by the pipeline construction.   

Al got us anchored without going aground, which was a real feat.  So, now we’re anchored.  Great.  Except that we are pitching like crazy, like being back on that bucking bronco.  By now, it’s 1830 hrs.  It will be dark by 2200 hrs.  Al says, “This is not good.  I think we should head for Schooner Cove.”  We’d never been to Schooner Cove, and we don’t know if they have room at their guest dock.  It’s going to be dark in a couple of hours.  I was not a happy camper.  But, I told him, “Do what you think is best.”  I plotted a course for Schooner.

We pulled the anchor and headed out.  Luckily, it only took us about 45 minutes to get to Schooner Cove.  The entrance is very narrow, but we didn’t have any following seas, so we had no problem.  Our guidebook showed that there was guest moorage at the end of docks “B,” “C,” and “D”.  Well, there wasn’t any room to tie up on “B,” “C” or “D,” but the end of “E” dock was open.  So, that’s where we’d tie up.  

As we were tying up, a fellow appeared on the dock.  I went to see what he had to say.  He offered to help us tie up, and then gave us the rundown on what was happening at Schooner Cove.  We’d seen the huge crane working on a big structure onshore.  Well, apparently Schooner Cove is undergoing a huge renovation, and the crane is building a new complex, with condos, shops, a spa, etc.  However, in the meantime, the marina is in disrepair.  We noticed a lot of empty slips, and that the docks are in shaky condition.  But, he said we could tie up.  No problem.  That was a relief, because by now it was starting to get a bit dark.  Unfortunately, the seas at the dock were almost as bad as the anchorage at Nanoose.  It’s amazing that the breakwater doesn’t seem to calm the seas much.  Oh, well.  Any port in a storm.

There’s been a change in weather during the night.  Clouds have rolled in, and the wind has picked up.  

Al fixed our usual delicious Sunday breakfast, and then we got busy getting the boat ready to leave tomorrow.  

When I’d finished all my chores, I headed back to Booksellers to see if I could pick up some books on photography.  Once again, they had a great selection, and I was able to pick up several interesting books that I’m looking forward to reading.

On my way back to the boat I stopped at the Dollar Store and was able to pick up a great lemon squeezer for our margaritas.  Al will be pleased.

After listening to the weather forecast for tomorrow, it sounds a bit iffy for leaving tomorrow.  We’ve done all our provisioning, so there’s no reason to stay in the marina, at $70 a night.  So, if the weather is too bad to leave Nanaimo tomorrow, we’ll just anchor in the harbor, off New Castle Island, until we get a better weather window.

It’s another beautiful sunny day; so, after breakfast, I headed for Booksellers, a used book store.  I needed to pick up some reference books for identifying flora and fauna, since I had inadvertently left my reference books at home.  I was pleasantly surprised to find a very good selection.  Since getting my Kindle, I download all my books from Amazon; so, it had been a long time since I had the pleasure of leisurely browsing through a bookstore… this was a real treat.

When I got back to the boat, Al said there were still some groceries we needed, so we headed for Thrifty Foods, and then to Fresh Slice Pizza for lunch.  The pizza was even better than I remembered.  I had a slice of their Pesto Roasted Chicken, which is to die for, and Al had his usual Sausage Pizza. We bought an extra-large half-and-half pizza for the freezer.  Pizza on Sundays is a tradition with us, although we may have something different tomorrow,  since we’ve had pizza for the past two days.

The marina can get pretty busy on weekends, so Al called the marina office as soon as they opened this morning to reserve space for us at the dock.   This place can be very busy this time of year, so we were delighted they had room for us at the end of “H” dock.  

As soon as we were tied up and had power, I went up to the office to pay for our moorage and get the password for the WiFi.  Sadly, we found the WiFi signal was even weaker than last year, which means I won’t be able to post to my blog.  Bummer.

Al called Fiona, at Wine Works, our new wine supplier, to let her know we were ready to pick up the wine we had ordered from them in January, when we found out that Urban Wine Cellars, from whom we had been buying wine for the past 25 years, had gone belly up.  By law, we have to be at Wine Works for the “corking,” or in our case, the bagging process. Fiona had offered to pick us up at the boat when we were ready for the “corking,” but since Wine Works is near Costco, and we wanted to get a few things, like lemons, avocados, mangos, cherry tomatoes and cashew clusters from Costco, we arranged to have Fiona’s husband, Blair, pick us up at Costco instead of the marina.  This way we only had a one-way bus trip to Costco.  Brilliant.

I got online to get bus schedules and learned that the #20 bus stops right at the marina.  Yay!  The city buses are all new, and the bus drivers are the friendliest.  It took 45 minutes to get to Costco, but it was a lovely spring day, and gorgeous rhododendrons were in full bloom everywhere. When we got off at our stop, at Apple Croft, we only had about a two-block walk to Costco.

We did all our shopping and then had Costco pizza for lunch, while waiting for Blair to arrive to take us to Wine Works for the “corking”.   

We were impressed with the Wine Works facility, and enjoyed visiting with the owners, Fiona and Blair.  The Napa Valley Stags Leap merlot was very good, and they had an excellent selection of balsamic vinegars and flavored olive oils, which they make.  After tasting several of the balsamic vinegars, I wound up buying two:  black walnut and coconut.

When we finally got back to the boat, we celebrated our very productive day with a delicious margarita.

Prior proper planning resulted in a very smooth trip up to Nanaimo.  The weather forecast was right on.  We had smooth seas the whole way.  We arrived at Dodd Narrows about an hour early, but with no wind, and only 1.5 knots of current against us, it was a piece of cake.

There weren’t many transient boats in the anchorage yet, so we had no problem finding a good spot to anchor for the night.  Tomorrow, we’ll head into the marina.

The sun reflected in the windows of the Cameron Island Condominiums was dazzling.