P.S. Loads of photos just uploaded to our Flickr account!
July, 2011:
Blasting northwards
The graphic you see above is what we’ve been looking at on the Environment Canada website for the past week and a half. Wind, wind and more wind coming directly from the west in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. We’ve been waiting for a quiet weather window that just doesn’t seem to want to open.
Yesterday morning, we awoke at 4 am to listen to the current conditions at Race Rocks, the notoriously windy and rough area just south of Victoria. It was blowing 21 knots, with westerly winds of 15 knots further out in the strait with winds expected to increase to 25-30 in the afternoon. We’d decided the night before that we were going somewhere. North, south, east, west– we didn’t care but we’d been in the same general area for two weeks and with so much to explore here we were itching to get exploring.
At 0600, after hemming and hawing over several cups of coffee we hauled the anchor up, still not sure where we were headed.
Suddenly, like an epiphany, we knew were we needed to go.
North.
It was glassy as we motored back up Haro Strait, following our plotted course for Nanaimo, a town we had always wanted to visit but hadn’t before. Now the perfect spot to reprovision, fill up with water, dinghy gas and jump across the Strait of Georgia making our way to Desolation Sound. We didn’t come across any breeze until Galiano Island, but it was just enough to practice flying our favorite new sail for a few miles.
We reached Nanaimo 12 hours later and found the harbour anchorage off Newcastle Island to be absolutely jam-packed with boats and happy laughing people and live music blaring from the shore, the Dinghy Dock Pub, and from most of the boats around us. Wow, we thought, Nanaimo sure knows how to celebrate a Saturday night.
But more boats continued to pour in, drop their hooks and raft up, small and large. Surely something has to be going on here other than a Saturday night. Sure enough, we were able to connect to an open Wifi signal and found out that we had landed during Nanaimo’s biggest weekend of the year: Marine Festival and World Championship Bathtub Race.
We also learned that fireworks were starting in 20 minutes. We got the girls back out of bed and were soon in awe at the most awesome small-town fireworks display we’d ever seen. Right from our cockpit.
What a welcome to the north!
A cruising kid’s dream anchorage
While Holly was napping today Michael, Leah and I were enjoying the afternoon sun in the cockpit. Michael was spying around our anchorage here in Cadboro Bay with the binoculars. He stops his scanning suddenly in the far end of the bay.
“A playground!”
The dinghy is launched and when Holly is up a shoreside excursion commences.
The girls of s/v Wondertime rate Cadboro anchorage as one of the best ever.
Back to the islands
We are anchored off Sidney Spit tonight and just watched an orangy glowy sunset together in the cockpit. After a week in the town of Sidney, it feels marvelous to be at anchor again. We got quite a number of jobs checked off during our visit however and were even fortunate to be able to borrow a friend-of-a-friend’s slip for the week while they were hauled out at the boatyard.
After searching for a shop able to make new tangs for our masts the past few months without success we found the exact stainless tangs we needed at a local rigging shop here (Yachttech – excellent!). It was really nice to be still at the dock for hauling Michael and his tools up and down the masts about 12 (more!) times to get the shiny new tangs installed. (Our old tangs had obvious pitting and corrosion and were in desperate need of replacement). Wondertime’s rig is finally offshore ready which is a good feeling.
In Sidney we also had our first adventures at getting around town without a car. This being British Columbia the girls were over the moon at getting to ride on our first double-decker buses (top level, front seats naturally). We were fortunate that there was a route that ran right near the marina we were staying at (North Saanich) all the way to downtown Sidney. We took away several valuable lessons during our trips around town via dinghy, foot and public transportation:
1. Make sure you have broken your fresh $20 bill before you get to the bus stop that is miles away from any open shops.
2. When you are traveling with two young children, bus drivers are really nice about letting you use your transfer that is hours expired.
3. Bring your raincoat, especially when you are in Canada. Even in July.
4. It really is worth it to buy a local map when preparing to walk through the industrial part of town with two short-legged people in tow searching for a small rigging shop hidden amongst auto repair shops and lumber yards.
5. Before you haul your two tired and hungry children 1/2 mile to the bus stop, then wait 15 minutes in the rain for the bus, then ride 10 minutes to your stop, then hike another mile up the hill to the pub you are dying to eat (and drink beer) at…call to make sure minors are allowed in first.
Even with eating ice-cream almost daily in town we were more than ready to head back out to the islands after a week of the hectic “getting stuff done while we have the opportunity.” This morning we hopped across the bay to Sidney Spit marine park to wait out some strong winds that are forecast in the Strait of Juan de Fuca the next couple of days. After that we hope to catch a few quiet early morning windows and finally reach Barkley Sound by early next week.
Until then, we are enjoying playing on the (finally) sunny beach and clear cool water here at the spit. We sure enjoyed the wifi, hot showers, laundromats, garbage bins, West Marines and fish & chips shops. But digging our toes in the warm soft sand of the islands together is all we truly need.
