Discovery in the NorthWest

[sportner]

We really enjoy your posts, thankyou very much and enjoy the remainder of your trip!

[drjohn71a]

Thanx so much for sharing your travels with us land-locked ppl! You prob aren't gonna want to talk to us anymore after spending time hob-knobbing with the Yacht crowd... 'Hope to meet you two someday, John

[SeaSpray]

Hi Dixie,

It sounds great! Wish we were there.

Steve

[colobear]

Keep the wonderful journals coming. You are giving us all the gift of your trip. thanks.

[Dora~Jean]

Brent and Dixie, great posts, feel like we're almost there with you sitting in your cockpit! BTW, I'm slowly starting to work on my son to want to spend his after-high-school-graduation trip next year up in the PNW rather than the hurricane/tropical depression prone Bahamas starting late June. I know the hurricane season officially begins June 1st, but in reality it's sometime in August (but I'm avoiding telling him that...shhhh!).

[Discovery]

Day 31- August 15, 2006

We stayed one more day at Campbell River. The blackberries were on and we spent a couple of hours helping Diann pick berries for making jelly. We also took advantage of the marine walk and got in a little shore time. We spend lots of time on the boat and it was nice to get out a walk a bit.

Day 32- August 16, 2006

Today we were off early for Comox. It was a short run down—about 34 miles-- and we got mooring in the Comox Harbor. They have a small marina that is usually reserved for the commercial fisherman, but in the summer they reserve one dock for pleasure boat moorage. The rest of the marina is for permanent slips. They were having a sailing camp when we came in and it was amazing to see all the kids from preschool to 16 or 17 years of age. They were being instructed at their level and with lots of adults assisting. What a great opportunity for kids to learn at that age.
We drove to Courtenay and visited the museum and browsed in the little shops. It is a beautiful little town. We came back to Comox and walked around the Filberg Heritage Park. It was built in the 1930’s with a house and all the surrounding gardens and outbuildings. It was landscaped so beautifully that it seemed you had stepped into an enchanted garden—it even had the resident tame deer and a slow moving ent tree. Tomorrow we’re moving on South.

Day 33- August 17, 2006

Today we moved on down to Deep Bay. It has to be the Oyster Capital of the world. There is a large operation of aquaculture for oysters all along the waterway from Comox down. We went out fishing and caught a couple of ling cod that were too small to keep and several dog fish—one really big one. We put out the shrimp traps before we went fishing and pulled them several hours later. We had good catches in both traps and decided to put them back down for overnight. We anchored in the bay and had a pleasant night.

Day 34- August 18, 2006

We got up early to pull the traps while the tide was low—what a bust. The traps were full of little rock crabs and no shrimp. I’m sure there were at least 50 rock crabs and they had eaten every shrimp. We went back into the bay to have breakfast and then we’re moving on towards Nanaimo. The wind was coming up pretty good before we got out of the harbor but the waves were at our back and we motored slowly for several hours. The wind continued to build and the waves were getting bigger, so we decided to run on down to Nanoose Bay. The problem was that the waves were big and it was hard to see the logs in the water and sure enough we hit a 12 foot long 2x10 with the starboard motor. We knew immediately that the motor was not operating correctly, but the waves were too big to take much action at that time. We limped into the nearest little bay on one motor to assess the damage—fully expecting the worse. Brent lifted the motor to take a look and we had sheared off a 3 foot section of the board and it was wedged in the motor. He pulled it out and everything was back to normal. We were very lucky and learned a good lesson. Needless to say, we were glad to make it to Nanoose Bay and we spent the rest of the day there—hiding from the wind. As a side note, Nanoose Bay is just off the region known as Whiskey Golf where the US and Canadian Navy do torpedo testing with big vessels. The moorage for the big ships is in the bay and it was cool to watch them come in that evening after they completed the practice for that day.
Our mooring was not great with regards to the wind and we had a rather sleepless night with the waves slapping against the boat—oh well, we will sleep better the next night. We traveled about 28 miles and were only about 12 miles to get on to Nanaimo.
Today was our Grandson Cody’s 14th birthday—Happy Birthday Cody.

Day 35- August 19, 2006

The swells were bigger today than yesterday in the Straits of Georgia—but we were smarter too. We lumped along slowly keeping a watchful eye for wood in the water and made it into Departure Bay just fine. We were glad to be out of the big water however. We found moorage at Stone Marina. We reunited with the land traveling part of our crew and went downtown to the main marina section. We visited the museum there too. It was pretty interesting—mostly about coal mining and the First Nations People. We had lunch in the pub—good Canadian brew. Nanaimo is an interesting city and I think we’ll spend another day here looking around.

[Discovery]

Before my post, I just wanted to thank all of you for your positive comments on my log. I can’t even get our own kids to read it, so I didn’t expect much interest from anyone else either. I have enjoyed writing it and I’m glad some of you are finding it worthwhile.


Day 36- August 20, 2006

The second day in Nanaimo we spent doing more sight seeing by land. Stone’s Marina only had one visitor’s dock and it was non-reservable. We didn’t want to loose our spot so we couldn’t take the boat out. Anyway, there was plenty to see. We visited the information center and went from there. They were having the Nanaimo county fair with animals and all. We hit West Marine (yes the prices are still the same) and a shopping mall and then went back to BBQ on the boat. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed being in the harbor. There is a narrow waterway that passes between the mainland and New Castle Island. It is plenty wide for boats to pass going both directions and the traffic is relatively heavy as there are lots of marinas for the whole two and a half mile stretch. The amazing thing is that the same waterway is used as an air strip for the float planes. I was sure that we would see a boat/plane collision, but we didn’t. I guess the planes can dodge the boats and the same for the boats avoiding the planes. Tomorrow we are going on south to Chemainus.

Day 37- August 21, 2006

Chemainus is located about 20 miles south of Nanaimo on the Vancouver Island side of the Stewart Channel. It is a quaint, artsy little town that serves as a real tourist attraction, as well a major harbor for Western Forest Products. In 1982, the town invited many internationally known artists to use the town as a canvas. Consequently, 37 murals painted on the sides of building and 13 sculptures scattered throughout the town depict the history of the people. You can do a walking tour, but we opted for the horse drawn wagon version of the tour. It was very interesting. We browsed the shops and had lunch at a local diner recommended by the harbor master. We met nice people also moored in the harbor.
We spent part of the day trying to make arrangements with the factory folks to get Discovery in for a little needed warranty work when we get back to Seattle. Being hull # 5 has resulted in a few issues that have been resolved in the subsequent evolution of the TC255. I’m sure they will make sure everything is right before we head for Utah. Tomorrow we’re going fishing and shrimping—Brent is going through withdrawal. I can't believe the time is going by so fast.

[Hoop]

Dixie,

Thanks for your posts! Great fun reading them ... vicarious touring adventure!

[Discovery]

Day 38- August 22, 2006

In almost every harbor we have been in throughout all of BC, some of the local people have come down to the docks to look at the boats and talk to the travelers. They are extraordinarily friendly and helpful. Chemainus was no different. A guy came to look at our boat and gave us directions for where to go for good fishing and shrimping. We went where he told us and were able to catch two nice ling cod. One weighed in at 11 lbs 4 oz. and the other at 10 lbs. 3 oz. They were both real beauties. Our shrimping was not so successful, but we did get enough for dinner.
After the fishing trip, we dropped off our traveling companions and we all headed towards Sydney via our own means of transportation. They will catch the ferry to the San Juans there. We made it to Maple Bay and anchored near Paddy Mile Stone in a small cove that protected us from the southern blow that we fought all the way there. We would continue on to Sydney the next day under better water conditions—hopefully. We were traveling in the Sanson Channel, rather than on the outside of the Gulf Islands and it was still very rough.

Day 39- August 23, 2006

The wind continued to blow all the way to Sydney. We anchored in a sheltered bay near the harbor. We waited to hear from our land travelers and when they reached Sydney we secured a guest mooring inside the harbor and walked into the town located near the port. We browsed the cute little shops and enjoyed the town. Diann checked with the ferry system and found that they would have to leave on the ferry at 6:00 p.m. to get to Friday Harbor in the San Juans. There is only one ferry per day with a drop off in the islands. The south wind was still churning the water pretty hard but we decided we could make it out to the Sydney spit and wait out the wind. It generally calms in the late afternoon and then we could cross Haro Strait. We waited until almost 6:00 p.m. and felt it had calmed enough for us to cross to San Juan Island. We got out in the Strait and knew that we had made the wrong decision, but it just wasn’t bad enough to turn back. We lumped across the 11 miles and were glad it wasn’t any further. It was rough enough to put a lot of water over the top of the boat and there were some big rollers that were unnerving to me, but the boat performed beautifully. It was like driving thru a washing machine. The current would run one way and the wind blowed another and then things would change—but never get better. In retrospect, we both agreed we should have waited for calmer seas, but that’s called experience.
We cleared customs without issue at Roche Harbor and were still fighting the south wind. We found mooring in a bay across from the harbor and anchored in calm and protected water. The area around the bay was all privately owned and the people did not seem pleased that we were there. We had two incidents of being buzzed by, at way over a wakeless speed, to shake the boat. Unfortunately for them, we stayed. The attitude of some of these Washington residents was not so friendly as we had experienced in Canada. We had a calm night.

Day 40- August 24, 2006

We picked Diann and Mark up in Roche Harbor and we went exploring the island. It was a beautiful day and the water was much calmer than the day before. It was so interesting to see the beauty of the island and the homes that lined the shores. We dropped them off at their truck and camper and then we all met again in Friday Harbor. After being placed on the waiting list because we didn’t have a reservation, we eventually secured mooring in the harbor and took a land tour of the island. The roads pretty well cover the entire island and we went from Friday Harbor over to Roche Harbor and then around to Cattle Point. It gave us a good tour of both the inland agricultural areas and the beautiful views of the coastline. We returned back to Friday Harbor and had an early dinner at one of the local restaurants. It was back to the boat for the evening.

Day 41- August 25, 2006

Today is our last day in Friday Harbor as we have an appointment at the factory for Monday morning. We had a leisurely breakfast on the boat and then were joined by Jim and Carol Hooper from Cattlepoint—with an alternate address in San Jose. They had seen the TC255 at the Seattle Boat Show and had taken a ride in one in the Bay area. They had tried to meet us at the Delta Extravaganza, but we were unable to make all our appointed stops due to weather issues. Jim and Brent had corresponded by E-mail before our departure and we called and invited them over while we were here. They don’t currently have a C-Dory but are very interested and we shared our experiences with them. Hopefully they will decide to get a TC255 and we’ll be seeing them at the CBGT. They are terrific people with a lot of the same interests that we have and they would be great to travel with. We enjoyed the visit and look forward to seeing them again soon.
We spent the afternoon browsing the shops and having lunch at the San Juan Microbrewery. It was good but certainly not as good as the brew we had from Pat and David’s Snoqualmie Brewery.
Tomorrow we head back to Anacortes to get on the trailer and try to get this boat cleaned up before Monday. I don’t know how we will get the stuff off the bottom of the boat that has accumulated over these last months. This has been such a great trip—we could start all over again tomorrow. Brent will have his 60th birthday on Tuesday and he really hoped to still be on the boat to celebrate. To carry that wish out, we’ll have to go to the factory. I can’t believe how lucky we have been to be able to make this wonderful voyage. We learned a lot about boating, and spending time together, and seeing and meeting great people and new places. This is just the beginning of our “Discoveries”. I will post the final episode when we get back to Utah and then I can provide some final statistics and thoughts on the trip.

[Pat Anderson]

We'll be watching for the "final installment," Dixie!

[El and Bill]

Brent and Dixie --

So glad you guys had such a great trip -- thanks for keeping us posted on your cruise. Have a good and safe trip back to Utah. e&b

[thataway]

A great series of posts, and you captured the essence of crusing this area. It brought back many good memories for Marie and I--but we took months to do what you did in 41 days (we had a 6 knot motorsailor).

What were the highest seas that you encountered?
What speed were you able to make in those seas?
Do you have any indication of the "average" speed for the entire trip?
Do you have totalization of both mileage (GPS) and fuel used?

Again; Thanks for taking the time to share your trip!

[Hoop]

Dixie and Brent,

Thanks again for the great posts. It was a lot of fun meeting you all in Friday Harbor yesterday. Thanks so much for showing us your boat and answering all our questions!

Jim

[SENSEI]

Well, the crew of the Discovery was here at the farm today to pick up their truck & trailer to take back to Twin Bridges to pull her out . It was nice to see them again. Kinda sad to be havin to quit the NW with the best weather yet to come but alas all good things must come to an end...lol...
The barn looks kinda empty with their rig gone. Halcyon looks might forlorn out there all by her lonsome.

[Discovery]

September 6, 2006

We have returned to Utah after spending the past week in Seattle while the factory guys worked their magic on the boat. They had the boat from Monday morning until Friday night and were able to complete all the items that required attention. They did a great job and we appreciate their willingness to work around our schedule. The fixes were all things that will just make the boat better. Brett Reynolds is in charge of warranty work and he takes his job very seriously. Thanks for your help, Brett.
Another special thanks must go to Roger and Lizbeth Johnson (Sensei). They were so great to let us leave our truck and trailer at their farm while we cruised. It was nice to know that the truck would be safe and secure. They are terrific, generous people and I can’t wait for the day that we can return the favor.
The trip home from Seattle was uneventful—thankfully. The TC255 trailers so well that you hardly know it’s back there.

The cruising stats that may be of interest to you are as follows:

Total Miles Traveled in Discovery 1123 statute miles
Total fuel used 479.74 gallons
Total engine hours 260 (130 per motor)
Total cost of fuel $1831.98 USD
Average cost per gallon $3.82 USD
Average number of gallons per engine per hour 1.86 gallons
Average miles per gallon 2.34 miles

At 2000 RPM w/ one motor 6.6 mph used 1.85 gallons per hour
At 3800 RPM w/ two motors 22 mph used 10 gallons per hour

Total $ spent for marina moorage $385.50 USD
Total nights on boat in Canadian waters and San Juans 41 nights
Spent in Marinas 16 nights
Spent on hook or at other free moorage 25 nights
Most expensive moorage was Blind Channel Harbor $44 CD
Least expensive moorage was Stones Marina (Nanaimo) $16 CD

Some specific questions that had been asked were in regards to the highest seas we encountered. The longest stretch of bad water was crossing Haro Strait. Brent estimated the waves at 6 ft. We had equally bad water crossing from York Island into the Johnstone Strait but the distance was shorter, a tide rip across a shoal. We experienced 3-4 ft. seas several times. The speed that we would run depended on the conditions—obviously. In the 3-4 ft. seas, we were better off running 12-14 knots to keep the nose up, no hull slap and a dry windshield. In the 6 ft seas, we just had to take one wave at a time and power up and down as necessary. The average speed for the entire trip was probably near 10 to 12 knots. If we needed the power for rapids or wanted to get to the destination more quickly, we would run both motors at about 18 knots. If we were putting along on one motor just taking in the scenery, we would average about 6 knots. We alternated motors to keep the engine hours equal.

I want to include a few thoughts for the 1st mates on this type of trip. Groceries, including ice, were available at most marinas. The cost of staple items like milk, bread, and eggs were especially high. There weren’t always fresh foods available, so we relied on canned foods that we had brought from home. We preferred not to eat in restaurants most of the time, so we did buy some meat, but it wasn’t always up to my expectations and was pricey. We used canned meat and ate lots of seafood (fish, shrimp, crab)—which we were lucky enough to catch and enjoy. I learned that bakery items spoil quickly without preservatives so I tried to buy accordingly. Wonder Bread must have a shelf life of months! Laundromats were available but were a hassle and were expensive. I learned that you do not have to wear a clean shirt every day. The temperature was pleasant most of the time, but did require sweat shirts. They also do not have to be worn only once before washing. Good water shoes are a must. When taking the dingy to shore and also for showering in the public showers, shoes that dry fast and stay on when climbing over rocks are best. Flip-flops just didn’t cut it. I expect that these tips are only applicable to traveling north as far as we did. Going on north past Port Hardy would change the availability of resources. Finally, I would have been lost without my cell phone—it’s a grandma thing. I was able to stay in touch with family during most of our travels. We have Verizon service and we changed to the North American plan before we left and were not charged for roaming service.

We absolutely loved this trip. Marcel Proust said “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.” The entire trip from beginning to end provided those “new eyes” and we can’t wait to do it again. There were some hassles in trying to coordinate with a land based crew, but it worked out well. There are places we wouldn’t have visited if not for taking opportunities to meet up with them frequently. There were places they could not have visited without having the time on the boat, so all-in-all, it worked out great. We enjoyed the time with Diann and Mark and we couldn’t have asked for better were traveling companions.

Writing this log has been both a challenge and an opportunity for me. The internet access in BC, was infrequent, and unreliable. I hope that some have found it worthwhile and encouraging enough to take the trip. If there are any other specific questions, Brent and I would be glad to address them. Thanks for taking the time to read.