New Boat 4 Sled

[sleddog]

7/18/12

Our run up to Princess Louisa Inlet was blessed with a fresh following breeze, 15-25 knots. At one point we nosed into a waterfall cascading down a mountain side. Arrival at PLI was timed to coincide with slack water at Malibu Rapids. Inside this four mile long fiord, we counted 20 waterfalls, although 60 were reported earlier in June's max snowmelt from the 7,000' high snowfields ringing Princess Louisa.

We spent a quiet night on mooring at Macdonald Island before proceeding two miles up inlet to Chatterbox Falls. Strangely, there were less than 20 boats inside PLI, with 15 of them tied up at the dock managed by the PLI Society.

A De Haviland Beaver float plane disembarked the officers and directors of the PLI Society, who were there to set the stage for a cruise in and BBQ on Tuesday. As their float plane rested alongside the dock, it was clear their starboard pontoon was sinking. The pilot was pumping furiously until I pointed out a silver dollar size hole in the back of the pontoon.

The pilot consulted his repair kit and came up with a large wad of chewing gum that he chewed for 20 minutes and then plugged into the hole. Unfortunately, the chewing gum disappeared into the innards of the pontoon. I went to WILDFLOWER and retrieved a roll of duct tape, and we fashioned a nice big sticky ball that effectively plugged the leak, allowing the plane and passengers to take off. For the trouble, we were invited to the Big Event on Tuesday.

7 of 9 of the PLI Directors appeared the following day with their 50 foot powerboats. WILDFLOWER sandwiched between this fleet felt a bit out of place. But everyone was most friendly. Water temp in Princess Louisa was a warm 67 degrees, and swimming was in order to stay cool.

Today, Wednesday, we left at the 0500 slack tide, and beat 31 miles back to Egmont. The wind turned at every point to right on the nose.....but 6.5 hours later we tied up at Egmont.

 

[sleddog]

Sometimes if you look closely, you don't have to go very far to find something really interesting. Madeira Park in Pender Harbor, about the size of Pt.Reyes Station, has a small government wharf capable of docking about 20 boats. This afternoon, the 37 foot Bill Garden designed troller HERSELF tied up just astern. What a beauty! I could not take my eyes off her.....

While the crew was up winning gas money at the local Bingo games, I wandered over to the boardwalk at the small lagoon behind the town church. There was a beaver family, including a baby beaver, chawing down on local woody morsels, including the sign post holding the placard describing the lagoon inhabitants.

 

[H Spruit]

Ola from Santa Cruz;
I have forwarded the pics of Chatterbox falls to Rainer, Doug, Mark, and Danaher.
I was impressed with how many people at prayer meeting were aware of that place.
I also took note of the 31 mile trip from there to Egmont in 6.5 hours that is 4.76 VMG straight up wind!
I am curious how much motor time was involved, if any?
<H>

 

[sleddog]

Howard,

We motor sailed 31 miles back from Princess Louisa. It was puffy, 10-20, with short chop....the engine at half speed and full sail gave us 34 degree AWA and 5-6 knots BS. The self tacking jib let us tack immediately on advantageous shifts. We passed a C&C 33 motoring at about 5 knots.

WILDFLOWER now in Desolation Sound. 7 hours to go 50 miles from Pender Harbor to Prideaux Haven. Wind was 140 to dead aft at 15-25. Jib wung to weather. At one point we passed a 60' submerged log. Boat was riding waves much of the way.

At Prideaux Haven we found PEGASUS XII with Dan and Linda Newland. What are the chances in a small cove in British Columbia you would find winners of 4 SHTP's rafted up? (Dan has won 3)

This morning the mosquitoes finally drove us out of Prideaux and over to Roscoe Bay, where we swam in 75 degree Black Lake. Now enroute to reversing rapids at Squirrel Cove. At high tide they flow west, at low tide. east.

Hi to All from Skip and Annie, crew of WILDFLOWER.

 

[H Spruit]

I am curious to know how many miles you have logged with Wildflower since the launching?
I estimate that we have put approximately 600 miles on Moku since October 2008, and I am guessing that you have sailed close that number of miles since March of this year.
<H>

 

[sleddog]

7/27/12

WILDFLOWER currently tied up at Port Maurelle, just north of Surge Narrows. Mountaineering friends Rob and Laurie Wood live on Maurelle Island, off the grid, in a nice home they designed and built overlooking the Okisollo Channel. We have been enjoying a break from the boat, with Laurie's garden to play in, raspberries and blueberries to pick, a hen house with a dozen chickens laying, and catching up on Rob's recent association with the Nat. Geo special called "The Man Who Could Fly."

Rob is also building a 20' aluminum hulled sailing catamaran they hope to cruise in the Sea of Cortez. The hull is most certainly "bombproof."

There is quite an assortment of wildlife on our 10 minute hike through the woods down to Port Maurelle. A ruffed grouse, quite fearless, follows along like a pet dog (see photo below), three garter snakes live under a rock at the head of the dock, a mink roams the beach, and the "Harbor Eagle" perches above on a dead fir spar.

In answer to Howard's question, since launch, WILDFLOWER has approximately 400 miles water miles under her hulls, and 1,000 trailer miles. MVP's to date are the stern steps, the below decks "Aquarium" hatch, the Queen bunk, the roller furling and self tacking jib, the 6 hp outboard, and the two companionway hatches and aisles below decks.

I'm sorry to hear of the passing of Dr. Hal Ward of CHEVAL fame. We sailed a lot of miles together, and Hal was always upbeat, positive, and looked out for his crew With the strongest upper body on the boat (he had polio), Hal would sit in his special chair and grind the spinnaker sheet all day long.

Welcome aboard to this Forum Capt. Bob Buell. Bob and wife Mary Jo, of Sunset Beach, Oahu, have been a good friends for 40 years. Bob is a multi year Transpac and delivery skipper. Bob captained Matson ships between the mainland and Hawaii for 30 years and amassed over a million miles to/from the Sandwich Islands. In addition, it was Bob's L-36 BELLWETHER that become the de-facto finish boat for the first SHTP in 1978.

 

[Bob Buell]

Skip, thx for the welcoming note to this Forum. Am curious what your friends do for work there on Maurelle Is, or is it just a summer home?? Looking at Google Map, not many there.
Am waiting to hear if the 2 SSS guys found the abandoned race boat enroute Hanalei??
Aloha, Capt Bob

 

[sleddog]

7/29/12

Rob and Laurie Wood have lived full time on Maurelle Island for more than 35 years. Rob is an author, mountaineer expedition leader, and home designer. Laurie cooks for a nearby fishing lodge. Their new kitten, Smokey, is currently hanging off my laptop cord, jeopardizing the connection.

Rob is building a 20 foot aluminum cat, similar to a Wharram Tiki, just behind the hen house (photo attached). This morning we were visited by another local boat builder, Josh, who is building a 45 foot cat of his design. Josh uses a Russell Brown "commuter" proa, with 20 hp outboard, to haul up to 1,000 pounds of materials from the nearest town, Campbell River. Both Rob's and Josh's boats, essentially being built "off the grid," certainly demonstrate significant determination.

 

[sleddog]

We sailed up Okisollo Channel yesterday to visit Josh and Johanna Southerlin, and see their construction on the 44' cat of his design. Impressive to see fine construction using local materials. Also visiting was Clark and Nina of the 44' Marples tri RIKKI TIKI TAVI, built in Sacramento.

 

[sleddog]

8/1/12

Three months of living aboard WILDFLOWER finds all systems "Go." To celebrate, we sailed through narrow Beazely Pass to Surge Narrows Government Dock for the Wednesday Market. Surge Narrows acts as the public gathering place for residents of the local islands. It is a tight community, and they have built a magnificent home grown gym adjacent to the school.

As we lunched on the Surge Narrows dock, the mail plane arrived. It was greeted by a gentleman in an Aloha shirt, asking offloading passengers "Are you my mail order bride?"

After lunch, sailed 12 miles south to Rebecca Spit, a portion of which "broke off" in the 1946 earthquake. The Spit is 1.3 miles long and inland of its sandy beaches is fortified with First Nation battlements from 200 years ago.

 

[sleddog]

Rebecca Spit, despite its reputation as the best anchorage in the area, proved less so last night. Due to the full moon high tides, the large quantity of driftwood logs on the beach began to launch themselves and go clunk in the night. As the wind and currents were light, no damage done. But for a while there, it felt like we were anchored inside a pinball machine.

Which begs the question of how are the returning SHTP boats doing with tsunami debris? One hopes there are no issues. But it should be interesting to hear of their passage details.

 

[WBChristie]

"Are you my mail order bride?" hahahahahaha

 

[sleddog]

We went back to Rebecca Spit this afternoon, hoping for a better result. Bow anchor in 28' and stern line to shore. All was well despite the strong NW wind. I took a walk ashore. The rafted powerboaters had set up a beach BBQ and iced beer chest.

The tide rose. And rose some more. At 13.4 feet, the drift logs on the beach came alive. In no time at all, we were attacked by dozens of logs, marching upwind in an unseen current. There were more logs than water. A deadhead with a flag on its upright end came by. That was the end. We released the stern anchor, pulled the bow anchor, and got the hell out of there.

One mile across Drew Harbor we anchored in the lee of the Taku resort floating breakwater. The full moon, all peach, rose. The wind died. Oatmeal cookies were served. All was peaceful again.

 

[sleddog]

8/6/12

Gorge Harbor, about the size of Alameda Estuary, is entered through a cleft in the rocks with petroglyphs to port. http://www.cryc.ca/Pictos/Desolation_Sound/Gorge_Harbour.html Gorge Harbor is protected from all quadrants, and WILDFLOWER is anchored in a nook, 18', at the head of the western arm.

We came from Evans Bay, Read Island, where we were guests at the annual Read Island Picnic. Much fun, including the inflation of an elderly 12 man life raft. A giant "Whoosh." The kids loved that, and climbed aboard. A sea-going "bounce house..."

Other attendees at the Picnic arrived in a float house they'd just bought for 20 cases of beer. No anchors were included. So they anchored their new craft with weights of 20' lengths of rusty chain suspended from the four corners. Needless to say, the floathouse did not stay put overnight!

Yesterday, we anchored at Shark Spit. I was tempted to run the boat up on the gentle beach. But sharp oyster shells gave pause, and we anchored instead in 5' of warm water.

 

[sleddog]

8/14/12

Part of the pleasure of cruising the Pac NW is unexpectedly running into friends .....Trevor and Tina Baylis from Santa Cruz, with daughter Mara (11) and son Colin (8) were in Gorge Harbor aboard Morgan Larson's 37' power cat. The kids were having a ball sailing Bic dinghies, while Trevor attempted to trouble shoot electrical gremlins aboard their loaner. The problems were put at bay, and we sailed to Shark Spit and rafted up for the afternoon.

Trevor shared with us his recent Pac Cup experience on the J-125 DOUBLE TROUBLE. An interesting comment was the amount of apparently "fresh" (unbarnacled) junk floating mid-Pacific, possibly from the Tsunami. Trevor said they would back down DT at least every spinnaker change to clear the blades of debris.....and that at least one contender "throttled back" at night after encountering a large floating dock....?????

WILDFLOWER has now come 90 miles south from Desolation Sound to Nanaimo, where we unexpectedly encountered the beautiful 37' cutter SYRMA, a 1941 John Alden design in immaculate condition. We tied up bow to bow with SYRMA, two wooden boats of different generations.

Aboard SYRMA were friends Geoff and Debbie Bourne from Maui. Geoff had also just done the Pac Cup on SC-50 HULA GIRL. They had a good trip, with three crew and six students, and "only blew out one spinny." Unfortunately, HULA GIRL has been dismasted (carbon rig) on the return delivery, four hours north of Kaneohe.

Our current destination is the city of Victoria, 70 miles south. We'll pass through Dodd Narrows this afternoon at slack water. All well aboard, and the 6 hp Tohatsu outboard continues to burn .25 to .33 gal/hour at 6 knots. The Tohatsu is a single cylinder, four stroke OB, with 5 amp alternator. Hopefully we'll see some wind and be able to fly Morgan's Moore 24 spinny.

 

[sleddog]

After pleasant sailing yesterday under Moore 24 spinny in 6-10 knots TWS, we arrived Victoria noon today, Aug.16, the hottest day of the year on Vancouver Island. Moorage in front of the Empress Hotel had been recommended. But this location was pricey ($1.75/ft plus 12% tax), with no bathroom facilities, and with compromised air circulation to vent the heat and kerosene fumes from the nearby float plane terminal. The Wharfinger directed us to tie up adjacent to the promenade and main waterfront street in Victoria, complete with sirens, car alarms, buskers, t-shirt hawkers, and many tourists like ourselves. Did I mention the cruise ship SPLENDOR OF THE SEAS with 4,000 aboard was moored nearby?.

A long story short: culture shocked and heat stroked, we departed the "romance" of the Empress Hotel for a more secluded and cooler corner of Victoria Inner Harbor and are tied up between two singlehanders: Sergio from Hungary, and Tanaka-san from Japan. Tanaka-san had just arrived on his 26 footer after a 63 day Pacific Crossing, punctuated by a broken headstay that prevented him from flying sails forward of the mast. Tanaka-san's English was difficult . But we clearly understood his sentiment that his single-handed days are over: "no one to talk with!!!" I will direct Tanaka-san to SSS. Plenty of us to talk with there ;-)

We look forward to spectating the Dragon Boat Championships over the next three days. 90 teams, a drummer on the bow, a steersman aft, and about two dozen co-ed paddlers per boat. Contact "happens."
http://www.victoriadragonboat.com/ Yee haw.

 

[sleddog]

WILDFLOWER's current location at Wharf St. Dock, across from the Victoria Maritime Museum, is good for boat spotting. Next door is the 75' square rigged ship NORTH STAR of HERSCHEL ISLAND, built in 1935 in SF for two Innuits who kept her above the Arctic Circle, at the mouth of the Mackenzie River Delta for most of her life. This is one stout ship, complete with ship's cats Abbey and William. http://www.northstarofherschelisland.com/

Down the way is the maxi-ketch GRAYBEARD. Competing for first to finish honors in the '71 Transpac, her large 4' x 6' skeg ripped from the bottom. GRAYBEARD's May Day came just as morning roll call started. Luckily, the cook had laid in a supply of buckets and her motivated crew bucket bailed while the leaks were plugged. In a rare move, the 500 pound skeg was winched aboard, GRAYBEARD resumed the race, and the skeg was rebolted to the underbelly in Hono.

Arriving this morning from the Vic-Maui Race was the SC-50 INCANTATION. Her crew had a story to tell: on the return passage she struck a submerged styrofoam and cement piling. Luckily they were only doing five knots under main alone, trying to clear netting from their maxi-prop. The piling took a divot out of the bow, slid down the keel, and impaled itself on their torpedo bulb. They had to back down to clear their appendage, and the "piling floated to the surface like a deadhead" In the same vicinity, the Vic-Maui racer FAMILY AFFAIR spotted an overturned 50' blue fishing boat, single-screw. Likely a Tsunami victim.

 

[sleddog]

The Victoria Maritime Museum is home of TILIKUM, Capt. John Voss' 30' hollowed out red cedar log canoe. TILIKUM is quite famous in Canada and the subject of the classic "Venturesome Voyage of Capt. Voss."

Voss, a snake oil showman, won TILIKUM in a drinking match with a British Columbia Indian Chief. Voss had her decked over, and three masts installed. His intention was to sail TILIKUM round the World, supporting the voyage with "demonstrations."

Voss and crew Norman Luxton left Victoria, BC, in 1902 and sailed non-stop to Penrhyn Is. From there, they continued across the S. Pacific to Australia, then back to New Zealand. Thence to Africa, Brazil, and up to England, a total of 34,000 odd miles. TILIKUM and Voss became famous, and the boat was trained westward across Canada back to BC, I believe about 1907

Voss, long before the Pardeys, was a confirmed proponent of lying to a sea anchor and weathered many gales in this fashion. If you can find a copy, I recommend "Venturesome Voyage".

 

[sleddog]

The Victoria Dragon Boat Festival could rightfully be described at 3 Bridge Fiasco meets Cirque du Soleil. Plenty of pomp to begin with on Friday, with Taoist monks purifying the fleet, and "awakening the dragons" by daubing the boats' eyes with red cinnabar paint. Lion dancers danced, drummers drummed, incense permeated Victoria's Inner Harbor, and the Festival Village was opened to 2,000 paddlers of all ages.

Saturday morning, the Inner Harbor was closed to traffic while the Dragon Boats competed on a 500 meter course. The good teams were getting their Dragon Boats up on a plane. Well, almost, as the bow drummer beat the paddling rhythm. A colorful scene for sure.

During a break in action, we requested clearance from Vessel Traffic and motored outbound, destination Roche Harbor, 25 miles distant, across Haro Straits. The breeze picked up nicely, 15-20, from the south, and we scooted along at 7 knots under plain sail.

 

[AlanH]

I didn't know that Tillicum was at the Victoria M.M.

I finally got back in here to catch up! This is making me want to try some cruising.