Author: paulcollister

Thursday 15th August
Walters Cove, Vancouver Is, West Coast

We went to the Cafe, ‘Java the Hut’ for some dinner early in Walters Cove, the reason being that the cafe closes early on a Thursday as the supply ship the Uchuck III arrives.  The Uchuck is a converted minesweeper built in 1942 and is made from fir planking.

She now brings supplies and passengers to several of the remote coves and settlements along the west coast of the island. Passengers on board have to find accommodation ashore at each of its night stops and a few dozen people disembarked and were divided up amongst various locals who housed them for the night. Later they would all head to the ‘Java the Hut’ for their dinner, hence we had to be out early.
It was fascinating watching the kayakers being ‘Wet Launched’ from the ship as I caught in the videos below.

We also had great fun watching a couple of sea otters, one looked like he was getting ready for a night on the pull!

Friday 16th August

After watching the postman arrive we departed Walters Cove for Dixie Cove, it was fun navigating the many rocks on the way out, I tried to use the GPS to keep our position in between the rocks, but it wasn’t updating fast enough and I got quite confused. Once through we went to a cove within a cove, it was very quiet and peaceful, except for the distant sound of machinery coming from the logging operation on the other side of the hill. Just as soon as we had the hook dug in, a fast motor boat approached us to explain that they were blasting over the ridge, but that we were quite safe there, just not to be alarmed by the blast. About an hour later, poor Kathy nearly jumped out of her skin when the blast happened, it was huge! fortunately there was only one, they were blasting through rock for a new logging road.

Sat 17th August
We headed over to Rugged Point beach, had a very nice walk, saw bear prints and possibly cougar prints, it was great walking along with Robert & Vanessa as they could point out what the various footprints were. I was reminded of how much grief I gave my father as a 7 year old when buying shoes. I wouldn’t have anything that didn’t have a compass in the sole, or made animal prints, I never imagined I would one day be walking along a beach seeing these impressions for real. Later we found a sand dollar and saw a real black bear.

On Sunday 18th we headed over to Nulchitz, an abandoned First Nations village. There was little left of the village. Sailing into the various remote parts of the west coast has made me appreciate just how much of the coast was settled by the first nations and what a bad deal they got from the British invaders.

Later I walked across a shingle spit which connected to an island only accessible at low water.

Mon 19th We motored to Tashis except for last hour where we managed to make 5 knots with the headsail out as we headed up the long inlet that leads to the old wood mill town of Tahsis. Once a thriving settlement with two big sawmills and a decent population, it is now rather sad with the mills closed down. The Westview marina has taken over as the centre of activity there. Waggoners guidebook to the area stated we would find a well stocked supermarket, a wine store, a bank/ATM, a cafe, cell phone service and internet. In reality there was poor wifi and no cellphone coverage. All the other delights were to be found in the one store. When I asked in the store for ‘No Alcohol beer’, the shop owner looked aghast and asked me to explain what I meant, when I did, he asked ‘why would anyone want that?’. The Marina mostly caters for Sports fishing and was rammed with little speedy fishing motorboats. 

Back at the dock we enjoyed a nice dinner in the cafe, and I had a O’Douls non alcohol beer with it!  (Obviously not sourced locally) 

We watched them cleaning freshly caught fish at the gutting tables at the end of the cafe, and all the tourist fishermen stood proudly in front of their prize catches to be photographed.

Earlier Kathy had jumped into the sea to get some of the fish heads and guts floating around. It would have been better if she had left her handbag ashore but it seemed to be an impromptu event she hadn’t thought through fully. We all rushed to her aid and pulled her out back onto the dock. There’s a slim chance her mobile phone may have survived as her handbag seemed quite waterproof.

Tue 20th Bligh Island  Ewin inlet

Left for Bligh Island in a building wind, eventually we saw up to 30 knots of wind, we also spotted a bear on the passage.

Spent the evening on Sister Midnight chatting with Rob & Vanessa. They were a bit surprised how big the seas had been crossing over to the island, I was surprised at how many rocks we had to navigate around to get into the inlet, I was reminded of cycling around cones as we did in our cycling proficiency test at school. 

This is the area where captain cook re-masted his ship Resolution and just around the corner in Friendly Cove, Captain Vancouver tried to negotiate the ownership of Vancouver Island with the Spanish, failing at first, and almost bringing Britain and Spain into a war with each other. In the end, Britain gained total control. 

Wed 21st August

Meet up with Kevin & Karla on Gargoyle, they have a Benateu Oceanis 50, very nice and are heading down to the sea of Cortez like ourselves. 

Later meet up with another nice chappie on his Bristol Channel cutter, a classy looking sailboat, a bit like a baba but with a flat transom, but more traditional looking. He had tried to leave for Hot Spring Cove but his engine was playing up, so he sailed back and anchored near us under sail. 

Thur 22nd

We depart for Hot Spring Cove, seas build as we pass out of the inlet and towards Estevan point, at one point the swell & waves are around 2 metres with the odd big wave of 3 meters or more roaring in, as we turn to head south towards our destination we are taking the waves on our beam/quarter. We have been travelling with Robert & Vanessa for a few days now and hopefully they will join us for the trip down to Mexico.

Sadly on ‘For Good’ they are having trouble with their sails and decide to motor sail the rest of the way, another 4 hours or so. Robert calls me on the VHF to say he has engine problems, he isn’t getting any sea water flowing through the engine to cool it. He wants to head for shore but I suggest he just sails the remainder of the route and if needed later I will tow him into the anchorage. Poor Robert and Vanessa are getting thrown around a bit in their boat and their speed is down to about 4 knots as they are having trouble keeping the sail full with all the wave motion. This is by far the worst conditions they have experienced to date. The wind is only about 10-15 knots, from behind, but they struggle with the main blocking the headsail and without safety lines to go forward on the boat they stay in the cockpit. I turn Sister Midnight around and head back to them as they have dropped back by 1/4 mile now. We are going head into the wind and waves, our bow is crashing down onto the waves. I’m pleased to see the new cedar bow platform is taking the waves fine. We reach them in about 15 minutes and I turn and follow them closely for a while. The wind backs slightly and I can see they change course slightly to keep the mainsail filled, however they won’t make the entrance to the cove on that course and will need to gybe both sails before we get there. I suggest we round up into the wind a bit and reach into Hesquiat Bay, which is well protected given the NW light winds, and has a bar (shallow sandbank at the entrance) that keeps the swell out. This bay is massive and around 9m deep throughout so they can drop the hook anywhere without risk. As we approach the entrance the wind moves closer to our bow so we haul in the sails, Robert hasn’t adjusted his sails so they flap a lot and he drops to 3-4 knots, I roll up 50% of my headsail so I don’t get too far ahead. Within an hour we are over the bar and drop the hook in a very settled area. 

I had checked that Robert was ok to anchor under sail on the VHF radio, and he was happy. It was then that I realised I had never anchored this boat under sail alone, and as it was calm, in a big empty bay, I decided I would do the same too. I rolled up the headsail and asked Kathy to steer into the wind, she thought this was so I could drop the mainsail and was a bit freaked out to hear the anchor chain running out. I was also a bit freaked out as a small squall came through just as I let out 30 mtrs of chain, the bow blew down, the main filled and we took off at some speed. I legged it back to the cockpit, let out the main a bit, ran to the mast and dropped the mainsail rather quickly, then back to the bow to continue with the anchoring. 

Fri 23rd

Robert gets engine going, but it’s too late to leave, they are still resting after their rough ride here.
I dinghy into Rae Basin, an even safer spot at the head of the bay, a river flows into here and some impressive trees lie there. I hadn’t realised but it’s a very short walk to the huge Hesquiat lake that lies at the head of the river. 

Sat 24th
Depart Hesquiat Bay for Hot springs Cove.

Nice motor, no wind, swell building

Forecast has swell dropping from 2-3m to 2m by Sunday but wind rising to NW 30, so now seems best

It takes just 3 hours before we are happily anchored in Hot Spring Cove 

We head off to the springs, the custodians of the springs have built a wonderful walkway through the forest, it runs for 2km and there had been a tradition for visitors, mostly yachties to leave a plank with their boat name carved into it.

Once at the springs I spent a long time sitting in the hot water which gushed down the hillside then out into the Pacific Ocean. It was so relaxing sitting under a hot waterfall being pummelled by the water falling, just like a jacuzzi. However it might have saved a bit of time if I hadn’t gone in with my fancy sunglasses on, I became very intimate with all the various pools between me and the ocean before I found them. Kathy reviewed the pictures she had taken of me to determine when I had lost them and on searching that pool they turned up, Phew.

From the Hot springs we took the inside route around Flores island and stopped in a lovely spot at the head of the Bacchante inlet. Here we spotted another big black bear prowling along the beach.

Bacchante was beautiful and we could easily have stopped there for several days, but Kathy was worried about not having had any wifi/cellular connections for a while, and we were running low on chocolate, so we headed off to the fleshpots of Tofino.
Vanessa had called ahead and found there was room for two boats to raft at the hammerhead of the end pontoon. They rafted to us, a first for them, of course rafting, or ‘parking alongside’ is easy to do when the weather is fine and currents aren’t an issue, however when you have never done this before, I can remember, it’s quite a scary thing. As it turned out, Robert brought his boat alongside us perfectly and we were soon all sitting in the cockpit having a good natter.

After 2 days paying to be bounced around at the end of the pontoon by the constant stream of day tripper and whale watching boats we headed out to anchor. Currents run fast here, and a healthy sprinkling of rocks and shallows causes quite a few rapids and whirlpools. After a few hours, Robert & Vanessa decided to head off to God’s Pocket, a quiet cove just an hour or so to the north. We left them to it as the whirlpools, and planes taking off over us didn’t bother us much, we also had a lot of internet stuff to catch up with.

Tofino is a lovely holiday resort town, it has a long beach famous with surfers, and it’s a bit of a young surfer kind of place, however I enjoyed the art galleries there and Kathy was made up to have a modern well stocked supermarket.

After a few days we headed up to meet Robert and Vanessa in God’s pocket. another peaceful spot, we dinghied over to them and watched footage of movies Robert has made in the past and picked up videos and photos they had taken of us.

Sunday 1st September. We said our farewells, Robert & Vanessa had decided that they were going to postpone their trip to the Sea of Cortez, and would hopefully try to make it in 2020. We really hope we can meet up with them next year.
They headed off to Ucluelet and we waited a few hours before we went back to Tofino to get a few supplies before we left for the USA. Our plan had always been to leave at the end of August, and the weather was now good, also Monday is Labor Day, a Public holiday in Canada and the USA, so being at sea all day suited us, we would arrive in Astoria on Monday. The plan was to leave Tofino at 22:00 in the dark in order to arrive at the Columbia river entrance around midday on Tuesday when the tide would be flooding and we could safely cross the bar. A bar is a big sandbank at the entrance to a river that can create dangerous conditions if the currents flow a certain way and the ocean swell opposes it.
Until 22:00 we had a few hours to kill so we wandered around town, after picking up some supplies in the co-op.

We had some fun watching three racoons stage a break in at a fish processing plant, they seemed to be working as a well co-ordinated team, with one keeping a lookout while the others climbed in through a hole they had found in the wall. I presume the building had a lot of salmon in it.

At 10PM we set off into the rapidly fading light, no sooner had we weighed anchor than the fog descended. We navigated our way out, I had already taken bearings on the only pot marker in the harbour in our way and we slipped past that into a grey foggy night. Soon we were bouncing up and down as we left Tofino and hit the Pacific swell. The fog stayed with us for about 20 hours, so Kathy and I kept a close eye on the AIS and Radar. The AIS gives us details on any big ships out there and how close we will get to them. Of course there were quite a few fishing boats without AIS we had to watch for on the Radar.
Monday morning and the fog lifted, we could now see the ships out there.

We were able to make coffee and with the new camping device I bought in the co-op hardware store, we could make toast on the stove.

We rolled out the Yankee sail and turned off the engine. We were making 5 – 5.5 knots, which was just perfect for our planned arrival time. The weather forecast was good for a bar crossing and soon we were heading up the river Columbia using the rhyme ‘Red Right Returning’ to remember to keep the red buoys to starboard on our way in. This is the opposite to the European way of doing things.
The bar is considered one of the worst in the world, it has a nickname of ‘The Graveyard of the Pacific’ with over two thousand shipwrecks to its name. Looking at the rollers crashing over the banks either side of the entrance one could understand why.
As it was we were soon over the bar and fighting to avoid hundreds of sport fishing boats that seemed to be everywhere.
Finally we could see the bridge that signalled the location of the marina.

A quick call to the marina got us a space on the fuel dock where we could register and check in with the USA authorities, primarily the CBP (Customs Border Patrol). The CBP have had a lot of bad press recently, but I was very impressed with the reception I received by the officer here, he was quick, helpful and sorted everything out in just 15 minutes. We now have a 1 year cruising permit and 1 year stamps in our passport. I recommend Astoria for clearing in, this is actually why we came.

Tuesday evening and we headed out to find a restaurant, Buoys brewery hit the spot, it’s a micro brewery / restaurant on the waterfront. they have a section of the floor made of glass and you can look down to the piles supporting the building and see the resident sea lions chilling there.

Wednesday 4th September.
We took the trolley car to Safeway to get some fresh fruit and veg as customs forbid us bringing any in from Canada. I had eaten a lot of fruit on the passage down!

The trolly car is old, I expect Kathy will write more about it, but it’s a museum piece, literally, and plies the old railway track along the waterfront. It’s a wonderful ride, and only $1 each trip, or $2 for a day pass. It’s operated by volunteers who give a lively commentary along the route.

We will be in Astoria for a few more days before we probably head south to Newport.

Paul Collister

Wed 7th Aug 2019
Sitting at anchor in Bull Harbour, a very safe little bay on the southern side of Hope Island. 

The Tlatalsikwala band a First Nation group own this island and we can’t go ashore without first getting permission. It’s a pretty place, but we are only here as it’s a convenient place to wait for the tides and weather to get round the top of Vancouver Island, in particular, Cape Scott. Tomorrow we leave at 09:30 am in order to reach cape Scott at slack water, around 13:30, The forecast so far is for decent weather, so I’m not the least concerned, despite lots of doom and gloom mentioned in the pilot book. Talk of the infamous Cape Scott and lives lost, ships wrecked or sunk, strong currents and steep waves. I sometimes think they over emphasise these things, they are certainly terrifying to those just setting out on a life of cruising. I have found you can usually get a good feel for if the weather is going to get bad from the forecasts, experience and local knowledge, also as soon as the weather starts to deteriorate, you can generally find somewhere safe to wait it out. The other thing is, you should be able to handle extremely bad weather anyway, as it can happen at anytime, and the boat should be up to it. The main thing is to get away from dangerous shorelines and reefs as quickly as possible if the weather looks like it’s going to get bad, and you can’t get into a safe place.

Once we round Cape Scott we will head into a little cove called Sea Otter Cove, which should be well protected while we wait for the next opportunity to carry on down the coast. This is the Pacific side of Vancouver Island and we are exposed to the waves and sea swell coming across over a few thousand miles of open ocean. Things will need to be stowed properly. 

Technical Update:
I used the trip to Knight Inlet to test out the boats systems, often referred to as a shakedown cruise. As soon as we left Sointula it became apparent that the Autopilot didn’t work. I expected the fault to be in the wiring or rudder angle sensor, which is buried deep in the aft locker and as it was pouring with rain I decided not to empty the locker contents out, instead we hand steered and the next day I fixed the coupling to the rudder angle sensor. It works now, but I’m not impressed with its ability to steer a straight line, it’s path steered is closer to how I used to walk home from the pub, when I was a big brandy drinker.

Looking at the Forward looking Sonar sensor that lies on the deck on the end of a long pole I hang over the side of the boat, I noticed it was smashed and hanging off the bracket. I epoxied it all back together in a somewhat creative way and it seems to be working fine.
Not so lucky when I got the new iPad out to fire up the Navionics prog. This is the iPad with the faulty screen that was replaced in Japan. I had just paid £80 in Birkenhead to get a new screen (Screen number 2) and looking at it I couldn’t believe there was a crack running diagonally across the display. I have no idea how that happened, it’s been sitting on the cabin table minding its own business, then suddenly it’s cracked. I give up. At least it still works, but probably not for long. I bought a recon iPad before I left so we have a backup. Currently I use one iPad at the wheel and can flick between chart plotter and radar on it, and down below we have the MacBook running OpenCPN on the chart table with the radar running on the iPad next to it, so one o us can study the radar in detail from below.

We have a little iCom handheld VHF which is great for monitoring Ch16 in the cockpit, however it’s a bit rough, chipped and the antenna is falling apart, I’d love to buy a shiny new one, but that’s a few hundred pounds, so when it jumped out of my hand and disassembled itself on the cockpit sole, with plastic shards heading in every direction, I wondered if this would be my chance, sadly my miserly side took control and I have managed to tape it all back together, it works fine, in fact better than before now the antenna is taped up. It looks a state. I will have to keep an eye out for Black Friday type offers at West Marine.

The 65lb CQR now sits on the bow platform alongside the Spade anchor. 

The USB charger outlet I installed at the wheel pedestal doesn’t have enough woomph to keep the iPad charged, but I can get about 20 hours I think,  I can bring it below for a full charge if needed. On long passages we would steer using the Garmin chart plotter anyway.

The windlass thing that grips the chain, it’s not called a gypsy is it? should freewheel when the clutch is loosened, I took the whole thing apart in Malaysia and cleaned/greased it and it worked great, however it seems seized now, so I took it all apart, gave it another clean, but when I reassembled it the chain gypsy clutch was binding near the area where the key goes, so that was not going to solve the problem. I suspect something has changed shape in the last couple of years, very odd. I had to file a few thou off the inside surface of the clutch and it went back together well, in fact I was able to let the chain roll out at exactly the speed Kathy was reversing today, and we set the anchor in record time.

Altogether I’m delighted with the boat and its systems. I’d love to replace all the electronics with the latest Multifunction displays, but we get by with the mishmash we have. The main worry now is how to get a new spray dodger for the cockpit, the current one will depart the boat with the next strong wind. I tried to order one in Canada at Cambell River, however they didn’t seem keen to have my business. Possible in Mexico I can find someone to knit me a new one, or maybe San Diego.

Thursday 8th 
We left Bull Harbour around 9AM in order to round Cape Scott at slack/low water at 13:30. The sea was calm, light winds, but as we entered the Goletas channel, a good 15 knots popped up from the south, I unfurled the headsail to see if it would drive us along, and we were making 5 knots without any mainsail. I couldn’t be bothered to furl up the headsail, turn into the wind and raise the mainsail, so we chugged along with the engine off until we had crossed the channel.  Then the wind dropped and we motored the rest of the way to Sea Otter Cove. Passing around the dreaded Cape Scott at slack water. Cape Scott was calm, but as we rounded it a southerly wind of 10-15 knots appeared and slowed us down a little. Soon we motored into our destination to see our new friends Robert & Vanessa anchored in the cove.
Robert & Vanessa have a boat called ‘For Good’ as they are on a mission to help raise environmental awareness. They are filmmakers and have given up life on land to sail away and make films about the changing world. You can found out more about them at www.sailingforgood.tv or on facebook as facebook.com/sailingforgood  They bought their sailboat, a Cal 34, sold up their home and moved aboard before they had even learnt to sail, much braver than anything I have ever done. However they are finding the rapid learning curve a challenge, and when they arrived in the cove, they had gone aground trying to reach a mooring buoy. We tried to reassure them that it was no big deal, they had re-floated and anchored closer to us and where fine. We explained that it’s all about learning by mistakes, and they would be masters soon enough. Having rounded the ‘treacherous Cape Scott’ without incident gave them a boost I think. They are hoping to sail down the coast, as we are, to the Sea of Cortez, but are rather nervous about the passage. We are hoping to bump into them along the way again.

Sea Otter cove has provided a couple of Sea Otters for our entertainment, but no bears yet. Still we are waiting for low water 

Friday 9th 
Left sea otter cove for winter harbour. This was a shortish hop along the west coast of the Island. Not long after we arrived Robert & Vanessa arrived and tied up behind us on the public wharf. I have found a new easier way to catch fish, basically I walk along the dock until I see a fisherman who has a load of fish, then I hang around complimenting him on his skills until he realises the best way to get rid of me is to offer me some fish. Today my neighbour, two elderly gents from further south down the island offered me a small Coho Salmon, When I say small, After I had sliced it into a load of steaks, I had 6 meals stowed away in my freezer and a large fillet for my dinner that night. They were lovely gents, and went on to explain what I needed to do to be sure of catching my own salmon, and one of the gents disappeared below and returned with a load of spinners, hooks and spoon things, which he gave to me. This would ensure I would catch fish. We will see.

Winter Harbour is a lovely quiet resort. While sitting in the boat, two policemen came to visit me, RCMP guys, and asked me a few questions, once satisfied we had a god natter about boating on the west coast. They have a rib they trailer to various location and are responsible for enforcing the law on the water here.

Saturday 10th
Had a second day in Winter Harbour, just lazing around. It’s an interesting place with plots of land being sold off for around £20k which were big enough to house a large caravan and have a small garden area.  Later that day we scooted over to the far side of the harbour to get close to a black bear and her two cubs that were walking along the beach. 

Sunday 11th
Left winter harbour for the 4 hour trip to Klaskish Basin, approached through a very narrow opening in the hills, about 50m wide at the narrow part, it was fun navigating through the gap. Robert and Vanessa on ‘For Good’ where there and later we all headed to the beach at the end of the basin in our dinghy, dropped our little dinghy anchor and sat drinking wine and chatting in a glorious surrounding. We had hoped to see bears but we didn’t, Robert spotted some earlier on his way in to the basin, but he’s an expert at that, we are getting better. Soon the rain returned, then fog descended and we retired to our respective boats for the night. 

Monday 12th
We left around 10AM to pass around the famously dangerous Brooks peninsula, another doom and gloom voyage according to the pilot book we had. The forecast was for 20knt winds from the south on exposed headlands, but I didn’t mention this to Robert as I didn’t want to put them off, and I was confident we wouldn’t have any issues, as we approached Solander Island, just of cape cook at the NW end of the peninsula I could see some waves just starting to break, but nothing too serious so we pushed on. Passing between the headland and the Island, in order to see the seal colonies, we turned into 15 knot headwinds and seas of about 2-3ft. The boat was slamming into the waves occasionally, and I wondered how Robert and Vanessa were fareing, being a smaller and lighter boat they had it a bit worse but they coped well. We slowed down a little not to get too far ahead of them. We saw just one seal on the rocks, but boy was it huge, and really well camouflaged. Once we rounded the SW corner of the peninsula we had the waves on the beam (Side on) this causes an uncomfortable roll on the boat, and I think the others struggled a bit with that, we hoisted our staysail and that steadied the boat a little. After about 7 hours total of lumpy sailing we were in the Bunsby Islands, and nestled in-between the islands are a few little coves which are very pretty and well protected from the pacific waves and wind. 

Heading into West Nook, we were motoring around looking for a spot to anchor away from the centre, partly to leave room for ‘For Good’ to fit, but also to get as far away from the entrance as possible in case the wind shifted when we had that horrible experience of hearing the keel bounce along some rock and the boat rapidly come to a halt. All the reversing, turning, pushing and pulling that ensued wouldn’t budge us, however we had gone aground 15 minutes before low water. It had been a relatively soft grounding, and I just went below and got on with other things, confident that in the next hour we would float off. I called Robert on CH16 to let him know, he had chosen to anchor in another cove, and I explained we had gone aground, he offered to dinghy over to help, but I explained we were fine. Really I shouldn’t have been chatting on CH16, but I didn’t expect anyone to hear our low power signals, unfortunately the coastguard was on quickly calling,”Vessel that has gone aground, this is Prince Rupert Coastguard” . What followed then was a bit of discussion about how I didn’t need to be rescued, everything was fine but he would still notify the search and rescue team. I was happy an hour later to call him back and let him now we re-floated and where at anchor now without any issues. I expect there’s a bit more gel coating to repair on the bottom of the keel again. Looking at the chart, the rock we hit is marked but not where it is, the avionics chart is wrong.

Tuesday
We spent the day dinghying around the islands exploring the many little coves and beaches, I was looking for debris washed up from the Atlantic, and there were certainly lots of floats and buoys around, but I wanted to find a Japanese glass float, I was always fascinated by the ones my grandmother had as ornaments when I was a kid. Debris from Japan washes up here, a while back a small fishing boat from Japan washed up, it and it’s captain had been missing in Japan for many months, sadly the captain wasn’t found. I didn’t find the glass float, which isn’t surprising as I couldn’t find one in Japan, I think they stopped using them just as soon as plastic was invented. Later we sat in the cockpit of ‘For Good” and discussed how to get to Mexico easily. Robert and Vanessa want to ‘boat buddy’ with us on the trip south, especially the first overnight passage from Canada to the USA. While chatting another couple from Austria pulled up in a RIB, they had arrived earlier and were in a 40ft Aluminum Ovni sailboat. They had arrived here from Alaska via the NorthWest passage, a treacherous sailing route that very few yachts had traversed. They had been sailing around the world since the 80’s so instantly any seafaring wisdom I felt I had evaporated in their presence. They are heading back to the Pacific via Mexico so I hope we meet up with them again on the way.

Wednesday 14th
Departing from the Bundsby islands at 09:30 we made the short passage to Walters island about 10 miles away in about 2 hours. We hugged the coast dodging many rocks along the way. The entrance to the cove that sits between the island and the main Island is quite a twisted zig zag of a route and you have to follow the red and green poles that guide you in. Once in you are in a safe settled area that is full of pretty fishing lodges, the general store has a few basic supplies and limited fresh produce, but I did restock on bananas. Later we had pis and ice cream at the cafe/restaurant called Java the Hut, another lovely spot, with great food on offer.

Later I worked on correcting the problems with the autopilot. It doesn’t follow course properly, and the error code 67 keeps popping up, first off I aligned the rudder feedback sensor so the when the rudder is midships the sensor also says midships. When I tested it it said the rudder was off by 11 degree, so I wondered if that might be the issue. My problem is that with the rudder aligned centre, checked by climbing under the stern from the dinghy, then the rudder stock and quadrant are not dead canter. But off by 11 degrees. Also when we motor along, the wheel is marked for midships, and this is the position that keeps us going straight, however this is the same 11 degrees off.  None of this makes sense, it appears that the rudder stock (The pole from the rudder into the boat, isn’t in line with the rudder, and that the rudder has to be 11 degrees to port to go straight ahead. SO I resigned the rudder sensor so it says 0 deg offset when the rudder is actually midships, and we will see how that affects things. Is this 11 deg needed to offset the transverse thrust when going ahead?

Thursday 15th

A lazy day dinghying around the cove, we visited the shop across the bay in the First Nation village, but they didn’t have much. They did have a second hand bread maker for sale for $50 which is very tempting, we plan to buy one soon for the boat, but I need to wire up the big inverter first. 

WiFi is rare out here and cellphone / 3g/4g non existent for us on our AT&T phones as their Canadian partner ‘Rogers’ doesnt have any coverage on the west coast of the island until we get far south.

We are past the most tricky parts of the west coast passage now, and it’s going to be gentle sailing the rest of the way we hope. Saying that the forecast is for 35 knots this afternoon which would be too much for us to be setting off in. We will spend the next two days in sheltered inland inlets until it’s safe to go back out into the Pacific.

Thursday 1st August 2019
We left Sointula on the 1st, but first we borrowed Jim & Ivana’s car and took the ferry over to Vancouver Island for a bit of shopping and to explore a bit further inland.
First we hit Coal Harbour, The air force had a big base here once, and it looks like the hangers are still here along with a busy float plane operation. Below you can see a plane docked, then being taxied to its resting place on the forks of a forklift truck. That’s another first for me, a plane on a fork lift truck!. Many years ago we used to play a game of ‘first to see’ when touring Europe, my friend Dave Hughes always came up with bizare things, like a fire engine towing a fire engine, or a car in a tree, the weird thing was he always saw them within a few hours. I reckon a plane on a forklift would be a good one.

I think Coal Harbour is a mainly First Nation settlement. It was set in a great location, but had a slightly run down feeling about it.
From there we drove onto Port Alice, which is on the same inlet from the Pacific side as Coal Harbour. I read that Port Alice was struggling since the main employer, a local mill, shutdown recently. It looked very tidy, and in a wonderful setting.

So with a sad heart we left Sointula on the 1st, heading for Knight inlet. The day started cold and wet, I was hoping it might clear up, but in fact the rain got worse as the day progressed. We had to deploy full oilies (wet weather gear) on the way. We stopped at an old marina on Minstrel Island, the place had been deserted and some rotting pontoons remained, to which we tied up. We didn’t need any facilities, it was just easier to go there than to anchor. Knight inlet is exposed to the prevailing winds from the west and secure anchorages are hard to find. The marina was decaying and the pontoons were slowing breaking up with plants growing through the planks. However it was so wet we only popped out to tie up then remained indoors while it poured down.

The following day the weather cleared up a bit and we motored up Knight Inlet towards Glendale, a renowned place for spotting Grizzly bears.

An advantage of 24 hours of heavy rain was evident in the waterfalls we saw along the route. We continued past the turn for Glendale up to a spectacular waterfall at Millerd Creek.

Heading back we anchored in Glendale cove in the SE Corner in 25 metres but by the time we backed up on the anchor to set it we were in 6 meters of water with the tide dropping by 3 mteres that evening. That was ok, but at 9am the tide would drop again, but this time by 4 meters, so we would probably go aground. I set an alarm for 7AM to check and pull in the chain a bit if needed. Later at low water we were reading 3.5 metres on the depth sounder, but I chucked my lead weighted sounding line over the stern to find only 2 metres, so we were on a very steep shoal and about to go aground. Hauling in 5 metres on the chain, brought us into deeper water and I went to bed happy.
In the morning I had to haul in a bit more chain at low water.
We searched up and down the coast for Grizzly bears, but didn’t see anything.

Glendale has a resort, and people fly in daily to go bear watching here.

We saw lots of Eagles, and a deer walking across the mud flats. We decided to leave an hour after low water, and on the way out we spotted several of the resorts boats full of bear watchers grouped just off the beach on the NW side of the bay. As we approached we were delighted to see a grizzly walking along the beach and munching on a log covered in seaweed or similar.

It was difficult to get a good picture with an iPhone, you really need a zoom lens for this type of thing. We had to keep a good distance away, but through the binoculars we felt very close. Kathy was very excited by this encounter.

Leaving Knight Inlet we took a shortcut through Sargeant Passage which had a very modern looking fish farm were we could see salmon leaping out of the water in giant cages.

No matter what the weather, we see plenty of birds en route.

Our stop for the night was Kwatsi Bay, a secluded little marina and anchorage tucked away at the head of a river. It had been windy and cold getting here, but once in it was lovely and calm, and surprisingly warm, perhaps summer is coming to Canada. We anchored again in 20 meters, right next to a waterfall and drifted back almost to the shore, but still in 12 meters. Later that night I spotted a black bear walking along the beach. We watched him/her for ages through binoculars, and it never occurred to us to take a picture. I expect we will see more bears on Vancouver Island.
That night I noticed as I relaxed in the cockpit that we were swinging around and that the Marina in the far corner of the bay had passed us twice now. It seemed the outflow from the waterfall, and the tidal flow was creating a small whirlpool we were in. This bothered me a lot, presumably we would be twisting the chain all night and like an elastic band powered airplane we might suddenly unwind in a flurry with the anchor ripping out and us drifting of into oblivion. I figured in the end it probably wouldn’t happen, and went to bed.

In the morning we were still there, with no obvious twist in the chain. I don’t have a swivel connection so I guess we must have untwisted. Up came the anchor and off we headed for the short trip to Echo bay to visit Billy Proctors Museum.

Pierre’s Resort/Marina was lovely, the weather was stunning and the place was so peaceful and relaxing. We toyed with staying an extra day there, but at £45 / night we thought we would save the money for our time in America.

This morning we left at 7:30AM (5th aug) for Port Hardy, about 40 NM or 7-8 hours. We left in dense fog, which stayed with us for 39 NM. The radar I fitted a few weeks back worked flawlessly, even spotting some logs in the water. We passed through some narrow gaps, in particular around the fox group of islands, where we had a few hundred yards on either side of us to the shore, but couldnt see a thing. Between the chartplotter and the Radar, I felt completely safe.

I had worried the crossing over to Port Hardy might be difficult in dense fog, but again the AIS warned us of the big ships, the only problem might have been sports fishing boats going too fast, but we didn’t cross any of them.
We are on big tides now (Springs) so that might explain why we passed so many logs and debris floating around.

As we arrived into Port Hardy the fog lifted and left us with a glorious hot sunny day, we went straight to the ful dock and took on board 115 litres, which works out at 3.6ltr / Hour. A rate of consumption I’m quite happy with. Tomorrow we stock up for our voyage to America. and on Wednesday we set off, weather permitting. We are allowing three weeks to get from here to Astoria in Oregon, with most of that time being spent exploring the NW coast of Vancouver island. There will be very little chance of communication during that period, so see you In September.

Paul Collister.

Just a quick update.

Tomorrow (Thursday 1st Aug) we leave Sointula, It’s been by far the best spot we have visited on our travels so far, made very special by the lovely friends we have made here. In particular Jim and Ivana who made us feel so welcome, but also many others who helped out. The staff at the harbour have also been great. Sointula is going to be hard to beat, however we must push on, we still have a few more oceans and continents to visit yet.

Tomorrow we backtrack a bit so we can travel up Knight Inlet, in the hope of seeing some Grizzly bears, this will be our last chance before we head out around the main island. On our way back from there we will visit Echo Bay to see a famous museum created and managed by Billy Proctor, a local legend.

On our way to Knight Inlet, we pass Bold Head, Puzzle Is, Twist Is, Whirl Is, in between Jumble Is and Crease Is. Passing Rocky Point, North of Peal Is, we will pass Warr Bluff, Ripple Bluff and Dinner Pt. Then passing South of The Lady Islands onto Minstrel Island, with White Nob Point to the north.
They dont mess with place names here!

It’s unlikely we will get much wifi or 3G on these travels but should be able to pick up msgs at some point along the way. We expect to be back at Port Hardy in 6-7 days time, depending on weather, then we will be able to catch up on emails etc.

Paul Collister

Back in Canada now, I had a busy three weeks back in the UK. Firstly I had to get down to Portsmouth for Isaac and his partner Holly, who both had graduated with first class honours degrees in Maths from Portsmouth University.

Back in West Kirby, the weather was great, and I was reminded just how lovely the Wirral is when the sun shines, I must try to schedule another day here in a few years time 😉

I made the decision last week to sell the apartment there, so I ended up with about ten days to pack up all my favorite possessions and get them into storage.

I was pleased to find I could fit everything into the back of a transit van, and in fact I didn’t really need to keep half of that. I left a furnished, but soulless flat behind me, and with Kathy we headed off to Manchester airport for the flight back home to the boat.
As we flew from the UK, Boris Johnson was taking over, it felt good to be departing at 500 mph travelling away from him.

The 9 hour flight to Vancouver was quite painless, and a few hours after arriving we took the small plane up to port Hardy. From there a taxi to the ferry at Port McNeill, just enough time to get some basic provisions from the supermarket before the 20 minute ferry ride back to Sointula. Once off the ferry, our good friend Jim met us and drove us back to the boat.

It’s great to be back, the boat is just fine, and we both slept well, going to bed around 11 pm, which was really 7am the next day in our internal clocks.

I managed to get Kathy connected up with her new AT&T sim, and being android, it means she can provide a hotspot to us, which is how I’m able to get this blog post out over 4g.

More once we are settled in.

Paul Collister

Sunday 23rd June 2019,

This week started with varnishing the bow platform and ended up much the same.

Along the way I fitted the radar and gave it a basic testing, which it passed with flying colours.

Monday saw me rushing up to Greg’s house to see about sanding the rollers for the platform, and buying some 4×2” cedar planks I planned to use for securing the spare diesel Jerry cans to the boat. The old planks had given stirling service, but where now firewood. Greg smoothed the faces of the planks, but I told him not to bother smoothing the edges, as they looked fine rough sawn, however before I left he insisted he put a smooth edge on them. He’s a man who appreciates quality.

After Gregs I took the ferry over to Port McNeil to buy some varnish and paint, I also picked up a small 12v fan for the V-Berth, It won’t be long before we hit hotter climes.

Finally I had to remove some rust stains from the hull due to complaints from the neighbours, well Doug specifically, he also thinks the rust inside the dorade vents are not acceptable, so they have moved up to the first page of the to-do list.

On Tuesday I popped down to ‘the ways’ to see when they might haul me out, 

I was told to have faith, not to give up hope. But no date as such. I was getting worried now as time is running out. I don’t know if you have read “The Castle” by Franz Kafka, but if you have you might understand my predicament, if not, I can recommend it as a good , if not slightly frustrating read.

Wednesday and I pop to the hardware store to buy rollers and trays ready to antifoul the bottom of the boat, I’m thinking that by generating a Karma of haulout readiness it may help the situation along.

Later I climbed the mast and fitted the radar, while up there I replaced the bulb on the spreader that lights up the deck. I call them spreader lights, but others call them deck, or working lights. I also use them at night when sailing to illuminate the sails, hopefully making us visible to fishermen out there who may not have seen us. I expect they get a fright when this huge area of canvas lights up in the blackness of night.

Finally I removed a forestay from the mast, I say forestay, it’s really just a length of wire that hangs from the front of the mast and is tied to a stanchion at the side of the boat to stop it banging against the mast. I have no idea what this wire is for, but having sailed from Malaysia to Canada without any need of it, or being able to guess its purpose, I unshackled it and set it free. Along with the Air-Con unit, it was denoted to the Canada Day Jumble sale.

Given the pleasant weather another coat of varnish was slapped around the boat.

Every Thursday, a fuel truck turns up at the Jetty, and boats moor close by to get very reasonably priced fuel. I took over 2 of Malaysia’s finest 30ltr jugs and picked up some fuel. I will go back and fill the tanks when we come back to the boat in four weeks, but I have learnt to always get fuel when you can, because when I have missed the chance, something has always gone wrong and I end up panicking. It’s not like there’s anything out there right now might that affect fuel supply or prices 🙁

Thursday and I finally fit the bow platform. I also paint the blue strip along the port side.

Victor has no bread today, which is a disaster , I console myself by sitting on the waterfront with an Hagen Daz (American) ice cream and a can of Fanta, watching the new, bigger ferry depart.

On the way back I call into the ways and ask Tom if he has any update on when I can haul out, he suggests in a couple of hours if I want, crikey, it must have been the purchase of the paint roller that did it after all.

Later that night, around 8pm, Jim arrives to help, he is the expert at haulouts here and we head over. I’m quite nervous, it’s possible to do all sorts of damage to the boat if we get this wrong, but to be honest, the main reason for hauling out here is that I find travel lifts quite boring, slow and tedious. This is much more exciting. The weather is perfect, sod all wind or current and I can steer her right up alongside the posts we need to secure to. We can’t use normal fenders to protect the cap rail so I have made cardboard fenders, on Jim’s advice. Two sheets of cardboard allow the boat to make a firm contact, but as the trolley is hauled up, and the front settles, the stern drops and slides down the post. The cardboard then slides apart and takes away some of the shearing effect.

A large tournequie is made with a length of rope that goes around the mast and over to the vertical post, it is wound up like a propellor blade on a toy elastic band plane, and tied off. This should keep the boat heeled over. By the time we are hauled out the tide is rising and it’s not possible to do anything like a power wash, as we need the tide to be low so we can catch the paint run-off from the wash. However the hull is looking in good condition, and most of the growth has washed away on the short trip over here.

Friday Morning an up at 7:30am to get started on the hull. I change the anode on the prop, this is a lump of zinc that stops the prop dissolving due to electrical action in the salt water. The zinc being ‘more noble’ dissolves before the prop, which is made of bronze ( I think).

The bow thruster anodes are made of Aluminium which is also more noble than most metals, and one down from Zinc in the ‘who’s the most noble metal’ charts, however once again they don’t seem to need replacing, it’s been three years since they were fitted and it’s a bit worrying that they are either not working or the thing the are protecting doesn’t need them. I also re-grease the propeller. It’s a max prop which needs lots of grease, it’s always empty of grease when I haul which makes me wonder if the grease I’m putting in will all be gone after the first journey?

All of the staff are busy helping the guy who hauled out next to me, he has a big motor launch (millionaire boat as my kids used to say) with two trashed propellers and a bent rudder, he claims the land rushed up from under the sea to whack him, but I suspect his chart / tide work leaves a little to be desired. Those big props don’t come cheap, but fortunately he has two spares close at hand and after the yard spend some time bashing his rudder stock on a makeshift anvil, he is ready to launch again. However the tide is now back in again and I still haven’t got my pressure wash.

I clean the through hulls and retire to lunch. I’m reading a book by John Steinbeck about the Sea of Cortez, he has a great comment on fishermen which I have attached.

After lunch Robert from the yard washes the hull down. There’s a few scratches, which I expect we got in Canada from hitting bits of forest that float around, but generally the antifoul looks like new, so I skip that stage and request a launch for that night tide. Jim pops down later and we are released from the winch and the trolleys screams down the track, the engine starts and we are away. That was the closest this boat has ever been to being on a fairground ride. I rev up the engine to max (2700 rpm) and we quickly reach 7.5 knots, I don’t recognise a noise coming from the transmission/prop area, but then it’s been a while since I had the boat moving so I decide to ignore it for now, It may be related to the cutless bearing being dry and/or the PSS shaft seal having an airlock. There’s not a lot it can be, but if there’s a problem I’m sure I will find out later.

We go in starboard side too behind Rick’s boat ‘Resolution’, this is more difficult for me as it’s a small space and the prop walk makes the boat move away from the dock as I put it in reverse to slow it down. In the end Jim gets a line ashore and we tie up. I now have the chance to paint the blue strip on the starboard side, then all the painting and varnishing is done for this year. 

Im now at the rough end of the harbour, more neglected boats and less facilities. They boat will be safe here until we return and then we will move back to the posh side for a few days before we head south. I spend the morning fitting the cedar planks for the Jerry cans, and I get the outboard fired up and dinghy over to my old berth to collect the Kayak and a few other bits I left on the dock. Tonight is a fundraising event for the island’s fire brigade, and locals are performing at the pub, these North Americans are very good at performing live, the kind of thing Kathy loves, CSNY/Eagles etc.

Sunday and I do a little bit more varnishing, and cleaning, but take it easy, Monday arrives and it’s Canada Day, just like St Georges day back home, except it’s celebrated here. Jim is responsible for the Sointula Regatta and the place is buzzing with stalls selling all sorts of lovely crafty things, I didn’t bother looking to close, but they were also doing great pancakes breakfasts. Later a group gathered and sang the national Anthem, again just like in the UK, except for the singing bit 😉

So the boat is all fixed up now ready for another major voyage, I just have to tidy up inside, and make the boat pretty for when I return with Kathy on the 24th.  I probably won’t have anything to blog about until we get back. It’s been a great experience being here in Sointula for the last 3-4 months, I have made many good new friends on the island and loved getting to know other sailors from around the world who have passed through. If there was a way to have a small house here and live here, at least for part of the year I would jump at that, maybe later.

Paul Collister

What a busy week. It started when Jim kindly presented me with a new T-Shirt to mark my enrolment into the NBA world. I shall wear it proudly in San Francisco.

I also got to help Jim and Marty haul out the University of Vancouver’s fishing research vessel. It was going up on ‘the ways’, and as I should be doing the same, anytime in the last three weeks 🙁 I was able to get a feel for what was involved. This ship takes students out to do surveys on fish stocks, and other things I expect. Marty is a professor from the Uni and it was funny seeing him crawling under the boat applying antifoul, not the usual university research type of work.

Next up, while varnishing and chatting to Graeme about diving on the hull, I mentioned I had decided to do a scuba course in Mexico when we get there. Graeme, who dives but has just given up, offered to sell me his kit for a very decent price. I popped up to his house later that day, he has amazing views over the bay and strait, and we struck a deal. I am now the new owner of a lot of scuba gear I have no idea how to connect together and use. Hopefully it will all come clear in a few months time. Also the boat will be more stable now with the ballast weights for the diving belt, which must weight at least a ton.

The weather hasn’t been great this week, a bit cooler and overcast mostly. We had very strong winds for a few days but the rain we had has been welcome. A fire started over on the main island by the highway and could have got nasty, but the services got it under control.
One morning it was so grim I decided I could only do indoor jobs, so next on the list was to service the head (Toilet). It wasn’t faulty, but it has worked without attention for over two years, so to try to repeat that success, I thought I should clean out the pipes, which block up with calcium, and replace all the rubber seals and valves.

Last week I had delivered the template and old bow platform to Greg, a local carpenter to see if he could fabricate a new piece for me, by joining together 4 planks of cedar. I was amazed when he turned up less than 24 hours later with a basic platform, less the cutouts. He wanted to test it for size, and after spending an hour here trimming it to fit into the steel bow frame, he left to cut out the holes and reinforce it at the front.

Greg returned the next day with the cut-outs done, and a very smart looking platform.

I have decided to varnish this as it will protect the cedar in its exposed location at the bow. Above you can see it already looking golden with just one 50% varnish/ 50% thinner coat. It’s going to look great. I need to transfer the rollers from the old platform across this week.

The Radar.
It took a while and a few phone calls, but eventually Tom from the Ways was able to collect my new Furuno radar from Port Hardy over on the big Island.
Radar units don’t come with a mounting bracket, probably because you have a different one, depending if it’s going on a sailboat mast, a rear pole or a cabin top. Consequently you have to fork out a few hundred pounds for the bracket. I had a bracket for the old radar that was fitted to my mast and was very strong. To remove it and then poke a load more holes in my mast, beside weakening the mast, and being dangerous to attempt while swinging in a harness meant I would build an adapter of sorts to make the new radar fit the old mount. I was easily able to bring the old mount down with the old radar scanner and I made a sketch below of how I might join the old and new.

I was able to get Ken at Tarkanan to slice me off two lengths of aluminum which I then shaped and drilled to fit the old bracket.

The whole affair bolted together far better than I had imagined as is very strong.

A word of caution, if you want to use your feet instead of a vice for holding the metal still while you drill, I suggest you wear strong shoes. I noticed that socks on their own are no match for a spinning drill that skids off the metal into your foot. Fortunately my foot escaped unscarred, but now wants autonomy and independence from the rest of my body, in particular my brain. I just so happened to have a spare sock from the last laundry trip that I can now put to good use.

I’m posting this earlier than usual as I’m suffering from a bit of a cold and don’t feel up to climbing the mast, which is the next job, so I’m staying in catching up on paperwork!

Paul Collister

As a lifelong Raptors fan, it was great to be in their home country and watch them romp to the finals of the NBA championship and defeat the Golden State Warriors in a final comprising of six games, played between toronto and Oakland SF . We were going to be clearing in at Oakland when we go south to San Francisco, but given that this is the first time a non American team has won the NBA finals, we might clear in at Astoria now.
Seriously, Ivana, Jim’s wife is a big fan of NBA and kindly invited me along to the second of potentially 7 games, Jim cooked pizza for the first game and we all sat there cheering the team along. By the end of the first game, I had a basic grasp of the rules of basketball. The rules around fouling makes the UK soccer offside rule look quite simple. The raptors had the warriors on the run for most of the matches. I was invited to the subsequent matches and Jim cooked up Nachos, then Burgers, Ivana produced pies and ice cream, it was all jolly pleasant. By the end of the 6th match they were neck and neck, all the way. with just 0.7 seconds left on the clock, and with the raptors leading by one point and about to claim the title, the warriors called a timeout. Of course they didn’t have any timeouts left and so that caused a technical foul which gave the Raptors a chance to score two more points, but this also meant a few more seconds got added to the clock, giving the warriors a chance to get 3 points should they get possession after a missed shot at the basket. I expect you are ahead of me here on this, anyway it was all pointless, the Raptors scored from the foul and the hooter went and history was made.

Sue and Andy had watched the previous match down the pub, which is now open every night. I met the barman, Vincent, who comes here every summer for 6 months from Waterford Ireland. I told him we used to keep Stardust on the river in Dungarvin, which is close to Waterford, and he knew the exact spot, as he lives just a few miles away. Sointula keeps on amazing me with chance meetings like this. Sue and Andy met up with John (from the Hamble) the engineer who helped me with my water pump. It turns out that John and Andy have had very similar lives in the world of engineering.
A few days ago John introduced me to a different Andy who lives just around the corner and is another brilliant guy, and we had both built the same 80186 computer with wire wrap technology, back in the early 80’s. He was telling me how he struggled with his automatic wire wrap tool, I was stunned, I explained I didn’t realise there was an automatic tool as I did all mine with a manual tool, oh how we laughed, it was along the lines of the python sketch, ‘lived in a cardboard box, you were lucky, we couldn’t afford no boxes’

Sue and andy have been great hosts, providing dinner for me on a several occasions, Doug arrived a week ago and made friends with them and myself and he invited us all over to his for fresh prawns and pasta, so between all of these guys and Jim/Ivana I haven’t been able to eat any of the food I have onboard.

Doug is a lovely guy, with lots of knowledge and experience, he has raced big yachts around the world and has lived in Hong Kong for the last 15 years, he is married to a Chinese lady from Vancouver and given all that is going on these days with Huawei and Hong Kong he has been fascinating to chat with. I have tried to help him solve some of his NMEA data problems on his boat, but he ended up fixing them without me. He’s quite an inspiration for a man in his eighties.

Jim invited me out for a sail with some of his friends, we had heard of humpback whale sightings just a few miles away near Stubb Island in the Johnstone strait so headed of to check it out on Saturday. We didn’t see any but did see puffins, purpoises, dolphins and seals. On the way back, we did a sail-by past the waterfront of Alert Bay, the mostly first Nations settlement on Cormorant Island. They have been cleaning up the waterfront since Kathy and I visited it in 2018, and it’s looking great.

We had left early and I was worried we might get back after the shops had closed and I rushed to see Victor the Chilean baker when we tied up at 17:00. He told me he had sold all the loaves, then thoughtfully said ‘wait’ a few seconds later he said, they probably won’t come so you can have this loaf, and I got somebody else’s reserved loaf. With that small gesture I felt like I had finally arrived, acceptance into the community 😉 , at least by the baker. I presume there is one member of the community who now wants me to leave.
I have learnt a lot about the local community, people have confided the secrets of a remote island world, but I won’t give anything away here, just think ‘Whiskey Galore and Wicker man’. nuff said

There is an old fishing boat in the harbour that has been decaying away, it was beyond repair and just lately the boat has been pumping oil into the harbour whenever the bilge pump went off, which was quite often. The owner was requested to remove the boat and he decided to give it to a local who in return for hauling it out got the engine and a few other useful parts for free. I watched as it was hauled out on a trailer off to the knackers yard.

It’s good that the boat is no longer polluting the harbour, but sad that it’s going to be chopped up and burnt shortly.

Jim introduced me to a local guy who has a sawmill on the Island. He is providing me with some Red Cedar planking from which I can build a new bow platform for the boat. As you can see from the pic below the old one is a bit smashed up. This happened on our trip to Japan when the bow crashed down heavily into a wave that was rising up in front of us. The old platform was weak and splintered into several pieces. I couldn’t get teak in Japan, and can’t get it here, but I liked the idea of taking some cedar grown here on the island away with me. I don’t know how well it will fare, it won’t be as good as the teak, but it will be better than what I have now. It’s high quality cedar and a lot of the boats here use it in their construction so we shall have to see.

I made a template out of cardboard to help build the new one. I’m hoping to do better with wood than cardboard in getting the right shape 🙁

What with all of the dining and sporty activity I didn’t get much varnishing done, I have managed four coats on the port side, but the weather hasn’t cooperated, with rain every other day for a week now.
Today I managed to connect with Sue and Andy via SSB, they are heading south to the Sea of Cortez, and were on the far side of Vancouver Island in Sea Otter Cove, somewhere we will be by mid August. We couldn’t connect on 2 MHz, but did quite well on the 4 MHz Band.

My new radar still hasn’t turned up and the call to haul out at the ways hasn’t arrived yet. I leave for the UK in two weeks time so I’m a little worried that everything is going to happen at once at the last minute leaving no time for errors. Oh well, fingers crossed. I expect all will be completed by the time I post the next blog.

Paul Collister.

I haven’t posted for a couple of weeks because things were pretty boring for a while, but it’s hotted up the last few days.
I had several goes at varnishing the starboard side of the brightwork, but rain/humidity and blistering sun at various times scuppered my efforts. I had managed to get 6 coats of varnish on and it was looking great, I decided to sand to a very smooth surface ( 1000 grit) and put the final coat on. I had almost finished this when unexpectedly the heavens opened and trashed a lot of my work. In the end I got away with everything except for the cap rail. A light rub down and a re-coating should sort that.
Next I planned to swing the boat around to face the other way, but first I had to fix the engine temp gauge and a few other minor engine jobs. I also finished off the locker tops. This was the start of my main three disasters of the week. I had bought some gelcoat to see if I could touch up some of the gouges we got on the passage over. Gelcoat is basically polyester resin coloured white. It’s not easy to mix a small amount as the ratios between the resin and the catalyst and huge, and I think I had a few tablespoons of resin which needed a few drops of the MEK catalyst. I ended up with too much gelcoat, I was only experimenting at this point to see if I could mix it and keep it workable long enough to fill the gouges, however it soon became apparent that the gelcoat was pure brilliant white and my boat isn’t anything like white, even when cleaned. I spread some gelcoat over a bit of card to get a feel for working it with a spatula, I should have had about 30 mins before it went off. I also filled a hole in the cockpit well you can’t really see. Now what could possibly go wrong, well the wind got up, the card covered in gelcoat started flying around the cockpit, me jumping around trying to catch it, and in the process getting my knee in the new gelcoat in the cockpit, didn’t help. End result was gelcoat on the teak, all over my clothes and in my hair. Also three days later it still hadn’t gone off, so was still a major hazard. It’s hardened now!
Onto the next simple job (Disaster number two), some of the screws I had used to fix the piano hinge to the seat locker top were too long and were sticking out under the locker top. I decided to get my power grinder out, and grind them off so they would hurt anyone in the future. All I can say is there’s more to grinding than meets the eye. For a while I had a very well ground boat surrounding very pointy screws. At least I now have a place to use some of the gelcoat. I’m so often reminded of the episode of father ted when he is up all night removing the little bump in the car that’s first prize in the raffle, and in knocking the bump out he ends up eventually with nothing but bumps.
Enough maintenance for now, let’s get back to the varnishing, feel reasonably safe there.

So I waited until the following morning when it was dead calm, and with Jim onboard to assist, I reversed out of the harbour, I was quite nervous doing this, it’s been a while since I have helmed this boat, I wasn’t sure how fouled the hull & prop were, and the boat doesn’t like reversing to start with, it was about 4 boat lengths to get out, with just a few foot either side of clearance between other boats. Anyway I impressed myself by doing it without any issue, slow and steady, keeping the engine in neutral most of the time seemed to reduce the prop walk a lot. Also the bow thruster helped keep the boat lined up. Spinning the boat around I reversed back into the berth without issue and I was able to tie up port side to. Now I can do all the varnish work on this side.

Before I got stuck in I decided to have a bike ride and explore the long coastal road called Kaleva Rd. this is a long run on the Eastern end of the southern side of the island. The are lots of homes along the route and plenty of quirky sights as you can see below.

I have started looking into information about the Sea of Cortez, it looks fantastic, I’m getting excited about exploring the coast there.

A few days ago I spotted a Halberg Rassey yacht arrive, thinking this might be a European boat, I wandered over to their pontoon and spotted the Red ensign flying. After chatting with Sue & Andy on board, I learn they are Brits from Portsmouth, they have sailed here from the UK and arrived in Sointula from Japan, before that visiting Alaska, Borneo, Tioman, Anambas, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. They had been in most of the same ports as us and knew a lot of the people we had met. In one case we must have only missed them by a few weeks. So we have had a good natter, it’s been really interesting, especially as they have already done the South Pacific and so I can pick up a lot of info from them. Andy & Sue will be leaving soon and making their way down to the sea of cortez, arriving before us, but there’s a good chance we might see them there too. Next year they will leave Mexico and turn left back into the Atlantic whereas we will turn right and into the South Pacific.

Andy had a problem with his stern gear, in particular the bracket that houses his cutless bearing was damaged, and so he decided to haul out at the ways, just as I have decided to do. I went around to take pictures for him and to learn the ropes (no pun intended).

I have now bought a replacement radar, I went for the wireless furuno, which uses an ipad/iphone for displaying the radar output. This cost less than £1000 which is not bad as the wired ones tend to start around £1500 but require a display unit as well, which adds another £1000 and then your getting into all sort of connectivity issues. Another big factor for me is that I have the 12v at the mast already from the old radar so I don’t need to try and feed a new cable through the mast. I’m just waiting for it to arrive, we are saving on postage by waiting for someone who is passing through to collect it from Port Hardy and drop it off on this island.

Tonight I went with Andy & Sue to a concert in the athletic hall up the road. It was guitar and flute, most of the music was Spanish (Flamenco style) and South American performed by the Azuline Duo. It was wonderful, a great setting, lovely acoustics and a lovely appreciative audience

Today I stripped off all the varnish on the port side, tomorrow is sanding and sealing, then varnish, varnish and more varnishing all week. The hope is that I can haul out next week and get the bottom done. I fitted a new accumulator tank for the water and a new water pump for the deck wash this week, so all in all the boat’s pretty good right now.
It does seem though that I’m going to have to replace the hoses for the cockpit drains, as my third and final cock up this week was kicking over a bottle of Acetone in the cockpit well and not twigging what the smell was before half a litre had dripped onto the cockpit sole,removing a large chunk of gelcoat, before running of down the drains. This is a major pain, the hoses aren’t leaking yet, but acetone may or may not have damaged them, it depends what chemicals are used in the hose construction, and it may be that they will fail at some point, maybe tonight or maybe next year or maybe never. The thing is, when they fail, the boat will flood and probably sink. It’s not a bad idea to change them anyway, they are quite old.

Paul Collister

Possibly my most boring blog to date ? Mostly boat jobs.

Tuesday 21st May:

Fitted the water pump yesterday and popped up to the ways to see if the oil cooler was ready, but it wasn’t so I returned to the boat and worked on the locker tops in the cockpit. The design of the cockpit locker lids means that if you overfill the locker, when you sit on the lid/seat, the lid becomes a lever and puts massive forces on the hinge. Eventually the wood near the hinge splits and has to be replaced.

Wednesday:

Jim popped by on his rounds, he is looking after quite a few boats here, over coffee he told me he had seen my oil cooler finished in the shed at the ways, so I popped up and collected that, it looked smart with the shiny new oil hoses. Back on the boat I made a new bracket out of aloom-in-em, a metal they have over here that is very similar to aluminium 😉 

I managed to get everything back together, turned on the sea water supply and tried to turn the engine over, sadly the starter motor just whirred without engaging. Exactly the same problem I had last year when the salt water had caused a lot of rust to accumulate on the starter’s bendix. It seems all the grease and oil I had put on last September hadn’t protected it over the winter, so I’m hoping I can pull it out tomorrow and clean it up again. 

Thursday:

Starter motor cleaned up and back in the engine, and the engine turns, but won’t start. This is disappointing, it always starts. It’s going to be the fuel, it’s always the fuel. I imagine I’m out at sea, approaching the harbour and need the engine, what would I do? in fact I actually imagine what insults I would throw at someone who calls mayday in such a situation without first trying to fix the fuel problem. This is a situation every sailor should expect and be prepared for, so being tied up to the dock is a great place to have the problem. Usually it’s either bad fuel, blocked fuel lines or filters, I’m expecting to have a fuel bug, which is the worst scenario, as these things grow in your fuel as a black sludge and mess everything up. Finally the other things is that the fuel lines need bleeding, I try that first and sure enough the engine starts and runs just fine. So a lot of worry for nothing. 

Now the engine is running, time to check for water coming out of the exhaust, there’s none ( the engine is water cooled and needs hot water to squirt out the exhaust ), this always happens whenever I change the impeller. No panic, it takes a while for the water to get through the system. After a few minutes there is still no water flowing, I’m worrying about the impeller in the pump burning out, or the exhaust water muffler box overheating ,so I stop the engine. I take the repaired water pump cover off, but as I’m unscrewing the cover water starts squirting out, so it looks like water is getting there ok, I retighten the screw and decide I need more patience. Starting the engine again, and after 2-3 minutes, still no water out of the exhaust. Stop the engine, scratch my head, scratch my head again, start the engine, water gushing out the exhaust. I’m sure it does this to wind me up. Still there’s plenty of water flowing so the repaired pump is working well. Stick my head over the engine to check the oil cooler and there is oil pouring out of all the hose connections on the new cooler. It turns out I only did them up finger tight, so having fixed that I check the oil level in the transmission. I decide to be adventurous and replace the transmission (gear box) oil and clean the oil filter, I’m not sure this has been done before in the motors 20 year life. The oil filter has a metal plate over it which is painted over and joined to the engine paint, so I’m pretty sure it has never been inspected. As it turns out, it’s pretty clean anyway. And as I go to replace the cover, it slips on the oily surface and drops into the back of the deep bilge. This is probably the most inaccessible part of the boat, I have no obvious way to retrieve this, so I put my tools away and call it a day.

At this point Mark, who works in conservation over on Vancouver Island, and is having a break on his boat opposite me walks past, I tell him of my adventures and he suggests a magnet as the answer. Brilliant, I had forgotten all about the power of magnets to retrieve metal from the bottom of an oil filled void. Off to Johns to see if I can borrow a magnet, he’s bound to have one. In fact he has a telescopic magnet. While I’m there I learn lots about superconductivity and creating vacuums 

Friday:

Magnet works amazingly, plate recovered, oil changed, filter cleaned, no leaks, engine running well (ish). I’m not happy with the small amount of smoke and fuel coming out of the exhaust, I’m hoping to get a second opinion. I decide to let the engine run for a while to get it up to temperature, but I notice the temperature gauge has stopped working. Typical. It’s going to be a bad connection somewhere between the sensor and the display. That can wait, as can the engine test. I need to buy coffee, so off to the shops, then a bit of programming. I have cracked my id problem with Apple and it turns out I really am who I thought I was all along, thanks apple. Now all they need to do is join the old Paul Collister from before iCloud with the new Paul Collister after iCloud and I will be very happy. 

On the way back from the shops I spot a sailboat out in the bay heading for the harbour, it looks like a baba so I step up the pace to see what it might be. He has just tied up as I arrive and it’s an American in a baba 35, pilot house version. Quite a rare Baba, and a nice boat, sadly the varnish has been replaced with a paint like brown yuk called Cetol, which although it makes maintenance easy, isn’t my idea of a smart finish. The owner is Mike from Oregon, and later we have a good chat about Baba’s and boating, I persuade him to join our Baba yahoo group.

Saturday:

Sourdough from Victor, who I thought was a Finnish baker, but turns out to be from Valparaíso in Chile. Back to Johns to return the magic Magnet, then, as it’s turning out to be a sunny day, out with the varnish and back to making the boat pretty again.

While the varnish is drying, I service the starboard main winch, like the port winch this is in a bad way, but cleans up well. 

 Sunday:

Trip to Bere point as it was so sunny, then back to the boat to repair the port cockpit locker lid.

Bere point has orca’s visiting to rub their tummies on the pebbles. I thought I saw some, but it was hard to tell, from a distance. I focussed on one, and it turned out to be a log, rolling in the swell, then when I looked the other whales/logs had disappeared. There were signs pointing to a wedding, which I think was yesterday, however with my detective hat on, I think I may have found some evidence.

Back at the harbour Randy and Lorraine had a rope going over the side of the pier to a large fibreglass box, this was one of the floats that supports the pontoons, it had sprung a leak and was floating around the pontoons. Randy attached a rope via a block (pulley) to his truck and lifted it half out of the water so it could drain some of the water out. Next he towed it around to the big winch, which I had to operate to haul the float out of the sea. I really did feel like a grown up operating this winch.

On one evening I was strolling along the pontoons and was surprised when a voice from the dark said ‘Hello’, It was a tug-man, who had pulled into the harbour for the night and was sitting on the tugboat chilling. His tow was tied up alongside the pontoon behind him. just a barge with a few fuel tankers and a JCB on board, I wondered if he had berthed them all on his own, made me fell stupid about manoeuvring Sister Midnight around the harbour.

Next week I may well take the boat out of the harbour, which requires me to reverse about 6 boat lengths out from my pontoon, then I want to reverse back into the same space to work on the other side of the boat. I plan to try my hand at scarfing, that is, fixing a new piece of teak into the cap-rail where I smashed a chunk out on the Japanese concrete dock in Ishigaki.

I have now made some more definite plans. I’m going to haul out the boat here in a couple of weeks for about three days, paint the bottom and change the anodes.
I have booked a flight home for the 4th July and have arranged to leave the boat in Sointula.
At the end of July (Exact date TBC) Kathy and I fly back, spend a week or two in Sointula, and a week around these islands, before we head south around the west coast of Vancouver Island. We will probably take 10-15 days travelling down the west coast exploring the many rugged remote fiord like inlets. I’m hoping we will get to see some bears and other wildlife.
When we reach the bottom of the Island, we will provision for 2 weeks and head 50 odd miles offshore going south until we arrive in San-Francisco, sometime mid September-ish.

Paul Collister.