July 2 2004    Trish and her mom, Kathy, left Bainbridge Island for Port Townsend while BJ finished his last day of work. BJ then caught a ride to Port Townsend with her dad Dan that evening. Dan then took Kathy home. Rich aboard his Catalina 30, Narrow Path, ran ahead of Nelle on the way to PT. We had a nice dinner aboard Nelle before Dan and Kathy headed home. The wind and rain filled in late that night.

July 3 2004    We planned a 9:00 am departure to set sail with the last of the ebb across the Straits of Juan de Fuca to Roche Harbor. Rich was not feeling well and elected to stay behind and probably head home so we set off with a 15 knot breeze out of the west. We had a great sail albeit to weather we sailed on a close reach port tack all the way to Haro Strait when we were able to fall off to a reach to Roche Harbor. We maintained 8.5 knots all the way taking a lot of water on deck. We hit 10.5 on the GPS. A great sail although a bit nauseating at times. We rafted with Kalliope and White Swan and had a nice dinner of crab cakes prepared by Dianna and were joined by the Daily Planet with Wes, Ann and Brent and Narrow Path with Rich and Laurie. Rich started feeling better and left at noon and fought the tide north. Narrow path’s engine fuel filters plugged just outside Mosquito pass and I ran the Avon out to help them sail in through the pass. I had a spare fuel filter that I was able to give them and get the engine running again. We had 13 people for dinner in Nelle’s cockpit!

July 4 2004    A day spent in the sailing dingies and joined by Spirit of Freedom, White Swan II, Dun Rushn. and Skookum. Uncle Craig was aboard Dun Rushn with grandma and grandad. Everyone sailed the sailing dingies and went ashore to enjoy the festivities.

July 5 2004    The raft up began to split up with Spirit of Freedom heading north to Bedwell harbor to clear customs, the Daily Planet heading to Friday Harbor to take delivery of new prescription glasses for Ann, and Skookum the tug with Bob and Ellie heading to Anacortes to pick up friends and Rich aboard his Catalina 30 Narrow Path made the long run all the way back to Bainbridge. After Narrow Path left we set Bob’s stern anchor out to replace the anchor that Rich had to keep the raft from spinning in the current. Nelle Bly, Kalliope, White Swan, White Swan II, and Dunrushn, all stayed to crab and relax after a long weekend partying. Crabbing was a lot of work and not very plentiful as there were hundreds of people crabbing.
    Late that night I awoke to the sound of the wind and waves from behind. I knew immediately that it was not right as the winds had been out of the south and were going to be such for a few days at least. Nelle’s horseshoe bouy was slapping it’s strap across her transom too. I went out into the cockpit to secure the strap and assess the situation and found it to be too cold for me to be out there without clothes so I went below to dress. When I returned on deck I found Andy, Mike and Bob and Dianna to all be topsides. They were securing their dingies which were pounding on their boats. I shined my flashlight in the direction of the stern anchor thinking that it may fouled it’s self around a rudder or keel and found it fouled in White Swan’s windvane. We decided to cut it loose and tie a float to it. After having done so the raft spun around in the current way over towards Dun Rushn. Trish woke Jer and Monica on White Swan II and told them that this is the "4:00 am break up the raft party." Jer and Monica were the first to be cast off after having been briefed on the situation and what to do. Nelle was next then White Swan. Jer found a safe anchorage and with Monica at the helm he set the anchor firmly. Bob and Dianna were trying to get their anchor to set just downwind from Jer. Trish and I maneuvered Nelle over to White SwanII and checked on Jer and Monica to be sure that they were secure and felt good before we found a safe spot and set Nelle’s hook firmly in the sticky mud. It was kind of a fire drill but was well executed and went smooth. I did have to re-anchor at 6:00 am as a floating raft that was anchored nearby was swinging a lot in the wind getting closer than I was comfortable with. I love my electric windlass.

July 6, 2004    Set sail for the Port Sidney Marina. Sailed through the Orca’s. Had 15 knots or better, a great sail again!

Thursday, July 8, 2004 After a morning washing Nelle and helping Andy get his old genoa off his boat and the new one on, Trish, Nelle and I headed north bound for Princess Bay on Wallace Island but cut the trip short and ducked into Montague Harbor as we were still tired from the 4^th celebration. We had a nice sail with the wind at our backs from Sidney to Swanson channel where we started the motor and pressed on. We hiked the trails at the park after securely anchoring. Andy and Cathy showed up about an hour and a half and anchored next to Lin and Larry Pardey. Trish and I took the 8:00pm Pub Bus to the Hummingbird Pub where we ran into Andy and Cathy and had a slow dinner albeit quite good.

Friday, July 9 2004    Departed Montague Harbor at 6:45 with a flood tide north to Dodd Narrows bound for Nanaimo.
    Calm and overcast. Some very dark clouds filled in and brought loud thunder. Trish and I are lounging in our chairs in the cockpit while Nelle motors along happily with Auto at the helm. Approached Dodd Narrows at 9:30 1 ½ hours before slack and were flushed through with ease. We moored with lazily at the Nanaimo Yacht Club at about 10:45 and Trish went to work flushing out our water tanks as we took on bad water in Roche Harbor while I checked in. I then sat in the cockpit in my chair and read and listened to Jazz. The weather is weird, dark clouds thunder and rain then sun and very humid and hot. Very strange to get used to. Kalliope arrived at the commercial basin at 12:45pm. The head plugged AGAIN! In trying to figure out what has changed causing all the recent plugs Trish told me that she has been buying the Kirkland paper instead of the stuff she used to buy, which gave us no trouble. We will be buying the old stuff again because I hate taking apart the head. We napped until the rain stopped. I got up and took the diverter valve assembly apart and cleared the paper from the valve. All in all not a horrible job since I replaced the system. It comes apart easy without too much a mess now. Andy and Cathy walked over as I was finishing up. We visited in the cockpit and they suggested going to the ACME to have a nice dinner and listen to Jazz. It was a great idea we had a lot of fun and some good food and a couple Cuervo 1800 martinis, very good, too good!

 July 10 2004    Slept in till 8:30 when we were awoke by the Dragon boats as they were lining up at the starting line which was about 50ft from Nelle. We had front row seating. We roared out into the cockpit to see the start. What we did not know was that this was to go on all day and into the next. We dingied over to Kalliope in the commercial basin to help Andy get his new sail off and bend on the old one as the new is a piece of crap and is being sent back. Bummer! We then went to lunch at a Scottish restaurant and had a great lunch. Andy and I then took a long walk to the other end of town looking for all the marine stores. There is only one decent one, oh well it was a good walk. The girls went shopping of course. We returned to our respective boats and I worked on an eye splice in my new Sampson double braid stern anchor line. Very frustrating directions. We then went to Dinner aboard Kalliope. Very good! Cathy is a great cook. Got home late and crashed without getting Nelle prepared to leave in the morning. Bad!

July 11 2004    After sleeping in too long we scrambled to get Nelle ready to set sail up the Straits of Georgia. Then I remembered that I needed fuel for the dingy so I ran to the fuel dock and fueled up. So we did not depart until 10:40ish’. We found 15 knots of wind from the south as we headed out from Departure bay and set sail with a reef in the main and the 100% genoa and the staysail and made the better part of 7 knots north toward Lasqueti island. Just south of the Ballenas islands we decided that instead of heading all the way to Desolation in one shot we would head up a little and sail into Pender Harbor and anchor in Garden bay. The weather cleared more and more the more we got away from Nanaimo. Trish slept as her seasick meds knocked her out so Nelle and I had a wonderful time and sailed all the way to our anchorage and dropped the hook under sail in the warm sun and light breeze. What a great sail and wonderful relief from the dismal rain and clouds we had the last three days. Now it is time to make Tacos and go ashore and explore!
    Met Wally the owner of Fishermans Resort and his new employee Jeff. Talked politics with Jeff and had a great time. Neat guy. Got harassed by Wally for not staying at his docks and anchoring. He is an old phone guy. Bought a new chart for Surge Narrows and a fishing license.

Monday, July 12 2004    Departed Garden Bay in Pender Harbor at 9:45am. Clear blue sky and warming up fast. Very nice. Bound for Lund and the Copeland Islands for oysters and maybe clams! Motoring north up Malispina Strait with a light wind on the nose. Time to make breakfast and read a book while Auto drives. Before entering Lund I went to pull the charts for Desolation and the areas that we will be heading and found my list of charts that we are supposed to have aboard and found us to be 6 charts short. What the Hell! I guess we will be buying charts in Lund. Very frustrating as well as puzzling as these are charts that we used last time we were up here. I am going to have to think hard as to where they could have gone. I do not remember loaning them out and I do not think that we would have put them in storage as we keep all charts aboard for the northwest waters all the time.
    Ok so we decided to go to the Copeland Islands and skip Lund for today. We were ready to be at anchor and explore. Trish made tacos just before we arrived, they were very good. We anchored and stern tied to the North shore with Nelle’s stern in 23 feet of water. The tide was high at 14ft and would fall to a 11ft at 10:30pm and be low the next am at 10:30 at 5ft. We have 125ft of chain down so we can bring in quite a bit to get into deeper water if need be. We had to let out 45ft extra as our 300ft stern tie line could be longer to make it easier to get ashore and back to the boat. We set the anchor firmly with a 90ft scope.
    We launched the Cosmic Muffin and I rowed all over before returning to Nelle to take a swim. I cannot believe how much warmer the water is up here. The sun has really warmed the day up a lot. I am hoping for sunny weather from here on out!    Trish made a wonderful dinner of spinach salad, cauliflower gratin and roasted garlic with cambezola.. I read my book and crashed early after dinner.

Tuesday, July 13 2004    We decided to spend the day anchored here in the Copeland Islands as it is just about as beautiful of a place as I can think of and there is a lot of foraging to be done. Lots of clams and oysters. We just had to scrape the beach with oyster shells to get all the clams we could eat. The oysters are so abundant that one has a hard time deciding what size is perfect as they are all so close to perfect it is unreal and thousands of them. It seems that everyone heading to Desolation just blows past this little place and has no idea how great of spot they are missing.
    After foraging we loaded the laptop in the backpack and got in the dingy and headed for Lund which is only two miles south. In Lund we went to the local hotel and asked if we could utilize their internet access with our laptop and they charged us a whole $3 (Canadian at that) We were amazed to have DSL in Desolation Sound. We downloaded our E mail and sent a few and took care of some banking online. What a wonderful and amazing world we live in.

Wednesday, July 14 2004     After restocking our clam and oyster inventory we headed north stopping at Squirrel cove store to get our much needed charts that we somehow overlooked. I anchored Nelle in a poor holding bottom and sent Trish ashore to the store while I watched Nelle and spliced eyes in our stern tie line. We then headed north to Teakern Arm to check it out and then headed further north amazed at the remote islands and passages. Nelle took us up Lewis Channel to the northern most end of Cortez Island where we headed south to Von Donop Inlet which has a long narrow entrance with a rock in the middle but has a very protected anchorage at the head. There we met up with Wes and Ann Fitz aboard the infamous Union 36 "The Daily Planet" After anchoring we had them over for dinner and drinks, Clams and Oysters and Spirits. We had a great time with good conversation and planned the next few days travels to the Octopus Islands via Harriot Bay for provisioning i.e. water and cigarettes for the Planet. We will have a water maker the next trip we make. Very soon! Water Maker and Solar Panels are a huge priority. I like my showers!

Thursday, July 15 2004    Awoke to a very calm anchorage that was quite peaceful but did not appeal to me as a place to hang out as foraging was off limits due to shellfish issues. We weighed anchor and motored out of the long channel negotiating our way around the big rocks that lurk just under the surface in the middle of the channel. It was shallow in places 13 feet or so. We motored southwest to Harriot Bay and I spliced an eye in our stern tie line. I learned a lesson that I already had been told but saw first hand. Never put a line under load that you intend to splice before you splice it. That splice fought me for an hour and a half before I finally worked it through. Victory! The only problem was that the wind steadily filled in off the beam to about 15 knots but I was so involved or obsessed with the splice that I just kept motoring. It was for the best anyway because Trish was not feeling great anyway. Wes and Ann took the Planet out in the channel and set a shrimp trap while we fueled and watered Nelle. We were assigned a slip and then they brought the Planet in and fueled and watered her. We then went for a hike up the hill to the local store and got provisions and came across a couple of Indians carving by the marina. They had some very nice pieces but not the perfect one for Nelle so one of the Indians, Mike, drove me to his house to show me an otter he had done. It was very nice but too long so he gave me his number and I am going to call him when we get back and he is going to do a carving for me to the dimensions that we have to work with. We left Harriot bay at 3:10 to go pull the shrimp trap and head to Surge Narrows to make the pass by the 5:03 slack, which we just made. After clearing the narrows we set sail with the wind at our back and our new jib pulling strong. Nelle sailed all the way up to the Octopus Islands and rounded up at the narrow channel entrance and motored in with the Planet close behind. We carefully navigated the rocky passes and anchorages to determine the best spot to anchor and stern tie. The wind was blowing about 8 knots so we wanted to be head to wind. The first spot we chose, the anchor would not set as it skipped along the rocky bottom. We then chose another and did perfectly. The Planet then found a big rock which they were able to sail off of in a very smooth recovery with no structural damage, just some lost bottom paint and pride. They then rafted up with us and we had a nice evening eating clams and a fruit cheese platter that Trish made up for us. Trish has done an amazing job provisioning and organizing the boat for cruising. We stayed up late into the night and into the am watching shooting stars and satellites.

Friday, July 16 2004    Woke to a low tide and went clam digging at the shore behind our boats and got lots of littlenecks and some big butter and horse clams for crab bait. Wes and I then went out to set the traps and find the cabin with the art. No luck crabbing or finding the cabin but had a lot of fun and found a couple abandoned cabins.

Saturday, July 17 2004    Lounged and played at the Octopus Islands and planned to leave to head north to Thurston Bay on the north end of Sonora Island in the morning. We finally found the cabin and were, and still are, in awe of the creativity. This is a must see. We spent hours there. Trish and Ann spent a lot of time making driftwood signs by burning their artwork into the wood with magnifying glasses.

Sunday, July 18 2004    Woke early to catch the slack through upper and lower rapids by Hole In The Wall. Arrived at Thurston Bay around 8:00am. While rounding Chatham Point Trish and I got the stupid idea to keep going around the Island. Not wanting to jump into anything we decided to stop in Thurston Bay anyway and make an itinerary and see if we really had enough time to do so. We did and we thought we had enough time so we told Wes and Ann that we were going to go and they said they wanted to go too so off we went at the crack of noon to make a run on Johnstone Strait. We got our ass kicked by the strong flood but made it to Port Harvey by 8:30pm all the while we were pushing up the Strait a storm system was running just ahead of us and throwing lightening bolts around and lots of rain.

Monday, July 19 2004    Departed Port Harvey with the ebb and raced north up Johnstone Strait in thick fog. We did not get to see the upper Strait at all. We emerged from the fog in Queen Charlotte Strait and made Port Hardy by 2:00pm, a good days run. We moored at the downtown commercial dock with the fishboats. Neat spot. Extremely hard rain but warm.

Tuesday, July 20 2004    Laundry and provisions in the am and afternoon departure with the ebb to Bull Harbor to cross the bar in the am. The storm system has moved north to the Queen Charlottes. A high is building offshore so it looks good. The rain has stopped and the sun is peeking through every so often! The Barometer has risen to 1019. Anchored in Bull Harbor after navigating through lots of logs and drift.

Wednesday, July 21 2004    Left Bull Harbor at 5:45 to cross the bar on the ebb just like the books tell you not to do. The crossing was not bad. Set sail off Cape Scott and had a hell of a down hill run to Winter Cove in Quatsino Sound. We had wind in the mid 20's and ended of with two reefs in the main and just the staysail. With that sail plan we held 7+knots. Anchored behind Mathews island and ate a salmon that Wes caught. Very good. Saw Orcas on the way south too. A very exciting and tiring sail. Hopefully a little less wind tomorrow but I will not complain as long as it is out of the northwest as it was today.

Thursday July 22 2004    Set sail from Mathews Island to sail south around Cape Cook and pull into Walters Cove. The wind was strong out of the northwest and gales were forecast again. We set out with three reefs in the main and just the staysail. We removed the third reef after getting about 10 miles out as the wind was only in the 20's although the seas were quite large. With two reefs in the main we were running at 7+ knots parallel to Cape Cook heading out to sea. The waves were 17 to 20 feet and breaking heavily. We decided that it was a prudent idea to head way offshore. We sailed 20 miles out before jibing and running down parallel to the coast. We were on a course to put us in Esperanza Inlet so we radioed the Daily Planet to see if they were up to the long day. Doing so put us a day ahead and we felt great for it although very tired. We anchored in Queens Cove which is very protected and beautiful. Wes caught a nice salmon on the way down the coast so we had salmon for dinner again.

Friday, July 23 2004    Slept in a little (8:00) and had a relaxing am before a motor to Friendly Cove around the inside of Tahsis Narrows. When I started the engine it did not sound right. It sounded like a belt was slipping so I opened the engine hatch and found the belts to be tight and was unable to locate the noise. Just then the smoke started pouring out of everywhere. I found the starter bendix did not disengage and was spinning with the engine. The starter is dead in the middle of nowhere, almost. We were towed by Wes and Ann to Tahsis via Esperanza where the owner Dean let me use his homemade radio phone to make all kinds of calls and then would not let me pay him. Very nice guy. Got a hold of Mom who got a starter on the way and is flying to Victoria then driving to Tahsis. A six hour drive with the last 20 miles being a dirt road. Very nice of her!

Saturday, July 24 2004 First thing in the am I removed the starter expecting it to be a real pain in the ass as the oil cooler for the tranny had to be removed to gain access. The whole job ended taking me about 15 minutes. Whew! I disassembled the dead starter to try to figure out what caused the fire. I found that the bearing that the bendix rides on to allow it to freewheel when the engine starts therefore allowing the bendix to unload and disengage, was all but frozen up. I believe that the bendix never disengaged the ring gear therefore spinning the armature until it heated up melting the windings and burning its self up. The starter is not repairable in the field. Called to verify that Mom was indeed on her way and had indeed received the replacement starter. Spent the day crabbing and shrimping and exploring Tahsis. Mom arrived about 7:00 making record time from Victoria to Tahsis. We had dinner of kabobs and ginger rice. I then installed the new starter in about 10 minutes and VROOM! We had and engine! We were all pretty tired so we crashed knowing that we had to get up early and get under way. Poor Mom, we unfortunately had to send her on her way at 6:00 am. We felt bad but were now on a very tight schedule.

Sunday July 25 2004    Woke early and got underway after saying goodbye to Mom. The wind blew all night as it had been doing for the past week. We motored down Tahsis channel watching all the bear on the beaches trying to catch their daily salmon. We saw 4 in about a half hour. After leaving Tahsis Inlet we ran into the 25-30 knot winds which hit us on our starboard bow as we headed out of Nootka Sound into the ocean to round the Hesquiat Peninsula. We had decided to use headsails alone although we were going to be close hauled for about 15 miles to get offshore. The winds were predicted and reported at 40 knots north by northwest. I unrolled the jib to the second reef point and Nelle took off leaping across the waves which were 12-15 foot breakers. I knew right away that I had too much sail as Nelle was trying to fly and landing deeply in the troughs. I immediately rolled the jib in until there was only a very small triangle out and she was still making 4 knots and pointing nicely but I did not like the strain that my jib was taking being rolled in that much. I unrolled the staysail and she drove nicely. I did have to drive her up and over the crests to keep them from breaking across her beam. The helm was very balanced making driving her a pleasure and a lot of fun. The waves and wind continued to build with wave heights of at least 20 feet. As soon as we would clear the Hesquiat Peninsula we bore off and ran down under staysail alone at 7.5 - 8 knots, hitting 14.8knots while surfing. Nelle never felt as she was going to broach and drove easily although the motion was extreme from the confused sections of waves within the breaks.
    We held a port tack all the way to Hot Springs Cove with the Daily Planet close behind. As we entered the cove at breakneck speed the wind held but the seas were instantly calm. It felt very strange to cross that line. We moored at the park dock and hiked out to the hot springs at 6:30pm and soaked. The springs are the most amazing place. The breakers crash into the rocks and rush into the hot spring pools cooling the water before retreating to the sea. The hot spring water waterfalls down into the pools from the large rock formations. Kelp washes in and out with the refreshing seawater. I cannot wait to return!

Monday, July 26 2004    Departed Hot Springs cove with more gale warnings but they never materialized so we motored in nasty slop leftover from the previous weeks winds all the way to Barkley Sound where we anchored in Effingham bay on Effingham Island. Very nice place and a very nasty sticky bottom. Good anchorage in a storm.

Tuesday July 27 2004     Motored to Sooke all the while awaiting the wind that was predicted at 15-20 NW. Never happened. Motored almost all the way. Some wind filled in off River Jordan pushing our speed up to 8 knots. Entered Sooke in the Dark at about 10:30 and ate salmon omelets. Wes caught two more Salmon. Actually three but one got away as he had two on at once!

Wednesday, July 28 2004     Motored from Sooke to Port Townsend

Thursday, July 29 2004    Motored from Port Townsend to Bainbridge then on to Port Orchard.

 Circumnavigation Photo Gallery