Carolina Beach State Park
“Tension is who you think you should be, relaxation is who you are.” —Chinese Proverb
We’ve been at Carolina Beach State Park the last two days. We stopped year five years ago. It’s a small marina but very nice. The park has a lot of nice hiking trails and the town of Carolina Beach has a great bike trail.
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May 1 – Carolina Beach, NC
PHOTO OF THE WEEK – High Heels, sepia
The story behind HIGH HEELS, sepia… Here’s one for the equestrian crowd! High Heels, sepia is a new addition to my online gallery and the first square format photo I’ve posted. It’s fun to hang out at ringside with Read More …
Long Haulin’
Crew Hangin’ Out OffshoreDylan and Dee Dee sadly left Great Harbour Cay Marina, Berry Islands, Bahamas last Sunday. They pulled into River Dunes Marina in Oriental, NC, USA on Saturday. To say we were makin’ track is an understatement. That was approxi…
Roche Harbor to Vancouver
April 29, 2016
With only a relatively short day ahead of us, we departed Roche Harbor at 0950 and transited the short distance across Haro Strait and into Port Sidney Marina where we cleared Canada Customs by phone. At 1135 we cast off the lines from the customs dock and headed to Ganges. Our plans to see Miriam’s cousin Dean Sevold were changed when he had to cancel, but since we were already close to Ganges, but too late to divert to Vancouver, we continued on.
The wind suddenly increased to nearly 20 knots as we pulled the Grady White alongside and moored at Ganges Marina. We were pleased to see Frank and Kathy Montgomery also there on the Selene 55, Rendezvous, so plans were quickly made to share our chicken enchiladas with chile verde with them in an informal potluck on Spirit.
We did some basic provisioning in Ganges, saving the major items of produce and meats until we reached Vancouver.
April 30, 2016
We had planned for a relatively early departure from Ganges to ride the morning flood tide to Vancouver, so at 0730 we departed quietly under sunny skies. Heading up Trincomali Channel to Porlier Pass we entered Georgia Strait at 0940. The calm waters of Trincomali were replaced by 10-15 knot winds from the northwest and 2-3 foot chop from the same direction, putting the seas nearly on the beam for the 22 nautical mile crossing to Burrard Inlet. The stabilizers got a workout as we altered course to stay clear of the Vessel Traffic System lanes. With the northwest wind, Burrard Inlet and English Bay were exposed and choppy as we pulled the Grady White alongside and threaded our way through the windsurfers, sailing races, kayaks and paddleboarders and people ferries into False Creek
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Spirit was alongside the dock at Quayside Marina with the engine shut down at 1339. We have traveled 99 nautical miles since leaving Anacortes. After checking in, the four of us walked to Costco and reprovisioned before returning to Spirit where we enjoyed the balance of the day soaking up the sun. We capped off the evening with a Danish open faced sandwich smorgasbord, served in courses starting with pickled herring, then meats, followed by shrimp and avocado and finishing with a selection of cheeses, all done on buttered pumpernickel bread. Each course finished with a “skol” of aquavit. Finally,we then ended with a marathon game of Mexican Train.
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| Ted Marx serving the Aquavit for the first course of pickled herring |
2016-05 Up Johnstone Strait to Port McNeill
Saturday, April 30, 2016The Johnson Strait forecast for Saturday was 15-25 knots. We had a nine-hour motor to Port McNeill ahead of us and because our crew needs to fly out Sunday, we needed to be in the Port. So at 5AM’s first light we were off …
Hingham Bound: Weather Considerations
As of Sunday at 3:00 PM ESTIn my last article I predicted that we would complete the 1438 nautical mile (1651 statute) trip to Hingham in 9 days if the weather cooperates. Well, it’s time to see if that will be the case.Explanatory Note 1: NOAA’s forec…
April 29 – Little River, SC
Myrtle Beach Yacht Club
“Happiness is a journey, not a destination.” —Alfred D. Souza
We’ve enjoyed two pretty days on the water. Yesterday was a little warm and it reminded us why we need to keep moving north. Most of our travel since leaving Charleston has been in the Waccamaw River. The scenery is very pretty as it runs along the lowcountry in South Carolina. As we moved closer to Myrtle Beach it changes from marshland to cypress woods. Besides a noticeable change in vegetation, I also noticed we have gotten rid of the no seeums…they’ve been driving me crazy the last couple of weeks.
FPB 78 Progress: Lifelines And Upholstery – The End Is Near
When you have lifelines, glass… …and soft goods going in, you know the end is near. Looking here at the …Read More
2016-04 Up the Salish Sea, into Discovery Passage and Johnstone Strait
Wednesday, April 27th, 2016: Comox to Small InletOnce again this morning we got started early, leaving Comox in our wake by 7AM. Once across the Comox Bar, we turned towards Cape Mudge, Campbell River and Discovery Passage. We had a date wi…
The Migration North
We cast loose our lines in Eagle Harbor before 6 AM on Wednesday, April 27, for our sixth trip to SE Alaska in the last seven years. There is a familiarity to the preparation but also an edge of paranoia. You just know in your heart that complacency in preparation or operation can easily lead to calamity.
Our first night was in Garrison Bay on the northwest corner of San Juan Island just south of the Roche Harbor. It provided us quick access the next morning to the Port of Sidney on Vancouver Island where we cleared Canadian Customs. We have Nexus cards which speed our passage through customs. After a phone call and waiting 15 minutes to allow a customs officer to show up to inspect us should they want to, we were on our way.
It had been three years since our last visit to Butchart Gardens so for our second night we anchored in Tod Inlet near the Butchart Gardens. We dropped our dinghy and motored over to the dock down the hill from the Japanese Gardens. Reportedly the tulips were past prime but if they were, we didn’t notice.
As I write this, we are tied to the dock at Salt Springs Marina in Ganges Harbour. Our yacht club has leases dock space as an outstation here so it is inexpensive moorage as we do some light provisioning for those items that are prohibited from being brought in.
Our plans for this season are pretty similar to prior years. We’ll move north pretty directly to SE Alaska arriving around the middle of May. We’ll stay in Alaska for about 2-1/2 months until the end of July/first part of August when we’ll begin the slower journey south. Arrival in Puget Sound will be the middle of September.
