We are in Telegragh Harbor once again. This time we are in a marina with a laundromat. After two weeks we’re ready to do laundry. This has been a lovely week with half overcast skies and a couple of showers. The clouds have been threatening and have made for interesting light on the water. Sometimes the sun would peak through the clouds but it would be silvery and cold feeling.The sun we’ve had has been more appreciated because of the clouds. On Thursday we left Pender Harbor on the mainland and crossed Malaspina Strait to Jedediah Islands Marine Park, between Lasqueti and Texada Islands. The anchorage was one of those where the water is quite deep and so to keep the anchor from being dragged into even deeper water, one ties the stern to a tree or a big rock on the land. It was a pretty place with only four other boats anchored in this little cove. We had a difficult time tying the stern line to the tree. I insisted on rowing the dinghy to shore but the boat was turned sideways to the shore and my rowing as hard as I could would not aim the stern to shore. I was about to give up and go back to our boat for the outboard motor when this nice man with a British accent and a gentle voice offered to help out by pulling on the stern line while I took the rope up to a tree. He also instructed Mike to let out some more chain to the anchor so that the boat could swing around better. He did all of this in a very easy manner without making you feel stupid and he mentioned that he had someone help him tie up his own stern line just an hour earlier. Talk about angels in disguise. This man certainly was. As I was getting the line around the tree I realized how hot I was. Once on the boat again I got into my swim suit and decided to swim to the island with my Chaco sandals on and go exploring a bit. The water isn’t cold at this time in the summer or at least it’s not numbing cold, just refreshingly cold. I’d read in one of the guide books that the island is inhabited by wild goats and there is an old homestead on the island. I never found the homestead but I did see some of the wild goats. The trees were huge by New Mexico standards and there was much moss everywhere. The ground was very uneven with moss and grass growing on big bolders. I found a sweet little cove with crystal clear water and gravel beach but there was a dinghy pulled up onto it and I was feeling shy so I didn’t stay to swim. Back on the boat I had a solar shower out on deck. I will never take showers for granted again in my life.
The next day we awoke to a good breeze. We were hoping to cross The Strait of Georgia but the weather had “strong wind warnings for small craft” and we found a harbor on the other side of Lasqueti Island that would be sheltered from strong winds if we decided the wind would be more of a challenge than we were ready for. We had a good sail up the the northeastern end of Lasqueti and as we came around the northern most point of the island on the western side the wind picked up. We thought at first, it’s okay, we can do it. I went down below decks to do something and when I came back up Mike wanted to reef the mainsail. At first I thought he was over reacting but the boat was heeling way beyond the point of comfort. In the end we opted to go into False Harbor on the same side of the island. We both felt stupid because we realized afterwards what we should have done so we could reef the mainsail in a safe way, i.e. we should of let wind out of the jib or just taken it down. But hey, we are learning and no harm was done other than to our egos. So we had a relaxing afternoon in the harbor and decided to give it a try again the next day. We got an early start in the morning. We couldn’t get the weather station in the harbor so we decided to go have a look and listen to the weather outside the harbor. We motored out to find the wind strong but less than the day before. First we put up a reefed mainsail and our small staysail. The sailing was fine. We listened to the weather which said the wind would be less today in the Strait. That’s all we needed to hear. We put up all the sails and crossed the Strait on one tack. It was just great. When we came up on the eastern coast of Vancouver Island we sailed south to the bay we’d decided to anchor in on only a few tacks. As we started into the bay the wind lightened but we realized we could sail most of the way into the bay to where it would be good to anchor. I loved every minute of that morning of sailing. The truth is, I hate it when we have to motor. That means turning on the diesel engine and then the only interesting part is the navigation.
We were anchored behind a logging business in the bay we sailed into. Directly in front of us was a nice long beach which we rowed over to and took a walk on. We tried some stone skipping, but there weren’t many flat stones. Then we rowed over to the log boom, (lots of logs all grouped together and floating on the water), to visit the many seals and their young sunning themselves on the logs. During our lunch we heard them making these almost human sounds. The sounds reminded me of a child before it learns to speak a language. It was so strange. As we neared the logs all of the seals slipped into the water. Some of them followed us while we rowed back to our boat. The sun came out here and there throughout the afternoon, always that cold silver light reflected on the water. As we sat eating our dinner outside in the cockpit of the boat the sun broke through the clouds full force. The light became golden, all the dark green somber pines on shore were transformed into warm juicy greens. What a wonder sunlight is especially after not having much all day. As we sat there just soaking in the light watching it change to orange then pink on the surrounding clouds, several Canada Geese flew low over the water honking as they went. My goodness, I hadn’t seen that since visiting the Bosque Apache a few years back. The wonderful part about sunsets on the water is that the light is reflected back to you. One sees a beautiful sunset twice. the reflection on the water varies depending on the surface of the water. If it is still and glassy, the reflection is like a mirror. If the water is the least ruffled the reflection is wonderfully distorted, like an impressionist painting or something.
That was the highlight of this week. We are in the southern Gulf Islands, off the eastern side of Vancouver Island for the third time this summer. Every time we come back we find new places to explore. We are in Bedwell Harbor, between north and south Pender Islands. They both have national parks on them so we climbed Mount Norman on Wednesday afternoon when we arrived. It was a good, mostly uphill hike of an hour or so. The views made it all worth it. All these islands we’ve been sailing around this summer were down below us. It was great to see so many of them from above. Yesterday was a mostly cloudy overcast day with showers on and off. We took the dinghy to buy some ice at a marina and get rid of our trash. On the way back Mike saw a sailboat with solar panels and he wanted to have an up close look at how they were mounted. As we putt putted slowly over to the boat we realized people were on board. So we started chatting with this couple from our dinghy about their solar panels and the next thing we knew they had invited us up onto there boat for beer and nachos! They turned out to be a very friendly couple from Victoria. They were a bit younger than Mike and I with a teen ager about to start college and one already in college. We had a good time talking about sailing, children, health care in the States and in Canada. Everything is more expensive in Canada but hey, you have to pay for the health care some way or other, right?. They were very into sailing the northern parts of the inside passage and beyond. This is where we hope to go next summer so we were all ears to hear about it. There are more “rapids” to be passed through up north during slack water. For boats this size, 20-40 feet it’s a big a deal. If you try to go through these narrow passages when it’s not slack water your doomed. Yes more adventures ahead for us next year.
