A Month Away From the Dock – Week 1

I promised Jess that we would use the boat more this year. And I meant it. Last year we had just moved and there was so much to explore in our new neck of the woods. This year, I am ready to spend serious time on the boat so I suggest that we spend July on the boat. We can work remotely, we already tested that and now we have some solar (thanks to hard work from Jess)! We also have new batteries with more capacity so we should be able to work all day at anchor and not have to run the engine every day to charge this batteries.
Friday, July 3 is a work holiday, so that is the day that we leave the dock and immediately head to another dock – the fuel dock. Gas is cheaper in the US than it is in Canada and we need 45 gallons to top off. From the fuel dock we call Canadian customs to use our new Nexus and clear customs without having to stop. We choose White Rock as our port of entry because it is just outside of our marina and we have talked to so many people who say they have never had to stop there. Thank goodness because we scoped out that dock when we went to White Rock for Morgan’s birthday and it was a “no thank you!” docking situation. We get our clearance number and are told that we need to head to the dock and wait 10 minutes to see if anyone shows up – which they never do.
White Rock is a quick trip and we come around the corner of the break water just to make sure that no one is waiting for us on the dock and … oh no! Through the binoculars Jess spots someone walking down the pier towards us. This is bad. This is very bad. The dock is the same size as Nootka and there is a very narrow lane for us to get into and it is shallow everywhere around us. If you are a fan of the blog (thank you, Hillie) then you know we are still dealing with a little docking anxiety. I have confidence that I can land there, but no confidence that I can leave!
Fortunately, I expertly land our giant, lumbering boat and Jess gets us tied up. The uniformed officer had been casually strolling down the pier and he looked surprised to see us there. Turns out … he wasn’t there for us at all! He was just checking some fishing licenses. We probably didn’t have to stop and no one would have known. Oh boy. I think his name was Officer Johnson (so that is what I will call him). Officer Johnson is a nice guy and he figures that since we are there, he might as well inspect us. He asks for our pertinent information and then asks a few questions about what we have on board. It is clear that we are good Nexus citizens and we have studied what we can and cannot bring with us to Canada. He takes a quick walk through the boat and then says we are good to go.
Now we have to leave so I start talking (loudly) about how worried I am about this procedure. Officer Johnson gets the hint and offers to help send us off. Hooray! We manually turned the boat around and we able to leave without any trouble. The same cannot be said for the poor soul who was fishing on the dock that didn’t seem to have his affairs in order and was getting a lot of Officer Johnson’s attention as we left. Always a good idea to study the rules.
So finally the adventure can begin. The worst case scenario has happen and it wasn’t all that bad. Although, I don’t need to dock at WhiteRock again ever. We have 3 days to move the boat North before the work week begins so we set our sights on Silva Bay for the night. Silva Bay is on Vancouver Island so we have to cross the Straight of Georgia. There isn’t really any wind so the crossing is uneventful and we just motor and sit in the cockpit all day and get to Silva Bay just before 5pm.
Silva Bay is just like so many other Canadian anchorages … almost completely full of mooring balls, many of which have various derelict boats tied to them. This place and their mooring balls! It is very challenging to find a spot to anchor in the mine field. Eventually we find a nice spot we like and we drop the hook. As we are setting it, a sea plane comes by at close range and then takes off so we figure we should research the spot we are anchored in a little bit and, of course, we are anchored in the no anchoring area for sea planes to taxi. I don’t really want to move so I decide to check the flight schedule and find out the flight we already obstructed was the last one for the day and the first one in the morning is 8am. We are planning an early start the next day so we stay put.
The next day is July 4th and our country is turning 250 years old but we are in Canada and they have mixed feelings about us right now. 7am we depart. We are crossing the Straight of Georgia again today and heading for Pender Harbour on the mainland. Everything starts out really tame. Not much wind or waves and we are motoring. It doesn’t take long until we have enough wind to sail so the sails go up and the engine goes off. We have a pretty good line to our destination, mostly downwind but Nootka keeps trying to head up and has a lot of weather helm. I guess we haven’t really sailed her much so we start playing with our sail plan to try to figure out what she wants. It is farily gusty and the wind is oscillating a bit but we reef the main and have the full headsail ad she is happy-ish. We are sailing fast and basically in the direction we want so we sail on. The waives really built and the ride got bumpy. Jess hand steered the boat for hours while I made sure that my book got read. It wasn’t going to read itself. Also a nap needed to be taken as the boat was rocking and Jess was busy on the helm so I took the nap. I like to pitch in and do my share.

We were able to sail right to the mouth of Pender Harbour and the last part of the sail was absolutely lovely. Good, steady wind and the ride wasn’t too bouncy. A giant sailboat (148 foot) went past us without their sails up and they must have been embarassed because it was truly wonderful sailing.
Pender Harbour is roomy with very few mooring balls and lots of nooks and crannies to tuck into. We selected our nook and set the anchor on a beautiful summer afternoon. We got Troy (our dinghy) off the deck and headed to shore to scope out the store – an IGA. We decided we better celebrate our nation’s birth by having Mexican food in Canada and we found just the spot – Aqui es Mexico and it was so yummy! The little “town” had everything we needed for provisions so we made a plan to come back in the morning to collect the things we need to head north. As we head out of the docks a lady tells us to be careful of the whales that are in the harbour. OMG! OMG! OMG! We buzz out and there they are … 4 of them headed out. They are far away but we can see them and it is exhilarating. This makes 3 times we have seen whales from Nootka – although technically we see these ones from Troy.
Sunday morning dawned and it was another gorgeous day on the Sunshine Coast. Sadly, the marina store that sells the shrimp bait that we need doesn’t open until Monday. What to do? Here we are anchored in a little slice of paradise and we can’t leave until tomorrow. Poor us. The first thing we do is go for provisions and get them stored. Then I talk Jess into dropping the crab ring over the side of the boat – just to see what happens. 15 minutes later he pulls out a monster dungeoness! 15 minutes after that he gets one that is even bigger! So he fishes for an hour and ends up with 3 keeper which he processes and cooks . I guess the crabbing is good in Garden Bay. Then we take Troy out and about to explore the area. The area is really, really cool. There is the John Henry marina with a well stocked store that even had Gluten Free beer (though I did not buy any). There are curves and so many spots in there and we had a blast buzzing around seeing everything. Such a great spot and I am a little reluctant to leave it, but that is the plan departure tomorrow. We are going to work early in the day, then go buy our shrimp bait and then when we have worked 7-8 hours we are pulling the anchor and continuing our voyage north.

Monday morning and it is back to work for us. Starlink is faster than our home internet! Trying to stay on a bit of a normal schedule we even do our regularly scheduled Monday weights workout in the boat! We started our workday really early (5am) and therefore felt we were in good shape to shut down our office job and strike out in the early afternoon for Texada Island and the town of Van Anda. There is no wind and it is an uneventful passage. The anchorage is pretty small and someone has put a mooring ball right in the middle! Darn those Canadian mooring balls. There is another boat there already anchored and, try as we might, we cannot find a spot that we are satisfied with. Side note – we are conservative anchorers. We put out all chain and enough scope. Jess also uses a range finder to make sure that it isn’t possible for us to swing into things we shouldn’t swing into. Side note to the side note – stupid mooring balls mess up anchorages because boats on mooring balls don’t swing the way anchored boats do which is just another reason to hate them. After touring around the small anchorage and considering our options, Jess calls the small marina in the harbor and asks them if we can just stay on the dock. We can! $60 a night to be on the dock sounds better than motoring somewhere far away.

We tie up on the dock with help from Jenny – the marina manager. She is very welcoming and gives us the lay of the land. Porta pottties at the top of the ramp power and water on the dock. A bin full of books to facilitate book swapping (will do that for sure) and directions to the pub where the US vs Belgium World Cup game is on. Say no more! We are off to the pub to watch the game. Van Anda is a small place but we still have to use the printed map Jenny gave us to find the pub. We set up shop in the bar to watch the game. Jess goes to order a pizza in the restaurant across the hall (turns out he didn’t need to and we could have ordered from where we were sitting) but while he is gone, I strike up a conversation with the guy seated at the table next to me about the game. He has some interesting thoughts about the corruption of FIFA and what he suspects is a fixed outcome for many games. The guy’s name is Mark and we quickly become new best friends. He is from Liverpool and he is a miner. He has lived all over the world and now lives on Texada Island. It is a quirky place and I get the feeling that the locals pretty much police their own. It is a very eccentric group of people living on this island! About half way through the game one of Mark’s mates, Jamie, shows up. He used to play soccer professionally and then was involved in coaching the Canadian Women’s soccer team. Mark and Jamie are hysterically funny and we share many, many belly laughs. The US lost the game to Belgium (no surprise to me, but blew one of Mark’s conspiracy theories), but we had an amazing time at the pub with our new friends. They told us they hoped our boat broke down so that we would be stuck on the island with them longer.

Our marina check out time was 11am so we worked from 5am to 11am Tuesday. It also happens to be Jess’s 50th birthday! We will be in Desolation Sound by the end of the day and that is all he wants for his birthday. We have been talking and dreaming about Desolation Sound for years and we are almost there! There isn’t any wind so we motor to Grace Harbour where we have to stern tie. We have only done this once before in Nootka. We got the job done, but there is definite room for improvement. I will give us a C. One of the problems is that Nootka doesn’t really turn. I will be grateful for that when we are crossing an ocean but will continue to gripe about it in marinas and tight anchorages. I have a feeling that a lot of the anchorages in Desolation Sound will be fairly tight. It is a very popular destination.

There is a freshwater lake within easy walking distance and we are excited to check it out. We are going to stay in Grace for a few days during the work week and move the boat Friday afternoon. Wednesday it rained all day and we didn’t leave the boat at all! I tried to bake Jess a belated birthday cake but the mix was too old and it was terrible. Oh well. Thursday we walked to the lake after work to check it out. You know what we found there? Leeches! I don’t know about you, but I am not so desperate for a swim that I will willingly swim where I can see leeches from the shore. Not for me, and not even for Jess. We did sit on a blanket in the sun and take in the views though. That was very nice. The trail was fun and there was a broken down bulldozer in there and a little waterfall.

Week 1 complete! We took Nootka far, far away from the dock. We started building confidence in ourselves and our boat. We saw new places and met new people. So far, so good and 3 more weeks to go. We are excited about this opportunity to practice living on the boat.