The Low Orbit

On July 4^th, we headed back over the bar for Campbell River with Finn full of food, fuel and water. We saw lots of military aircraft coming and going into Comox. Jerome was terribly excited to have a huge Hercules fly right over us. It looked promising in terms of wind for sailing but once out past the harbour, we realized that it was dead calm….again. We motored all the way up in the calm water to Quathiaski Cove on Quadra Island (directly east from Campbell River). It was an incredibly hot but pretty trip up…you could see the fish jumping and there were many large jellyfish. With such calm conditions, there were no sailboats out at all….just lots of fishermen!

We got to Tribune Bay on Hornby Island, dropped anchor, tidied up and went ashore in the dingy. Tribune Bay has a beautiful beach and a wonderful park with fire pits, tennis courts, a cook house, and trails. I took Yas for a walk while Trystan and Jerome played on the beach until Jerome cut his foot on a barnacle. (He wears shoes now in the water all the time.) There were sand dollars everywhere – the first that we have seen since Newcastle Island. Just an absolutely spectacular beach…. until the wind picked up the next morning.

On June 25^th, we decided to head back west to meet up with our friends, Ray and Dianna (they were busy provisioning in Campbell River to head south to Nanaimo). We figured that we could meet them for a couple of days in the middle and do our provisioning for Desolation Sound in Campbell River rather than Powell River (apparently there‘s a hill at Powell River with the grocery store conveniently located at the top). We left Smuggler`s Cove and, as usual, were the last ones to leave the anchorage. Although Smuggler`s Cove was a very protected anchorage

Following our travels in Howe Sound we made our way to Smuggler’s Cove. We left Gibson’s in good time, which is a bit of an accomplishment for us! Trystan has decided that he is really enjoying catching up on years of missed sleep and Jerome is, well, a kid so he can sleep till 10am easily if you let him!  Anyway, once we were out past Shoal channel’s shoal we found that we had a pretty great wind. After some experimentation we figured out how to get 6 knots close-hauled and we figured out how to tack a schooner! Aside for landlubbers: A knot is, by definition, one nautical mile per hour. A nautical mile is one minute of latitude or, in the modern definition, it is 1852 meters. It works out to about 11km/hr. Yes, you could walk faster but I can sit and have a coffee instead!

After Vancouver…

We finally left Vancouver after about a week; the weekends there are very busy and we had to get used to anchoring a little closer than usual. We have learned that no matter how interesting a place is when we arrive, it has a shelf-life and we can overstay it. We are glad we visited Vancouver but are equally glad that we moved on. We were able to sail a little bit the day that we left but the winds have overall been unspectacular for sailing thus far. We motored the last half of the way to Plumper Cove on Keats Island. This is right across the Shoal Channel from our goal: Gibson’s Landing. Yes, there is a reason that its called Shoal Channel! It was a bit sketchy going across the shoal.  Maureen has long wanted to visit Gibson’s Landing and Molly’s Reach. If you don’t know why, you wouldn’t understand anyway!

We made it to Vancouver!

It’s been a few months since the last entry. We are still alive and well and are now underway albeit slowly! We have been busy getting many projects done and leaving many others for later. Spring came late in Nanaimo….with the rain, cooler temperatures and overcast conditions, it made it hard to get going on the much needed work topside.

One of the biggest projects

Alright, its true: we haven’t spent much time sailing yet! There’s sooo much to do to get ready though and a lot of it has to do with just learning to live on the boat. It has its challenges but they seem to be well worth it actually. Its interesting how well we all (including the poor old dog) have adapted. The other day we were rocking around in a 20 knot South Easterly, which blows right up our channel and really gets the boat moving

Its almost Christmas and we have been remiss in our postings!

Since our last posting we have been back to Summerland to rebuild a bathroom, met Darth Vader, Kylo Ren and Bob McDonald, become welders and wood carvers.

We have been very busy and so we have neglected our blog post. Sorry about that everybody! Since our last posting much has happened so we will start by filling you in on the last couple of months. There’s been alot of travelling! We left Finn on August 7

We are slowly adjusting to life aboard Finn IV. It has come with some growing pains but two days ago we managed to finally unpack our last box that we had packed for the boat some months ago. Everyday here, so far, has been spent sorting, reading, organizing, cooking, cleaning, shopping and doing some renovations to make life a little easier, we hope. No sailing yet! We have been getting around on foot, scooter, dingy and with the truck and are getting to see some small parts of Nanaimo. More of that to come later….