where have we been?

it's a good question... we've been out three weeks today and it feels like a lifetime.

we left false creek on a rainy wednesday morning, gear on, bare feet on deck, and necks craned to the bridges above. we were well and safe to clear them all on our way back out, but the situation begs caution when the mast is at stake. safely exiting the creek, we waved farewells to grandma and bobby, pored over the barge on the beach, and raised the sails.

after five nights in the bustling city, our sights excitedly turned to the strait and the more wild lands beyond. we followed the channel markers along spanish banks back out into open water. some of the barges began to disappear into the developing mist as we made way, but the closest in our path were clear. with a favourable wind, our little boat sailed twixt the giants just off the shore. these freighters were noticeably smaller than their counterparts anchored in deeper waters, yet as we sailed along we had to tactfully avoid their windshadows all the same.

deceived by the calm and pleasant sailing in the bay, i decided to challenge my belowdecks tolerance and tackle some baking projects - namely making shortbread apple streusel bars, which is like baking three things at the same time. i got the shortbread layer all baked up just on the other side of point grey, no problem. the waves began to increase, so as the bottom baked, i sat in the cockpit to trim up the apples. i wasn't feeling queasy, but i was trying to be wise about avoiding nausea if i could. by the time i got to assembling the whole thing, i was bracing myself hard against the galley cupboards, holding the pan from sliding with one hand while sprinkling streusel with the other, not feeling my abosolute best. i managed to get it in the oven all fine; thankfully it held it's shape to bake on such an angle. then i fled for the cockpit!

if you've ever been seasick, you know it's pretty hard to deal with. it kind of takes over your mind and seizes your whole body. you end up having to decide between anything you need to do - go pee, have a snack, get warm - and simply imploding. it's not all about nausea; a lot of it is scrambling with your balance and the mind-tossing discombobulation of perpetual rolling. nothing is steady, nothing is easy - in a way, you are combating utter, inescapable despair.

i don't think any of us have had it that bad, but the kids and i definitely do feel it when the seas get rough. what really blows my mind is that the kids know heading into these waves will make them feel a little sick, and obviously they don't like that, but still they set out with us to cross the salish sea for the third time without a word of complaint. they did their best to enjoy the comforts of playing down below, and balanced it with time in the cockpit to fend off feeling overly seasick. they learned from the last two trips, i was proud to see, and took good care of their little selves.

looking back at vancouver and its busy harbour

as my streusel pie bars baked, the wind continued to pick up. though the waters were getting a bit rugged, the wind angle coincided with our destination quite nicely and the ride was pleasant - from the cockpit. it worked well for baking, too. in the propane oven, we have to move stuff around so it won't burn over the element that runs up the middle; as we bounced along, the pie bars shifted of their own accord and kept themselves from burning.

rafiki cruised across the strait at a great clip. ferries and freighters and all kinds of traffic crossed our bow. the destination for the day was lighthouse bay on gabriola, and we made it almost all the way there on a single tack. the boat did well on that heading, and the sailing was utterly pleasant this day.

as we finally reached porlier pass, we realized it was quite tidal and the anchorages were going to be tricky to enter. we quickly decided to carry on (the tide helped with that decision), and found ourselves in the very windy trincomali channel. we set our sights on the secretary island anchorage and motor-sailed upwind. it's crazy in there: the channels are so small, and quite rocky, yet there are shipping lanes running tight up the middle. so as we crossed from one stony shore to the next, there were freighters about us, even anchored to our stern, seeming so out of place in these modest, low-lying islands.

it was a relief to be out of the wind and into our delightfully calm anchorage. it's just a small bay between the two islands, separated at low tide by a wide midden beach. the shore there was very intriguing.

there were lots of pitted rocks, in several forms: the beginnings of a cave on the side of the shore; small, speckled faces with hundreds of tiny hollows; and carved-out boulders you can reach into, and sometimes through! beautiful pastel succulents grew down the craggy faces on land proper, contrasting the roughhard rock all around.

pleasantly curious gulf island shores

sid and i buzzed ashore and climbed over all the rocks, marched through the neighbourhood of a hungry mink, and explored a tiny yet dramatic shore tree. as sid climbed down some rolling rocks to the waters edge, he mentioned how beautiful he thought it was, and sounded genuinely pleased to be part of that vibrant, late-afternoon moment on the ocean. after a long day, it was nice to relax in the safety of this inviting cove. oh, and the pie bars turned out perfect!

sunset in a snug anchorage

late thursday morning we raised our anchor for a short jaunt over to wallace island. on wallace's east side is conover cove. the cove is named for the conover family who started a resort on the island back in the day. some of the buildings still stand, but most are boarded up for safekeeping. the cove itself is also a marine park and the whole area seems to be locally historically significant.

tucked in to the reef-flanked entrance of conover cove (there's kind of a rainbow!)

we tied up at the convenient park dock and headed ashore to see what wallace island was all about. to give the kids a little space from one another (there is much love, and also much head-butting), aaron and sid played in the field between the old buildings while sage and i wandered down the paths pointing south. we found a marshy beach with the remains of a heavily corroded boat hull smushed into the mud. beyond that was a rocky little beach collecting a wide band of ribbony seaweed along the tideline. sage and i had fun "fishing" for hunks of glunk and flinging the smaller "fish" back out to sea.

it began to rain in the night, and then traded rain for wind in the wee hours of the morning. with the wind came the sun, and we started our day with a jaunt ashore to add our name to the "sign cabin/museum". we couldn't find a good piece of dry driftwood, so we did up a rock instead.

fun finds on wallace island

after sid did his chore of the day - bailing the dinghy - we packed up and headed into the channel. we were hoping to get to ganges harbour on saltspring island, which is not far, but we wanted to sail so we had to make time. it was very windy, and we raised sails right away. good ol' rafiki tacked her way back and forth, back and forth, zig-zagging steadily towards our destination.

when we're under way, we always have the radio on in the cockpit to keep an ear on things. not long after we set out, we heard a call on the radio for a dinghy loose in the strait. the guy on the radio had an accent and aaron and i were amused by the way he said dinghy. we switched the radio channel to hear the rest of the conversation and have our guffaws over the idiots who lost their "dinkhy" - who does that?!

again, sailing in the gulf islands requires being on point. there are a fair few pleasure cruisers (even though it's still early in the season) to be mindful of sharing the water with. there are shipping channels, plied by vessels impossibly large for these waters and shared by ferries big and small (and both fast!) crossing to and fro. to add to that, all of us are dodging random reefs and rocks scattered across the channel and trying not to get tanlged in all the buoys along the shores.

life on an angle - you get used to it

we turned the motor on to come around into ganges, as the wind was dying and we had a ferry lane to cross. but when aaron started up the engine, a not-very-good sound came from it. he quickly leapt down to trouble shoot, and we raised the sails again to keep us powered up. we soon discerned it was a belt problem, and if we kept it under certain revs it didn't make the bad sound. after a few more crazy tacks and a maneouvre to dodge yet another ferry, we turned the motor back on and gingerly putted into annette cove instead.

the cove was low-lying and long, green and beautiful. thick forests sat over luscious grass, glowing in the most inviting way in the afternoon sun. the kids couldn't wait for a shore explore! we dropped our anchor, set it, and turned around to see... the dinghy was not there.

where the dinghy should be, it was not.

jaws down, aaron and i looked at each other, dumbfounded.

"oh my god," i said, "the people on the radio... had our dinghy."

more dumbfounded staring, followed by a lot of expletives, a lot of forehead-rubbing, a lot of half explanations about what could have happened... aaaand then a series of embarrassing radio and phone calls to the coast guard, gritting our teeth to admit that indeed, we were the idiots who had lost their dinghy that day.

a lot of things about this were dumb, but a lot of things about this worked out well, too. yes, we lost our dinghy, and that was on us. i swear to you all i looked at the dinghy line as we left and thought, "i should check that.... nah, aaron tied that, i don't need to" - but sid had adjusted it when he bailed the dinghy in the morning. derk! every other day that we sail, i look behind and check that our dinghy is still there, but not this day. the intensity of sailing in the busy channel clearly had our full attention, and we neglected to keep an eye on a very important part of our living system!

but also, because we were (so abashedly now) amused by the call on the radio, we listened long enough to hear where they were going: montague harbour. the coast guard had the same information, and what they thought was the name of the boat, so now we just had to decide what to do. in the end we figured, since we had time and daylight on our side (and aaron had repaired the minor engine issue - just a loose belt), to travel the short distance back to montague harbour. we had passed it earlier in the day, so it wasn't far behind, and it would be worth it to see if we could find the rescue boat before they moved on.

to keep myself from focusing on our utter idiocy, i baked a batch of cookies on the way there. they went into the oven just as we came through the entrance to the harbour. now, montague harbour is huge; it has private docks ringing one end of the bay, a public wharf in the middle, and a marine park with over a dozen mooring buoys, as well as a dock, at the other end. we decided to buzz the boats on the buoys first, then go over to the dock to see if anyone had turned a boat in, our heads hung so low.

we pulled out the binocs to scout the boats in the bay to see if any had two tenders. my phone call with the coast guard yielded some confusion, as their description of the found boat wasn't exactly the same, but this was the only place we could start. so many people have highfields (the brand of our - borrowed! - dinghy), so our hopes went up and down as we looked around. yet there, there at the back... was a sailboat, with two tenders? could it be?

as we came closer i saw there were four people on board - maybe two were visiting. but then i saw they had two dinghies behind, and one up on the davits... and one tied up behind was a highfield. we circled around and i could see through the binocs that yes, that was indeed our dinghy tied to the back of their boat. by this time they had noticed us circling, and i called out, "i think you have our dinghy?"

well, friends, it could have been worse. they laughed at us, but of course they were happy to help - and happy not to have to tow an extra dinghy around! we retrieved ol' tubs with much gratitude and chagrin, then tied to a neighbouring mooring buoy, relieved to have our dinghy back, and settled in to a supper that i don't think aaron or i tasted.

as soon as the cookies were cool enough, i packed them into a box and rowed over (now that we could!) to deliver cookies to our saviours. they were kind (though they did raise an eyebrow, gently questioning our capabilities *melllt*), and we definitely had a few laughs. they had sailed from holland, not for the first time, and were quite the salty duo. that being said, they know as well as any that things happen at sea, and imparted a few tidbits of oceanly wisdom in a kindly manner before we parted ways. aaron and i both ended that night muttering, "unbelievable." so many lessons learned!

morbidity and middens at montague harbour

saturday morning we were back on track to get to ganges harbour - for the saltspring island farmer's market! we came around into ganges in the morning, dropped our anchor, and rowed (with gratitude) through the busy harbour to the public dock. sid and sage each took a turn at rowing, but they were too enraptured by the floatplanes taking off just beside us to put any focus into making headway. we always share the water with boats; it was neat to share it with planes.

the farmer's market was fun, and the kids definitely spent some of their birthday moneys there (thanks to all!). most of their afternoon was spend clinging and climbing and crawling all over the most excellent playground on the market grounds. i took in the town, comparing saltpsring to quadra. there are, of course, similarities and differences; both are definitively island-y and boast similar characters, though i'd have to say (with unabashed bias) that i like quadra better.

our night in ganges was peaceful, with a kindly colourful sunset to wrap up a most lovely day.

sunday morning: anchor's aweigh and off to sidney to see my grandma! once again the day started off with gentle winds, so i settled myself down below to work on creative things. soon enough, of course, aaron had us ripping along at high speeds and i found myself braced with one leg way up the wall; i decided it was time to go and see if aaron needed a hand.

as always, the kids tucked themselves down below and amused themselves in the cave-like v-berth while we zipped through more crazy boat traffic. crossing swartz bay was a gong-show. at one point aaron was dodging three separate ferries while flying along at over 7 knots! good thing the tide was in our favour.

we sailed right up to the port sidney marina and slipped in to tie up. my lovely grandma carolyn lives just a few blocks away and she walked down to meet us. as i have mentioned previously, my grandma has her fair share of sea miles behind her. even though she is in her late eighties, she was determined to come aboard, and she did just that. we caught some rays and tidied up while grandma enjoyed the feeling of being on a boat once again. then our group of three generations of sailors trouped up the dock to go make dinner in a real kitchen.

my salty granny

we stayed two nights at the port sidney marina (all we could afford!), enjoying our time with grandma and working on boat tasks. i reorganized the food once again, shuffling almost all the food in the totes to the holds under the v-berth and moving the kids clothes back to the quarter berth. food is heavy, and we wanted to move the weight forward. aaron re-ran some lines and filled the water tanks, preparing rafiki to set sail again.

though we loved to spend time with great-grandma, we are in a mobile mindset and were soon ready to move on. grandma came down to the dock to wave us away, and we all blew kisses until we were out behind the breakwater.

old salt, medium salt, young salt (looks like he had too much salt)

it was a mid-day departure, but we didn't have far to go. we just motored across to sidney spit and tied up to a mooring buoy there. we packed up a bag of snacks and rowed ashore to enjoy the pleasures of.... a sandy beach! i love the puzzles of geology and time that a rocky shore presents, but of course i also love to dig my toes deep into some warm sand! we ran around and kicked the ball for hours, earning ourselves our first sunburns of the year (finally!). a warm and happy crew returned to the boat to enjoy a pleasant, nearly-summer evening. tomorrow: we set our sights to the north.