Journey to Princess Louisa - Day 4 at Silva Bay on Gabriola Island

We left this morning at 9:00 to head out for Silva Bay Resort and Marina on Gabriola Island. The www.gabriolamuseum.org website gives a short summary of the history of the local shipyard. "In 1945, Les Withey moved from Vancouver to Silva Bay where he partnered with fisherman Norm Sear to establish the first shipyard at Silva Bay, from 1945-1949. In 1950 Les took over ownership and incorporated Withey’s Shipyard Limited. Power yachts, naval personnel boats and pleasure boats were some of the watercraft built at Withey’s Shipyard. The business also included maintenance and repair work. The shipyard employed about thirty people in the mid-1950’s. Les and his wife Marg expanded the business to include a coffee shop, eventually Withey’s Restaurant, as well as Silva Bay Marina in the 1960’s. The marina was sold in 1968 to Silva Bay Resorts Ltd., and the shipyard was sold to a couple from Maple Bay in 1974. Les Withey died in 1987, and his wife Marg in 1992.

[The complete history of Withey’s Shipyard is available in SHALE : the Journal of the Gabriola Historical & Museum Society, Issue 22, January 2010]  The shipyard is still there and gets most of its work from the many boats that cut the corners and ignore the buoys that guide captains into the harbor. 

I managed to catch some really nice pictures of everyone's boats with beautiful scenery in the background. The last pictures shows the entrance to Silva Bay.

 

 

There are strong currents in this area and some very large underwater rocks to be aware of. We left early in order to hit slack tide. The rocks are well marked but many a captain has tried to cut the corner and found themselves caught up on the rocks. As long as you keep to the right of the bouys, you won't have a problem. These pictures show the rocks that are often underwater and also the entrance to Silva Bay. A captain needs to be quite diligent during approach.

Once we got tied up and settled, Bob and Sue took their kayaks out for awhile. They said it was a wonderful place to row and even found a little raccoon washing itself on the beach. You can see the raccoon just to the left of Sue.



After another afternoon of relaxing, we gathered on the dock for appetizers that turned into a full dinner. We spent the evening visiting, laughing, and sharing our lives with each other.



Journey to Princess Louisa - Day 3 at Montague on Galiano Island

Today we traveled to Montague Marina on Galiano Island.  We took lots of pictures and I caught Sue taking pictures of us so decided it would be a good chance to get one of her.



The EYC boats rafted together in the bay but we rafted our own four boats together so that we can easily slip out in the morning when we are ready. We dropped three anchors in one direction, and then Bob and I dropped ours in the opposite direction. We got good strong holds and even though many boats drifted around, we stayed firmly placed all night.

Wikipedia describes Galiano Island as having a large variety of animals and plants. In a major flight path for migrating birds, Galiano has hundreds of bird species. Commonly sighted are eagles, herons and cormorants. Off its shores are resident orca whales, seals, otters, sea lions and many varieties of sea life. Montague Harbor Marine Provincial Park is one of the most popular parks in the Gulf Islands. It is unique for its Shell Beach, which is a west-facing beach with worn shells covering the whole expanse of the beach instead of sand. For thousands of years, it was the location of a midden used by Coast Salish people. Montague Harbor is popular with the recreational boating community; the harbor is often crowded with yachts and sailboats during the warmer months of June, July, and August.

The Park's mooring buoys are in limited supply and cannot be reserved, but the harbor is well sheltered if one chooses to anchor. A marina with moorage, gas dock, several small stores, and a cafe (summer only) is located at the southern end of the harbor. A public dock is near the marina.

We spent our afternoon trying out our new kayaks and relaxing on the boat. Apparently we are all readers and found several of us were reading the Jack Reacher series and had just finished books that others had found interesting. What a great group to travel with! I'm looking forward to all of our destinations and time together with friends.



This evening we had dinner with the EYC folks at the Sea Blush Café. It was a great little café with wonderful food and lots of character. The gift shop was a great way to pass the time for the ladies while we waited for our food to arrive. After dinner, we got in our dinghies and ran out of the bay and around the corner to Shell Beach. The beach is a midden, a gradually formed rubbish pile made up largely of shell refuse disposed of by the local Native Americans. These photos shows the view from Shell Beach of the harbor we are anchored in and a close up of the beach made up of broken shells.



We spent about an hour at Shell Beach and watched the beautiful sunset. We took a lot of pictures but the view was constantly changing and offered so many beautiful shots. Here are a few we captured as the sun was setting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

When we returned to our boats we were greeted with a beautiful and serene setting that deserved another picture to capture the moment.

 

Journey to Princess Louisa - Day 2 at Poets Cove & Customs at Bedwell Harbor

Because of the shallow entrance to Fisherman's Bay, we departed at 6:30 before the water got any lower. Boats are constantly getting caught up on rocks or the bottom of the channel. The three of us were some of the first to leave and we had no problems. It helps to stay in the middle of the channel where you are told to be! Later on the radio, we heard someone in a 22' SeaSport call the Coast Guard wanting to be "rescued" from the rock they were on. They were told that they needed to either call Vessel Assist or sit there until the tide came in. There is a restaurant on shore with outdoor seating that is a great place to sit as the tide goes out. It seems like there is always someone who runs into trouble by cutting corners or ignoring the buoys.

Once we were underway, we had breakfast and then tackled the crazy riptides near Spiden Island, a mysterious island with high security and many conspiracy theories surrounding it. The current gave us a good bouncing around. It was nothing serious but added some interest to an otherwise uneventful trip to Bedwell Harbor. Nugget and Afterlight followed us through the rapids.

 

 

 

We arrived at Bedwell Harbor only to face very strong winds and a current that made it very difficult to dock the boats. First, we pulled up to the customs dock where we called in and cleared customs. After a few basic questions such as "do you have any firearms, alcohol or tobacco?" we were ready to settle in at the marina.



 

 

 

Our slips were not yet available since checkout is noon so we tied up to the breakwater dock. It was so windy that many boats had a lot of difficult and there were several near misses as well as a few boats getting bumped into. One very sad occurrence was a 60+ boat that was supposed to share a slip with one of our club members, the Whiteheads. Jim and Jill joined EYC a couple of months ago and were looking forward to going on the Commodore's Cruise this week. They have a beautiful, new sailboat that they live on 5 days per week. The slip was very narrow and the 60 footer ran into the back of their sailboat and pushed it into the dock. Both ends of the boat were severely damaged and it began to take on water. It was very upsetting to all of us and they now have to return to Anacortes and arrange for repairs. They are trying to locate a surveyor here locally who can make sure the boat is seaworthy to travel to Anacortes.

Poets Cove Resort and Marina is located on the Southern Gulf Islands, and offers a mix of pristine wilderness and cozy warmth. The resort offers opportunities for outdoor adventure, a relaxing spa retreat or just an escape from everyday life. Pender Island provides the best beach access of all the Gulf Islands.

EYC rented some vans and shuttled us to the grocery store in a nearby town. We were unable to bring fresh fruit and vegetables across the border so we were happy to be able to stock our refrigerators and even pick up something yummy from the bakery! Tonight we grilled our own meat and then had a potluck of side dishes. It was a lot of fun and we enjoyed getting together to talk about the day.

Journey to Princess Louisa - Day 1 at Fisherman's Bay

We are off on our first trip to Canada and are so excited! We've been planning this trip for months and the day is finally here. We held our annual 4th of July party for friends and family at our house then after the fireworks, we cleaned up and headed down to the boat. We wanted to be ready to go by 6:30am so sleeping on the boat seemed like the ideal situation.

The following picture shows the area we will be traveling in to reach Chatterbox Falls at Princess Louisa Inlet. I will post a chart each day showing the actual route we have taken that day.

We headed out on very calm waters and had our first noteworthy site - three mermaids sitting on the rocks at the entrance to the Swinomish Channel which leads up to LaConner.  We weren't sure why the girls were there but it made for a great photo op!



We were passed by a Washington State ferry as it transported people through the San Juan Islands. It is amazing how huge those ferries are - especially when they come along side us. Another interesting thing we saw was a barge loaded with gasoline tanks. They are used to transport fuel to the islands since gasoline cannot be taken onto the ferries.



We arrived at Fisherman's Bay on Lopez Island around 3:30pm.  We are here with the EYC folks for the 4th of July cruise and will leave tomorrow to join them for the first two days of the Commodore Cruise. Tomorrow is customs at Poet's Cove Resort in Bedwell Harbour and then it will be on to Montague. At that point, the Commodore's Cruise will continue on for a week but we will branch off with friends to go up to Princess Louisa. We are cruising with two other Nordic Tugs (Al & Sue Smith on Sunshine and Jack & Moon Canon on Afterlight). Also joining us is Larry & Cheryl Martin on a Californian named New Era. We met up with Al & Sue and Jack & Moon today on Lopez.

Steppenwolf? Back in time...

Debbie and Jim are in town this week to celebrate the 4th with us and to catch up with everyone. They had never been out overnight on Stargazer so we decided to take a quick trip over to Kingston. When I called to reserve a slip, I discovered that Steppenwolf, the band formed in 1967 and known for their song "Magic Carpet Ride", was doing a benefit concert for Seattle Children's Hospital.

Along with the concert, we also had fun reading the signs of the "9-11 Truthers" that were out in force. Bob was very tempted to debate them but decided to pass! 

Kingston is a small place but  has a lot to offer with their farmer's market, concerts, and ferry boats. There aren't many shops but we did walk up the street to get our favorite ice cream at Mora's and then did a little geocaching. As it turned out, the cache was missing but we got a great picture of Debbie and Jim and of the ferry with Mt. Rainier in the background.

We had beautiful weather and the trip was great. On our way home, Debbie and I sat up on the top deck with our lawn chairs and enjoyed the view. As we approached the Everett Marina, I stood up and flipped my lawn chair over in order to fold and store it. My next words were "where is my cell phone". Unfortunately, I had left it in a pocket of the chair "for safe keeping" and as I flipped the chair over it must have flown into the sea. As my grandson, Cohen, and I discussed, it is now with Nemo and all the other little fishies.  Bummer.... But the trip was still awesome and we had a wonderful time with Debbie and Jim.

Kingston Fun

We finally found a day that we, and our kids, were free to go out for a few hours of fun. We didn't have a lot of time so we decided to run over to Kingston for lunch. It was a beautiful day, the water was smooth and the sky was clear. It felt really good to be back out on the water with the family.

 

We had a great trip over then barbecued hot dogs on the boat. The Farmer's Market was going on so we wandered through that and then went and got ice cream cones.

Nordic Tug Rendezvous 2013

This year's Rendezvous was held in Anacortes which was the perfect place for a getaway. They have a beautiful new marina, a small fun town to go antiquing and look for a special art piece. There were also two grocery stores very near by so it is perfect for boaters who often find they need to pick up something.

We arrived on Thursday evening for appetizers on the dock and we had a great time visiting with other Nordic Tug owners. Our slip was in a perfect location - right across from the tent we used for a gathering place and for our continental breakfasts. These pictures are from the top of our boat.

On Friday, we had an opportunity to tour the facility where the Tugs are built. They gave us a tour and then treated us to a hamburger lunch.  Following are a few photos showing different stages of production and how the buildings are laid out. 1) Before any boat is built, a mock-up is created to be sure that all details have been addressed. This shows an Aspen 39, another line that is going to be built using the Nordic Tug factory. 2) This building is where the molds are used to begin the construction of the boats. 3) This is the hull of a 32' Nordic Tug. At this stage, the gel coat will soon be sprayed over the mold. 4) One of the employees demonstrated the process of adding the fiberglass and resin after the gel coat has set. 5) This area is used for creating beautiful Corian countertops. 6) This is the sub-assembly building and woodworking shop where the interior components  such as the wood trim and cabinets are built. 7) This is the final assembly building where all the modules come together. The building is huge. This is a 49' in final assembly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Saturday, we thoroughly enjoyed a talk given by Betty Wright, a woman who, with her husband, took their 16' boat and traveled up to Princess Louisa Inlet in 1957. Since that time she has returned several times and is active in preserving the Princess Louisa and Chatterbox Falls areas so that others can enjoy the beauty for generations to come. We were especially excited about her talking because we will be heading up to the exact location in about 2-1/2 weeks. We will be traveling with two other Nordic Tugs (Al & Sue Smith and Jack & Moon Cannon) and a Californian (Larry & Cheryl Martin).

The afternoon was spent relaxing on the boat and doing some geocaching. We had a great prime rib and salmon dinner followed by a few announcements and raffle. We had a wonderful weekend and learned that next year's Rendezvous will probably be at Roche Harbor - one of our favorite spots!