Powell River on the Sunshine Coast

We have stayed a couple of days in Powell River to get caught up on laundry and supplies for our trip to Princess Louisa Inlet. We decided to stay one night in a hotel although sleeping on the boat has been great. It is a beautiful area with lovely sunsets. We had an excellent dinner tonight in the hotel restaurant. We will leave early in the morning for Egmont which is our final stop before heading up Jervis Inlet for Princess Louisa Inlet. We will be in touch in a few days.

Refuge Cove

We left Walsh Cove and headed down Waddington Channel toward Refuge Cove. Most days we travel approximately 25 to 30 nautical miles. Usually that's about 6 hours on the water. Refuge Cove is located on West Redondo Island, in the center of Desolation Sound. It is managed by a coop of 18 shareholders who run different businesses on the property. These include a general store, used bookstore, cafe, and fuel dock. Refuge Cove is a quaint, rustic marina that is used by many boaters as a place to restock groceries, fill up on fuel, or just relax. At this marina and most others, people were amazingly friendly and helpful. At almost all our stops fellow boaters have been willing to take a line and help bring the boat in. We've met lots of folks from all different areas of Canada. One issue on a cruise is where to get rid of garbage as some marinas won't take it. Out in the middle of Refuge Cove, on a small island is Dave's Garbage Service. For $2 a bag you can leave him with as much garbage as you want. Every Tuesday he takes all this garbage to Squirrel Cove which is across on Cortes Island. Dave lives on this island with his garbage, year around. We left Refuge Cove and Desolation Sound on Wednesday to head toward Powell River and the Beach Gardens Marina on the Sunshine Coast.

A Night On The Hook-Walsh Cove

Walsh Cove has no marina or public dock. It is a small bay where several boats can drop anchor and spend the night. Sailors like to call this, "a night on the hook." After dropping anchor, Jim and Joy used the dingy to connect a line from the stern of Segue II to the shoreline. Once they got to shore, Joy climbed up the rocky bank to wrap the line around a tree. With both the bow and stern secured, we stayed in one place all night. We used the prawn cage from our friend in Comox in trying to catch prawns. This was not much of a success in fact not successful at all as our total catch was zero. So far we have had steaks, bratwurst, chicken, and lots of salads. We haven't done so well with seafood. Walsh Cove was beautiful and perfectly quiet. The next morning when we got up, the tide had dropped about 8 ft. and exposed hundreds of oysters clinging to the rock cliffs at shoreline. When we pulled up the anchor in the morning, there was a huge rock in the cradle of it. It took us some time to get the anchor in and the rock back to the bottom of the bay.

Around Cortes Island

After leaving Gorge Harbour, we sailed through Uganda Passage and around Cortes Island. Bob and Betty tried salmon fishing with no luck. We then headed for Toba Inlet, in the northern section of Desolation Sound. Words cannot describe the beauty of this place so we have included several pictures of our experience. On this passage we saw bald eagles, glacier covered mountains, and uninhabited islands. At times we were sailing in 1600 ft. of water but the water was calm. We tried to get moorage at Toba Wildernest Marina but were turned away as they have very little space. They suggested we try Walsh Cove near the top of Waddington Channel.

Desolation Sound-Gorge Harbour

After our trip across the Strait of Georgia (about 4 hours) we arrived at Gorge Harbour on Cortes Island in Desolation Sound. On our way into the harbor we saw pictoglyphs on the high cliffs to our port side. The marina has recently been updated with beautiful docks and facilities. The landscaping and brand new swimming pool add to the natural appeal of this place.

Out of Comax

The evening before we left Comox we met a fisherman who lives here during the summer and in Costa Rica the rest of the year. He is pictured above on his boat (the one on the left). He asked if we would like one of his prawn traps and gave us instructions on how to use it. He even gave us a piece of salmon to use as bait. When we offered to pay him he said,"just say thanks, that's enough." We left the harbour about 11:00 and after a brief visit to the Comox Reef (a coral reef that at low tide is under 5 ft. of water and our boat needs 6 ft.-you do the math!) we backtracked a bit and then set sail for Desolation Sound. The captain couldn't believe that we were at 5ft since we were a quarter of a mile off shore. Jim have been thumping on the depth gauge, saying, "What's wrong with this damn thing?", when we went bump. We looked overboard and saw several rocks just below our boat. We were certainly surprised! It only took a few minutes to correct this problem and we were on our way. The rest of the passage was smooth. The Strait of Georgia was like glass!

On to Desolation Sound

We leave today for Desolation Sound. We stayed overnight at Comox. It is a beautiful area with a large glacier across the bay. We are staying in the commercial boat section of the marina. Very interesting to see all the "working boats" and talk with fishermen. The situation for fishermen in British Columbia is even worse than in the states. We stayed two nights ago in Nanaimo. It is also a beautiful marina situated in the downtown area. We had a great lunch at a local pub. On our way to Nanaimo we were able to do some sailing. Betty got several sailing lessons from Jim and did a great job. Our passage through Dodd Narrows was a "piece of cake".
The waters were calm and the tides were with us so we breezed right through into Nanaimo Harbor. There are not pictures this time as we didn't load the computer last night and I am in the marina office doing the computer. Hopefully we will able to post a blog during our time in Desolation Sound. We will be there about four days!

Stay tuned!