Shake Down Completed
The Circumnavigation of Vancouver Island as a shakedown cruise.
We began the circumnavigation August 2nd and returned 24 days later to Neah Bay August 26th.
It was truly a shakedown for both vessel and crew.
August 2, 2007
We left Sucia and went to Bender Island, Bedwell customs to check into Canada, by phone. They ask you the typical questions, any fruit or vegetables, and how much alcohol? They give you a number that you post so that it is visible to the Coast Guard. Now we were on our way to Ganges, a spot we visited before and enjoyed. There are many crab pots to avoid before we get there. Once there we threw out an anchor for the night. Due to 25 knot winds, it was a sleepless night, our anchor held fine however other boats were dragging. Sailed 34 miles today.
August 3, 2007
Our 33rd wedding anniversary! We decided to dinghy ashore and find an Internet café so we could read email and update our website. On the way back, it was low tide and we hit rocks with the engine prop, boy was it a long row back to the boat! Fixing the prop was the afternoon project! We met a guy with a 60’ steel sailboat ‘Celesteel’ and he stopped by, asking the make of our boat, he previously owned a Norseman which is a sister ship to our McIntosh. He invited us over but we didn’t have time.
August 4, 2007
Besides being Jayla’s birthday, we updated our website and then went off in search of a place to dump trash. It is an Island so they probably just want you to ‘pack it out”, we finally found a place on the government dock (public dock) and you have to pay $3 per bag. Today we sailed in the Strait of Georgia to Nanaimo. It was the first time sailing the boat that we had all 3 sails up, the head sail, stay sail and the main sail. It was great! We did run into a surprise, we had to sail through Dodd Narrows where currents run 9 kts. Our boat speed is 6 or 7 knots, so we had to wait for slack tide, lucky for us, we arrived right at slack tide! Thank you Jesus! Once we arrived in Nanaimo it was a challenge anchoring, the bottom was rock. Apparently there were problems in the area with anchors dragging and actually tangling up with other boats, so needless to say, no one wanted anyone to anchor near them. We finally found a spot! Very tired we went right to bed!
August 5, 2007
Today we planned to go to Garden Bay, and from the very start we had rough seas and lots of wind We double reefed our sails and put up the stay sail all morning, the winds lightened as the day progressed and we ended up putting up all 3 sails again. It was very confusing finding our way to Garden Bay, yes we have charts and GPS but we took a wrong turn and went about 1 ½ hours out of our way. We finally found Garden Bay, it was well protected, beautiful and had plenty of room to throw out an anchor.
August 6, 2007
Today is Ashley’s birthday! And we decided to stay another day because we had a hot water leak and needed to find hose clamps to fix it. We dinghy to shore to look for the marine store. On our way back we noticed that Celesteel was at anchor near us. We went for a visit and enjoyed ourselves a lot – it was a beautiful boat, more state of the art! We spent the rest of the afternoon mending our bimini.
August 7, 2007
We decided to go to Campbell River Discovery Bay Marina. This was going to be a long day, so we left early. We were able to sail down wind most of the day. We had to go by Cape Mudge which has a bad reputation for rough seas, we were only slowed down by strong currents. We made arrangements for a slip at Discovery Bay early in the day. Good thing because they were full when we arrived. They put us in a slip for a 90’ boat, where there was a cancellation or we would not have had a slip. Once there we did laundry, took showers, bought a few groceries, filled our water tanks, emptied our garbage and bought diesel, all the things we need a marina for. Oh and went out for pizza!
August 8, 2007
This time we had to go through Seymour Narrows, we had read a lot about them, they were about ½ mile long and had currents up to 16 knots – we couldn’t believe it. But we planned to arrive on time for this one and we actually arrived an hour early! I really don’t know how since we had such strong currents on the way there, that at times we were only going 2 knots over land. We waited at a log boom area which was great, we had lunch and watch seals. Seymour Narrows were no problem, so we headed to Cameleon Bay, where we threw out an anchor. It kept dragging, so we pulled it up and went to look for another spot. In the process we hit an unmarked rock with our keel, even though we were going very slow, it really jerked us! No leaks, though, thank you Jesus again. There were 4 kayakers there and they asked if we were OK. We thought we were.
August 9, 2007
The next morning the kayakers were over first thing to see if we were okay and they offered to dive and check our keel. We thought we were fine and headed off for Port Neville, in the Johnstone Straits. It was very cold today and we had 29 knot winds, but we did just fine. We saw a pod of whales today, it was really cool. We arrived in Port Neville about dinner time and again threw out an anchor. We did not go ashore, this was a very remote and rustic place. There was a little store with a sign saying that the mail came every 3 days.
August 10, 2007
Our plan today was to go to Alert Bay, an Indian Reservation, it was just too far to anywhere else. Just as we docked a fresh water cooling hose on the engine blew out. Not a straight hose but a hose with a 90 degree bend like the letter “L”. The Dock Master informs us that there are no auto parts stores. We asked several of the locals where we might find a hose. Each gave the same response “You might try Fred”.
Fred is the local mechanic. He has a shop at the far end of town. The next morning Admiral Cindy and I walked to the shop at the edge of town opened the front door and there was Fred, just sitting, seeming to not be doing anything.
The shop was very small, poorly lit, piles of stuff and unfinished projects everywhere.
“Are you Fred? Everyone in town said that Fred would be the man who can help me”
Yes, I’m Fred. What do you need?
I showed him the damaged hose. He stands and leads us out of the office into the shop area. It was very organized, if chaos is an organizational style. However he did have a neatly stacked pile of hoses under a workbench. I think it was every hose he had changed out since becoming a mechanic some 50 years prior. He rummages through the pile and finally pulls out a hose. This is about the best I can do he says and hands me the hose.
The hose looked like a snake. The hose was about 3 feet long with two 90 degree bends and a couple other kinks. The hose was off of a 1965 something or other.
What do I owe you?
Nothing, it’s used.
We thanked Fred and walked back to the boat where I spent an hour or so fitting the hose. I was able to get two out of it. A spare is a good thing, especially when talking used parts.
August 11, 2007
Today we are going to try to get to Port Hardy after Mike fixes the hose. It is a cloudy day with predictions of rain and very cold again. We are almost to Port Hardy and it starts to rain. I put on my rain suit, Mike said he didn’t need his but it wasn’t long and he was down putting it on. We were drenched by the time we arrived at Port Hardy. When we were throwing out our anchor another guy in his dinghy rowing to his boat said Hi and said he forgot his coat, needless to say, he was soaked. But he chatted as he rowed by, enough to find out he had sailed around Cape Scott twice before. I said we would love to chat and he suggested coffee in the morning. Great! Cape Scott is supposedly the most dangerous part of our trip. Any information from a live person would be great, although we have read a lot about how to do it. We put our wet gloves on the engine to dry and hung up our rain suits. Everything seemed wet!
August 12, 2007
Today we thought we overslept but the clock was wrong, ended up getting out of bed a 7 AM because we thought it was nine and our neighbor might be coming over. Greg Middleton, sails a 32’ Cats Paw. He came over for coffee and shared many stories, including being in Nootka and having a whale break his rudder. He was the writer for the criminal section of the local Canadian newspaper. He reviewed his charts with us and didn’t feel Cape Scott or Nahwitti Bar would be a problem if we went at high or low water slack with light winds. We rowed a shore to buy some charts of the West coast of Vancouver Island. On the way we saw a starfish that appeared to be 2’ in diameter, huge! We also bought a few groceries, more fuel and went to check out an Internet café to check on our bank account and credit card.
August 13, 2007
Today we are going to Bull Harbor to wait for the perfect time to cross Nahwitti Bar. I was very anxious about going into the ocean. Bull Harbor was a very protected and shallow cove. There were 2 other boats there at the dock and neither of them was crossing the bar. Bummer, we thought we would have a buddy boat.
August 14, 2007
Today is the big day. We get up early, so we would be prepared to leave at 8am, low water slack. We would have had to go in the dark if we went at high water slack and I preferred to be able to see where I might die. Well it was somewhat uneventful – no big deal! The only real difference was the sea swells which were not too big at this time. Now we have to go around Cape Scott, again not much wind and not a big deal. We made it to Matthews Island in Browning Inlet. It was quite a ways in with a lot of rocks to watch for, but once in, it was beautiful and peaceful – an unbelievable number of fish jumping, completely out of the water.
August 15, 2007
Today is sunny and warm, we put up the main just to be ready for the wind. But we didn’t sail, the wind blew from the SE, we were hoping it would blow from the NW, which is typical for summer months, which would blow us right down the coast. Mike got up and made us pancakes today, that was a treat! We stopped at Rugged Pt.
This was a little cove, pretty protected with reefs on both sides of us. Not a lot of room for other boats. And it had 2 little beaches that were very pretty. The sun was shining so I cut Mikes hair on the deck, then we took showers so my hair could dry in the sun.
August 16, 2007
Today we weren’t sure where we were going. We just planned to go as far as possible. We saw a whale, a rather large one, we saw it dive and its tail. Really Cool. I told Mike I thought I smelled something like fuel, so I went down in the cabin and found that the gas had leaked out of the dinghy gas tank that was being stowed in the forward cabin. I cleaned it up and Mike turned on the blower just for safety. It wasn’t long until I said I smelled something else. This time Mike went down and came back up quickly and said to shut the engine off, the heat exchanger has a big hole in it! We needed the engine to use at a dock or when throwing out the anchor and to dodge rocks. So Mike said I would have to sail by myself, the winds are only about 5kts, but later they pick up to 27 knots, while he worked on fixing or patching the hole in the manifold. I was a little stressed and he was trying to fix the engine while the boat rock and rolled and bounced.
Our boat has fresh water cooled manifold so it doesn’t get real hot only about 180 degrees. Five hours later and many attempts at fixing the hole which now I had down to a slow leak, we decided to go back to the moorage we had left that morning. We at least knew where it was and how to get into it.
The wind still blowing 25+ knots now off our stern we moved along at a good clip and no more heeling over. The new added trial is that it will be dark when we get to the entry and there was no moonlight. It is so dark we could hardly see the bow of the boat.
Under sail we make the turn to starboard around the red flashing buoy marking the entrance to the harbor. The entrance is 2 miles long and a ¼ mile wide with submerged rocks scattered here and there on each side. The wind and the ocean swells are now on the starboard beam and we are moving faster than I like under these conditions. Added to this is a current pushing us sideways for which we have to compensate. We ease out the sails to help slow the boat.
Our GPS leaves tracking dots of everywhere the boat goes. So we were just tracing back over the ones left from coming out earlier that day. After about a mile we see the light marking the mouth of the harbor. I began heading for the light. Just as I was thinking things were looking up, the wind swings head on. For those of you that don’t know about how sailing works lets just say this is a non sailable situation and is NOT GOOD.
Deep Breath… OK, let’s review. We’ve been sailing for over 12 hours. The wind is blowing hard. The ocean swells are coming from the side making us rock hard side to side. The current is pushing us sideways. It’s so dark you can’t see the difference from land and sea. Our engine is crippled. And the wind just swung around such that it can’t be used for sailing in these conditions.
Are we having fun yet? No time to answer. Cindy, we have to start the engine. Go down and add water if it’s low. I start the engine, put it in gear… I think we’re moving. I can’t see anything to tell. I keep my eyes on the light just ahead. Cindy comes back on deck. Am I still on track? I make adjustments. Cindy, check the engine water again. It seems like we are almost to the light. The sails are slapping violently. Cindy comes back on deck. We need to get the sails down. Rolling in the head sail is a two person job. I leave the helm to help get the sail down. When I get back to the helm the light is just behind my right shoulder. I think to myself “we made it”. Just then Cindy yells “You’re going the wrong way”. Almost in disbelief I get a closer look at the GPS. Sure enough we were heading straight toward a rock wall. I make the necessary adjustments to get us into the harbor. The problem now is we can’t see the shore to find the anchorage. We have to be sure to get the correct cove they are small and only one of them is suitable to anchor.
Though the GPS is pretty good to trace your way back to an origin it’s not too good if the tolerances for error are small. My GPS tells me how accurate it is at any given time. On average it says it could be off by +20 or - 20 feet. That’s a 40 foot discrepancy. That is not good enough in this situation. This situation calls for Radar. Ours is inside the boat. I go below and compare it to the lay of the land on the chart. I show Cindy where I want to go and went back to the helm. Cindy directed me into the cove watching the radar. Once there, down goes the anchor. Thank you Jesus!
August 17, 2007
August 18, 2007
This is a no brainer, today we stay in the cove and try to fix the heat exchanger, except now we know it is the manifold with the hole, not the heat exchanger. Another concern we had was before we rounded Cape Scott we told Mark that we should contact him in a week if all was well. We had no cell service for about a week and we needed to contact him so he didn’t send out the Coast Guard. There were 3 guys in a tri-marand and they ask if we had an extra tether, they lost one. And you don’t want to sail on the ocean without being strapped to your boat. Anyway Alan had given us an extra one we said they could have it if they would contact Mark when they reached Tofino – no problem! Mike finally patched the hole with epoxy putty and a rubber raft patch and hose clamps – he is resourceful. Now we pray we make it to the next town, Tofino.
August 19, 2007
We decide we can run the engine with the patch just to get in and out of anchorages. So we go to Burdwood Cove Pt on Nootka Sound, it is just too far to Tofino.
August 20, 2007
It was a beautiful cove but it was a sleepless night, not sure if our anchor was dragging and there were lots of rocks to be concerned with should the anchor drag far. We left early, Mike just wanted out of there. We decided it was still too far to Tofino, so we went to Flores Island. The weather was turning bad, foggy. To get to the Island we had to go through fog and many rocks. We could hear the fog horn but we could not figure out where it was. Our GPS said we were headed directly toward it and then on top of it but we still couldn’t see it. Using radar we just kept going and suddenly we were out of the fog and now the depth was a concern. The chart shows certain areas were only 2 fathoms but now our depth sounder was reading under 2, yikes! Well we made it, we arrived at Ahousat Resort. It was beautiful but very rustic. It was a fishing resort so they had parts for small power boats but nothing that would help us. Also the prices were 4 and 5 times more than anywhere else. Except the moorage rate was only $10 but there was no water, power, showers or anything. Oh well, at least we didn’t have to worry about our anchor dragging.
August 21, 2007
We got a late start, so we decided to go to Tofino which was only 14 miles away if you cut through islands. Since we had GPS we decided to go for it. We were told the rocks and shallow areas were well marked. It was beautiful in the islands, but it was very shallow! We were almost there and the area ahead was very confusing with so many buoys it was overwhelming. We ended up in an area where our depth sounder read -0-. I could see bottom but we didn’t seem to be stuck. So now what? Mike backed up and we decided to go another way. Our depth sounder read .4, how frustrating, we could see the green buoy just a few yards away so we decided to keep going. We made it to Tofino and there didn’t seem to be any dock space so we noticed a couple of boats anchored out, so even though we hadn’t read you could anchor in that bay, we decided to go for it. The other 2 boats decided to leave but we seemed ok, so we stayed. It was a beautiful evening, the sun was shining and there were tons of kayakers going every where. There were a lot of little islands and rocks, a great place to kayak. Seaplanes were landing all around us too. We didn’t go ashore, we were told that Ucluelet was a better place to go for parts than Tofino.
August 22, 2007
We get up early to go to Ucluelet, it was a long way to go. The problem was it was very foggy! So we waited for the fog to lift. It would lift so we could see the town and then suddenly return. Finally at about 11AM, Mike decides it lifted enough to go and we needed to get going. We started on our way and before we were out of the rocks the fog returned, we couldn’t see beyond the end of our boat. Once again we relied on our GPS, Radar and God’s favor! It was very scary, at least I was very uncomfortable! We made it out to the ocean without hitting anything, not even a crab pot. I tell you God is with us, so many times logs and crab pots would just pass right by us, that we should have seen, could have hit and didn’t! So now we are on our way to Ucluelet, still in the fog. Now we just have to watch for fishing boats and logs, it is too deep for crab pots. Later in the day, around 3PM the fog lifted, good thing because the entrance to Ucluelet was a challenge. The book I had gave step by step compass points, longitude and latitude, so that saved us. We weren’t sure if there were any spots on the dock once we arrived and it was tight quarters, so we dinghy ashore to check it out. There was a sea lion next to us and he had caught a large fish and was chomping on it! I hoped he would stay away from our dinghy. Anyway we did get the last dock space, so we hurried back to the boat to get docked so we didn’t lose it. We talked to another sailor headed to Mexico on the dock and he didn’t think there was any help for our manifold here either. He knew of a guy named Peter who had helped him in Port Townsend. So we decided we would keep going and check at Port Angeles or Port Townsend, since our boat engine kept running without having to add water.
August 23, 2007
We wake up and it is a little foggy, so we have breakfast chat with a few people on the dock and decide to get going. It looks like the fog has lifted, but once close to the ocean the fog is still very heavy. So without being able to see a thing we retrace our course from the day before using the GPS and the compass points to get to open sea. We made it but once again are sailing in the fog and must keep a good eye on the radar. We were headed for Neah Bay, back to the US to check in. The fog stayed all day and just lifted enough for us to see as we got closer to Neah Bay, but now it is almost dark, there was some moon light. We make our way into the bay and see a few boats at anchor, so we joined them. It was very dark once we had the anchor set. We decided to have a glass of wine and celebrate our circumnavigation, our shake down around Vancouver Island and we had to make sure the anchor was ok for the night!
August 24, 2007
We call customs first thing to check in, only to be informed that we had to go to Port Angeles so we could do paperwork and they could board our boat. Bummer, that is 50 miles, one way! Gotta go, so we get going, this time no fog! Hallelujah! We start the engine pull us the anchor and the engine dies. It won’t run correctly so we quickly drop the anchor again. We seem to have a tacometer problem but Mike gets it fixed quickly. We get going and the current is with us in the afternoon, we reach speeds of 9 knots! The winds picked up to 25 knots as we were approaching Port Angeles. Even once inside the bay the winds continued to be strong. We were able to get a slip but once inside the marina we couldn’t see the numbers on the slips. So we pulled into another slip so I could get on the dock to figure it out. But in doing so, with the strong wind and current, our anchor got hung up in another boats safety line. Finally got it out without damaging the other boat! There was a family on the dock and they found our slip for us and helped us dock – God sent his angels to help! The customs officer came to our boat and was very nice, we just had to pay $27.50 for a decal, an annual fee to go to Canada from the US.
August 25, 2007
We decided to stay another night so we could regroup and see if we could get engine help. We were in Port Angeles Boat Haven and it was a long way from everything. Mike walked to the Marine store and they really didn’t have anything we needed. He spent the rest of the day working on the boat, cleaning the diesel/water fuel separator, not fun! Then as if he didn’t have enough fun, he decided to change the impellor which after much prayer, he got it out, and then through much prayer again he was able to install the new one. In the mean time the bilge pump kept going on, he decided to turn it off for an hour or so while he finished his current project. He opened the engine room to finish his project and there was 8 inches of water in there, he looked in the bilge and there was about 4 feet in there. That is all we needed was to sink the boat, it was starting to have quite a few problems anyway! Immediately I started bailing water with a pan and Mike turned on the bilge pump and tried to figure out why the water was coming in, in the first place. It was a joker valve, which he tried to fix earlier because you can’t buy the part we need, so he made one. Mike started the engine to make sure everything was working properly after his projects and there was an alarm that wouldn’t go off. Maybe it was because something got wet? Don’t know, lets just go to bed and see tomorrow.
August 26, 2007
Due to the weather report of 25-30 knot winds today and more engine projects, we decided to stay yet another day. Mike started the engine and the same beeping sound came on. He ended up changing the oil pressure, sensor and the beeping went away. Excellent! Now he decided to change the oil. Oil oil everywhere, how much oil is in this engine anyway? After much frustration we finally got rid of all the dirty old oil. Now the new oil – we barely had enough. That projects done, since everything, including Mike’s hands are dirty he may as well clean the other diesel/water fuel separator! Now with all those dirty projects out of the way we decided to walk to the hardware store about a mile away. It was great, it had a few things we needed including epoxy putty for metal. While we were there we inquired as to the location of the grocery store and Bill who worked there, and a sailor, overheard and said he would give us a ride. That was great, because the store was another mile farther from our boat. So we ate lunch, we need energy to walk that far and thought it might help us not buy so much, so not so much to carry back to the boat. Once back to the boat showers were in order! Then I baked an apple coconut pie, so we could have dessert!
August 27, 2007
We decided we had better go to Port Townsend and look up this Peter guy to fix the manifold. We had been reading about the Washington and Oregon Coasts and all the bars you had to cross and “make sure your engine is in good working order and not fail you crossing the bar”. We left fairly early and as we did the dang alarm came on again. So Mike disconnected the oil sensor and it still kept beeping. Now what, it must be the water pressure sensor. Another project. The sun was shinning and there was a light wind, we didn’t sail, the current was with us again and we reached 10.9 knots, amazing, so it was a quick trip to Port Townsend. We were able to get a slip, so we docked and headed off to West Marine hoping to get a long list of supplies. They hardly had anything we needed, which is frustrating. They do have charts of the West Coast, we just need to think about which ports we will be going into as the charts are $20 each and we don’t need all of them.
We called Karin and Alan to confirm and arrange the meeting in San Diego to do the Baja Ha Ha race to Mexico and got that registration mailed. It was $325 so I hope our boat is fixed by then!
August 28, 2007
Mike goes looking for the mysterious Peter and finds him at Peters Marine shop in the shipyards. He tells Mike to take the manifold off the engine and bring it to him and he is fairly sure he can fix it. So Mike hurries back to the boat and gets busy, it is a harder job than thought and takes until 4PM, now Peter is gone.
August 29, 2007
Peter calls Mike first thing and he takes the manifold and end cap to Peter at his shop. He comes back a little while later with a very sad face, it can’t be fixed it is too far gone. So we call up the Westerbeke dealer and order a new part for $800, they do not stock these parts and it has to be made. According to dealer it is 7 to 10 days away. We ask if they will federal express it to us and they will, however Port Townsend Marina will not accept the package. The good news is that Port Side Deli, right up the dock will for $2.00. So it is all set up, now we just wait. We are a little anxious as the window to go down the coast is mid September for the best weather conditions. We need to get going! Since we have much time to kill I cleaned the top deck, it took all day but the sun was shinning, so it was nice. Mike cleaned the inside of the boat, this was a nice treat, I am tired of doing dishes!