Log of Southern Cross
8/21/05 (Sunday) Motored from Ganges harbor to Nainamo, where we got the last slip at the public marina (the one with internet access).
8/22/05: (Monday) Washed the boat and dinghy while Mich did shopping on shore. Walked to the chandlery to see if they had the stuff I needed, got a hat and some charts but no hose menders. Lugged back all that plus three gallons of Delo oil for the engine. Heard from David Rogers, who had now caught up with us and was continuing to head north “since there’s still day left”.
Got out of there later than I wanted due to all the crap that had to be done. Managed to score a root beer float and a cheeseburger at the A&W before we dropped out lines, though.
Punched into a head sea and wind on the Strait of Georgia north to Texada Island and dropped the hook after dark in a little anchorage near David and Barbara on Zoe. It was good to catch up with them.
8/23/05: (Tuesday). Took off in morning to make our way in concert with Zoe north. Had to beat to windward north up the west side of Texada Island—David stayed closer to Texada while we motored over to clear Hornby Is in order to get a reach to windward to the top of Texada and then further east to Lund. But all our sailing was to naught—the current kept pushing us back so our VMG was trivial. David motored up the west side of TExada and made it to Lund while we were still struggling. I motored a little and when we turned the corner east the NW breeze let us sail for a couple of hours before we were headed in the channel near Mystery Reef. It was too late to stop at Lund—everything would be closed, so we went a bit beyond and anchored near Zoe in the Copeland Islands, taking a lot of care to avoid the rocks that are on the chart but hard to spot. Fortunately a nice Canadian marked the mid-channel one with an orange bouy.
8/24/05: (Wednesday). Motored back to Lund to get fuel and groceries, but the NW wind was too strong to land on their fuel dock, and no other reasonable docking opportunities presented. Lund is completely open to a NW wind, and the tiny fairways between docks posed a real threat that we would get sideways to the wind and be pinned against the pilings. No place to anchor to send in the dinghy, either—and the thought of the home-made pastries at Nancy’s was tough to abandon. But abandon them we did and headed north into Desolation sound proper, to get to Cortes Bay and try the BBX internet connection, the only one in the Desolation Sound area. Alas, we spent about 2 hours trying to get a signal before we finally got one. Called and left numerous messages on their phone lines to learn where their antennas were—no one has ever called me back yet (one week later). Met Zoe at Mink Island where we again rafted to them. Very nice to share munchies in their spacious cockpit, but David reported still more troubles with his new windless—it would come up, but wouldn’t stop when he released the deck switch. He was having to have Barbara shut off the power when the anchor was about 10 feet down and retrieve it the rest of the way by hand.
8/22/05: (Monday) Washed the boat and dinghy while Mich did shopping on shore. Walked to the chandlery to see if they had the stuff I needed, got a hat and some charts but no hose menders. Lugged back all that plus three gallons of Delo oil for the engine. Heard from David Rogers, who had now caught up with us and was continuing to head north “since there’s still day left”.
Got out of there later than I wanted due to all the crap that had to be done. Managed to score a root beer float and a cheeseburger at the A&W before we dropped out lines, though.
Punched into a head sea and wind on the Strait of Georgia north to Texada Island and dropped the hook after dark in a little anchorage near David and Barbara on Zoe. It was good to catch up with them.
8/23/05: (Tuesday). Took off in morning to make our way in concert with Zoe north. Had to beat to windward north up the west side of Texada Island—David stayed closer to Texada while we motored over to clear Hornby Is in order to get a reach to windward to the top of Texada and then further east to Lund. But all our sailing was to naught—the current kept pushing us back so our VMG was trivial. David motored up the west side of TExada and made it to Lund while we were still struggling. I motored a little and when we turned the corner east the NW breeze let us sail for a couple of hours before we were headed in the channel near Mystery Reef. It was too late to stop at Lund—everything would be closed, so we went a bit beyond and anchored near Zoe in the Copeland Islands, taking a lot of care to avoid the rocks that are on the chart but hard to spot. Fortunately a nice Canadian marked the mid-channel one with an orange bouy.
8/24/05: (Wednesday). Motored back to Lund to get fuel and groceries, but the NW wind was too strong to land on their fuel dock, and no other reasonable docking opportunities presented. Lund is completely open to a NW wind, and the tiny fairways between docks posed a real threat that we would get sideways to the wind and be pinned against the pilings. No place to anchor to send in the dinghy, either—and the thought of the home-made pastries at Nancy’s was tough to abandon. But abandon them we did and headed north into Desolation sound proper, to get to Cortes Bay and try the BBX internet connection, the only one in the Desolation Sound area. Alas, we spent about 2 hours trying to get a signal before we finally got one. Called and left numerous messages on their phone lines to learn where their antennas were—no one has ever called me back yet (one week later). Met Zoe at Mink Island where we again rafted to them. Very nice to share munchies in their spacious cockpit, but David reported still more troubles with his new windless—it would come up, but wouldn’t stop when he released the deck switch. He was having to have Barbara shut off the power when the anchor was about 10 feet down and retrieve it the rest of the way by hand.
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