Barkley Sound adventures part 4

One day while we were out exploring at a low tide we found this sea cave, which was really more of a tunnel since it had two openings. It was cool but spooky and brought out the 10 year old inside each of us. "Wow, this is so awesome! This is the best sea cave ever!" "Yah! Cool!" That's Matt outside the cave. I'm glad the only things living inside this cave were very small sea creatures.

One of the many beaches we explored. Amazingly, on most of these beaches we were the only people around. Everybody else was out fishing I guess. (They do say the fishing is incredible here.)

We did run across mink on several of the islands. At first we thought they were river otters, but once we got a closer look at one, we discovered it was definitely a mink. They love to cruise the beaches looking for yummy things to eat.

This was one of my favorite beaches of the trip. It had rounded granite boulders, faced Imperial Eagle Channel so had great wave action, and also had sand and lots and lots and lots of little shells, many that were intact, many smaller around than a penny. The sand was covered with them. Treasures everywhere, and it was hard not to take any souvenirs!

Barkley Sound adventures part 3

I took this while circling Wecantu in Zodi. We used Zodi a few times to scout out rocks and depths in anchorages. If I had a dollar for every rock we had to avoid in the Broken Group....

Exploring by kayak the shore of Willis Island. The clouds look low and dreary ahead, but we actually enjoyed decent weather most of the time. At the turn of the century (1901 or so) Captain Voss and his boat Tilikum spent some time in Barkley Sound in the month of June, and apparently the weather was so bad he had to wait six weeks before he was able to set sail. I found that out after I had already arranged for June vacation time.

The low clouds did hide a lot of the clear cuts in the foothills though, which made the views more scenic.

This is a meadow on Benson Island, neighbor to Clarke Island. This was a very lush island. In the late 1800s there use to be a resort here. All that is left are the meadows, and lots of nettles.

Here we are venturing out in Zodi to look for sea lions. To our right is Batley Island, to our left Wouwer Island, and dead ahead is the Pacific Ocean. The stuff on the water is sea foam caused by all the massive wave action that you can't quite make out in this photo. We did happen to see a few sea lions hauled out on a distant rock but were too chicken to take Zodi out into the rough seas.

In calmer waters we would see lots of these guys. Pigeon Guillemots (I call them Pigeon Willies to avoid butchering the pronunciation of a French word) are an often spotted sea bird. Maybe not as exciting as whales, but I really like them. Their feet are bright orange and are quite visible on their aquatic take offs and landings.

Barkley Sound adventures part 2

The Broken Group Islands in Barkley Sound offered an abundance of things to keep us busy and entertained. We were amazed by the amount of whales we spotted, although I have no photos to prove it. We did actually have a few hours where we actually sailed and whale spotted at the same time but I have no photos to prove that either. But Matt, Bobbie and John will corroborate my story.




This is my kayak paddle hovering over the Clarke island lagoon. The beach there is mainly white shell, so when the tide covers it, it transforms into a tropical blue color. It was an astounding setting to paddle around in. I know why kayakers love these islands.

The mussel beds along the rocky shores are prolific, and the sea stars are into the all you can eat buffet. Masses of these were not uncommon to see.

This is a little beach uncovered at low tide on Willis Island. The beaches were quite a delight to explore. It could be a little frustrating though, as you could look but not take - the Broken Group islands are not only a National Park Reserve, but also heritage lands to the Nuu-chah-nulth cultural group. I did not want to anger any ancestors and jinx our trip!

On one of the islands we found quite a collection of moon snail shells. Other visitors had also respected the islands and left the shells for others to discover.

The moon snails deposit eggs in the cases above. We found many of these when we looked closely enough.

Barkley Sound adventures part 1

After our rest day at Neah Bay we got up really early to start our 54 nm leg to Ucluelet. Fifty four nautical miles doesn't sound like much, and compared to ocean crossings it's nothing, but at an average speed of 5 knots it meant about 10 solid hours of the two of us sitting in a small open cockpit of a Westsail 32 with no auto pilot. (We meant to get one installed but the model we really wanted was on back order everywhere.) I learned just how wonderful an iPod can be. Our crossing up to Ucluelet was a relatively calm motor, so we both succumbed to some pleasant little cat naps. The trick was not to fall asleep while at the tiller.


This is Neah Bay marina, where fishing boats rule. We actually felt a little out of place.

We left Neah Bay at an hour when all the fishing boats were headed out. We liked the remote and wild feeling of this part of the strait.

This is buoy 'JA' out at the mouth of the Juan de Fuca strait and is one of many buoys which mark the middle of the shipping lanes. In the far distance you can see an inbound freighter. We were very happy to have our AIS receiver out here - we often knew who was coming even before we could see them. The info we get is a bit more basic than what the marine traffic website offers but knowing the speed, course and position of these big beasts is plenty helpful.

We used our radar a bit too, for practice and for anchoring. (The photo shows a radar image of Sequim Bay.) It has a VRM (Variable Range Marker) function with which you can measure how far away different targets are. This was very helpful in many of our snug anchorages as it allowed us to know exactly how far away the shore or rocks were, and what our anchor swing was doing. Neither Matt or I are good at eyeballing distances yet, so it was nice to have the radar tell us that a rocky shore that seemed 'kinda close' was actually 300 feet away.

This was one of my favorite anchorages in the Broken Group, although all the anchorages had something neat about them.
This is at Clarke Island, one of the outer islands. A view to the open ocean is literally just right around the corner, giving the anchorage a wild air. We did some kayak exploration here, and in the photo Matt, and Bobbie and John (who met us at Toquart Bay to do several days of cruising with us) are returning to Wecantu for a bite to eat.

This is Zodi (an inflatable Zodiac) and her sidekick Suzi (a 4hp outboard). She was a recent aquisition and played a big role in this trip. We used her as our little 'commuter car' and took her day exploring to islands away from our anchorages. She also made it easy to anchor out (versus docking) at Ucluelet and Bamfield as she can carry either 4 people or 2 people and all their laundry and groceries. Our previous tender had been a borrowed sit on top kayak which made for a wet ride, and had a very small cargo capacity. The funny thing is Zodi can go about as fast as Wecantu, but she is nowhere near as seaworthy. She's got a pretty big attitude though.

Hi from Neah Bay

We left Sequim Bay early Monday and had quite the trip to Port Angeles. Took us longer than we estimated, and the conditions were a little wicked. Waves were choppy and steep and the wind was kicking up. After many relentless hours it all conspired to make me seasick for the very first time. We clawed our way to the relatively calmer waters inside Ediz Hook, and moored at the marina. The next day was a rest day and the highlight activity for me was pigging out on Thai food to make up for the lack of sustenance of the day before.

The day after that we left for Neah Bay. The swells were big and rolling and we spent the whole time motoring into them. It was mesmerizing and enjoyable riding through all that undulating water, and the skies were really sunny. But we knew we wouldn't get off easy, and sure enough, when we got close to Neah Bay, things started to get wicked again. The waves started to get really steep due to the opposing current and swell direction, and the wind started to blow. So we fought our way into Neah Bay and had another good dose of excitment.

Now we are taking another rest day and hope to move on tomorrow. Looks like the weather will be a bit calmer then. If we find free wifi again I will post. We are definitely having fun and are learning lots.

The above photo was taken the morning we left Port Angeles from inside Ediz Hook.

Stern pulpit

Last weekend we had sunny weather, so we decided to mount the stern pulpit. The project actually went fairly hitch free. Drilled holes were straight and in alignment and only one thing got dropped in the water, and that item was expendable anyways.

The first is a photo of the stern before the pulpit. Except for the main sheet running through the pulleys back there, it's a bit of a open space where you can get rather intimate with Poseidon and his realm. Exhilarating but sometimes a little precarious.

The next two photos are with the stern pulpit. It's a little hard to see it well, but the pulpit encloses the space and creates a bit of security. A set of life lines will be added halfway down from the upper rail to close it up more.

New electrical panel

Matt has been working diligently on this weekend after weekend after weekend... and managed to avoid getting shocked. (Not that there wasn't a spark or two to keep things lively.) We had a good laugh over all my countless boat journal entries in which the sentence "Matt worked on the electrical project" appears. Except for some minor aesthetic details though, we think we can count this project as done. (That is, until we add some new electricity requiring device on board...)

These are photos of the old panels. Matt combined the two into one continuous panel and brought it out parallel for easier access.

Here it is. Matt created the new panel so that it unscrews and hinges down to allow access to the somewhat chaotic looking electrical innards. The red switches are for the two battery banks, the center panel is for the items that run off DC, and the left panel controls the AC stuff (electrical outlets and battery charger).

I think we share a similar sense of humor with the previous owners. This little sign had been posted up with the old panel, and we always puzzled over it. What language was it? (Swedish maybe? But why not German?) What did it say? Where had it come from originally? When we removed it for the electrical project we found an English translation on the other side - 'Warning: do not shut battery circuit while engine is running." But we decided to put it back up the way the original owners had. It's just more fun that way.

Pinrail project complete

The pinrails are now on. It took a bit of cautious but assertive use of the rubber mallet to get them positioned onto the shrouds. So far they are a great help in organizing all the lines!

Little Dicki

This is our Dickinson kerosene heater, and over the past winter we became so addicted to her lively company that we gave her a nickname. Little Dicki is able to heat our cabin quite comfortably, and overhead where all the heat all rises I've recorded temperatures of 75 to 80 degrees F! It's more around 65 to 70 F where we hang out, but we'd like to get a fan installed to circulate all that hot air around better. It is a delight to curl up in the evening with a good book and watch the fire.

Winter interior projects included the replacement of Little Dicki's interior chimney (the old one was rusted), and the addition of a new Charley Noble on deck. (The old one was much taller and had been tripped over by us and strangled by the jib sheets far too often. The new one is very pretty so hopefully we won't abuse it so much.)

V berth insulation project

The installation of the new insulation in the v berth was finished a few weeks ago. Here I'm re-attaching the slats. The blue tape marks the sequence, and this is a trick I would never have thought up by myself.

Here is the finished project. The insulation is white, which gives it a different look than the original insulation. Our only other color choice was black and I thought that would be too dark.

The insulation is a closed cell Volara foam with an adhesive backing.

Before I adhered the new insulation, we replaced the whisker tangs; access to the tang bolts was made easy with the absence of insulation and wooden slats. (The bolts go through the hull and are accessed in the v berth.)

If you look closely at the photo you can see rust stains. That is from the old tang, which is why we wanted them replaced. These tangs secure the whisker stays which lead up and attach to the front of the bow sprit.

Here's one other finished project that has been on the list for months. These are the anchor rode locker doors, and the latches are new. Before, there was no means to keep the doors shut, and since the heavy anchor chain is stored behind these doors, we needed to be able to secure them.

Before I could install the latches though, I had to sand the doorway openings larger so the doors could actually close. The installation of the new samson posts (which are located between these doors (you can see the 2 bolts)) had caused some shifting in all the woodwork here, causing things to no longer fit as before.

A very large package arrives

I came home from work this evening to find a very large box taking up a fair amount of space in our very small living room.

It turned out to be our stainless steel stern pulpit which Matt ordered from Bud Taplin a few weeks ago. I was either not told of the order, or was and just wasn't listening (which is always a possiblity) but either way it made the arrival of the package a surprise, and surprises are often fun.
The mounting of the pulpit to Wecantu's stern will be a bit of a project, but I hope to post before and after photos in the near future.