Wayne, Cathy & CJ Day 1-6

Our official scribe for this trip is Betty Davison and she will continue to update our blog with tales of great seamanship and harrowing adventures. I, on the other hand, will add to the blog the events occurring during the six days prior to our joining up with Betty and Mike in Shawl Bay.
Cathy and I have been retired for almost four years and during that time we have tried to fulfill lifetime dreams by traveling to Europe with friends, riding our Harley across Canada and being involved grandparents with our wonderful grandson Liam and our beautiful granddaughter Shay. Our life to-do list also included taking our powerboat, Sambuca, to Alaska and when some of our fellow Burrard Yacht Club members decided to make the trek, we jumped at the chance to be part of the group.
The preparations for a trip of this nature are time consuming, labour intensive and frequently expensive. Nonetheless, if the trip is to be successful it has to be well planned with consistently sound execution. Mother Nature i.e. the weather can be a real plan breaker and due to unexpected very high winds, our Day 1 Pender Harbour destination had to be amended to an overnight stop at BYC’s outstation located in Gibsons. We had Betty and Mike’s son, CJ, on board for the first week, so the three of us decided to make the best of it with lunch at Grandma’s Pub, a visit to the local kayak dealer to replace chalks lost on the trip over and finally an entertaining DVD to close the night.
Next morning, with improved weather, we set out for Pender Harbour. The strait was calm with a moderate NW breeze until we reached Francis Point. At this time we were so close to the harbour entrance, the increased winds became a non event. We moored at the BYC outstation and after a great dinner at the Garden Bay Pub we walked the main dock to see the recently arrived, magnificent MV After Eight. At over 135 feet long and three stories high, it was quite an impressive site. I glanced over at our humble Sambuca and while not in the same class as After Eight, I still felt certain it would be up to challenge of the Alaskan trip.
We departed very early next day as high NW winds were forecasted for the Malaspina Strait and we wanted to put some miles under us before the blow. Unfortunately, the front arrived earlier than expected and we had to divert to an anchorage in Ballet Bay. We spent the morning relaxing and gunk holing in the dinghy. By early afternoon the winds had calmed and we proceeded past Lund, through the Copeland’s and eventually to Squirrel Cove. We anchored in a quiet part of the cove and prepared an enjoyable steak BBQ with CJ contributing his “world famous” grilled asparagus. The meal was followed with a dinghy ride through a channel into a spacious lagoon. This was done with a changing tide which resulted in a fast and furious entrance followed by a patient wait for slack so we could depart without incident. We then enjoyed a peaceful night run back to Sambuca.
On Day 4, we continued motoring up Lewis Channel to the Yuculta Rapids. We had to time our arrival for slack as the passage through the Yuculta and Dent Rapids can be hairy with strong currents which can spin a good size boat 180 degrees or more. We did this amazing section without incident despite blustery winds and then continued on to Cordero Lodge. We spent a pleasant evening with our hosts, Rrinhardt and Doris Kuppers, who provided a gormet meal of Weinersnitzel and schnapps. They told us that the next day would mark their 30th anniversary owning the lodge and from the hospitality shown it was clear that their attention to customer satisfaction contributed greatly to their success.
CJ became Captain on Day 5 for our journey to Lagoon Cove. He has quite a bit of boating experience however he had never as yet, been totally responsible for a dock to dock trip in a boat of Sambuca’s size. He was charged with laying out the proposed route, making certain that the weather was suitable for the trip and making the best use of changing tides. With plan in hand we departed Cordero Lodge with CJ at the helm and headed for Lagoon. Our passage took us up Wellbore Channel, past Forward Harbour, down Sunderland Channel and onwards to Johnstone Strait where the winds were calm and the tide was in our favour. CJ then proceeded up Havannah Channel and through Chatham Channel where he did an excellent job of lining up the range markers. To add icing on the cake, he navigated the “Blow Hole” into Lagoon Cove where he made a perfect, damage free docking. Shortly afterwards, we were sandwiched in with the arrival of the MV Silver Star and it was at this time that CJ relinquished his Captaincy and said “I got the boat in OK, you get it out!”. We had an excellent night at Lagoon and enjoyed prawns and our host, Bill Barber’s, great bear jokes during the daily happy hour.
Day 6 began with a “shoehorn” departure from the dock, a top up of the diesel tanks and a very enjoyable run through Tribune Channel to Shawl Bay. We finally met up with Betty and Mike on Shaman II and it was great to see them and the work they had done “pimping” up the docks and buildings. They had worked very hard over the previous three weeks and they seemed to enjoy finishing up and getting down to some serious cards and cocktails. CJ moved from Sambuca to Shaman and I don’t know if Cathy was sad to see him leave because he was such a terrific guest or that she realized that now the “deck dolly” duties were totally back in her court.