July 22-23 - Port Harvey

A bumpy ride down with winds of 40 knots on backs bring us into a full Port Harvey - we wanted to come down this far on the off chance we could take a run down Johnston Strait. It wasn't to be. The good folks at Port Harvey made room for us at the dock with "On the Edge" side tied to us. There are 1/2 dozen boats or more anchored in the bay as Port Harvey is packed right up.

July 21st & 22nd - Shawl Bay

One last stop in before we head south, we stock up on good times with good friends and with a frown on our faces head south. We will be missing Turkey night at Shawl but will be sure to mark it on our agenda for next year. We feel bad as we did not visit alot of other places on this trip, but a family get together in Powell River has us heading south 2 weeks sooner than the end of our vacation.

We head out at the crack of 7:00 and head south to either Lagoon Cove or Port Harvey.

July 19th-20th - Booker Lagoon

Amidst a pod of pacific white sided dolphins, we plod our way down to Booker Lagoon. One last crack at killing some halibut before we start our journey south. We have never stayed in Booker before so it was nice to go somewhere where we haven't been before. The boys go off fishing and I head out with my camera to look for the Dolphins that I had heard were in the bay. I obviously went to the wrong end as they were there but no sightings were had until we were leaving.

Fishing gods 3, boys zero. No fish!

July 15th - 18th - Deserter's Group

The day dawns with bright blue sky and not a drop of wind. We have heard from Oceanaire who is tucked way up in Acteaon Sound behind Drury Inlet. We hope to catch up with them in a few days. A beautiful flat ride up to Deserters and the boys are anxious to get their fishing rods wet and catch some fish. Lots of boats poke their nose in but see us on the anchoring buoy and since there is not much swing room, they leave again.

The second day in our secure anchorage brings us crazy wind and again we swing around and around until we get dizzy! The boys have been beating themselves up trying to get fish, with a three wild coho that they release (there's a story coming up on this)

Bob manages to wrestle one coho onto the barbeque and we start to head south.

July 13 - 15th - Shawl Bay

We meander our way up to Shawl Bay to see our old friend Lorne and Shawn and find that they are indeed busy and it has been a good year. We have missed Oceanaire by a day but hope to meet up with them in Turnbull Cove. A grizzly sighting in the bay behind Carol's (the bead lady) floathome and again over in the ditch leading to Moore Bay. The first time they have had this sighting, lots of black bears in the area, but not many grizzly. We have a relaxing time and after a 2 day stay head up to do some fishing in the Deserter Group.

July 9 - 12th - Port Harvey to Joe Cove

We head out with the morning tide to go through Chatham channel and head over to Joe's Cove to do some fishing for a few days. Its fairly calm but a bit overcast. We arrived in time to beat the wind and other boats to the dock at Joe Cove. The bay is quite full with a few boats tucked in behind the island and a raft of three boats where we are securely tied to the old dock.
Fishing is the pits, the boys have caught everything but a halibut or salmon. My prawn trap is the only thing yielding any goodies from the sea. We bump into friends from years gone by "Aces High" - Pete (the plumber) and his fun wife Bonnie.

Three days of spinning around in the wind is starting to make us dizzy, not much wildlife but a comfortable feeling that we are secure in the blow that is happening outside.

July 8th - Destination Port Harvey

Planes Trains etc. on Johnston Strait

Oceanography Vessel passing us in Johnston

Someone else tearing down a Ferry?

Lichen in Bloom

Up at the crack of dawn, we lift anchor and head up through the Yuculta/Dent and Green Point rapids. Slack tide is 8:30 so a 6:30 departure is in order. Its another beautiful day, but with the nice sun and cloudless sky, we are expecting Gale Force winds on Johnston Strait (or sothe weather man on the radio says!) -- Destination today is Port Harvey. This is a relatively new resort so it will be nice to see what changes they have made since we were there last August!

We manage to beat the wind into Port Harvey, its hot and sunny on the docks. We order our "Pizza" dinner and go for a nice gunkhole through the bay. A New dock has been added to their docks. Order the bread if you go in, I know white isn't right but its probably the best "white" bread I have ever had! Pizza is good and the drinks are cold. We'll certainly try our darndest to come through here on our way home.

July 7th - Desolation Sound

Lunch in Thulen Pass

Bob & Pat's "On the Edge"

We pull out under glorious blue skies from Pender Harbour and head upcoast for about four hours to Squirrel Cove in Desolation Sound. We will spend the day lazing around, prawning, oystering and getting a few swims in. the plan is to laze around for a day and head up to Port Harvey tomorrow and then look for the Oceanaire and Grey Pearl up in the Broughtons. Speaking of which, Happy Birthday Dave! Lift a wee dram for us tonight!

July 6th - Pender Harbour

A view from our new Outstation Deck in Garden Bay

Woody Woodpecker!

A heat wave is on the way, its expected to be 30 degrees today, finally its summer. We spend the day lazing around Pender Harbour with a nice gunkhole throughout all the bays. A pub dinner and early to bed to head off tomorrow to start our new adventure.

July 5th - Pender Harbour

Blurry (Hands were shakin') Photo of Bear on the Road




Nice Young Buck on the Beach





Why doesn't he fall over?

The day dawns with a nice sunny sky and we have a nice visit with my inlaws and meet fellow club members "Thirsty Traveller" -- a day of gunkholing, cooking, cleaning and the ever present laundry. While I am physically on holidays, my inner clock cannot help rousing me from my bed at 6:00 am, so with camera in one hand and cup of coffee in the other, the dog and I set off to see who's up this early in the morning. A large bush crashing and thrashing greet Kobi and myself at the end of the driveway (road) and with my coffee on the ground, hand on the dog collar, we watch a rather large black bear ambling out of the bush -- you guessed it, to cross the road! We stood perfectly still and my Kobi must have sensed the trouble he would have been chasing the fat ass of that bear down the road as he stood still as a tree wrapped around my legs.....good thing I didnt have to run away, I would have fallen flat on my face over the dog. By the time i remember that I have a camera with me, I get a few shots off of him running down the road! that's enough excitement before breakfast for me! The evening brings us our new best friends from Williams Lake, Bob & Pat from "On the Edge" whom we met in 2009 at Namu and spent the month travelling with. We have stayed (loosely)in touch through out the year and will be spending the next few weeks together.

Over the course of the last few months, I have also started up another blog that has melded my love of photography and now the game of bird and critter spotting together. This blog has only photographs of these critters, so when you wish to view some nice bird and animal shots, go on over to http://critterseyehaveseen.blogspot.com

July 4, 2010 - We're off again

Leaving Vancouver Harbour - A Grey Day

It's a new summer and a new adventure is in the offing. Lots has happened since I last posted. I have a "real" job and Mike is continuing to work on boats. We appear to have settled into a nice routine and plans have been in the offing for another great summer odyssey.

Due to my going back to work, we have opted to take the month of July this year to travel up coast. Thank you to my new employers "BC Nature" for allowing me this time to pursue my continuation of our dream.

Day 1 - An extemely cold holiday weekend has kept us locked up tight to the dock at our homeport (also a wedding on the Saturday!) --- its hard to beleive that its summer again when our furnace is roaring away and I have both a long sleeve sweater and a fleece on my person to keep the biting wind and cold at bay! The boat is fully stocked, cleaned and good to go for our trip, the cat seems to have managed to keep his bad ole self on the boat and the dog is dreading more wavy seas!

After a nice 3 nights with our friends and a nice wedding ceremony, we are ready to go, bad weather or not, we are leaving early on July 4th! Much to Mike's chagrin, I haul his sorry ass out of bed at an ungodly hour of 5:30 am. we make it to Pender Harbour in about 5 1/2 hours with overcast skies and about a 1' chop. We have some drinks with "Kisaki" and find that the hot tub is beckoning us for a dip and an early night to bed.