S/V Mandolin: Cruising Desolation Sound

We both entered the following logs. "I" may refer to either Todd or Ellen. Usually the surrounding text will identify which one of us was doing the typing. Hope it's not too confusing. When in doubt assume it's both of us talking to you…

8/28/97 Victoria, BC to Friday Harbor, WA

Just outside Cattle Pass on the southern tip of San Juan Island we saw our first Orca Whales. They were a ways away, but still very beautiful to watch. These whales get hassled so much by the tour boats and other pleasure craft, that we just put the motor in neutral and let them swim by at a distance. In Friday Harbor we checked into US Customs and paid our $25 to enter our own country. We also found another boat named Mandolin. We got to know the owners really well and they let us stay at their floating dock. Did some more provisioning, including the purchase of 500 feet of polypropylene line to use when stern tying to the shore after anchoring as is common practice in the islands of Canada.

8/30/97 Friday Harbor, WA to Orcas Village, to Sucia

We talked to our Pastor and his wife on the phone this morning. They are vacationing on Orcas Island. We hoped to meet them while we were up here. We left Friday harbor in pea soup fog, relying heavily on our radar. The fog finally started to clear on the way to Orcas Island. This is a passage that we wouldn't have even attempted without radar until the fog lifted, but it was good practice to navigate with our electronic eyes. Probably because of the fog causing delays in the ferry schedules, we did not meet up the Heide's in Orcas village, so we continued along to Sucia Island. This is a very popular place for boaters in the San Juans, especially so on Labor Day weekend as we happened to time it. We celebrated our first wedding anniversary with a salmon dinner. It was fabulous. Sucia is a great place for hiking. We are anxious to talk with our friend Bruce and Jan Payne aboard "Rolling Thunder" to find out which point it was on Sucia that Bruce proposed to Jan. We may have hiked to it. The sunsets from Shallow bay where we anchored are very pretty.

9/1/97 Sucia, WA to Bedwell Harbor, BC to Nanaimo, BC

57 nautical miles today in 10 hours of motoring. Quite the marathon trip through the Gulf Islands. We checked into Canada at Bedwell harbor on South Pender Island. We got invited to breakfast aboard a racing boat. They were stuck at the dock with a broken engine while they waited to a mechanic. At least this was the party line for the dock master. Actually they were busy cooking pancakes for everyone aboard and enjoying the morning. They said bring your plates and come on over. The owner also owns Green Cuisine, and health food restaurant in Victoria. He had as crew all his employees. They looked like they were having a great time. We then zipped out of there and to Nanaimo, via Porlier Pass, where we topped off our fuel tanks and did some grocery shopping before going over to Newcastle Island and anchoring for the night.

9/2/97 Nanaimo BC, to Jededia Island, BC

After a nice hike on Newcastle Island we charted a course from Nanaimo to Lasqueti Island in the Straits of Georgia. Unbeknownst to us at the time it was right across the area known as Whiskey Golf. The only patch of water that Canada and the US currently use to test their new torpedoes. Fortunately they were not testing today, or we would have been chased off by a speedy inflatable while all testing would be put on hold at the cost of $10,000/hour. Of course we found this out several days later after talking to some other boaters in Desolation sound and reading our Cruising Guide. We sure felt silly. Our chart book said there was a torpedo range and to check our charts. Did we try to find out about the boundaries? Well, uh, ….no, we didn't.

Just inside Lasqueti Island, we found Jededia Island and a shallow place to anchor. We dropped the anchor, took the dingy off the foredeck, then rowed our new stern line ashore, wrapped it around a tree then back to the boat. This is the standard procedure that we will do almost every time we anchor up here due to the deep water and limited swinging room. By bringing the line back to the boat, when we get ready to leave it is just a matter of uncleating on end and pulling it around the tree and back to the boat before we lift the anchor. It feels like we are finally out in the wild now. There are no lights except from one other anchored boat. The amount of stars we can see at night is amazing.

9/3/97 Jededia Island, BC to Squirrel Cove, Cortes Island, BC

We are now officially in Desolation Sound, a very popular cruising ground in the northwest. Another marathon 50 nm day of motoring, except for a few hours of sailing. We feel like we are anchored in a mountain lake. All we can see around us is trees and steep mountains as the entrance is hidden around a bend. There is a unique lagoon here that a creek runs into as the tide rises. When the tide falls, the creek reverses and water runs back out. We saw a family come bouncing down the rapids in their lapstrake hard dinghy on an outgoing tide. They got stuck on a rock near the end of the rapids and had to get out and walk the rest of the way. It was a riot to watch. They were having a great time of it. Abu, our dingy, didn't think that looked like a good idea at all, so we didn't do any rapids today.

9/4/97 Squirrel Cove, BC to Teakern Arm, BC, via Refuge Cove

We made a quick stop at Refuge cove to get some butter and top off our water tanks. Mandolin was quite the hit there. Several people came over to look at the new sails, the sheer stripe, dodger, solar panels, just everything, they were very impressed that we had done all the work ourselves. It seems they left inspired to spruce up their boats some. Ellen got to grovel for a Latte at the snack shop, since they had closed 36 minutes ago. She was successful, so I got a chocolate chip cookie. (Todd had to grovel a bit, too!) We met a couple who have been cruising extensively through Mexico and the South Pacific. Really great to talk to people who have been out there. They had recently come up to the Pacific Northwest via Hawaii.

After filling some water jugs, we were off to Teakern Arm. It had rained much of the morning and after a few 50 miler days I (Ellen) wasn't too sure I wanted to lift the anchor again. But people in Squirrel Cove said Teakern Arm was only an hour away. So off we went in the non-rainy afternoon.

At the head of Teakern arm is Cassel Waterfall. At the top of Cassel Waterfall is Cassel Lake. After securing an awesome anchor/stern tie spot in front of the falls, Todd and I hiked up to Cassel Lake the morning of Sept. 5th. We brought our swimsuits, but since we were the only ones at the lake, we swam in our birthday suits instead. The fresh water was wonderful – about 70 degrees give or take a few. We found a great log to sit on. One end was somewhere below the surface and the other was just sticking out. As we sat on the log, the end dipped below the surface just enough that we were mostly in the water while sitting. We soon discovered that if we crouched on the log and then stood up quickly, the log would plunge well below the surface while we were left treading water. We would find the rising log with our feet and curl our legs underneath us as it rose only to stand up quickly again and be left treading water while the log plunged down. This activity kept us giggling and amused for quite some time.

After dinner, Todd rowed me all around the head of Teakern Arm. At one point, we rowed in under the branches of an evergreen tree and gazed up the rock face it was clinging to at other trees and bushes living there. So quiet, a hidden world willing to let you pass by. You have to come looking for secret little places to find them; they rarely invite you over, but might allow you in if you come knocking.

Met a couple, Mike and Marie, on "Samatas" a custom 45 foot sailboat. They came over for coffee in the morning of Sept. 6th and then we rowed to their boat for juice. We had a lot of fun looking at each others boats, discussing gear and cruising. They are also headed for Mexico this winter. We'll definitely be looking for each other.

9/6/97 Teakern Arm, BC to Walsh Cove, BC, via Toba Inlet

It rained a bit while we were in Teakern arm and wondered if Summer was over in Desolation Sound. Luckily it wasn't. Motored up around the west side of West Redonda Island. We put up the sails where Toba Inlet meets Pryce Channel. We sailed a little way into Toba, but then ran out of wind. Toba is deep all the way to its rock cliffs and there are no places to anchor. The water is a milky green color from the glacial melt mixing with the ocean water. Most interesting. Saw a waterfall cascading down the western rock face and decided to give it a look see. The cliffs are so vertical and the water so deep that we were able to motor right up under the waterfall. Mandolin was only a few feet from the cliff. We decided it was so much fun that we did it again – and again and again. Hope our pictures turn out good. We then motored down to Waddington Channel and Walsh Cove.

Walsh Cove is wonderful. A few islands, a few petroglyphs, a freshwater creek and lots and lots of oysters. Big oysters. Yummy oysters. If you've never had barbecued oysters on the half shell, you are missing one of the finer pleasures in life. We liked Walsh Cove so much we stayed two nights. The days were wonderfully sunny and warm. We visited the islands, but didn't find the wild onions or strawberries our guide book talked about. We did find a few of the petroglyphs on the rock faces. One had jumping fish and fish drying racks depicted. "Here little fishies! Come jump onto my rack. Here little fishies," we called. We saw a fish jump out of the water soon thereafter! We invited him to jump into Abu, but he declined the invitation.

9/8/97 Walsh Cove, BC to Pendrell Sound, BC

Everyone we met raved about the oysters in Pendrell Sound. And there were lots of them. They were a bit smaller and we had bunches, so we made a fabulous oyster/vegetable chowder. Yummy!!! Luckily we made a big chowder and were able to enjoy it for several meals.

9/9/97 Pendrell Sound to Roscoe Bay to Laura Cove

Left late morning from Pendrell Sound to catch a rising tide into Roscoe Bay. The entrance is narrow and shallow. At low tides, it's usually too shallow to navigate. Roscoe Bay also has a fresh water lake within a hop, skip and a jump. Well, practically. The walk is easy enough that some people hike their dingies to the lake. Abu is a little to heavy for that, unfortunately. We, of course, couldn't be satisfied with the first swimming spot the lake offered. Or the second. We decided to keep foraging on ahead along the trail. A third cutoff to the lake looked like the one for us. (besides the main trail looked like it was petering out.)

We found ourselves at a bay with several algae covered logs resting above a silt covered bottom. Not the greatest swimming area. At the right hand edge of the bay we could see a nice big rock area sloping down into the water. Ah, perfect. Now, how to get there? Did we go back along the trail to see if the trail continued through the woods to the point? Of course not! We struggled our way through the dense plant growth at the edge of the water thinking what fun it will be to struggle through again after our swim. Oh, joy. Trying to find our way, Todd headed a little ways away from the water and, lo and behold, we found a trail. Hooray! We saw a boat way off in the distance, so, feeling shy I guess, we wore our swimsuits. The scenery is so similar to the High Sierras. Seems like we should have been backpacking to get to such a wonderful swimming spot with practically no one around. The boat soon went out of sight so we dried ourselves and our swimsuits separately on the rock. The hike back was much easier via the trail.

We spent a pleasant afternoon in sunny Roscoe Bay and then up-anchored to head over to Laura Cove for the night. The lighting and sunset on the way over was beautiful. We were able to free anchor (no stern tie to shore) in Laura Cove.

9/10/97 Laura Cove

Laura Cove is near one of the most popular spots in Desolation: Preideaux Haven and Melanie Cove. We understand this area can get packed (100 boats or more!) in the height of Summer. Luckily it was after Labor Day for us. Only a few boats were in Laura Cove. In the morning we took a wonderful hike through the woods over to Melanie Cove. Tried to figure out where "Old Mike" had had his homestead. We read about him in The Curve of Time by M. Wylie Blanchet. Couldn't find any remains of his cabin, but saw some apple trees he planted decades ago hanging onto their hold on life.

Laura Cove is separated from Preideaux Haven and Melanie Cove by several small islands and a large point of land. We went rowing all around the islands later in the afternoon. It was high tide, otherwise we could not have taken some of the paths we did. Evergreens march down the mountains right to the waters edge and then jump over the water and inhabit all the islands as well. We kept feeling that we were sailing on mountain lakes rather than fingers of the Pacific which have flooded these glacier-gouged valleys. Next time you're at the beach, try looking for seastars, oysters and thick seaweed right next to dense evergreen growth rising to the sky. I don't think it can be found many places.

9/11/97 Laura Cove to Tenedos Bay

Tenedos Bay is another popular place due to a fresh water (and warm in the summertime) lake easy walking distance from the bay. We anchored near where the stream emptied into the bay and had the whole place to ourselves. Time to head for the lake! Found another wonderful rock outcropping after hopping logs to get to it from which to go swimming. Rocks make good swim platforms because you don't get all muddy getting out of the water. Leaves and evergreen needles tend to blow off the rocks so you have a nice clean place to get out of the water to dry off.

We brought our suds to bathe with. I was doing my typical hemming and hawing before jumping in the water. Todd was done with his bath and I had barely gotten my feet wet. Even though the water was a comfortable temperature (about 65-70F), I often have a tough time taking that initial plunge. Todd finally threw the shampoo bottle a little ways into the lake and told me I had to go get it. Luckily, it floats. I jumped in after another little hem and a little haw once I realized the bottle was getting farther away. I don't know why I'm so silly. The water felt wonderful.

Back down the trail there were blackberries overlooking the bay. Wouldn't you know it, as soon as we run out of eggs to make a blackberry cobbler, we finally find blackberries. Hmph! But by this time several other boats were anchored in the bay… barter time. We filled a container with blackberries and then went to bum some eggs. Found 'em first try! We promised cookies in return. They gave us the eggs in an egg carton cut down to four egg holders. Back at our boat, I filled each holder with two boat-baked applesauce-oatmeal cookies. They were pretty surprised when Todd came back with the cookies. Of course, they never knew that we hoarded the blackberries and their eggs for our cobbler.

9/12/97 Tenedos Bay to Frolander Bay (on Malaspina Channel)

This morning finds us leaving Desolation Sound. We had a wonderful week and then some up in this gorgeous area.

Once past the beautiful Copeland Islands, there was a little wind so we put up the sails on our way to West View. Since it was into the wind, we had to tack. After a while we started the motor so we didn't get there too late in the day. It was tricky getting a slip, but we finally were able to raft up with a 42' Monk powerboat. The store is a bit of a hike, but it was good to stretch the legs. Not sure if we like be around all these noisy, loud, fast, smelly cars. We haven't seen any since we left Nanaimo.

We went for a week without spending any money. Had to get ice and butter in Refuge Cove. Now we are low on groceries so we stocked up again. We found it a lot easier to save money in Desolation Sound where there is no place to spend money. Now restocked with a tide table we are off to Princess Louisa Inlet.

The wind had really picked up. Ellen make some pasta. We ate while motoring into white caps, our speed decreasing as the wind and waves picked up. After dinner we put up a reefed main and the full jib. Our speed immediately went to 6+knots. We were somewhat overpowered, but wanted to see how things went (Read: Ellen thought we were a bit overpowered, Todd wanted to see how things went -Ellen). Everything went flying onto the floor down below. Including all my clothes onto the bed. Ellen was tired so she went to sleep in the quarterberth with Teddy (one of our teddy bears). I hooked up our self steering gear and tacked up the Malaspina Strait towards Jervis Inlet.

It soon got dark, so I started the motor, dropped the sails and found a place to anchor. The radar was very useful for coming into a bay at night. I slept in the cockpit for a while then moved some clothes around to sleep in the V-berth. Ellen stayed in the quarterberth. Neither of us slept very well.

9/13/97 Frolander Bay to Harmony Islands

I picked up things around the boat in the morning. Checked the oil, filled the fuel tank from our jerry jugs and put some protection on a hose and a battery cable that were chaffing in the engine compartment.

We raised anchor to head for Princess Louisa, but part way realized we wouldn't make Malibu Rapids in time for slack water, so we turned up to anchor near harmony Island. I napped all afternoon. We cooked lasagna for dinner. Our evening row to the waterfall gave us front row seats for a beautiful sunset that was all pink over the steep mountains. It got dark on the row back. We are now enjoying our evening tea and cookies while we read and journaled next to each other on the settee. Bed calls as tomorrow will be a long motor to Princess Louisa Inlet.

9/14/97 Harmony Islands to Princess Louisa Inlet

A somewhat rainy, but beautiful trip up Jervis Inlet to Princess Louisa Inlet. We like our dodger. The autopilot is going on the list of things that don't work. When it gets wet, it gets a mind of its own. Maybe it just wants to go to Mexico… On the way up Princess Louisa, Ellen started making our first ever French bread aboard Mandolin. We switched watches while it was rising, so I got to punch it down and form it into loaves. Put it in the oven just after we arrived at Malibu Rapids.

There is a dock you can tie to with permission from the youth camp on the outside of Malibu Rapids. We waited for 40 minutes for high slack, then went through. No problem. There were two other boats tied to the dock as well. The bread came out of the oven a little bit before leaving the dock to cross the rapids. We shared it with the other boats. It was a big hit.

This is the most beautiful place. 11 foot tides here. Tied up to a free dock near the falls. A nice trail leads up to the base of the falls.

Met several power boaters from the Santa Cruz area, most of whom were chartering. The 68' Motor Vessel "Miss America II" should be going down the coast the same time as we are. Hopefully we will see each other in the future.

It was on and off rainy, but there were a lot of falls and cascades that we wouldn't have seen if there wasn't as much water coming down.

We met another 20/30 something couple in Princess Louisa Inlet, Russ and Kristen, aboard their diving/fishing/weekend boat. They had never been aboard a cruising sailboat. We had them over and they brought smoked salmon they had caught and smoked themselves. YUMMY!! We shared tea and boatbaked lemon squares. They don't know how to sail, but are able to learn through their work. We encouraged them as it was obvious that they really love the water. Russ seemed pretty taken with how comfortable our boat is. Maybe we'll see them down in Mexico aboard their own sailboat one of these years…

9/17/97 Princess Louisa Inlet to Pender Harbor

We left early in the morning to time the rapids. The Nonesuch 31 "Puffin" followed us out and down towards Edgmont. We had talked earlier and if it were foggy they were going to follow us since we had radar. As we got closer to the end of the inlet the weather cleared, and some sun came out. There was a weather system coming up the Straits of Georgia, so we decided to spend the night in Pender Harbor. The wind really picked up the closer we got, but we finally found a calm place to anchor.

9/18/97 Pender Harbor to Nanaimo

Today's the big day to cross the straights. We woke up, listened to the weather report that Environment Canada puts out. Things seemed OK. We poked our noses out the harbor and they didn't get blown off, so we decided to go for it. The first 8nm were pretty flat so we motored. We hit something that I suppose caught in the propeller. Mandolin kind of lurched then her speed slowed down. We took the motor out of gear, and drifted for a while. We couldn't see anything trailing behind the boat so we decided to give it another try. Same thing, the motor ran a little rough, and our top speed was 3kts. Ellen started to get out the dive gear in anticipation of going over the side to see what was going on. Then she remembered a trick that she learned on one of her deliveries of idling the motor in reverse and forward repeatedly to try to release the line. It worked, soon we were motoring away at 6kts and on our way. Never did see what it was that had attached to our propeller. I cooked us Custardy popovers for breakfast while Ellen raised the sails in the freshening wind. Soon we shut the motor off and were sailing around the northern corner of the Whiskey Golf torpedo test course that we mentioned earlier. Today they were operating. A four engine prop plane would fly over the course, drop torpedoes that would run a course before being plucked out of the water by a large military vessel. We decided that we didn't want to play their game with them, so we steered clear of the course. Once around the corner of the course, we steered to a downwind point of sail, poled out the Genoa, and relaxed while the autopilot steered us towards Nanaimo. What a great day for sailing: sunny, warm and a fresh 10kt breeze. A trawler passed close by where we exchanged smiles and waves. They were sitting on their top deck and kept looking at us as they passed by. Finally I (Ellen) said, "All we need now is for them to take a picture." Sure enough, the woman got up, pulled out a camera and took a picture. I waved for the camera. Wish we had seen them again, it will probably be a nice shot with the sun on both sails and the genoa poled out.

Once in Nanaimo we topped off our tanks with fuel ($2 Canadian/Gallon, Ouch!), then tied up to the docks to do some laundry, grocery shopping and showers. While Ellen did the laundry, I went to the Thriftway and did the shopping. They delivered all our groceries right to the boat. How great. After showers, we purchased a salmon from one of the fishing boats, then went across the channel to anchor near Newcastle Island. We BBQed half of the salmon for dinner and had a large salad. Yum. Pretty good views, too. Wonder how much we should charge at Café Mandolin.

9/19/97 Nanaimo to Pirates Cove, DeCourcy Island, BC

We rowed to the shore on Newcastle Island and went for a hike this morning. We were able to see much more of the island than when we were here earlier. Some more timing was in order to get through Dodd Narrows to the south of Nanaimo, so we left at 11:00. We must have timed it pretty well as the current was with us a little as we went through. We were originally planning to stop in Pirates Cove just for lunch, but decided to stay for the night. Pirates cove is a cute little bay that is well protected, and difficult to enter because of a submerged reef. Once in we anchored, and made some lunch before a big long nap. Walked out to the point of land at the edge of the island as the sun was getting low to see the sights. One of these was a treasure chest. There was a note inside (appropriately ripped in three pieces) stating that Pirate Racheal had buried treasure on the island. On our way back we noticed some kayakers who were coming in to camp for the evening. They looked a bit tired, but pretty happy with their surroundings.

9/20/97 Pirates Cove to Conover Cove, Wallace Island, BC

We woke up this morning with an urge for banana cinnamon pancakes. Hmm, perhaps the kayakers need some pancakes too. They hadn't risen out of their sleeping bags yet. We debated back and forth about whether to roust them for breakfast. It was a cold morning and I envisioned the kayakers conversation going something like this:

"It's your turn to cook breakfast."

"It's cold out. I'm not getting out of bed. You get out of bed."

"No way. It's your turn to cook breakfast. Pancakes sound pretty good…"

"I don't feel like cooking breakfast. Maybe one of these sailboats will invite us to breakfast…."

Thus, I figured out that they were over there waiting for us to invite them to our wonderful banana cinnamon pancake breakfast. It turns out that Tara was barely awake and Eric was pretty well out of it. Tara got pretty excited about the prospect of pancakes and soon woke Eric. They brought a yummy mango to share. We had never peeled and sliced a mango ourselves, so we got a bit of an education too.

Eric's entry in our guest log: "In Pirate's Cove, The Gulf Islands, B.C. Eric and Tara came aboard to eat pancakes (with a mango [just peel n' eat]). We arrived in sea kayaks, and Tara learned lots about sailing and trying to get to crew on a sailboat to Costa Rica. Thanks for sharing pancakes, stories, and more!!!"

Notice he mentioned the pancakes twice! We had a great morning with Eric and Tara. Tara was pretty taken with the whole sailing/cruising thing. We're starting to feel like sailing missionaries to young people. "We're doing it, you can do it too!!!"

Got to sail about halfway to Wallace Island. The wind was pretty light. We made it into Conover Cove just before a large trawler and scored the last mooring ring for a stern tie. We went and looked at the old cottages built by the Conovers as described in their book, "Once Upon An Island," which we had just finished reading. Went for a long walk to the points on the south side of the island before our shower and dinner. We had a salad with Honey-Dijon dressing ala Todd, then leftovers of Enchanted Broccoli Forest. Dessert was had while we rowed Abu out of the cove to watch the sunset.

The next morning we woke up early for a hike to the Eastern side of Wallace Island to watch the sunrise. We found a wonderful granite loveseat from which to watch the world wake up. Worked on projects much of the day with an after lunch nap on some nice warm rocks just above the tide line. Well, Todd napped while I investigated the free literature in the old recreation cabin. There was a recipe for Minty Lemon Bars, which talked about the Wallace Island lemon-mint which is unique to Conover cove. I had a mission. I was off to find and forage the famous Conover Cove Lemon-Mint. It wasn't hard to find; it was growing in bordered plots next to the shuffle board court.

We picked some and cooked up the recipe and tried our hand at making lemon-mint tea. The Minty Lemon squares were mighty fine, but the tea was a bit weak. We'll have to put more tea leaves in next time. We saw the ranger and shared some minty lemon bars with her. She said the recipe had been a big hit since it was put out by cruisers in July. She hadn't had any of them herself, though, and was happy to receive them.

Hiked out to Chivers Point to watch the sunset. This time we brought a flashlight. We enjoyed Wallace Island on our honeymoon last year. One of our hikes was out to Chivers Point. We enjoyed the point so much that we stayed a little long. The hike back was by braille. Luckily the trail is pretty wide and straight. Though it did get pretty interesting where the ground was covered by roots. The sunset was beautiful and we met more kayakers. After chatting with them, we headed back to Mandolin for tea and minty lemon bars.

9/22/97 Wallace Island to Maple Bay, Vancouver Island (via Fernwood Dock)

We planned to tie up to Fernwood Dock on Saltspring Island to make a few phone calls, but there was no room at this very small dock. Kind of fun to go see it, though, as it is mentioned quite a bit in "Once Upon An Island."

Once around the Northern tip of Saltspring, we were able to put up our spinnaker and enjoyed the quiet as we ghosted along at 3 knots. Maple Bay Marina is decidedly cute. We were decidedly happy that they carry propane. And Jennifer who works at the fuel dock is decidedly nice, letting us tie up and "take your time, we're not busy." Turns out she and her boyfriend have cruising plans and were thinking of a 40+ sailboat. No, no, no, we said. Small is good, we said. Go now, go young, we said. She came over for a look see at our floating home and we encouraged her and her boyfriend to live their dreams. Missionary work once again came to mind. I think we're in the business of encouraging like-minded and like-aged people to go cruising. "We're doing it, you can do it too!!!" Well, when you're out boating, you're bound to meet other people who love the water, too.

Rowed around behind the island after dinner. There are a few (less than ten) nice homes along the shore. I don't think many people row around back there; no fewer than three of the homes had people get up and come to their window to watch us row by.

9/23/97 Maple Bay to Roche Harbor to Westcott Bay, San Juan Island

Took down our Maple Leaf flag today. When in a foreign country, vessels are required to fly their country flag and a "courtesy" flag of that country. We took down our Canadian Flag upon entering US waters. It was a rather sad moment. We really enjoyed our time in Canada.

Headed into Roche Harbor to clear customs and had a bit of a surprise. Lots and lots and spanking new docks. Zowwy. Now where is that customs dock anyway? Found it pretty easily—most ports put the customs dock as far out to meet incoming vessels as possible.

Once we had cleared customs, I went for a quick walk up the dock while Todd made a phone call. On arriving back at the boat, I found Todd chatting with the customs official who was admiring Mandolin. Todd had me drive away from the dock. As he undid the lines and cast us off, I heard the customs official say, "Wow, she sure did a great job fixing up that boat!"

A big question mark formed in my mind. Once we were well away from the dock, Todd said, "Get this, they think you did all the work fixing up Mandolin." Nothing could be further from the truth. The official had wondered how we were able to finance cruising. Upon learning that Todd was a software engineer and that I work for West Marine, he automatically assumed that I had done all the work on Mandolin since I work in the boating industry. Todd's such a sweety – he let the official think that I had done it all.

Quite the turnaround. Most people give Todd all the credit for what has been a joint effort. When we walked Abu down the dock (carrying it together, I might add), most people said, "Wow, Todd, nice dingy you built there." Hey! I was right there beside him getting epoxy and wood dust all over my clothes. Sheesh. Of course, I do get credit for the curtains.

The harbor let us tie up for an hour to walk around. Last year we were a little under impressed with Roche after everyone had raved over it. With all the nifty new docks, Roche is again living up to it's reputation. The buildings and gardens are very quaint. Roche has the only privately owned Catholic Church in the US.

And then we were off to Westcott Bay just South of Roche Harbor. The chart shows lots of shallow water between Roche and Westcott, so we were taking our time and watching the depth sounder. According to the depth sounder, the bottom and our keel tried to get friendly with each other twice. The second time it seemed like they were really stretching to make contact – the depth sounder got down to 3.4 feet. We draw 5.5 feet. Our depth sounder is a few feet under the waterline. Todd's comment: "I always wondered how shallow the depth sounder could read without touching bottom."

We are usually in bed by 10pm., but this evening I was getting ready for bed just after 11pm. Todd was already in bed when I suddenly felt the entire boat shudder and at the same time heard a low rumbling sound. Now imagine a big question mark with some exclamation points around it occupying my head. It didn't feel like anything I had felt on the boat before. "Did you feel that?!?!" I asked Todd. He had been getting into bed when it happened and didn't feel or hear a thing. It didn't feel like something actually hitting us, but I went outside to make sure. The birds on shore were making quite the ruckus. They certainly heard it. The closest thing I could associate it with was some type of explosion. I was a bit freaked out by the whole thing. There weren't any fireballs in the sky telling of death and disaster, but the birds were letting us know that something had certainly happened. "Maybe it was an earthquake," suggested Todd. It was the only explanation that fit. I hadn't thought of it because I didn't think one would feel an earthquake anchored out on a boat. The whole water column must have shifted shaking the boat with it. Not at all far-fetched when you think of the force of earthquakes. The next day we found out that, sure enough, there had been a 3+ earthquake around 11:15 the night before.

In Westcott Bay is Westcott Bay Farms, purveyors of fine oysters to some of the countries most discriminating restaurants. If only the patrons of said restaurants could see the ramshackle buildings of this outfit. It's a pretty fun place to visit. They sell their oysters on the premises for 2, 3, and 4 dollars a pound. If you're smart enough to get there at lowtide, you can collect oysters hanging out in the sandy bottom for a buck a pound. There is a great sign leading down to the beach (I might not have this absolutely accurate): "Lowtide oysters $1/lb. These are Westcott Bay oysters that have chosen not to live with their friends and families. They have made new attachments. Oysters from the wild side. Leaky boots available at the shed." Todd and I had brought our own boots and went foraging. These oysters must have sat there for years. They were huge! We collected around 17 which made 10 lbs. BBQued oysters for lunch!! And dinner, and lunch again… yummy.

It was pretty fun to dingy into the farm. We were trying to figure out the best way and had determined that we had to row all the way around the oyster beds when we saw a break in the boundary line marked by a little red flag and a little green flag. Just like red and green markers at a harbor entrance. They even had the red flag on the "Red, Right, Returning from sea" side of the entrance. Too cool. We rowed in looking like we knew what we were doing and found the guest dingy dock.

Then onto English Camp which occupies the next bay from where we were anchored. We landed the dingy on the beach, and hiked the trail to where the historic buildings are. In talking with the rangers, we found out about the earthquake, and where to pick pears, plums and blackberries. They also informed us about an Elderhostel program on the Pig War (the pig was the only casualty) and the occupation of San Juan Island by both British and American military forces from 1860 to 1872. The talk was quite interesting and supplemented the reading that we had done in "The Pig War", a book that Grover (our Dive leader in Hawaii) let us borrow. After stuffing ourselves with ripe plums, picking a bagfull of blackberries and harvesting a few pears, we headed back to Mandolin. Fortunately we tied the dingy to shore because during this time the tide had risen and waves were lapping at Abu's transom.

9/24/97 Wescott Bay, San Juan Island to Deer Harbor, Orcas Island

This was another motoring trip, this time with the current against us, but we made it in a little over two hours. Deer Harbor is a cute harbor with new looking docks at the resort. Our purpose here is to investigate purchasing an AquaMarine, Inc. Reverse Osmosis Water Maker, equipment to turn sea water into pure drinking water. We are impressed with the quality of the product and it's longevity, for the same price as other units that produce far less water. We purchased a 600 Gallon Per Day unit that will put our 24 gallons per hour. Not that we need that much, but it allows us to only run our engine for a few hours to fill our tanks for the week. We expect at least 10 years of service from this unit if not more. What a deal. AquaMarine, Inc. is a small but growing company doing well in a niche market. To help defray the cost of our unit, Todd provided some computer consulting and Ellen is providing technical writing services for all their operating and installation manuals. We expect to head onto the Anacortes West Marine for a few items, then start down the coast.

Here is the start of the much demanded list of things that work and don't work aboard our boat.