Epic Grocery Run

We had an epic grocery run. When we got back to Campbell River we decided to provision while we had the rental car. So I got a bunch of groceries (shocking, I know) and put them in the back of the car. We drove to Painters Lodge and loaded all 100 lbs of food (mostly Petits Plaisiers Digestivs) plus luggage into a dock cart. (Remember in the last post when we were eating dinner at April Point and watching the water shuttles getting pounded out in the waves and wind, and feeling so bad for the poor schmucks inside the boat? We were now those schmucks.) So I wheeled the over-loaded dock cart (with a flat tire) down the ramp and onto the heaving dock. The water taxi arrived and we loaded all the groceries and luggage, bucket brigade style into the, also heaving boat. Then there was some question as to whether the boat would actually leave the dock or not. Our driver turned to us, white-faced but trying to be brave, and said, "ok, we're going to go for it. We're gonna take it slow though so it'll be about fifteen minutes". *gulp* I handed everyone ginger chews and off we lunged. The driver had to tack back and forth, pounding into the waves and then surfing down them. I was white-knuckled and praying as I imagined the flat-bottomed boat flipping over and sinking to the bottom of the ocean when Isaac turns and says, "Emma would have loved this!" I am happy to say we made it safely to the other side with no vomiting and we unloaded our groceries and luggage, bucket-brigade style, into another dock cart onto another heaving dock which I then wheeled up the ramp to the lodge. The front desk called the marina manager, whom we have affectionately nicknamed Epic Larry, to give us a ride back to the marina but Epic Larry was nowhere to be found. What to do?? Golf cart, obviously! So one of the hotel staff helped us load up a golf cart to shuttle us back to the marina. Aaron and Pika rode shotgun, Isaac and Jason stood on the back to keep the groceries from falling off and I ran behind videoing along the way. Total insanity.


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Farewell Emma

Emma's last day of sailing did not disappoint. The winds in the strait of Georgia decided to give us a wild ride. We started the day by sailing off of our anchor which is always pretty cool. After that we had a brisk downwind sail until we turned the corner into Discovery Passage. Here we found ourselves at the front of the Van Isle race with 20+ knots of wind on the nose. We kept our lead for a short time but the front running boats were wicked fast so they quickly caught and passed us even though we were averaging 10-11 knots with current behind us. We had wind against tide within the passage so the waves were stacking up steep. As we bashed through the crazed 4-5 foot, super-steep waves I went forward to put in a reef (I should have put in two) to calm the motion of the boat a bit. Then, in an effort to stay out of the the race boats path, we took a tack into a tidal convergence zone and got bucked around like crazy lemurs as we executed the tack. It was pretty uncomfortable and we decided we wouldn't do that again, however, the entrance to April Point was a raging tidal zone we had to cross. Once safely out of the wind, waves and tide, we dropped sail and slid into our slip exhausted and starving. I still can't get over how tiring it is to manhandle a boat through those kind of conditions. It's a super great workout. We bee lined to the lodge for dinner where we looked over the crazed water we had just passed through. We sympathetically watched the water taxi that shuttles vacationers between April Point and Painters Lodge bounce wildly across Discovery Passage and thanked our lucky stars we weren't in that boat.

The following morning waters were calmer so we bid Marinero farewell and hopped on the water taxi over to Painters Lodge where a rental car and a drive down to Victoria awaited us. After being on the water for five weeks it was strange to get into a car. It was crazy to cover the distance that had taken us three weeks in a boat in just three hours. We arrived at the Oak Bay Hotel where we all slipped into our bathing suits and hotel robes and headed down to the warm mineral pools that look across Haro Strait into the U.S. After swimming we all took decadent showers to make up for the fact that we had only had two in the last three weeks. After living on a boat for a while, it's so weird to re-enter land life where there is unlimited water, electricity and wifi, and easy access to food. The following morning we all packed up and sadly climbed into the car to bring Emma to the airport. At the airport, after many hugs, we bid Emma a tearful goodbye and waited while she went through security, until we could no longer see her. Thank you, Emma, for joining us on Marinero. Thank you for all of the laughter and adventurous spirit you brought with you. It was absolutely infectious and we loved having your sunshiny presence on the boat. We loved watching you grow and learn so much along the way. You are an amazing crew member and you have an open invitation to join us anytime on the boat 8). We miss you so much. *sniff*

We sadly left the airport and ate a melancholy lunch at a farmhouse bakery before starting north up Vancouver Island. We have always wanted to check out the mountains inland from Comox so we took this opportunity to do a bit of inland exploring. Here's what we realized throughout the day. As we drove down the highway with everyone else, on roads that look like everywhere, it felt like our souls were being sucked out of our bodies. We thought it would be so cool to rent a car and check out all of this country that we couldn't see by boat but somehow it only depressed us. There are so many tiny, quaint places that we have pulled into by boat that have seemed like little magical pockets of civilization and my imagination fills in what is beyond. But what I found is that my imagination does a much better job of filling in the landscape than people. Being in a car on the highway beyond those places almost ruined it for us because now we knew what was beyond those magical pockets and it was just the ordinary. We drove through Cowitchan, a place we have stopped many times on the boat and it seemed just ok instead of dreamy. It was kind of a bummer. In the evening we settled into a hotel room in Courtenay. We tried to drown our sorrows with a fabulous although somewhat subdued dinner at Locals (we were still missing Emma) which was quite delicious. The following morning we headed out to the Strathcona Provisional Park. The road to Strathcona was littered with clear cuts, pillaged mountainsides, and the park sat adjacent to a ski area. Aside from these detractions, our hike through the park was quite lovely. At this point all we wanted was to be back at home on Marinero and continue sailing, so we hit the highway for Campbell River. Along the way we stopped to feed my addiction (and my family) with one more grocery run. To be continued.....

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Rebecca Spit

We spent two fun-filled nights at Rebecca Spit on Quadra Island. Sunny weather + 85 degree air temp + 73 degree water temp = a lot of swimming. Upon arrival we squeezed in a quick swim before evening cheese and crackers on the foredeck. The next morning we went for a walk on the rocky beach, searching for precious rock treasures to bring home. After lunch Jason and Isaac snorkeled off of our kayak, Banana, and we spent the next couple of hours jumping and diving and swimming off of the boat. After a drying session in the sun on the warm foredeck we had cheese and crackers and then dinner followed by a post-dinner, evening swim. We spent the evening playing a board game waiting for darkness to fall. At this point Emma and I climbed back into the water for one last swim in hopes of churning up bioluminescence. Alas we didn't manage to make the water glow but we have fabulous memories of our swim at 10:30pm.

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Sailing in Jervis Inlet by Isaac

It was a sunny day at the end of May when we left Princess Louisa Inlet. There should have been rain and clouds and thunder for such a sad occasion but alas, life is not a movie. Malibu Rapids was going pretty strong when we arrived, so we pulled into Malibu Lodge to look around and eat. As we were prepping to tie on, we notice that most of the Malibu staff were engaged in the activity of rolling around on a very large deflated balloon right next to the water. Fortunately, some of them saw fit to get up and act semi-normally so we threw lines at them, which they liked. After we were tied on, one of the staff began to show us around while the rest finished rolling around and filed off the dock. She talked about the history of the place and what it was now, but I missed a lot of it because I had found a totem pole. When I looked away from my camera, everyone had disappeared, so I figured I had gotten quite enough photos and hurried on. Apparently, everyone was really fast or I take slow pictures because I later found out I only got two photos of that totem pole.

The story, near as I can remember, is that the place was built by some rich guy and other rich guys like Bing Crosby would come to the place and admire the inlet. One day they were all sitting around doing rich guy stuff when word came of a polio outbreak. Immediately everyone up and left, leaving everything as it was. Later, a seaplane carrying the head of Young Life flew through the inlet and the head decided he wanted to buy Malibu Lodge and start a new Young Life camp there. It's been a Young Life camp ever since.

We all clustered around the railing that separated the lodge from the Rapids and watched a sailboat careen through, deciding to wait just a little bit longer before we did the same given the speed he went. So we lingered a little, and we may have eaten lunch, and then we got back on the boat and pulled away from the dock. I took bow watch to look for rocks and was once again disappointed when the charts successfully predicted where the rocks wouldn't be. Mom came up and recruited Emma as a cooking partner; together, the two of them disappeared below decks to bake cookies. Some people just won't stop cooking.

Dad suggested we start sailing, though I was a little worried about the cookies. Mightn't they get all diagonal if we sailed? Who had ever heard of a diagonal cookie? I was quite sure this would not be a good thing. Nevertheless, we raised sail, and all heck broke loose below deck. Dad and I turned to each other with bewildered expressions as giggling and screams erupted from below the cabin top, and I was forced to go down and take a photo of the two cooks holding knives and other scary cooking things at a 37 degree angle. I reemerged and there was much manly chortling about the state of affairs down below, probably because we were secretly wishing we were down there too.

Emma took up position at helm after she finished baking cookies, and suddenly the boat was in our hands. Dad coached her through her first tack as I ran the sheets; if memory serves, it went quite smoothly for a first tack. I had a bit to learn myself; I had never really learned how to read a sail's trim, so I picked that up as we worked our way down the inlet.

At some point we decided that we needed good sailing nicknames. I had been reading the Destroyermen series and, likening myself to one of the crew that ran around the deck of the destroyer and did manual labor, I said, "Ooh, you could call me Deck-Ape!"

"Deck-Ape?" came the incredulous reply.

"Yeah," I said, beginning to doubt myself. "Deck-Ape."

Emma thought for a moment, then announced, "I'll call you Chimpy. It's easier."

"Ok," I said, really starting to wish I hadn't said anything. "What should I call you?"

"Capi!" she announced happily.

If you don't frequent the British Columbia coast, then I don't blame you for not knowing who Capi is. But if you do frequent that amazing coast, I have only one question for you:

WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN YOUR WHOLE LIFE!?!?

Seriously. Capi is legendary. Even if you haven't read the classic The Curve of Time, surely you must of heard of Capi, or maybe even M. Wylie Blanchet!?

If I really must explain...

Capi is this amazing woman who, in the early twentieth century, moved to Victoria with her husband and acquired a small 24 foot motor boat. On their first summer, her husband went out on the boat alone. They found the boat. He was never seen again. Most people would have sold the boat. Instead, Capi started a yearly tradition of stuffing all five of her children on the boat every summer and taking off to explore the unexplored BC coast. In the book is told the stories of Henry the Whale, how John Broke His Collarbone and Accidentally Healed It Again, the Man from California, and much more. Read it.

Emma and I pulled off tack after tack, each one smoother than the last. The only exception was the tack where my ankle got caught in one of the jib sheets, causing the jib to slam across to the other side and flog wildly as I got things sorted out with the lines. Then the time came to lower sail and we motored into Egmont, tired but triumphant. There we encountered our friend Kismet. We had met the older couple on the boat in Princess Louisa, so it was pleasant seeing them again in Egmont.

We ate dinner that night at the pub, where we learned appearances can be deceiving. The pub looked bad, but the food was quite good. I think I got a pulled pork sandwich which was overflowing with sauce, but I don't remember much else. Satisfied, we all tucked into our respective beds and fell asleep.

Desolation Sound

Leaving Princess Louisa behind, we had an epic sail down Jervis Inlet. With winds on the nose at 10-15 knots we handed the boat over to Isaac and Emma. After a quick lesson on tacking the boat, Emma was off and running. She was a total natural on helm and Isaac (who somehow acquired the name Chimpy as the day progressed) smoothly operated lines. Jason and I sat back and watched as the two of them tacked us back and forth (past a couple of bears on shore), back and forth, all the way down the channel to Egmont. It was a beautiful and occasionally hilarious thing to watch.

The following morning, the kids sailed for a short while before we hit the Malaspina Strait. The winds piped up and the waves got bigger. Jason took over helm and I crawled to the front to put a reef in the mainsail. We sailed at a close reach, then a beams reach and finally turned to a broad reach, surfing down the waves. In the past these conditions would have scared the pants off of me so I was ecstatic that Emma loved all of the crazed motion. That afternoon we made it to Westview at Powell River for a re-provisioning trip. We ended up on the dock just inside the breakwater which offered no protection at all from the wind and waves pounding in from the strait so Marinero heaved up and down with the heaving docks and Pika and I (we were both a bit queasy) longed to be somewhere else. Pika was so sad about the conditions that she went on a hunger strike for two days. Poor chihuahua.

The following day we hightailed it out of Powell River as soon as we finished our grocery run and headed for Desolation Sound. Our first stop was Tenedos where we hiked to a lovely lake and had a swim. Next stop was Roscoe Bay. We had tried to get into Roscoe Bay on our last trip to Desolation but had wimped out, because it's a shallow, narrow entrance and we have a deep draft. Once inside the bay you are stuck until the next high tide since the entrance actually dries out at low tide. This time we entered on a rising tide with 1.5 feet under the keel on the port side of the boat and 1 foot on the starboard side. Yikes! We spent a couple of nights in Roscoe which allowed us to hike to the top of a 2200 foot mountain and go for lovely swim in the bath-water-warm Black Lake.

Our next stop was Manson's Landing on Cortez Island. Manson's has a huge lagoon full of more sand dollars than I thought could be possible in one place. The kids spent hours exploring the tide pools and collecting sand dollars for friends. Aaron took an abandoned clam shell and made the cutest little crab-i-tat I have ever seen. He found a tiny little crab to place in it and it was so cute I just had to squeak.

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Making Music in Paradise

We interrupted our lounging about, swimming and paddling to hike the infamous Trappers Cabin hike. It was just as steep as last time but less painful because we hiked at a more sane speed this time. Last time we completed, at death-march speed, the entire hike in two painful hours. This time our leisurely pace brought us there and back in about four hours....much more relaxing. This time I also had a water filter in my pack so we got to enjoy water fresh from the mountain stream along the way. Super delicious and satisfying. The waterfall up top was just as gorgeous as last time only running lower than last year so it was easier to poke out and enjoy the long view down the inlet. Back at the boat we immediately jumped into the water to wash the sweat and dirt away.

Later in the afternoon we met up with Chris from San Juan Sufficiency. After a dinner of fried rice, Isaac went over to Chris's boat with his guitar and the two sat together through the evening sharing songs with each other. The following evening Chris joined us in our cockpit with his two guitars and everyone played guitar and sang until Aaron fell asleep and the sun set.

The following morning we tore ourselves away from Princess Louisa to re-enter the flow of time and life (though I managed to squeeze in a last minute, parting swim before we fired up the engine). I watched the kids as they glanced back time and again trying to burn the Princess experience into their brains forever, with heavy hearts we bid her a sorrowful goodbye. She is still our favorite place on earth. We will miss her terribly.

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Paradisiacal Princess Louisa

The insanely warm, sunny weather continued making Princess Louisa so extraordinarily paradisiacal we could hardly stand it. We spent our days relaxing in the hammock on the foredeck immersed in the roar of Chatterbox Falls and dwarfed by the towering mountains. We swam daily, or twice daily, or thrice daily in the 72 degree ocean water and paddled many miles in the kayaks. We made several trips to a steep waterfall that alternately pounds down steep drops and then gently streams over granite, forming pools where we washed the salt water from our bodies and grime from our clothes. We never wanted to leave. Sigh.

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