We are staying put today in a bay in Barkley Sound in what they call the Broken Group, it is part of the Pacific Rim National Park. It is blowing like stink out there and we decided just to stay safe and secure, there has been a gale warning for the last three days and it finally materialized today. We are planning on exploring around here the next few days, there are lots of little spots we could visit for lunch and then find a good anchorage for the night. We anchored at the end of the bay and there was a big tree floating there, we were a bit close and then when high tide came along and the wind came up, the tree started turning around and got rather close to us. We pulled anchor and went further away and re-anchored. Then tree did a 180 and turned completely around and it might have come pretty close to the boat if we had stayed put. It is rather big and still has all it's branches attached so I am really glad we moved rather than get tangled up with that thing. We have the end of the bay to ourselves, last night a group of ravens had a convention in a tree, first there were just 2 and they looked and sounded like they were having a good old chat and then another flew up and then another and there were 4 ravens sitting on one dead tree branch. It did make you wonder what they were up to.
Yesterday I walked to the other side of the island. The path was not very well marked and I made a couple of wrong turns but found my way eventually. Barry stayed aboard as his hip was killing him.

Our guide book said there was a sea cave down the beach, so I wandered down there and found the cave. It was fascinating, with a small beach in front at low tide, steep jagged rocks on both sides that were slippery so one had to be extra careful where they put their feet when scrambling down into the cave. The ceiling of the cave was covered with ferns growing out of the rocks, the cave went back quite a ways, about 30-40 feet ( I am not great with distances) getting smaller and darker the further back you went into it. I didn't see any dragons or sea monsters but it was certainly a place where they could live.

Well Barry got to see a specialist about his hip. Apparently he isn't nearly crippled enough to be considered for a new hip. The docotr said unless you can barely walk you are wasting my time and he wouldn't consider it unless Barry was over sixty and that would be borderline. We half expected that answer but it still is pretty disappointing. He said, so what you are sore, you're old things wear out, live with it. He prescribed him some fancy anti-inflamitories that are supposed to help. At least Barry didn't have to fly back from Mexico or somewhere in the South Seas to hear that kind of news. Ho Hum.
I spent a couple of days in Tofino cleaning and drying out the boat then I rented a bike and cycled out to Long Beach for a day. It was a gorgeous day and I sat on the beach after strolling about a kilometer splashing my feet in the surf, and watched the surfers do their stuff, most of them weren't much good but there were a couple that knew what they were doing and it was a pleasure to watch them. I also went up to Radar Hill where there used to be a radar station just after the war. It was a huge uphill climb, I walked a lot of the way up, but the view was fantastic, the ride down was a lot of fun, thank heavens the bike had good brakes!!!
We are in the process of circumnavigating Meares Island, there are snow covered mountains up an inlet that we plan to explore tomorrow. There is no place to anchor so we will go up the inlet and back down all in one day. It is only about 7 miles long, we have the dinghy down at the moment and hopefully we can tow it while we go up the inlet and I can get some pictures of the boat with snow capped mountains behind. The dinghy is down because we put out the crab trap and we are hoping to have crab for dinner. There were a gazillion crab traps all around Tofino and we had to slalom around them. Barry had the computer on to help with the navigating and he would say go left and I would have to head into a mass of crab traps floating all mish mash everywhere, I am sure my hair is a shade grayer tonight. It is sunny and warm though and we are enjoying every minute of the great weather.

June 17 - Supreme spa conditions were found at Hot Springs Cove in Clayquot Sound. The water in the hot springs was about 50 degrees Celcius, just perfect hot bath temperature, and there was even a hot shower to be had if you sat on a log under the water spilling off the 10 foot high rocks. Barry had a therapeutic massage on his hip under the shower, seeing that it was a 2 km walk down a wonderful boardwalk to get there, he needed it. There was even sea weed available if you wanted one of those ultra expensive sea weed wraps I always hear about. P.S. the boards on the boardwalk are adorned with carvings from boats that have visited. It was great entertainment to read the boardwalk as you strolled along in the rain forest.
The hot springs were much appreciated after a couple of long days sailing. Barry says that it was cold, wet, miserable weather. One evening we pulled into Friendly Cove at 1015 P.M. or 2215 in sailor talk. Friendly Cove is in Nootka Sound, most recently infamous for being the home of the urbanized killer whale Luna, who met an untimely demise earlier this spring when she had an unfortunate encounter with a tug boat. Friendly Cove is also famous as being the place in which Captain George Vancouver and Spain's representative Captain Juan Bodega Y Quadra signed the "Nootka Convention" in 1794 which became the basis for the Freedom of the Seas Doctrine. The early exploration and exploitation of the west coast has many of it's roots in this area and I am fascinated by it.
We did not have a chance to explore Friendly Cove as we arrived so late and then left early next morning to tackle Estanvan Point. I think it almost got the better of us, it was a steady 25 knots on the nose, gusting to 30, and it rained on and off all day. The boat held up well, the reinforced boom showed no signs of buckling or being unhappy in any manner, the only unhappy crew member was the Captain who when he took over his shift at 4:00 P.M. turned on the motor and motored into Hot Springs Cove, not giving up the helm in case the over enthusiastic crew attempted to sail again.
The next morning we awoke to sunshine and the Captain was all gung ho to get Bob to Tofino, but then the skies darkened, it started to rain and the wind howled, the Captain refused to move. The hot springs is a big business and boats come in all day with tourists from Tofino so Bob managed to negotiate a ride back with one fellow and Cat's-Paw IV and her diminished crew stayed put, visiting the hot springs and relaxing the rest of the day.
Today we had a pretty tame day, motoring into an inlet where a trail was reported to go to a lovely sandy beach. The tradition of the Lange Short Cut once again reared it's ugly head. We found the beginning of the trail and a group of kayakers who had come from the beach reported that it was very muddy and a few of their group had gotten boot full's going over it. I saw another trail that was clearly marked so I confidently set off down this trail, thinking I had found a better alternative route, ignoring Barry's comments that the kayakers had not come from this trail, 35 minutes later the doubt's were setting in and at 40 minutes I admitted defeat and we turned around. Barry really wanted to see the beach so after getting back to where we had started we set off down a 25 min. trail that took us 45 min. to walk, partly because of the mud and the maneuvering you had to do around it and partly due to Barry's by now much inflamed hip acting up. I felt extremely horrible to have
put him through a needless hour of hiking up and down and around just because I thought I knew a better way, #@%$#!
Although conditions out on the water haven't been all that one could desire we managed to keep up crew morale with a number of tasty and tantalizing meals. My brother Bob who's culinary skills up until now have admittedly only branched out to barbecuing and cooking KD or Kraft Dinner outdid himself the other day by preparing and serving, UNDER SAIL, a full course roast beef dinner including gravy, Sailor Bob indeed!! When we were blasting away into the 25 knot winds the other day I thought I would see if I could bake in those conditions, and managed to produce hot sour cream cranberry scones, that were inhaled by the cold wet crew. ( There was evidence of my baking on the floor, on the counter top, in the sink and pretty much everywhere once I was done, but I think it was worth it.)
We are headed into Tofino tomorrow. Barry has an appointment with an orthopedic specialist about his hip on Wednesday, so he will take a bus back to Victoria while I clean up and dry out Cat's-Paw IV in Tofino. Hopefully he will be back on Thursday evening and we can continue on with out Van Isle Voyage on Friday.

Tuesday, June 13 - Spa conditions prevail today, moist warm breeze blowing gently on your face, we are going to have wonderful skin by the end of the day. This has been the norm for the last few mornings, fog and light winds, then after lunch the fog lifts and the sun shines. We motored into our anchorage at Dixie Cove last night, there was bright sunshine, showing off nearby snow topped mountains. When we set the anchor we checked the temperature and it was a balmy 24 degrees, wow. Then we put the thermometer in the water to see if it was worth going for a swim and it said 18 degrees. Bob did not want to believe it, he thought my thermometer was malfunctioning. I did the toe test and it seemed a lot warmer than the last time we went in (the water was 10 degrees then). Bob and I donned our wet suits and in we went. Bob stayed in and swam for about 45 min. I was in for about 1/2 hour and swam and snorkeled getting eyeball to eyeball with some starfish and sunfish, great fun. I wanted to tell you about the other day when we were in Winter Harbour. We had been in town and then motored around the corner to anchor, so we were by ourselves. The sun was beating down and we were eating crab and drinking wine in the cockpit. It was so much fun to just chuck the crab shells over your shoulder into the water without a care in the world. CRACK, CHOMP, CHUCK was how it went for about a half and hour. I bought a roast when we were in Port MacNeil and we are going to eat it today, but Barry insists we have to cut some raw bits off so we can catch some more crab. We haven't caught any fish yet so hopefully we will remember to put a line in the water and maybe something will bite it.

June 11 - Well a lot has happened since the last update. After makeshift repairs on the boom in Port Hardy with angle iron bolted to both sides we sailed across the Queen Charlotte Strait to the mainland just opposite Port Hardy. That was a test for the boom, it must have passed because that evening Barry decided we could continue on with our trip and head around the island. The next morning we headed for Bull Harbour in order to wait for a good time to cross the notorious Nahwitti Bar. The water gets really shallow here and the ocean swells get really large and if there is any wind it can be quite dangerous. We woke up at 0500 and were underway about 0520 headed for the bar. It was very calm but we did have a bit of current against the tide and it was a very bouncy half hour. Then we rounded Cape Scott at 0945 and headed SOUTH, yahoo. We are now going with the wind and the current.

We had a terrific if rather moderate sail to Winter Harbour where we spent the night. I was getting tired and a bit owly so went to bed shortly after eating at 2130. Today we are going past the Brooks Peninsula otherwise known as the Cape of Storms. It was fairly decent as we sailed out of Winter Harbour and as we got closer the wind picked up and we reduced sail in the main. Now we are cruising down the Brooks Peninsula and headed for a lovely anchorage close to a sandy beach.

We saw a black bear strolling along a beach without a care in the world. Just a few minutes ago some porpoises came to zoom along beside the boat for awhile. They looked to be a different species from the ones around Sidney so I will have to look them up. We are now about half way around the island and I am hoping to do a bit more exploring on shore the next few days. All is well onboard and the sun has just come out so I am going to go on deck to enjoy.

e discovered bigger problems with our equipment yesterday. We have some hairline cracks in our boom where the boom vang attaches. This is not a good thing. We are now in Port Hardy attempting to give it a temporary fix. Barry and my brother Bob are going to screw some pieces of steel on the boom to reinforce it. We will not be continuing on with our trip around the island with a crippled boom, we have called our rigger and he says that it is going to break sooner or later if a lot of stress is put on it. Since my brother is only here for a short time we plan to sail up to the Broughton Island group and explore around there. We will not be sailing in big winds and putting very little stress on the boom which means sailing with just the head sail or in light winds only with the main up. We are all a bit disappointed with the turn of events but better now than in the middle of the Pacific.

Barry has to go back to Sidney to see the orthopedic guy about his hip on June 21 , so the plan is for him to take the boom back with him and get a new one made while he is in seeing the doctor. We will have to evaluate our time schedule after that and see if we can make it around the island in time to see our daughter Heather and our grandchildren on July 8.

On the positive side we spotted our first whales yesterday and saw more today. We were pretty far away but watching them blow and following their progress is really exciting. They are really magnificent creatures. My brother brought his wet suit with him and went in for a swim last night, he was not prepared for how cold it was but did stay in the water for about 1/2 an hour and did some swimming. I am not sure if he will go back in again or not. The air temperature was too cold for me to go in so I want him to go in again when I am ready to brave the elements. I imagine I can convince him to come in with me, he is not a wimp, being brought up north of 56.

We spent the day in a beautiful anchorage and as well as seeing whales Bob and I went for an up and down hike across the island, then we all went to visit a salmon farm. That was really interesting, the two guys working there came out when we climbed onto the walkway and explained how the operation worked. The little salmon were amazing just shooting out of the water so their whole bodies were in the air, it was fun to watch. Last night we went ashore and I had my first B.C. campfire. The moon was brilliant lighting up the whole bay and as we tended the fire we sang a few campfire songs, a wonderful way to end an informative and eventful day.

We picked up my brother in Port MacNeil on Monday. We both timed it perfectly, he got there on the bus at 3:00 P.M. and we arrived about 3:30. We did some grocery shopping, laundry, had 4 minute showers and took on water. It is a very pretty spot and everything was very handy to the marina. We even were allowed to push the shopping cart from the store to the boat, they would pick it up at the top of the ramp at the end of the day, very convenient.
We left the next day and motored out for a ways and then tacked into a very light wind all morning. About 2:00 P.M. the wind picked up as forecast and then we were sailing in 25-30 knots with meter high waves. Bob didn't feel ill at all and had no problems going down below to look for stuff, very encouraging. We then beat into the wind and waves for 6 hours to reach our destination. We motored the last 3 nm into a gorgeous anchorage that we have all to ourselves except for the loon and the bald eagle. There is a white beach close by and Bob and I plan to go swimming later. We are going to stay here for a day as the forecast is for more of the same and we don't want to get bashed around all day. We had some equipment malfunctions yesterday in the breeze, one which was fixed with no problem the other may take a bit of engineering to get it to be whole again.
We set out the crab trap last night. We had eaten t-bone steak for supper and after chewing diligently on the bones we put them in the carrot bag and stuffed them in the crab trap. When we pulled it up this morning lo and behold there were 5 crabs gnawing on the bones, we ate 4 of them for breakfast, a super start to our day.

We are headed to Port MacNeil to pick up my brother. He will be with us for about 10 days, we will drop him off in Tofino. We had an early start at 0615, the earliest yet. Yesterday we landed in a small cove that was renowned for it's crabs. We caught 9 and ate the only 2 legal sized ones, they were delicious. We have yet to have an anchorage to ourselves. We get to a spot about 5:00 P.M. or so and think that we might have it to ourselves and then someone else pulls in a little later. Oh well, apparently on the west side of the island there are less boats. There is a lot of logging that is going on around here, at these lovely secluded anchorages you here the whine and growl of heavy equipment on shore, you can't see anything because the trees are huge, but you can hear it. You can tell what areas have been logged, the trees are a different colour than the natural vegetation. I haven't gotten close enough to figure out what kind of trees they are planting but they seem to be either cedar or some type of deciduous tree. The other day we stopped at this little island to look at some WW2 gun placements. It was amazing, this small island and the amount of work that had been done on the top of a hill. There were lots of cement and brick buildings, that are all covered in moss now. They had even made cement stairs, these really fascinated me. I have pictures and hopefully will be able to load them in Port MacNeil. All is well, we are having fun, hope you are to.

June 2 - We had a great sail today. Went through Hole in the Wall without any problems, we had more trouble going through Active Pass one time. Then we headed up to an great anchorage on Sonora Island. The mountains aren't so high here but still there are very high hills. We encountered about 25 knots of wind going into the anchorage, it was funneling down a valley.

We went to set the crab trap today, it was about an hour and a half before low tide so I figured it should be a good time. We set it by a sandy beach and about and hour after low tide I went to get it. There were 2 crabs in it, EUREKA!!! I went by myself to check the net and Barry had said to just leave it in the water until tomorrow morning. I decided to take the crabs back to show Barry, but I didn't bring anything to put them in so I just put one in the front of the dinghy, the other one held on for dear life and I decided to leave it in the trap. The stupid crab in the dinghy went under the floor boards, so I spent the whole way back to the boat, about 3 km, worrying that he was going to come up and bite my butt, yuk. Once I got back, Barry said that we had to deflate the dinghy to get the crab out, so we had to take the motor off, bring the dinghy on board and deflate it until we could get the floorboard out and voila, one crab for dinner. We put the dinghy back in the water and Barry went back and collected the other one and we had them both for dinner. Next time, I will remember a bucket!! The crab that crawled under the seat, note the deflated dinghy
What a hoot, I don't think Barry was too impressed though. We don't have any other fresh or frozen meat on board so I guess we will have to figure out what we can catch tomorrow, maybe pick mussels or maybe catch a salmon.

May 31 we had our first feast off the sea. We collected oysters at low tide and barbequed them. Then we waited to see if they had PSP, a disease that will cause your tongue to go numb, then your fingers and toes and then you die. It was quite exciting waiting. We did not die and then the next morning we heard on the VHF that some parts of the fishing area are closed due to red tide, which causes PSP, we must find out what area we are in. The oysters were delicious.
Tonight we are having a big fruit salad. Barry looked in one locker and a grapefruit had gone bad and an orange and the pineapples I had in there were overripe so we are eating all the fruit that needs to be eaten. Live and learn about storing food.
The scenery here is spectacular, big mountains coming right out of the sea, there is still snow on a few, one inlet we could have gone up ended in a glacier. We stopped in one spot today and clamored up a hill to look at a waterfall. I hope Barry's hip is not too sore tomorrow. Tonight we stern anchored, that is tied off to shore. The sea bed is so steep at the edges that you have to get to close to the shore when you anchor so if you tie off to shore you will not swing into the shallow water.
Tomorrow we are headed into some rapids to get us into Johnstone Strait. You have to time the tidal rapids just right so that you go through at slack tide, otherwise there are eddies and currents and overfalls that can get you into a lot of trouble. We have spent quite awhile going through the charts, tide books and guides to help us figure out how to navigate around here. Everyday brings a new adventure and new things to learn, isn't life grand.

We had a wonderful time visiting with the Holmes family. We took Catherine, Tegan and Blair sailing on Monday. It was pretty blustery out about 20 knots with some chop. Blair was a big help helping me hank on the staysail and Tegan took the wheel and kept us going in the right direction. Then unfortunately Blair was stricken with rosario mintosis, a disease which can be brought on by seasickness preceded by the chewing and swallowing of one too many pink mints, it wasn't pretty. He recovered once we anchored for supper and held his spaghetti down as we returned to Campbell River (that was a bit of a worry). Catherine shared the helmsman's duties with Tegan and was suffering sympathy sickness with Blair. She wisely did not consume any pink mints before sailing and her sphincter remained nervous and would not relax.

Today we headed off into the wild blue yonder. We have a week before we have to meet my brother in Port Hardy and we are just going to mosey around. We crossed Desolation Sound under bright sunshine and anchored in Squirrel Cove ( you've got to love these place names). It was very satisfying to be in Desolation Sound, we have heard and read about it for years and now we are here. There is a plethora of islands and the coastal mountain range with the snow still on the peaks adds a beautiful backdrop. Barry said that everyday there is a new anchorage, he will worry about whether or not it is good holding ground and whether the wind will switch around and blow us around. We won't get a chance to know this area as well as we did Great Slave Lake, hopefully the guide books we have will steer us to the good spots.

Today is Day 4 of our Van Isle Voyage. We are in Campbell River visiting our Yellowknife sailing buddies, the Holmes family. We arrived yesterday and are staying today to take them for a sail. We really enjoy their company.

From just north of Nanaimo we sailed to Blubber Bay, which is on the north end of Texada Island. Apparently they used to hunt whales out of Blubber Bay, but no more, now it has a cement plant at one end of the bay and there were a couple of fish boats tied up that ran their generators all night so it wasn't a quiet anchorage. We had a lovely spinnaker run up to Blubber Bay ( I really like saying that) under sunny skies and with the wind behind us it was warm and wonderful. Yesterday we motored most of the way to Campbell River and then squeezed into a spot at the dock amoung huge fishing boats. Barry backed the boat out today because there was no room to turn around. We moved to a lovely marina, but it is more than twice the cost of the other place for moorage (ouch).

While we were in Blubber Bay we watched the sun set, Where we were moore in Sidney we did not see many sunsets and this one was pretty nice. I plan to watch a whole bunch more in the next 6 weeks.

OKAY so today is DAY 1 of our very own Van Isle 360. It wasn't a very exciting start because we basically motored all day. There was no wind. We are now in a little bay just north of Nanaimo, B.C. hope to be in Campbell River tomorrow.

I have done a couple of high tech things just lately. The first thing is that I once again have the capacity to be the scourge of the airwaves. We have been reporting in to the Great Northern Boaters Net. It is every day at 0800 PDT or 1500 UTC and it is on 3.870 megahertz on the LSB, so if any of you can here us we could talk after the net is over, about 0845. It is nice to be in touch with other boaters.

The big news is that you can see where we are going. On this site

http://www.pangolin.co.nz/yotreps/tracker.php?ident=VE8BL

you can find out where were are. I can only update once a day, so have decided to do it in the morning about 1000 so if you check that site about noon everyday you should be able to see how far we have gone from the day before and exactly where we are. I think it is so neat. I am out on the water and can e-mail in and anyone who wants can look up and find us. WOW, who would have thunk it.

The bay we are in has some old cottages on the one side and on the other there are these very expensive looking homes. I was wondering what the residence think of the cottages. Barry says it gives the place some character, what do you think?

Tomorrow will be DAY 1 of our trip around Vancouver Island. We figured out the windlass problem (corroded wiring) and it took us 2 days to fix it. This afternoon we got the windlass motor back from being reconditioned and Barry put it back on the boat and it seems to work just fine, keep your fingers crossed. This should be a lot of fun, we plan to be away for about 6 weeks. This is a practise run for when we head to Mexico. Things should be interesting. I am planning on catching a few crabs and finding some oysters.

We headed off to our Bluewater Crusing rendeyvous on Friday morning. We had loaded up with groceries and got the boat looking spiffy and were ready to start our trip around the island on Monday morning.

The rendeyvous was a lot of fun. There were tons of people there, we figured over 100 Bluewater people and over 45 boats. I could not believe how close people anchored to one another. One boat dropped anchor pretty close to us, when the wind blew it wasn't a problem, but when there was no wind and boats were facing different ways, we came pretty close to the guy..

We had appetizers aboard one boat on Saturday night and it was so crowded you couldn't move, then more people kept showing up and pretty soon there were over 30 people sitting in their dinghys around the boat, it was marvelous. The next day we got together for breakfast, there was a treasure hunt, a boat tour in the afternoon and then a pot luck in the evening. It was super to get to see all the other boats and see what innovative things people have done to their boat and what the interior layouts are like. Most seemed to have more storage room than ours, but oh well!!! In the evening at the pot luck it started raining but that didn't put people off, up went the tarps and the food was absolutely delicious. We got to meet the members from Vancouver that are planning to leave this year as well, there are 8 boats from the island and 3 boats from Vancouver that are off so I am sure we will see each other up and down the coast.

We had a couple of friends have trouble with their anchor windlasses when we were in the harbour. I kept thinking, okay there are 2 with problems, who is going to be the third. Well you guessed it, we went to wind in our anchor this morning and NOTHING, NADA, ZILCH. The &^%#*!% think wouldn't work. My husband said we should go back to Sidney to get it fixed because we would have a vehicle there and we know who to contact to get it fixed, if we couldn't so back we came. I am REALLY choked!!!!!!! This is supposed to be Day 1 of our trip around the island and we are still here, well, I guess that's boating.

Anyway we got some really good practise coming back. It was absolutely pea soup out there. You couldn't see 200 meters in front of you. We came back into Sidney steering a compass heading and using the GPS to set waypoints. We had the radar going to make sure the freighters didn't sneak up on us and keep track of the other boats that were close by. We started the computer and used our electronic mapping to make sure where we were. It was a bit alarming when you started looking around because all of a sudden you were 20 degrees off course. We had a power boat come up behind us and ask us where we were going, when he found out we were headed back here he asked if he could follow us, little did he know this was the first time we had actually done this. Barry and I did half the trip each on the helm so I got to practise the navigation and check out the radar. At first Barry was down below and he hadn't put a course in or anything. He was mucking around turning on the computer and setting up the radar, I was getting more and more agitated and louder and louder in my demands for a course. I couldn't see a thing and was wandering around on the course I had picked 20 degrees to one side and then 30 to the other side, it was like get me a safe course NOW. We made it without any problems, really good practise.

Barry spent the rest of the day trying to fix that frickin windlass. I hope someone can give us a hand tomorrow, like there aren't going to be a zillion others with problems that happened on the long weekend. OH WELL, these things happen. I just have to be back before July 8.

We have been busy refinishing our teak on the boat. We redid the cabin floor and now we are doing the teak around the 2 main hatches. We took the day off on Friday and went for a sail then on Sat. we sailed up to the dock at Barry's Mom's house and spent Mother's Day with her. When asked what she would like for Mother's Day she said she wanted some cupboards she had bought for her garage assembled so we spent the afternoon putting three large cupboards together. They all stand up, but the first on has an unexplained venting space at the top of the cupboard, it will aid in air transfer.

Last week we went into Victoria to see the Clipper boats that are in a round the world race. Victoria is their only Canadian port of call and it was very interesting to see the boats and here some of the crews stories. This one guy said on the trip across the Pacific it was really cold, they went up near the Aleutions. When there six crew on a watch it was so cold that there were only 2 on deck at a time and they could only stand to be on deck for 20 minutes at a time. There was no heat on the boats so they had to warm their hands up on a tea kettle when they got below. The boats are all the same, they are 68 feet long and they have between 16 to 18 crew members. The only paid member is the captain, all the other crew pay for the priveledge of going on a round the world yacht race. You can go for the whole race or one leg or a number of legs. If you are interested in more you can go to
http://www.tourismvictoria.com/Content/EN/1530.asp
and read all about it. Most of the crews seemed to be from Britain and there were a few Aussies and Canadians thrown in. When we walked by the boats, all their lines were in their dinghys which had been filled with fresh water, to get all the salt off the lines. It would be a truly remarkable experience to participate in something like this.

We are back at our slip now. We spent a night anchored in Sequim Bay where John Wayne Marina is. There were a lot of huge houses along the shore and it looked very upscale. The next day we sailed to Port Townsend. This place was quite different in character.

There are a lot of homes from the turn of the century. There was a huge brick post office with a clock tower, you could hear the clock chime out the hour. The clock tower actually reminded me of the one in the movie Back to the Future. The downtown also had a bunch of brick buildings along the waterfront and a few very Victorian looking office buildings. There were lots of art galleries along the main street and we saw a number of 60's type hippies walking around. It was a different place to visit.

We had a slow sail home, motoring off and on when the wind died. I even pushed up my sleeves and let the sun look at my arms, so it was sunny and warm as well, altogether a nice way to spend coming home.

Tomorrow is the opening day for our yacht club so we are planning to participate in the sailpast of the new commodore, so that should be interesting.

Here is a picture of that ocean going rowboat, I think there are three rowers and they are the U.S. team that is entered in the race, to row across the Atlantic. If you look closely you can almost read their web site. They certainly are adventureous.

The other amazing thing we saw the other day was a U.S. submarine. We had seen a big war ship that had sailed by and then there were these white boats that were pretty close together going in the same direction. I must have been looking in the other direction because the next thing I know between the two white boats was a SUBMARINE. My goodness, then I got out the binocs and figured out the white boats were Coast Gaurd cutters escorting the sub out to sea. It was really neat to see it, I felt like we really in the big leagues, no more small potatoes Gulf Island sailing this was the real thing. It isn't a very good picture, but I am sure if we had got any closer they would have got pretty nervous.

We have just set a record, two worst's within 24 hours. When we arrived in Port Angeles Barry had THE WORST DOCKING EVER. (Barry calls it a controlled crash) He tried to turn around in a small space within the marina and the wind was against him. He didn't get around and the wind took the boat and blew it broadside into the dock. Thankfully we had the fenders on that side and all the docking lines were on that side and there was no boat in the way, so after we smashed into the dock, we just tied up like we had planned to land there.

This morning leaving from that same dock I had THE WORST DOCK DEPARTURE EVER!!!! ( Barry calls it a departure fiasco) The wind, as Barry will happily tell you, was in my favour and I am not exactly sure what I did but I definitely turned the stupid wheel the wrong way going out and got blown sideways. I madly went forward and then backwards at great speed trying to get the boat turned around at near panic. Several times you could hear me yelling "You come and do it", but there was no loud swearing, believe it or not. I narrowly avoided a collision with a boat, our bow to his stern and nearly took out the starboard navigation light. By some miracle I got the boat going backwards and managed to BACK the stupid thing out of the lane between the slips. (Did you know that when you drive a sailboat backwards the steering reverses, well if you remember I am left/right challenged so from now on when going backwards I am going to face backwards because then you steer regularly.) I think some practise driving the boat backwards in and out of fenders thrown in the water in a wind is called for because it is quite unnerving to do it in a crowded marina.

Hopefully there won't be any more worst's on this trip.

We are back from Neah Bay. We had a wonderful time there. We spent three days, the first evening after we arrived we anchored and then untied the dinghy and headed over to the dock. It is a wonderful dock and the facilities were great. We walked around town and hit a grocery store. Day 2 we spent wandering around on local beaches, doing some beachcombing, Barry found a skookum 30 ft. piece of line and I found one heavy duty orange rubber glove suitable for handling fish. Then we headed back to the dock to watch the fishermen cleaning their catches, their filleting skills were amazing. Some docks that landed had guys in wet suits on board and they had been spearfishing. Hanging about in the background were sea lions waiting for the left overs. There were fisheries officers noting the particulars of the catches, they told us that the sea lions were spoiled, all they wanted were the remains of halibut, they weren't interested in the leftover sea bass or ling cod!!!! At the other end of the dock we saw about 5 eagles fighting over some scrumpcious morsel, one took off with it and another attacked him and the goodie was gone, sunk in about 15 feet of water.

That evening we were treated to a workout of about a dozen aboriginal women on a dragon boat. They did a brisk warmup of about a kilometer and then after a rest they took of for about a 5 km paddle, man did that boat ever move, and they paddled in perfect sequence. I wonder what they were training for?

Day 3 we headed for Canadian shores, planning on checking into customs in Port Renfrew. We phoned a customs number and were told we would have to go back to Victoria to enter Canada. To heck with that, we weren't about to go back 50 NM to check in so we headed out into the Pacific and took a look around the corner of Cape Flattery. After you round the cape you don't have to go west anymore you can head south. I asked Barry if he had any desire to just keep going and got a resounding NO for an answer. We anchored at Neah Bay again for the night.

Day 4 we headed back to Port Angeles with a west wind on our backs. We just flew down the strait, we did the 50 miles in less than 8 hours, WOW. My arms got tired from wrestling the wheel with the 5 foot swells pushing us in directions we did not want to go. We certainly figured out how to sail the boat downwind today!! As we got into Port Angeles the wind howled down the harbour hitting 30 knots. We saw an ocean going rowboat practising for a race across the Atlantic. I think they are even crazier than we are. I give them credit though they were rowing upwind in 30 knots, good practise, better them than me. We will stay on the American side for a few more days and explore Port Townsend and maybe even stay at John Wayne Marina.

I can't seem to add pictures at this site so will have to do it later. Keep in touch, love to hear from all of you.

We made it to Port Angeles yesterday,that means that we have crossed Juan de Fuca Strait, another big milestone. We had excellent winds yesterday, on the beam at about 20 knots, we crossed the 18 miles in just over 3 hours. I felt a bit queasy with all the waves and swells on the beam, but not too bad.
Today we are headed to Neah Bay which is the last port on the American side of Juan de Fuca before you turn the corner and head south, it is 49 miles from Port Angeles. There is a slight wind directly behind us so we are motoring until the wind picks up. I am hoping to head out to the Pacific for 24 hours and then turn around and head back to Neah Bay. I want to stand 24 hour watches and do some night sailing. We will see what the weather offers. Hopefully I will be able to keep in touch.

Barry’s brother Bruce, his daughter Kathleen and his grandchildren, Monty and Chantal arrived this week. We took them out for a sail yesterday. It was a super day for a sail with kids, the winds were about 10 knots, not too strong but just good enough to get the boat moving.

We went in search of porpoises and WE FOUND THEM. They were fishing in waters where we have encountered them before and after going back and forth over the area three times, they started following the boat. Bruce’s family just loved watching them. There was one fat one amongst the bunch and whenever he appeared no one got in his way. There was also one that was a gray colour and we figured that had to be harbour porpoise. Bruce fell asleep on the front deck on the way home so all in all everyone had a good time.

We are headed out on a 10 day trip this week. We are going out Juan de Fuca Strait to the end and out into the Pacific Ocean. I want to see if I get seasick in the swells and I want to sail on the ocean. I hope to go to Neah Bay and then sail out into the Pacific for 24 hours and then sail back, then head home. We are in Esquimalt tonight so are on are way. I probably won't be able to get e-mail for about 10 days s0 if you want to get hold of us send e-mail to

VE8BL@winlink.org

That is our ham radio e-mail.

We attended our first spontaneous dock party last weekend. We went to this spot with another couple and there were 3 other boats already there. On Saturday night we went to the dock for happy hour and everyone brought out appetizers. The sailboat guy that was tied up at the dock had gone out in his kayak and picked up a bunch of oysters. He took out his little hibachi and cooked them right there on the dock. They were delicious.


BEFORE AFTER

We are finally having our holding tank put in this week. It will be our last major fix on the boat. We are without a head so getting up in the morning and stumbling down to the club house to use the washroom is not my idea of fun. Hopefully the holding tank will be done in a few days.

We went in a 40 nautical mile race yesterday. It was quite the experience. We had a poor start, the winds were really light and Cat's-Paw does not respond really well in light air so at the start I was dead on the line at the right time, but the wind died and could not make the bouy but had to tack to get across the line. The wind picked up and we started passing people like gang busters, mostly smaller boats whom we should have been ahead of, then we went around as island and ran into the dreaded tide.

My goodness, I have never experience anything like that. For at least three hours we tried to get out of the tidal push. All the other boats were in it as well and you could see people sailing along, sails trimmed beautifully in about a 5 knot wind and they were going backwards. It was very frustrating. We were carried 2 nm across Haro Strait towards the tip of an island, twice we tacked to get away from some rocks. There was a bouy marking the rocks and it became our nemisis, we HAD to get past it, finally at dusk we left it in our wake. While we were caught in the tide we saw one boat that was turned 180 degrees and shoot out of that tidal rip backwards. We actually did 3, count them 3. 360's in one spot, man talk about feeling powerless.

This is one of our fellow racers caught in the tide. He is sailing at about 5 knots but with no forward progress.

While we were being tossed around we saw some sea lions,they are huge sleek creatures and I am sure they were fishing in the tidal front. They make the most unique grunting sounds when they are vocalizing. After dark we were sailing along, under a new moon, with clouds partially obscuring it, and stars peaking out here and there, our navigation lights gave a weird greenish glow to the bottom part of our jib and you here these noises. Thank heavens I had seen and heard the sea lions in the light because I would have been wondering in the dark. A little further along all of a sudden I heard this explosive release of air ppuuuffff, and then again, dahl porpoises were riding our bow wave. I went up to have a look and along the edge of the boat in the water I saw luminescense. The whole night was a gorgeous experience.

We finished the race about 1:30 A.M. We didn't finish last, which was what I was worried about, we may have in the handicap system, but I don't know that yet!!!! The guy at the weather briefing on Friday night was predicting 30 knots, and I am sure if they had materialised our boat would have done better. We had to do some sailing straight downwind and I was at the helm and I know we lost some ground. It was dark, our windex (that I just put up at peril to life and limb) got stuck so we had to guess wind direction from our flag, and we haven't down that much downwind sailing. I think we will have to go out and practise, a ancidental gybe didn't help either, that was more than a little disconcerting in the dark.

All in all I am really glad we went in the race, the night sailing was fantastic and it was nice to get to meet some of the racers. P.S. If you are interested in the race results, in the kind of boats that participated and their handicaps and how they did you could visit our yacht club's web site at http://www.snsyc.ca/race_results/2006patos.htm We were in the Patos Island Race. The guy said the results should be up sometime today, April 2, 2006.

Notice this guy's fancy, smancy sails, kevlar, I believe, he went really fast.

We have been graced with a wealth of visitors in the last few weeks. The first was Helen Butler from Yellowknife, we had a lovely sail and it was just great to be able to show our boat off to our very first non-family Yellowknifer. We cleared all our sails out of the v-berth so we would have room for guests and we whiled away the evening exchanging stories of our lives in the past year. It was wonderful.

Then we invited a local family that had befriended us last fall whom we are vaguely related too, she is my sister-in-law's brother's wife sister (If you can follow that you are a genius.)for a day sail. We had Lorna, Randy and Sandy Hughes on board. When we were out we saw a number of porpoises and some seals. Lorna has piloted whale watching zodiacs for a season or two, so was able to give us lots of information about the types of whales we could expect to see and the time of year we might see them. The wind was quite variable that day, but the sun shone all day it was a super day.

We had a call from John and Gail Borkovik, from Yellowknife, they were in Vancouver and wanted to know what marina we were at. After making it clear to them we were on Vancouver Island, they made the trek over and stayed with us for three nights. It was so nice to have their company and catch up on Yellowknife gossip. We had a terrific sail the day we took them out, Gail was a natural on the helm, John ability to stay on course did not quite cut the mustard. We even saw some whales, it wasn't a great sighting but after consulting with Lorna the next day we figured they were minke whales.

They helped us replace our windex which was blown off in the 35 knot winds we were out in last week. Check out http://annoeboat.blogspot.com for pictures of how high off the ground I actually was.

Okay, I have decided that I have truly made the transitions from regular working stiff to SAILOR GIRL. A while ago I gave up my female compulsion to purchase more and more pairs of shoes, from the practical to the outlandish, and decided to concentrate on nuts and bolts instead, STAINLESS STEEL, of course (is there anything else???).

When working on a boat you have to have on hand any number and type of stainless steel fixtures. You have to have bevelled head screws, pan head screws, machined screws, tapping screws. Naturally you need numerous and various sizes, different diameters and different lengths, you have to have small skinny ones and small fat ones, and long skinny ones and long fat ones and you can't forget to have the middle sized ones as well, so small middle sized ones, medium middle sized ones and long middle sized ones, the list in endless, rather like shoes except they don't come in different colours. Then there are nuts, on a boat you want the teflon nuts, that is stainless steel nuts with teflon inserts, ordinary ones will just work themselves loose and become a hazard, so teflon is the way to go, and of course you need every size you can think of. The size is dictated by the diameter of the bolt. To be included with this are the washers, all stainless steel and as many different sizes as you could possibly imagine. We have some really big ones that are referred to as backing plates but I am still a little confused as to when a washer is referred to as a backing plate, but I am sure I will learn that soon.

This particular rant came to mind when I took one of my northern sailing friends to the West Marine store to purchase some nuts and bolts for her partner and their boat. I had to explain why she just had to buy the teflon nuts, the regular ones just wouldn't do, it was then I figured I had made the transition to SAILOR GIRL.

Hope all is well with everyone, we are off to a Bluewater Cruising meeting tonight with a presentation from a very experienced pair of sailors, should be good.

Prevost Harbor, WS

We had fun sailing this week, maybe I should say I had fun sailing this week. It was threatening to gale on Wed. morning so Barry wanted to go back to Sidney, we headed towards Sidney but stayed in an American harbour next to a park. We had a good sail up there, 20 knots downwind most of the way the boat behaved beautifully, no problems. The next day it was threatening to gale again and Barry wanted to go back to Sidney, instead we headed for Roche Harbor. It galed!! The winds were sustained 30 knots with gusts up to 37 knots, we sailed upwind into the gale. It actually blew our wind vane off, it's gone!! Other than that no problems, well, we did forget to tighten down one window and we got some water in the boat, the bilge pump went to work but couldn't get all the water out on the one tack, not good. We put the Monitor vane on and it actually steered the boat better than we could have, it did a great job. This morning we woke up and I asked Barry what he wanted to do and he said he wanted to go back to Sidney, so I gave in and said we would, after we went ashore and walked around Roche Harbor.

Wet and Wild Barry, notice how tilted he is, he is actually standing up straight on the healed over boat.

Roche Harbor actually has quite a bit of history, they had a big limestone quarry and kilns there at the turn of the century and into the 1930's and 40's. There was a wealthy family that ran the lime works and he built a memorial to his family in the middle of the woods. He built columns that have the same circumference and diameter of the those in King Solomon's temple and then in the center there is a round table of limestone and cement surrounded be six stone and cement chairs, it is the same as the family table and it represents a symbolic reunion after death. It was pretty neat to see the structure in the middle of the forest, all of on its own.

After that we headed back to Sidney and had a wonderful sail back, it was a gorgeous sunny day and we practised our sun shots on the sextant and Barry snapped this shot. You can see our vane working in the background.
A couple of Yellowknifer's are supposed to drop by to see the boat next week. It will be nice to show it off, if you are planning to be on Vancouver Island anytime soon make sure you drop by to see us. Oh, by the way if you are reading everything, just so you know I did NOT get to go shopping in Friday Harbor, Barry agreed to go sailing instead!!

We had the pleasure of being boarded by the U.S. Coast Guard today. The mothership came rumbling by and then "baabing" there was a zodiac in the water. Barry says I think they are coming over here and I said no, why? Sure enough they headed our way and said they were coming aboard to make an inspection. What a nice couple of cute fellows, very polite and professional and social, they introduced themselves as Cameron and Chris. We made small talk as they looked at all our documents, called in our names to some US governing body, and checked out our safety equipment. You will be glad to know that we are not wanted for anything in the U.S. (our kids haven't sent them out looking for us) and Cat's Paw IV passed the safety inspection with flying colours.

One of the guys really looks like David Berry, I almost said Hi Dave when he came on board, my goodness, he was even from David's neck of the woods, Maine, (kind of) so I guess they grow them really cute out there. We gave them our boat card and told them they would be famous on our blog in a few days, the one guy even checked with the other guy when they left the boat to check out whether or not he had the internet address.

After they left they hopped back on their zodiac and went back to the mothership. Now I know why the zodiac just appeared "baabing" when they came over, they actually drove the zodiac right onto a ramp in the back of the boat, it just disappeared up into boat, it was really neat. It was a very pleasant visit, we had perfectly clear conscience when they came aboard, no Canadian beef or chicken, no rogue limes or oranges, no illegal Vancouver Island potatoes, no unwanted garlic, all is well with the world. If those guys were an indication of the quality of the U.S. Coast Guard personnel, one and all will be welcome onboard Cat's Paw IV, anytime. Thanks guys!!

We have headed over to the U.S. for a little March break. Here Barry is checking into customs at Friday Harbor, WS. I have felt the need to go sailing for awhile and get away from Sidney. We were planning on spending 5 days over here and then heading back for the next session of our celestial navigation course. I now know how to shoot the sun and wanted Barry to take a picture of me using the sextant, but did not get around to it. I figure I would look like a real OLD SALT in the picture.

The weather is not co-operating, the wind has picked up to over 20 knots and Barry wants either to stay in port here or head back to Sidney, didn't he know that all I wanted to do was get away from there, just for a few days. I am game to stay here until the winds subside but not sure I can convince the CAPTAIN. There are some lovely stores here that I would like to go and explore so I think I will just go ahead and do that. I have not bought any clothes since Aug. last year and I am feeling deprived.

Well doesn’t that beat all, it is the 9th of March and we woke up to snow today, unbelievable!!! We went all winter without a hint of snow and today we get the white stuff, it is supposed to stay cold and yukky all of next week. I guess that’s what I get for bragging about the trees being in bloom and the daffodils being out. I just can’t’ figure out this west coast weather. We have lost the battery charger to our camera so it will not work at the moment so we have to get to a camera shop and get a replacement charger. I know all of you would have loved to see pictures of us in the snow in MARCH, arrggghhh!!!!

We attended an excellent meeting last night about Winlink and weather faxes and all sorts of stuff last night. The presenter really new his stuff and had made a power point presentation on a CD and GAVE each boat a copy. So if you didn’t catch it all at the meeting you could review it at home. Just Super Stuff.

I found out there are several position plotting sites out there which will allow us to radio in our position and once we leave you will be able to follow our progress using a site on the Internet. That was so super to hear, you would even be able to see how fast we were going and we could give a brief report about the weather or the seas or whatever. I think that is quite exciting because people on land will be able to track us if they want to. I am thinking we will set it up for our around the island tour in late May so will keep you posted on what site we are going to use and where you can go to find it.

I have just generated a new TO DO list and I am currently working on putting together a DITCH bag. If you have to abandon ship everything you theoretically need to survive should be in your ditch bag, IMPORTANT STUFF, this should be an interesting exercise.

Well, the scourge of the airwaves is operational and has begun her career as an onboard ham radio communicator!! Today, March 6, 2006, at 1220 hours PST, I actually talked to some guy in California. Barry had taken the ham installation and operation course on Sat. and we had 10 Bluewater Cruising members aboard this morning to look at our ham radio and its installation. Our installation passed the inspection with a few minor changes to be made and then we tried to contact this guy that runs a boating net in California. We could barely here him but the course conductor could actually make out what the guy was saying and he was receiving our signal not too badly. That was a real good thing; Barry still had doubts about whether or not the radio was working.

Then later after everyone had left, I turned on the radio again and heard somebody running a contest to see how many people he could contact, so I replied. It was quite neat to talk to the guy, we didn’t chat too long as he wanted to get to other people, but he did ask how come someone with my call sign was transmitting out of Victoria. Once we move we are supposed to change our call signs but I really like mine, it indicates that we are from the NWT and I do not want to change it.

To continue on with the Ham Installation course we went on two other boats and looked at their set up and saw how their radios worked. The other two couples were also living aboard their boats and they are in Sidney so we will have to make the effort to get to know them better. This week we are taking a celestial navigation course and then Barry will go to a rigging course in a couple of weeks.

The guy that was supposed to install our holding tank has put us off for another week, this is the second time he has put us off, so if he does it again we are going to look for someone else to do the work. We would like to have that done and finished. We pick up our liferaft tomorrow. I have finished putting together our medical kit, except for the prescription medications, so preparations are moving along as they should.

We are thinking of entering a 66 NM race that takes place on April 1. It is possible that we could be racing over night so that sounds like something we would like to do. The boat is more suited to that type of racing than your around the bouy type races. We have to get an official PHRF rating for the boat so have to submit our sail sizes to a committee that will assign us a handicap rating. Down here you can’t just say well I have this kind of boat and they look up your rating, you have to send in sail sizes and types, etc.

We went out on Friday and sailed around one of the U.S. San Juan Islands. There was a lovely breeze of 12-17 knots with very little waves and it was a wonderful sail. There are a lot of beautiful log homes with gorgeous settings on the San Juan’s. I think a lot of people have their Pacific Northwest summer homes on these islands. We didn’t get in until after dark, but Barry didn’t even freak out and I docked the boat in the dark without a problem. Barry’s Mom moved residences last week and we spent two days up island helping her, so life has been busy and full. All the trees are full of blossoms down here and the weather is gradually warming up, I washed the boat down yesterday and then sat up on deck in my shirt sleeves with some wine and cheese and read my book. It sure beats working!!!