2022 Canadian Adventure around Vancouver Island
Canada Cruising May 21 – May 31, 2022
We finally left
Tacoma under clear skies on Sunday May 22.
We stopped at Des Moines to get fuel which is always a shock these days
– $5.23 a gallon for Diesel and $5.06 for Gas.
Our first stop for the night was Port Ludlow where we stayed at the dock
and enjoyed our first night sleeping on the boat in quite a while. From Port Ludlow we went to Roche Harbor – by
far our worst crossing – very windy and the water was all churned up – we got
water all the way over the Fly Bridge wo we decided to get fuel($6.09!) and
stay at Roche Harbor since the entire boat needed washing. We had dinner on
Monday night with Allen and Sue at their new place on Henry Island which is
beautiful! It was great to catch up as they have moved to Oregon now so we
don’t see them often.
May 24 – Tuesday
we headed from Roche Harbor to Nanaimo where we cleared customs – we could not
use Nexus so tied to the Customs dock to clear which was a fairly easy process.
It was quite windy in so we decided to
stay at the Dock since the rest of our boats were all anchored out
individually. We finally caught up to everyone and enjoyed a Mexican dinner at
Gina’s in Nanaimo – we are travelling with Glen and Liz Dodge on Magic Moment,
Tom and Chris Miner on Miners Debt, Dave and Jane Mehlum on Bidarka and Linda
Collier and Mike Donegan on Kotare and it was fun to catch up with everyone.
May 25 – May 26 –
We left Nanaimo for Henry Bay by Comox and we anchored 2 boats – Nelsea and
Miners Debt together and the other 3 – Magic, Bidarka and Kotare together since
it was still quite windy. We left Henry Bay headed for Hjorth Bay where we
spent the night all anchored together and we shared a meal of Clams, Oysters,
Prawns, Bread and Salad – all fresh catches – an amazing meal.
May 27 -May 29 –Friday we left Hjorth Bay headed for Octopus
Islands to spent the night at anchored followed by a day hiking to the Lake –
It ended up being a beautiful hike of about 5 miles round trip but a great way
to spend the day. We also checked out
the Octopus Island Museum with all the mementos left by previous boaters – it
is quite amazing! Our plan was to leave
on May 29th and meet up with
Diane and Willard Thomas on Sea Life.
Linda Collier left early about 7:30 since Kotare travels slower than the
rest of us – unfortunately she put Kotare on the infamous Octopus Island
rock. The guys tied the boat to shore as
the tide was going out and would eventually lose 6 more feet of water and then
we waited. Around 4:30 in the afternoon enough tide finally came in to float
Kotare off the rocks – the prop and propellor appear to be fine but the Keel
got pretty scraped up on the rocks. After tying Linda back up to the group,
they determined that Kotare is taking on about 2-3 Gallons every 5 – 7 hours so
Linda will head south tomorrow to get pulled out of the water. We are sorry that their summer of boating
with us has come to an end.
May 30 – We all left Octopus Islands and we met up with
Willard and Diane Thomas at Helmcken Island to spend our first night with them. Not a good place to Anchor – it was very
rocky all thru the night but fun to meet up with them again.
May 31 -June 1 We headed out for Potts Lagoon – a great spot
for Crab! We also got quite a few shrimp
so we had two amazing seafood feasts on Nelsea!
June 2 – June 3 – Its off to Port McNeil for two nights at
the dock – we also fueled up ($6.35) and went to dinner at a new brewhouse
named Devils Bath. This was our
opportunity to stock up – groceries, pharmacy, sporting goods store, Liquor
store and even a farmer’s market and Logger show! Six of us took a cab to 7
Hills Golf and played 9 holes in a downpour of rain – wet but still fun to get
off the boats and get some exercise. Another dinner on the Nelsea and plans to
leave tomorrow for Blunden Harbor. As we were getting ready to leave so were the Seattle to Juneau Dangerous Waters group on JetSkis - makes me appreciate our travel accommodations on Nelsea when I see these.
