Lagoon Cove

After Squirrel Cove there are three rapids that we must transit near slack water. With these rapids often traveling faster than our boat speed and developing whirlpools and overfalls, it is prudent to figure out the best time to be there. Another concern is the "highway" traffic; tugs and tows going about their business. It took about 3 hours for us to arrive at the Yuculta Rapids (pronounced you-claw-tahs) only having to adjust our speed slightly on the way. Had it timed perfectly to get through Gillard and Dent at just the right stage of the current.
Our next stop was at Oleo's in Frederick Arm. This is a "quaint", rustic little floating restaurant where you can have a wonderful, tasty meal for two and stay at the dock overnight for $44 Canadian. We have stopped several times and have always enjoyed our visit with Ruth and Katrina. This time Leo was away, but we still had a great meal and visit.
Two more rapids of the lesser kind, Greene Point and Whirlpool were no problem. We stayed in Forward Harbor, Douglas Bay last night all by ourselves.
Today we tackled the notorious Johnstone Strait with a very unusual prediciton of light winds. We had our first rain, but enjoyed calm seas. Bob spotted our first bear of the trip as we went through Chatham Channel, a very intimidating looking narrow channel. After going through many times, it isn't at all intimidating - at least if you don't meet a tug with a load of logs.
Arrived at Lagoon Cove with Bill's friendly greeting on the radio. He remembers everyone's names, so you always feel especially welcomed. This is a fun stop where we meet and greet friends old and new. There is always a happy hour or potluck scheduled, and this time Jeanne invited us up to the house out of the cold.

Squirrel Cove

We crossed the Strait of Georgia Tuesday in beautiful, calm weather. One of our best crossings. The only problem was that Whiskey Golf was open, so we had to transit around the torpedo practice area. Added a little to our trip, but with such calm conditions it wasn't bad.
We anchored in Ballet Bay with one other boat. A beautiful peaceful spot. The weather has been very warm, but the forecast has been for a cold front to move from Alberta into BC with strong to gail force winds. We waited to leave yesterday till 11:00, a very late start for us. After talking to some friends out on Malaspina Strait, we decided to give it a try. No Problem Nice calm water all the way.
Stopped here in Squirrel Cove for the night and plan to go through the rapids today at 2:00. Still very warm and nice...
More later

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First Leg

Our first leg of our cruise is done. Well, it's more like a little toe... We are in Nanaimo, BC and planning to cross the Strait of Georgia, our first of the big crossing events. We hope it is a non-event.
Friday night we anchored in Prevost Harbor on Stuart Island, WA. From there we went to Bedwell Harbor, BC to check in to Canadian customs. NOT... They don't open till May 1st. The customs agent on the phone told us to report in to Van Isle, so we dutifully backtracked and checked in there. It was just a phone call, so it seems that they could have done that from Bedwell. I guess we should feel lucky that crossing the border by boat is pretty easy. The US is making it much more difficult within the next year or so.
After that little trip, we headed for Montague Harbor where we tied to a buoy and then went walking in the park to find our first Canadian Geocache. We left Yuma lettuce seeds; probably an illegally imported item.
To get to Nanaimo it is necessary to pass through Dodd Narrows where the current can really rip. In our slow boat we need to figure to go through near slack water. We figured it would take us about 5 hours, but we figured wrong and got there too early. We kept slowing down as we got closer and finaly just drifted; waiting for the current to slow down a little. Made it through fine then.
On to anchorage at Newcastle Island. A nice 2 mile walk on the island brought us to another Geocache.
Visited Ernie on DX in the late afternon, and he offered to take us up to his son's house in the morning so we could get on the Internet to log our caches and check email.
After doing that we dinghied back to the boat and then to town. We took Jr. Smiley Face, the Travel Bug that we found in Anacortes, with us and dropped him off in the Newcastle View Cache. One of his objectives was to travel to other countries, so now he has traveled to one.
More later...

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Cutting Loose

Looks like today is the day to start our cruise, someone told us that leaving on a Friday is bad luck, but we are going anyway. We finally have all our provisioning done (except those things that we will realize that we forgot when we get away from the dock), our diesel heater is in, our forwarded mail has arrived, our autopilot has returned from repair in CA, the engine is all set to go, the bottom has been cleaned and zincs replaced, the pets have all had their shots, the motorhome and car are stored... I think we're ready.
I will update when I have access to a pay phone or the Internet, which won't be too often. Check back to see how we are doing and what adventures we have had along the way.
Yesterday, we did some Geocaching in Washington Park in the Anacortes area. It was a beautiful day and the views out over Rosario Strait were spectacular. To top the day off, we found our first Travel Bug, Jr Smiley Face. He will start out with us on the cruise. We plan to drop him off in a cache near Nanaimo, BC, but he may end up traveling all the way to Alaska with us.

Heat today, Maybe

Maybe today is the day to get our diesel heater installed; just in time for the weather to warm up, scheduled for next week. Anyway, it will be nice to have as we head north. That should happen next week, too.

 

Bob found that an elbow on the exhaust system showed signs leaking. Our mechanic has taken it off to his shop to check it out and replace it if necessary. More $$$$. The diver is expected today to change zincs and clean the bottom of the boat. $$$ A new voltage regulator is due to be installed on the cruising generator. $$$. The automatic pilot has had a new compass installed and should arrive soon. $$$ My 6 months prescription of Lipitor is due here next week. $$$

 

Are we having fun yet?

Worked

Now another try from Hotmail via Outlook.

Using Blogger Support Suggestion

Let's see if this works.

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I’m so tired of getting the following failure message:
“This is the Postfix program at host blogger.com.
I'm sorry to have to inform you that your message could not bebe delivered to one or more recipients.”

This is what I sent:
Waiting for the next storm to move through. Looks like there is good weatherafter this one passes. Heater installers will be here tomorrow and finish onSaturday... We'll see.

I listed Geocaching as an interest on my profile and found 40 other fellowGeocachers with Blogs. Also found a list of the Blogs on the Geocaching Forum.Lots of interest in this sport, adventure, game...whatever it is.

Testing from Hotmail via Outlook

Just a test... 1,  2,  3

Failed email post

Might as well post this from the Blogger site, as it failed through email. Only got 1 of 4 through yesterday...
Still chilly here, but the sun is shining so that makes a big difference in themood of the day. We seem to be getting closer to a warm, cozy boat. That's goodbecause we are getting closer to cutting the lines and heading out. Ourinstaller is busy looking for the best buy he can find on stainless steel touse as a heater surround. He is also fabricating a thimble to go through deckas protection for the heat generated in the flue. Still lots to do, but theprocess is underway.Yesterday we took the folks from sv Willow along on a Geocaching hunt. Wefinally found the Anacortes Artistic History cache after several attempts overseveral days. Some confusion over one clue and the math necessary to solve thelat long of the final cache. We also found Ferry Godmother - Annie's Corsets.Our friends were glad we introduced them to the sport and plan to do someGeocaching in Seattle while they are there for the next couple of weeks.

Heater installers

We currently have diesel heater installers onboard. They think they can get it done this week. That's good news!

Another try

From Hotmail through Outlook.

Winter Weather

The winter weather that Washington wished for in the middle of winter has finally arrived. (How's that for alliteration?) Cold, windy, snow in the mountains, rough water; glad we are still tied to the dock. Today we are waiting for an expert to check our VacuFlush for air leaks and take a look at our diesel heater installation. With this weather, it will be nice to have a warm, cozy boat.

BTW: The leg is much better, thank-you.

Another BTW: Just when I get confident that emailing posts is going to work with some regularity; it doesn't. This is posted online.

It's Painful

While out Geocaching yesterday (If you don't know what that is, check it out at geocaching.com )I slipped on a muddy trail, my foot went one way and my leg another and I heard an ominous POP. After getting it checked out at the Emergency Room, I found that I had no break. Just extreme pain later in the day. After taking my 4 Ibuprofin that the doctor recommended and sleeping with the warm electric blanket, I feel much better this morning; can actually put weight on it. Rain is on the way; so due to rain and pain there will be no geocaching today.

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Good Morning!

It looks like a beautiful day in paradise. Won't rain again until tomorrow. Looks like a good day to do some Geocaching in the area and go to the local quilt show. Oh that's right, Bob says that we need to finish unpacking the motorhome while it's not raining.

The Big Test

Posted from Pocketmail Composer via cell phone.

Nothing posted today

Guess the gurus are having problems figuring out this email posting. Well, maybe they have it now. I've been frustrated for post after post, then all of a sudden one gets through; just enough to make me think it will really work everytime now.

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Better posting

So far today postings have been more consistant. Maybe they are getting the problems fixed.

At Last

Got an email posting from my Pocketmail device. Hooray! Now trying Pocketmail
online.

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Emailing posts

Still trying to get email through. Here is an answer from Blogger Support...hasn't worked yet.

Hi there,

We had to turn off the Mail-to-Blogger feature recently, due to database
issues. This should now be working again, though there will sometimes be
considerable delays in posts reaching your blog. We apologize for the
inconvenience and we are working on making this service more reliable.
Thanks for your patience.

Sincerely,
Blogger Support

Another from Outlook

We found our cat; actually, he found his way back to the boat. The boat next to us had started up, and he must have thought we were leaving the dock without him. He came sheepishly slinking home, and has been alternately purring and sleeping ever since. He seems to be as happy to be home as we are to have him back.

Still having problems with emailing posts

One of our cats, Dock, decided to jump ship. His boat brother, Dinghy, would never even contemplate getting off the boat, but Dock is the braver of the two. I'm sure he is out exploring somewhere. We just hope that he is not on a boat that is pulling out of the marina with him onboard. We are also hopeful that someone hasn't opened the door to his pitiful meow. Between looking for the cat, I'm still trying to get posts online.

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