August 23rd

July 23^rd SHAWL BAY ART

As mentioned earlier if we want the privilege of having these places like Pt Harvey, Lagoon, Echo, Shawl Bay, Sullivan, Kwatsi, Jennis, etc., we as a boating community HAVE TO SUPPORT THEM. They will NOT be here next year if we don’t.

After we turn the corner coming south around Cape Caution provision at Pt Hardy or Pt. McNeill. Then we head to our home port in the Broughtons at SHAWL BAY. Here we find water to fill our tanks, shore power, laundry, sweet goodies (cherry pie). A place to purge some of our accumulated pop cans, dog walks, internet, FREE PANCAKE BREAKFAST, HAPPY HOUR, fried turkey & seafood dinners and the socialization that is a major part of the fun coming to these destinations. We don’t just come for the pancakes, but for the comradery that takes place at the large wooden tables. WE ENJOY THE SOCIALING and catching up with old & new friends.

It’s a short season for Lorne and he & staff cannot do it all. So many of us come here and support him both financially and physically. It’s good exercise!

 

I carved the art signs here about 5 years ago. They have become part of the ambiance and charm here at this floating village. I admit it is a source of pride and pumps up my sagging ego when a group of new visitors arrive at Shawl and have their picture taken standing under the welcome sign. Frequently you find some with a very fancy camera person taking close ups of the colourful bedding plants that are potted all about the place.

 

Shawl Bay

                                                          We love it here and so will you!

 

                                                               WE END OUR BLOG HERE.PENNY & I HOPE THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN FOLLOWING HAVE ENJOYED THE RANTING AND MUMBLING OF OLD FOLKS DOING THEIR THING- MESSING ABOUT IN BOATS.

Those of you that have made Desolation Sound your final destination, but dream of venturing further - YOU CAN DO IT! Many yachters go around the corner to the Broughtons (just remember –wind & tide going the same way on Johnstone) and go even further north (stay away from Slingsby) on our way to FURY COVE above Cape Caution.

We have seen people traveling in war canoes, kayaks and Mega Yachts. They all enjoy the beauty and love the excitement of traveling the North West Coast of British Columbia.

Please join us in new adventures in the future.

THE END

 

Penny, David Thompson with Chevy the dog on“Oceanaire I”

August 22nd

August 22^nd Shaw Bay

Today is busy day, GARBAGE TO BURN; I bet you have never thought about what happens to all the unwanted paper, bottles, cans and food stuff that we all generate while out boating. Well it is the same stuff that we have to deal with at home.  We do not have recycling binds so this is what we do.  All the perishable food stuffs go overboard, like lettuce, potato and carrot peels.  Scrap meat feeds the fishes.  We avoid doing it in bays where there are other boats, but we put it in the water when we are under way over the transom into the dishwater wash of our stern wave.  We have an aluminium can container on the back deck and when accumulated to the max we will almost surely be near a dock. Most anywhere in the Broughtons they will take them for recycle when the do grocery runs to Pt McNeill. Sometimes they just store them in huge bags (hidden in sheds) and empty them at seasons end. Most plastic containers have a deposit return and are light.  Anything that is heavy requires fuel and lifting energy to transport it to a recycling station. 

The problem trash is metal cans and they are taken care of in a beach burn.  This takes place in very specific areas like a drying rock in the middle of a bay.  This is a low tide thing. All the paper must be dry (paper towel is wrung out to dry in the sun) as they are the fuel for the fire. When the fire is going usually with the help of accelerant like paint thinner (not gasoline) that is the time for tin cans to be placed in the hot flames. Stir around till done and the flames are out. Go back at low tide pick up the metal pieces and bag these.  What is left usually has the protective finish removed. When under way what little is left goes over the dish washer of the stern when we are in very deep deep water.

NOW I CAN HEAR THE HUMAN CRY FROM THE ENVIROMENTALIST!  Put your hands up all of you that have seen the pictures of the Titanic in the briny after she has been sunk for about a hundred years.  This is the reality check. Mother Nature will reclaim her own.  The solution to pollution is dilution when you are out or the recycle area.

 

 

August 21st

August 21st the charm of Shawl Bay continues to hold us.  The long term mooring yacht owners that stay here for most of the summers add immensely to the entertainment value.  “Jacara Maru” with Larry and Nancy add spice to the joint.  They have come here for some time and Larry is a prawn fishing guru. He has only just discovered catching salmon but is wary of staying in his limit.  Darn now he has to hang out with Nancy again. 

GREEN BAY 

In last year’s Blog we talked about the condition of the marina. It was one of the thriving focal points of the Broughtons.  It is sad, very sad that as a cruising fraternity we are rapidly losing this resource.  I think by this time next year most of the docks will be torn away by the winter winds.  The good thing is that the marinas such as Echo and Sullivan have had a banner year.  The mega yachts have come in droves particularly for the pig roast, the turkey fry, and the FREE PANCAKE BREAKFAST.  WHAT WITH GETTING OF A MEGA YACHT TO GET FREE PANCAKES?

When in Green Bay we check out the Broughton Lagoon tidal bore. 

Broughton Tidal Bore

It is great fun to run the rapids and swift water.  We must be getting old as when we neared the white foaming over fall we backed down and idled away.  In previous blogs we posted some great pictures of the Pacific White Sided Dolphins doing the leaping thing in this lagoon.  Mom and Dad Dolphins sometimes come here to calf as the Killer Whales would not feel comfortable in the narrow pass and swift water coming and going during tide changes. 



Greenway docks

We checked out what is left of the Greenway docks and talk to people of the two visiting yachts.  They say that the dam has been compromised and there is NO WATER here. 
 

More Greenway

Forestry dock

We went to the Forestry dock and started to think about a walk to the lake above.  After a climb up the first flight of stairs I feel the burn in my thigh muscles and I give it up.  Penny would continue to carry on, as she is the goat in the family and me (the crab) gets nervous just leaving the close proximity of water).I managed to deflect her concentration on going UP the mountain and turned her attention to going to Sullivan Bay to rectify our shortfall of supplies on OA.

Sullivan Bay

SULLIVAN BAY     

Sullivan Bay is truly the destination for the rich and famous yachts men.  It is Mega yacht city Broughton style.  It is justified in been called POSH.  The word POSH comes from the “White Star” passenger ships going to the Orient.  The preferred side of the ship during the passage there was Port side out Starboard side on the return voyage. 

Signs to Everywhere

Some of the amenities at Sullivan Bay include a floating golf driving range, general store and restaurant.  All on a cool quaint board walk.  Float homes that could grace the pages in the most POSH interior design magazine.  I think there is one with a helipad on the roof. It does my pride in county well as there is a huge CANADIAN FLAG there gracing the sky line.

Many years ago when my brother was flying an executive float plane and this was one of the main stop overs for clients of his boss.  We did not go in but I think there is a photo of him with his Beaver float plane on the wall in the restaurant.  We toured the floats admiring the floating gin palaces (giant yachts) noting there ports of registry as places like Hawaii, Grand Caymans etc. 

On the way out we putted passsing the bus stop (AIR PORT for float planes) and talked to a young man and his parents. The family was from Pittsburgh and I thought what a cultural shock it must be coming to this place at the end of the universe, jumping on to a small float plane and within hours landing in a city called Pittsburgh with a million or so busily going about their busy stuff.

 

 

 

 

August 20th

August 20^th we have been to Wakeman Sound before. Much of this region is a preserve area.  There is possibly over 100 miles of logging roads crisscrossing the valley.  Much of the logging has happened over probably 75 years or more and the trees are very mature now. 

Entry to Abandoned House

                                                                                                

There is a fertile fishing river in the valley floor with steelhead salmon in abundance along with large river trout.  IT IS PRIME BEAR COUNTRY. 

When the main camp was shut down the story goes that a young couple moved into the old camp and wanted to set up a fish guide and wilderness camp.  When we visited there a number of years ago we were given a tour up the logging road for many miles (it was the short tour).  We thanked him profusely and slipped him some cash for gas and his time.  We promised we would promote his new enterprise.  

Tool Shed

                      THE WINTERS CAN AND ARE GENERALLY BRUTAL IN THESE REMOTE PLACES. 

When they are a well-supported logging show men can survive here.  When deep in the winter, winds trash down the sound at 75miles +++++++and its’ just the two of you, without a large corporation at your backsides.  It not tough, you are on the edge of survival.  When the snow drifts up and under the cabin door and the spray of the salt sea freezes your small skiff (out on a buoy) to a block of ice, enough is enough. It is enough when (the late to bed) in the winter grizzly wants his last meal before he hibernates and it’s you.  Enough is enough.  The grizzlies were at their front door for some time in that winter, it was the nice couples first and last adventure here. 

I think it was about 2 years ago when we went in Wakeman Sound and there was not a lot of evidence that anyone had been there for a long time. The little dock was barely hanging together.  It was very spooky walking up the main road that was growing over.  We spent a lot of time hooting and yelling to scare off bears that could have been around every corner. It was hard to walk past all the old nice beater trucks that had been abandoned beside the road, that in my youth I would have given my eye teeth to have owned in Vancouver. 

This trip the sign at the top of the ramp said “Visitors must report in at the office I km up the road.”  We trekked up the road and sure enough there was the camp.  It kind of weird to start knocking on doors and no one is there. The lights are on and no one’s is home (Penny said that very recently about me). 

New Logging Truck

 

 

We walked back to the “Ravens” and a crew boat comes in with a full box of groceries.  Penny talked to the operator of the crew boat for a while but I think the frozen goods were thawing and he was running for the freezer down the road.  He is on the road building crew working out into the sound on the mountain side.  There was a logging crew working on hard wood tree harvesting (alder).  It was rough in the Sound on the way back to Shawl Bay.  Our little boat just slices through the chop. What a treat. 

We could make out the rock drilling high on the mountain for the placement of explosives.  Even from a great distance we could see the granite dust swirling around the new road head. 

We stopped on the return trip and checked out the prawn traps, not a harvest worth the pull.  The one thing that is obvious is how warm the water has become up here, the depth sounder has a temp gauge, and it has been showing at about 65 degrees F (in the REAL DEGREES).  The world is really changing up here from a climate stand point, as last year at this time if you did not have good heat on in the boat (like an old fashion but new) oil stove you could not get the boat dry and warm. 

 

August 19th

Aug 19th The center of all the activity takes place under the big top blue tent.  Every morning during the yacht season, Tracy makes complementary pancake breakfast for all those that are not too hung over to join in the breakfast gathering.  This is a time that boaters share their secret anchorages and some technical tips, be it fishing or engine repair, etc.  It is a class hovel with laundry, washrooms, bakery, shore power and water. 

The Big Blue Tent

The main event is the arrival of fresh meat in the form of new arrivals that bring yummy tales and stories with them.  You may even get Lorne to give you some of his history in this area.

Sometimes roving musicians will arrive and the evening’s entertainment will be some talented person beating on the strings on some old weathered guitar.  If the cockles of your heart have been warmed with alcoholic libations and you are near to the musician to drowned out the out of tune vocalists it sounds ok.  When from afar if you have snuggled down for a very early evenings it sounds like a disjointed wolf pack howling at the new moon. 

In previous years Penny and I have undertaken to decorate the docks with wood signs.  Jim off “Sea Otter” is a machinist/welder/computer guy and he helps out with the metal bits and pieces for the artsy fartsy stuff.  Penny and others of the extended family join in and do a superlative job of helping Lorne with painting and replanting the massive array of flower pots which add all colours of the rainbow to these docks.  All of us who have been coming here for years just automatically take on some fun job here. Every year we come back, we as a boating community that boat north are blessed with this special part of the planet that for a short time we can call home.  We thank the Brown family and extended friends for making this all possible.
 

One of Chevy’s most favorite and ours to is the forestry dock in Moore Bay.  Almost every year some magic fairy from the Forestry Dept. comes by and repairs the docks, cleans up the whistle thumps (out houses) and grooms the camp sites.  Every year we promise we will write that dept. and thank them for their sterling effort but we move on and forget to do this.  I think it would be better to send a letter to Pacific Yachting and get the “THANK YOU” out on a broader scale. 

Shawl Bay Sunset

If you would like some further reading you can go back on earlier Blog sites. We tend to forget some of old stories and like an old man will repeat the same old stuff. Some is still worth repeating.

August 18th

August 19^th Shaw Bay

We pull out of Joe Cove and head up northward to Shawl Bay. 

Cormorants Sunning

Fog on Fyfe

 

Shawl of Shawl Bay

 



Shawl bay is named for the Shawl of fog that shrouds the top of the mountain that encircle it, not all the time but in the morning and many times in the evening. It is an old floating logging camp that now provides a cool gathering place for the yachties in the Broughtons.  Lorne Brown is the proprietor and along with Tracy greets and makes everyone feel welcome.

 

If your thoughts are tying up at a top drawer establishment this is not the place for you. It has it all the character of the older float homes slightly listing with their soggy logs.  There is old machinery strewn about in the far corners.  It is a bit like going to a deserted logging camp with cool stuff stashed about. 

August 17th

Our dog has not had a lot of experience with cats yet and I am sure she will need a lesson in what a set of fangs and claws will do to her nose before she eventually learns.

We go for a gunk out around Fly Island and check every nook and cranny; we work around the islands back to our anchorage in Joe Cove. Rounding a point we could see a large drying reef covered with Sea Lions. There were a number of (over a ton in weight) massive Northern (Stellar) SEA Lions along with their harams. As we neared the bulls we are warned off by their bellowing, groaning snorting. The 17 ft. T/T “Due North” is also here.



Commodore & Sea Lions

 

Bull's In Charge

I was worried that he was going to scatter them but the large bull was standing guard and the harem just lounged around behind his guard. Penny took excellent pictures and captured the Commodore of BYC close aboard the ruckus on the rocks.

We sent a picture and short story to the “Trident”regarding our meeting with the Commodore.

Many years ago when first came to Joe Cove we went ashore in the little bay off the old floating dock moored in the bay. I don’t know to this day why we (I think Penny just likes rooting in the underbrush) did this? It was nothing we could see from the beach. We were on hands and knees, working our way under the thick almost impenetrable underbrush and came out at a clearing with a very small cabin.

I surmised it had lain undisturbed for years and years. The door was wired shut and when opened it turned out to be a tool shed with bits and pieces of plumbing and old tools scattered about the floor.

When in Joe Cove this year our Commodore is anchored nearby. This year he's on a hunt to discover this cabin. I had told him about it about many years ago and he wants to locate it.  He has poked around and spent some time not finding it. I went over to point him in what I suspected was the right location. He found it and announced it lay undisturbed all these years. I had to go look for myself.

There must be crab wars going on as where we are anchored there are a number of pots and a crab boat came in and relocated them out of our bay. A day later another boat came into the bay looking for his pots; I can only assume they were his that were moved. 

August 16th

Aug 16th This morning we strike a course for the Broughtons again.  This time we sail into Joe Cove. on Eden Island.  During my nap time the Commodore of the Burrard Yacht club glides in and puts a hook down.  He is cruising with his son Braden.  He has coached him in the flag etiquette of dipping to another BYC vessel when underway. 

"Due North" in Joe Cove

The Commodore has a keen eye and unless we disguise our boat as one in the Canadian Navy or one of the local native canoes we are unlikely to catch him off guard and win a bottle (curses).  He comes over for last sun on the front deck of OA.  His tells us he has caught Tony and Gayle on “Gulf Island” in that cursed dipping of the flag thing, O WELL TONY CAN AFFORD THE BOTTLE.  It’s the act of being caught with his pants down that hurts. 

The wine flowed freely and in comparing notes of our voyages, we have traveled the same passages and set our hooks in the same bays.  He has invited us over for dinner tomorrow and Braden presented us with an invitation that he personally scribed noting that the ships cat (Caesar) also gave his approval. 

 

A Very Special Invite!

August 15th

THE DAY STARTS OFF WITH THE NORMAL FOG THING!

This generally means that the sun will burn through about noon.  The crows are cawing and foraging around the beach.  Some yellow finches fluttering in the trees nearby, curious of me flicking the princess’s poo (not Penny’s, the dogs) into the bush.  If bears can do it there so can my princess. 

The bay behind is a marvel as the tide is low exposing the umber colour seaweed clinging to the granite rubble, rocks, cliffs ringing the bay.  It is very quiet and I can just hear the laughter of the flames in the old Grandma Oil stove. 

My ears pick up a new sound in the bay, could it be the sound of a yacht leaving the harbour early?  I put my head back down to the screen and carry on with my pecking on the key board.  It’s there again not so faint now and I leave my writer’s bench and go to the stern deck …………PUWOOSH and now a series of PUWOOSH, now in harmony and almost simultaneously and synchronized.  The Pacific White Sided Dolphins are back this time right behind OA that is moored to the old logging dock.  The sound of their short in/out of their breath astounds me as they do it all together at the same time.

 It is Nye impossible to catch them in the camera’s eye as they surface only briefly generally as a team. 

 

 

 

 

 

At that moment a heron is watching and leaves his rocky perch and glides close over top almost touching one of the black and white fins of the dolphins.  Is he just saying hello?   A commercial crab boat comes into the bay called the “Pacific Charm”.  It is a Barry Farrell built boat.  It is the way a real fish boat looks with rust streaks, a mustache at the bow, stabilizer poles and crab traps piled high on her back deck. 

 

Two men are working the gear.  I instantly have affinity with the crew of the crabber, AS THEY ARE PLAYING PINK FLOYD FLAT OUT on outside speakers and their sound is rolling deep into the bay.  I say any one with such good of taste in music DESERVES a good grab catch?  

I am becoming concerned about the faulty battery that is off line.  I don’t even know if the main engines will start without it being hooked up.  I push the starter on engine number one and it is not good. I start the genset and that does the trick.  We hate to leave this piece of paradise as it has been on my mind to launch the motor bike and go for a putt along the logging roads.

It would be a slow amble along the road, as Chevy would trot along beside MA (for YAMAHA the motor bike), destination the lake about 2 miles away.  It is bath time for our little princess, especially in fresh water.  It would be fun to throw a stick for her as is now keen on swimming.

ALAS the battery problem has been gnawing on my mind.  I start to think the weather may not hold for the crossing from Wells Passage to Pt McNeil.  We go now as it is calm out here! 

Whales off Wells

We check on the cell phone on the way across with suppliers on the availability of batteries that will match the existing bank.  I want to install the new batteries while on shore power to test out the worth of them.  NOW the bad boy that is giving us the agony is located in the back of the engine room in the back corner.  We are going to install 2 batteries as they should match each other as they are 6 volts that combine to make a 12 volt bank.  They are installed in fiberglass boxes and it is a straight lift up to remove them.  To make things worse the deck head will allow about 6 inches in clearance when level with the top of the battery box. I think they are about 60 lbs each and there is nowhere to grip them. 

Junk Rig Sailboat on Queen Charlotte

I jury rig a rope from the top of the battery over a steel lifting bar that I had installed for such purposes.  I use about everything including the kitchen sink and Penny to pry them out of their hole.  It takes about an hour in the hot engine room to extract them.  Installation is much faster as all I have to do is place them suspended over the fiberglass box and control the decent into them at a safe speed.

 

 

 

 

 

August 14th

 

August 14^th I went fishing the other evening and was not out of the bay a short time, set my line in the water, sat back in my chair to gather in the last of a perfect day and perfect sunset.  The tip of the rod takes a dive for the briny and there is a scream from the reel as it’s spinning out at a smoking pace.  I clamp my little muckers on the old wood PEEZ reel (antique one) attempting to slow the pace lest it runs out of line. My fingers that are being use to brake its speed are now burning off with the friction of flesh on the rotating mahogany parts. I use my sweater to insulate my pinkies.  Soon the leviathan that I have attached myself to gives me some Mercy and slacks off the pace.  HE tugs, I burn my fingers again.

I am MAN he /she will not best me.

Now the nobs have rattled on my knuckles a few times and I quickly learn to not place them in the way. This goes on for some time and becoming closer to being an octogenarian am tiring quickly.  He must be a stupid big dumb fish as he swims in to my awaiting net then realizes mistake and almost drags my arm in the water.  I club him and all………is still. 

I rush back to the OA and want to weigh this brut that comes from the sea.  I think he must be 25 Lbs or I will eat it (evidently I will).  I hang him/her on the scales but………. Even when I put extra weight to it with my body it is Only 15 lbs.

 I think I have been exaggerating on the weight of the other fish I have caught on this trip for this one is double the size the minnows that I have landed earlier.  I think my Pinocchio nose is 2 inches longer on this voyage. 

I was talking about the alarm on the inverter earlier and now I know what the source of the problem is.  One of the 6 volt batteries has a cell that has shorted out.  It was merrily bubbling away gassing off and dragging down the whole bank of batteries.  One ground wire taken off, problem solved but the remaining PROBLEM is we have one third less capacity on everything to do with 12 volt system including starting the main engines.  We still have the genset battery that is isolated.  It’s back to Port McNeil, but we will hold off for a bit to see if we can be comfortable with that.  It is a lesson in survivability when cruising north. 

Hour after hour there are 3 large Ravens high in the sky.  I am sure that this is the kicking out of the nest ceremony I talked about earlier in Blogs.  Junior will not leave.  The old man Raven is pissed about that and flying inches behind screaming at him to “get lost”!  They pitch and roll about the sky with dad trying to take a chunk out of the young’un butt.  Mom is flying behind and I can hear her saying to the Old Man, “George he’s not ready yet, don’t hurt him he, is only a baby”.  There are a lot of human parents today that cannot fledge their young and junior is still hanging out at 33 plus.   SHAME, oh well. 

We were witness today to another mom thing. 

The sight was sweet, a mom bear and three little cubs came and frolicked on the beach close by.  Penny I am sure took about 300 clicks of on the camera, firing off like a Thompson Machine Gun.  I thought the lens was going to catch fire.  We watched for about an hour and finally mom sauntered of into the underbrush the little guys scampering behind. TO COOL again!!

Have never seen a Mom with THREE CUBS!!