ASD and the Inside Passage

Hey everyone! We are making our way back down the inside passage. We will be meeting up with Crusty Chief for the famous pig roast at Eco Bay. Should be in Port McNeill in a few days. I will update the blog there. Today we had whales breaching just off the boat and we got some great pics! Awesome trip so far!!!

Oh Man!
A cruising and party animal to hang with! Been kinda lonely without you two!
Not like the environment sucks, but so much more fun with good friends!
Gonna rest up for the next day or so. I'll need it so we can prepare for the Party at Pierre's.
I mean after all, you can only watch Whales, dolphins, Eagles, Spirit bears, beavers, minx,roaring Rapids and so on just so many times.
Be safe bud on the trip back down, Tracey is looking forward to her sister for some company other than this old fart!

Tom, you been really highballing it home; I've been following you.

Earlier in the week, forget just when or where, you made a very dramatic course change.

Moving along nicely then a 90 to port for a ways then a 180 for quite a while before returning to your original course. I think it was a time-out of about 90 minutes.

Rescue?
Whale watch?
Nooner?

Hawgwash said:

Tom, you been really highballing it home; I've been following you.

Earlier in the week, forget just when or where, you made a very dramatic course change.

Moving along nicely then a 90 to port for a ways then a 180 for quite a while before returning to your original course. I think it was a time-out of about 90 minutes.

Rescue?
Whale watch?
Nooner?

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Whales and halibut!!! Wish it was a nooner, but no auto pilot

We are in the Broughtons for the next couple of weeks before heading home. Hang'in with Crusty Chief and having tons of fun, but I have to get use to 6kts instead of 8-9 but as he pointed out I was missing cool stuff at that high of speed!!!!


Currently at Sullivan Bay for a few days, then off for some pig roast! I will update the blog when I get somewhere to post pics......75 and sunny here today! have logged over 2500 miles so far.

Alaskan Sea-Duction said:

We are in the Broughtons for the next couple of weeks before heading home. Hang'in with Crusty Chief and having tons of fun, but I have to get use to 6kts instead of 8-9 but as he pointed out I was missing cool stuff at that high of speed!!!!

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Sounds like you will still be farther North when we are in Desolation next week. If you happen to be in the area though, you can find where we are with the SPOT link below.

Quote:"Nooner?Whales and halibut!!! Wish it was a nooner, but no auto pilot"


Shocked, just totally shocked to read this language on this wholesome family column. To think, to think that one has no auto pilot on such a fine boat is totally unacceptable!!

Al-Ketchikan-Marben 27' pocket CRUSIER

Al said:

Quote:"Nooner?Whales and halibut!!! Wish it was a nooner, but no auto pilot"


Shocked, just totally shocked to read this language on this wholesome family column. To think, to think that one has no auto pilot on such a fine boat is totally unacceptable!!

Al-Ketchikan-Marben 27' pocket CRUSIER

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But it is true!!! Cape Caution sucked both ways, Dixon Entrance was OK going up and glass coming back down. Off to Eco Bay tomorrow....

Oh and Crusty is the skate catching champion of Sullivan Bay!!!!

Hey all,

Just made 3 new entries on the blog, Chapter 26, 27 and 27A. Trying to catch up. We are currently in Desolation sound in Lund. We have about a week left before we start our run to the San Juans and then home. Awesome adventure so far.

Here are a few pics to wet your appetite. More on the blog.

I have added another blog entry, Chapter 28. We are currently in Lund. Almost done. Will be heading home in a week or so.....


Endless Tymes and Pairadice pictured

Lund

This was a very very busy place. Between 11 am and noon, any boats moored for one night have to be gone! Then the shuffling of boats begin and hordes of boats are calling in to get a spot. This place is not really that big and the staff parks, side ties to get as many in as possible. The harbor staff were great.

This is also mile 0 for highway 101 which goes south to Mexico.

The ladies wanted a dress up night so we all actually took showers and the guys put their best on. The restaurant, The Board Walk, however was a hugh disappointment. Took an hour to get our food and the service really sucked. It's sad because this place is a gold mine and management really needs to step up here.

Alaskan Sea-Duction; said:

The ladies wanted a dress up night so we all actually took showers and the guys put their best on. The restaurant, The Board Walk, however was a hugh disappointment. Took an hour to get our food and the service really sucked. It's sad because this place is a gold mine and management really needs to step up here.

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Maybe it was your scrubbed freshness and Oregon cologne. I've heard mostly good things about the place.

Hawgwash said:

Maybe it was your scrubbed freshness and Oregon cologne. I've heard mostly good things about the place.

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Lund and the other business were great. Just this eatery......

ASD is spot on. It's been hit or miss for years.

Mostly miss.

Northern Spy said:

ASD is spot on. It's been hit or miss for years.

Mostly miss.

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Hmmm, too bad.

Chapter 29 Lund to Mansons Landing

We watered up and left Lund with all the other boats. Endless Tymes suggested we stop and do some bottom fishing outside the restricted area. We fished in about 200ft and I caught 2 sharks and Kay kicked all our buts with 2 nice golden eye (I call them red snapper). A few hours later we were in Mansons Landing after dodging all the rocks at the point. What a great anchorage. The cars along the shore was a surprise.

We anchored in 80ft and had our friends side tied to us. I set the anchor rode with 300ft of chain as the current and wind came up. Held with no issues. We went ashore and walked over to the clear, warm lake for a swim. This was such a joy. The anchorage is a bit crowed but you can find room.

Tracey from Pairadice fixed an absolutely awesome meal with grilled tuna, mushrooms and a crab sauce. Thank you Tracey for a great great meal.

We had a relaxing evening and it gets dark a little earlier. Tonight it was pitch black and you could see stars and the out line of a town on Vancouver Island. Tomorrow will be a sad day as the Pairadice will be separating from us to explore the rest of the island. We will stay with Endless Tymes and start down the east side of Georgia Straits. The plan is to stop in Ballet Bay then down the rest of the Sunshine Coast to Falls creek to sample Vancouver BC.

Alaskan Sea-Duction said:

We had a relaxing evening and it gets dark a little earlier. Tonight it was pitch black and you could see stars and the out line of a town on Vancouver Island.

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Tom, if it is clear at night you should be able to see some pretty good meteor showers up there.

We are in Ballet Bay and what a sky last night!!! I am loving these little anchorages...

Hey Bud,

We anchored in Gourge and went to happy hour at the Float House nice gig they have there and what a difference from the Board Walk. The list of issues at the Board Walk are to many to list and it's a real shame. If management dosent address the problems they will lose lots of customers, and most of the people we talked to that ate there had the same experiance.

We are now at the Public dock in the Okeover arm and having dinner at the Laughing Oyster tonight. Try to give ya a review tomorrow if we can.

Tracey says the company made the dinner, we miss you guys and hope you have a safe trip home.

Crusty Chief said:

Hey Bud,

We anchored in Gourge and went to happy hour at the Float House nice gig they have there and what a difference from the Board Walk. The list of issues at the Board Walk are to many to list and it's a real shame. If management dosent address the problems they will lose lots of customers, and most of the people we talked to that ate there had the same experiance.

We are now at the Public dock in the Okeover arm and having dinner at the Laughing Oyster tonight. Try to give ya a review tomorrow if we can.

Tracey says the company made the dinner, we miss you guys and hope you have a safe trip home.

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We are having a blast at Bellet Bay. Very nice anchorage. Miss you all a lot.

Okeover dock is a nice dock and at .60 cents a foot a pretty good bargain. The Laughing Oyster restaurant was the bomb! Five thumbs up! Will definitely stop here next year!
We liked it so much, that this morning it was pouring rain and decided to stay here another night. Think it's a movie day!

Have a safe trip!

The 45 mile cruise was really uneventful. The water was calm and the sun was out. We were also a ship down. Pairadice decided to stay in Desolation sound for the next couple of weeks before heading south. We will miss them a lot. We travelled outside the islands and the Straits of Georgia was glass, not a breath of wind.

Ballet Bay is a small bay off of Blind Bay. It is small and tucked behind a bunch of small islands. The anchorage can be a bit crowded. After one night here we decided to move around the corner to Sunset Bay. The bottom is all rock, but we able to fins a spot to get the anchor to stick. 30kt winds were scheduled for that day, so we stayed put. Kay and Brigitte went for a kayak safari to see what critters they could take photos of.

Later that evening our friends from Endless Tymes came over and we had dinner on the bow of ASD. After dinner we gathered on the bow for the sunset and some dancing. It was a lot of fun.

We are really happy we hooked up with Brigitte and Chris. They are showing us places we would have bypassed such as Ballet Bay and Sunset Bay. I believe we have made some long life friends.....

Vancouver and False Creek

Talk about a different in contrast between the Broughtons and down town Vancouver! False creek is a fun place, It is a little bay in the middle of the city lined with shops and restaurants. There is even a cement plant here! There are several marinas (all full) and anchorage of to the side of the main channel. Several water taxis are busy delivering their riders to different stops. People are riding bikes, jogging or walking the path along side.

This is a magical place, well kind of in a different way. We anchored in 20 feet with only 40 feet of chain out and it holds!

The first night we ate at Craft Beer market which has over 100 local beers! The next day was the farmers market. We will stay 3 days the bid goodbye to our good friends Chris and Brigitte and head for Friday Harbor.


False Creek will always be on our list of places to stay.

We are still enjoying your trip, thanks for sharing!

We plan to be in the islands sometime Friday morning through the weekend...maybe we will see you.

Jeff

Tom, you're in one of my favorite cities to visit and play in. It's expensive up there, but it's a LOT of fun.

Tom!
We're across the bay on Bowen Island at the Union Steamship Marina. Not what we expected.
Maybe we will take the ferry over tomorrow and hook up with you guys.

Cheers!

Chapter 31 More Vancouver and the crossing from hell

Kay had some more pics of False Creek she wanted to share. The day before we left Chris and Brigitte took us for a tour of the industrial side of Vancouver. Lots of grain ships waiting to be loaded. This was a very busy place too. Later we went to dinner for one last time.

On the 12th around 0800 we said goodbye to our new great friends Brigitte and Chris of Endless Tymes. I had checked NOAA weather the night before and it said 5-15kts of wind with seas at LESS than 1 foot. I should have checked Canadian weather. It took about an hour to get out of False Creek and English Bay. As we rounded the corner we got hit hard with rollers about 4 feet from the NW, with breaking wind on top. When you leave Vancouver to make your way south you have to go out into the Strait about 10 miles or so because of the Fraser River bar. So we were getting starboard beam waves rolling us back and forth for about 3 hours! It sucked! The sundeck got trashed, broken scotch glasses (however no scotch was wasted!) and anything on the galley tops were on the floor, along with some frig stuff.

One we made it out to where we could turn south, we were in following seas and the farther we got south of Point Roberts, the seas reduced to less than 1 foot. man that sucked! As we got closer to Friday Harbor a red U.S. Tug (recreational boat) was headed straight for our bow! Collision course. No matter what I did he match my course! WTF? The radio came alive. Hey ASD you want to move aside and let the little boats by! It was Carl and Vickie in their new boat the Vickie Lyn. After some conversation we will be meeting them Saturday morning in Reid Harbor. He needs his AIS transmitter hooked up....

When we pulled in to Friday Harbor we were whipped pups! No water, no clean cloths, the boat is trashed. Tying up to the dock never felt so good.

IRENE said:

We are still enjoying your trip, thanks for sharing!

We plan to be in the islands sometime Friday morning through the weekend...maybe we will see you.

Jeff

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We will be at Friday Harbor until Saturday Morning, then over to Reid Harbor. Then waiting on weather windows for the trip back.

Holy Crap Tom, It looks like you guys got your butts kicked by those beam rollers.


Glad you're tied up and have some time to clean up, relax and get mentally straight before you continue.

Waiting on Weather

So why we wait for favorable weather in the Pacific Ocean, we are re-touring the San Juans from Friday Harbor to Reid and today Roche. We are rafted up to John and Tracey again right in front of the US Customs dock. What a zoo!

We also took the boat around Turn Light Point in hopes of seeing Orcas. These animals must be mystical or just plain do not exists! This entire trip we have see the big goose egg!!!! Not a one! They must be like Big Foot!!!

On the good side Kay has the bread making down so we have a fresh loaf of bread every few days!! Yum yum.