Our journey...By google earth.

Well, I've finally managed to put cursor to map and create a visual of the trip. I think this will be the last post....It's been fun! Thanks for looking, and here's to the remainder of summer and the journey ahead! Lisa is off to Finland for school, and I'm back at UBC for the forseeable future. Cheers! Til next time!

April 30 til July 15....the great circle route.

Successful sailing into summer

We're back!

After that last post from Alert Bay, we picked up our friend Reilly and headed south to warmer climes. Of course we kicked the last week off with a welcoming party at Declan's house to celebrate our new cabin boy's arrival! And, we upgraded Nakusiak for a new fancy boat, complete with showers, a 5 spreader main mast, and a complete professional crew. Aren't we nice?

Nice, eh?

So we cruised for the past week in real comfort, which was appreciated by our newest crewmember.
 And we still saw some cool things as we raced down Johnston Strait. Humpback whales played nearby as we cruised out of Telegraph Cove, fresh from our new education at the Bones Project, and some Pacific white sided dolphins (our first since Bella Bella) showed their approval of our speed by riding our bow wave for a few minutes off Port Neville. Our new ketch really rode the waves well...we got her up to 8 knots as the tailwind pushed us through Race Passage and past Kelsey Bay.

Just down near Greene Point Rapids we saw a black bear...and a large tug, which we thought was going to pass us by but proceeded instead to pull a 180 and ram the beach with the bear....it seemed hardly bothered, but we thought it was a funny way of showing wildlife appreciation. Each to his own on the coast, it seems!

 Inspired by the excitable folks at Shoal Bay, where we stopped for a night and some beers at the 'pub' in town (which used to be larger than Vancouver during the peak of the mining action), we tried to troll for the first Oncorhynchus of the season. To no avail, but we still managed to have fun getting tangled in our makeshift downrigger.
oops. Fishing and sailing don't always mix.

Luckily we were sufficiently fed, thanks to some fortuitous oyster finds once we made it down to Desolation Sound. Tenedos never disappoints....

 And, our new crewmember soon upheld his reputation as an incredibly fast learner. Within two days Lisa and I were sitting back, G&T's in hand, as Reilly handily sailed Nakusiak through one of the sketchiest tidal passages, the Yucultas.

We must be good teachers. 

At least he let us sail sometimes.

And, we found time for some good shore time. Wandering in mines, hiking, and building amazing summer bonfires with...wait for it...DRY WOOD! Who would have thought such a thing existed. That's why we left the Wet Coast. 

With all this luxery, we left the wonders of Desolation Sound a little early and took advantage of a rare calm day in Georgia Strait to visit the rookery on Middlenatch Island, off Quadra. Lots and lots of seagulls...I mean glaucous winged gulls. Sorry Seb, we'll never learn! Also a TON of Pigus (pigeon guillemots). Pretty neat, but we were ready for the comforts of Reilly's parent's amazing house on Quadra, so we headed in to 'town' and recuperated. 

For now, I'm back on dry land and getting into work and city life while Lisa spends a few extra days afloat in the Discovery Islands with a friend. The boat is clean, happy, and sailing well, so I'm sure Lisa is too! Well....only if she's swimming in the warm waters of Desolation Sound enough. We shall see.

'Til later...

"I beautiful cabbage, you only poor fish"

As all trippers can relate to, food is a BIG DEAL. Whether it's a warm bowl of soup that could get us through that rainy watch, or afternoon snacks in the sun, getting creative over the last month with what we have (or what we could find in Haida Gwaii) has been a challenge and also a lot of fun. Watching Captain's Courageous last night with Declan we reminisced over all the fish and cabbage we were eating in our last days before coming into Alert Bay. Now that we're back in town we've been able to restock (croissants for breakfast were the tastiest of all time!), but despite not grocery shopping for over a month, we ate gourmet, having focused our culinary creations on hearty vegetables, and living off the sea.

Classy afternoon tea

By Murchison Island (renamed Urchinson Island by Char and I), we had a fantastic time exploring and gathering from the rich intertidal. Without sea otters in Haida Gwaii (they were all hunted out during the years of the fur trade boom) sea urchins have taken over as a pest. We helped a bit with the pest control operation by gathering these colourful creatures for our dinner. Breaded with a side of tartar sauce they were delightful!

Urchins and sea cucumber

"my, how pointy you are my little urchin friend"

We were also amazed at the mussels! (They really ARE the size of lady slippers. A tall lady.) As we filled up our bucket (didn't take very much) the guests on the Island Roamer probably thought we hadn't eaten in days upon observing our excitement. Maybe it played a part in them inviting us over for dinner a couple of days later.

Woah! They're HUGE

Didn't take much to fill the bucket.

It's a small boat, but we have great sit down dinners:

A salmon feast!

Using fish guts, we've been really lucky with crabs.  This was a haul of 5 crabs (couldn't eat them all, so threw 2 back!):

Sometimes the crabs bite. Nasty.

On the vegetable front, we've gotten creative with sea asparagus. As an intertidal plant it's quite salty, but has been great in stir frys, or used in salads after a fresh water rinse.

Seas of asparagus!

Peanut investigating the new greens

Pizza with fresh mussels, salmon, and sea asparagus done up on the BBQ. Got to love our Friday night pizza nights! 

Bonfires are also splendid--save on fuel for the stove, and utterly delicious. Spicy prawns on shishkabobs, corn, salmon and crabs.

Surf and surf and surf.

Sometimes we don't even need to bring cooking things ashore!

Going to Rose Harbour we got Susan and Gotz to help us id the mushrooms we picked, and cooked a feast with our fresh oyster mushrooms from Ikeda Cove. Eating fresh salads with an array of greens from Susan's garden was a real treat, and I especially loved the fresh mint tea. In helping Susan weed, we kept the compost pile down by munching on the old spinach stalks she was taking out for new planting beds! We're worse than the deer!

"Yes, well these ones are smaller, but they look delicious.  Shall I take a bite?"

Cooking up a storm at Susan's 

Weeding and grazing on greens

Jigging for halibut with Susan.  "Twinkle twinkle little hook, I'm going to catch a hali-but..." 

Dinner at Susan's, Rose Harbour 

 Here are a couple more food favs:

Home made pasta with nettles.  SOOOO yummy!

Pasta feast

This is the pressure cooker.  Oh my goodness, if I could marry it, I would.  This is the beer-up-the-butt-chicken we roasted.  Didn't pressurize on this one, but have been using it for all kinds of soups and cakes and delicious dishes!

Friends from Tanu gave us yummy huckleberry jam that we've been eating on our pan

Back to town food for the time being.  BANANA POPSICLES ARE MY FAV.

We've got friends in faraway places...

Wow... I can't believe it's been a month! A month filled with sea, sun (very little), rain (a LOT), and most importantly, many new amazing, incredibly generous friends. We're currently holed up in our friend Declan's house in Alert Bay, taking showers, doing laundry, and hanging out.

Here we are in the Gordon's, our last night in Haida Gwaii before we crossed, Cape to Cape, back to Vancouver Island. It was Nakusiak's first overnight passage that I know of, and our first as a two-man crew. Thankfully we had amazing winds and were able to sail the whole way! 

Since leaving Charlotte City and the welcoming home of Kathryn and Greg, we've met some great folks.

We went prawning with the folks of the Mary Lou in Cumshewa Inlet.. Very cool to see that process. So skilled and efficient!

Yum! 

After a few days on our own again in the northern section of Gwaii Haanas we started visiting village sites, and met our favorite Watchmen, Sean and Helen. 

What knowledge! They showed us Tanu and we had a great chat about the anthropology and modern day politics of Gwaii Haanas. Highly recommend. They also passed on some (more) prawns and some excellent huckleberry jam...Too kind! 

Of course sometimes we were alone. With some epic scenery!

Nakusiak with a view out to Darwin Sound....

So we made our own fun. Here's Lisa with our '3 Seas' feast in Anna Inlet - crab, salmon, and prawns. Add in sea asparagus and you've got a complete meal! 

Sometimes we made friends with sea stars. The bounty of Burnaby Narrows never ceases to amaze! 

Some of the bounty are a bit more ferocious though. Lisa made 'friends' with this crab. Lesson #1- don't make friends with crabs. They'll getcha when you least expect it. Ouch! 

Luckily we had some encounters of the human kind eventually. The crew (and guests!) of the Island Roamer took us under their wing and invited us for dinner, with much appreciate leftovers which served us for days. Thank you Xander and co., and Randy! We did our best to (gently, right?) imply that we'd be great deckhands next year if he's looking for new crew. 

The best catch of the day, muffins and chocolate cake out the scuttle of the Roamer. Wow.

We finally made it to Susan's place in Rose Harbour, and settled in for a few days of gardening and helping out around the property. What a place, and people. 

Susan has an incredible garden which she nourishes with fish and seaweed from nearby shores. We helped her do the kep harvest in nearby Rose Inlet...

And, made friends with Declan, the crazy and very neat dude who came into Rose Harbour offering an old generator to Susan. It works, too, with the help of Gutz and his borrowed sy-ringe from the old Tasu hospital. 

More to come. Off to clean the boat (and ourselves) while the weather is nice.