Here we are at the end of another year and, as Charles Dickens so eloquently began his novel, A Tale of Two Cities, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times ....”   For me, his words sum up our year better than anything I could have written myself.   Although our time on the water was beyond compare – from discovering new anchorages to following...

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Mount Rushmore With all of our chores finally completed, we loaded up the truck and left Washington early Saturday morning.  Able to take advantage of the last of a large high sitting over the top of the US, we opted to drive the most northerly route along I-90.  It would have been nice to have lingered; there's so much more to see and do in the area from...

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The view from our aft deck. Our final days on the water were spent quietly waiting out another series of fronts and ridges to pass through the area before checking back into the US and making our way across the Strait of Juan de Fuca and into Puget Sound, our winter home. It was a magical season and we're both sad to see it come to an end...

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Sally playing on the 3000 year-old midden beach in Montague Harbour. Our time in Montague Harbour was short, but sweet.   And although the barometer dropped from 1025 MB down to 1011 MB, the only “weather” we saw was some rain Friday morning giving Sally and me plenty of opportunities to explore the beaches and trails in the park before upping anchor and travelling the fourteen nautical miles...

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Cambria alone at anchor in Montague Harbour. True to the forecast, the barometer reached a high of 1031 MB Tuesday afternoon before beginning its decent and bringing in the next round of bad weather, including southeasterly winds, early Wednesday morning.  Mark Bay is NOT an ideal anchorage for these conditions and by 8 o'clock we were bouncing around and continued to do so in what turned out to...

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Leaving the city of Vancouver. We left Vancouver shortly after nine this morning and made our way out of False Creek and into English Bay.  The forecast was for winds out of the northwest blowing 5 to 15 knots in the morning decreasing to light and variable in the afternoon, a nice beam reach … or so we thought. English Bay was a little lumpy but, with the forecast...

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Vancouver's Stanley Park. After a little more than two weeks, it's time for us to say good-bye to Vancouver and nobody is more surprised than us at how much we enjoyed our time here and how difficult it is to leave.  Voted one of the most beautiful cities in the world, Vancouver lives up to the reputation and has been well worth the detour we made to be...

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Granville Island Market. My Vancouver wildlife experience wasn't nearly as exciting as those we had just a week ago in Desolation Sound.  We dinghied over to Granville Island to walk around the public market, one similar to Pike's in Seattle, in hopesof finding an information centre and a tobacconist.  David was emptying his one remaining pipe (having lost the other one in Port Townsend at the beginning of...

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Cambria at anchor in False Creek, Vancouver. It was another dreary morning as we upped anchor at 9 o'clock and left Pender Harbour, but it cleared as the day went on and we moved south gifting us with sunshine and blue skies which can go a long way to rejuvenate a person (namely me).  David, on the other hand, has another headache brought on by a rising barometer. ...

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Pender Habour. We upped anchor at 9:00 am waving good-bye to Rod and Sandra and were on our way.  As we motored out of Malaspina Inlet and the Coast Rangecame into view, wecould see that it had snowed overnight confirming the fact that we're too far north and it's time to move south.  It was along day made even longer by overcast skies and occasional showers, but we...

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After raining all night, we woke to dark skies and 999 MB on the barometer this morning which means the next weather system has finally arrived.  It dropped to a low of 995 MB in the afternoon and we could hear the wind howling in the outer waters but saw very little impact in GraceHarbour, which is an ideal weather hideout.  It's no wonder thousands of First Nations...

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Leaving Prideaux Haven behind for the year. The barometer's falling again and was down to 1006 MB this morning as the next weather system from the Gulf of Alaska moves southward.  It won't be a large series of storms like last week, so we didn't need to seek better shelter but we did leave Prideaux Haven for Grace Harbour in order to set ourselves up to move south...

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Melanie Cove We woke to a beautiful morning with blue skies and the warmth of sunshine.  But there were clouds moving in from the west, and it was short lived. We didn't see the bear today, but it wasn't for a lack of trying.  Over the past three days, we'd simply been lucky ... we were in the right place at the right time.  But today was different...

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A black bear peaking out to take a look at us. The first of October started off damp and dreary with thoughts of returning south to finish the season.  It was cold, dark and wet with rain – a triple threat to my sanity.  But shortly after I took Sally to shore, the sky began to break and the sun came out.  It was still chilly, but with...

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A black bear foraging along the shoreline. Though my least favourite days, there's a special beauty to be appreciated when it rains in the Pacific Northwest.  There's a vividness that doesn't exist when the sun is shining: The trees are a deeper green. The moss appears more golden in colour. The granite glimmers from the moisture. And the sea reflects all of these images down to the low-hanging...

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With another beautiful day in store, I had BIG plans (none of which involved sitting around the boat) to enjoy the great outdoors before the next weather system moves into the area.  Our days are limited.  The barometer's dropped from a high of 1028 MB yesterday morning to 1013 MB today.  But, according to Environment Canada, it should continue to be descent through the weekend.  We'll keep our...

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Alone at anchor in Prideaux Haven. We woke up to a beautiful morning – no wind, sunshine, blue sky all-around – and a high of 1028 MB on the barometer, a long way up from the 993 MB we saw just a few days ago.  There's no doubt.  Whether they plan to stay in Desolation Sound or move south, everyone, ourselves included, would be leaving Grace Harbour today. Phil...

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The upland lake in Grace Harbour. Though much shorter than they were only a few weeks ago, the days seem longer and more difficult to fill.  Long gone are the hours spent lazing about in the kayaks exploring new anchorages, only to have been replaced with hiding out below decks from the wind and rain listening to the weather. The wind was forecasted to die out this afternoon,...

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It's been a difficult day aboard and we're both feeling battered and beaten after all hell broke loose in Malaspina and Johnstone Straits.  According to Environment Canada, there were hurricane force winds over the central waters.  What exactly they mean by "central", we're not sure.  But it implies inside around the Discovery Islands, which is just north of where we're anchored, rather than outside along the West Coast...

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The barometer dropped dramatically overnight . . . down to 993 Mb which explains the incredible pressure we felt in our heads before we went to bed.  It reminds me of our time in New Zealand.  Hardly a week would go by during the equinox that the barometer wouldn't take a dive.  Once again, the wind blew and it rained throughout the day and night, but all's well...

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The Emmens eating apples fresh from the tree. By nine o'clock this morning, the rest of the boats in the anchorage were gone leaving only Cambria and Salubrious behind – the others taking advantage of a lull in the weather before the next system comes through which promises to be "a repeat performance or worse".  The season's clearly coming to an end, but we'll stick it out a little longer – we...

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