Cambria stern-tied in Deep Bay in 2013. We left Carrington Bay (Cortes Island) early Monday morning, stopping off in Heriot Bay (Quadra Island) to buy some provisions and fill the water tanks before setting off on a 60-mile day. Our destination: Deep Bay, Jedediah Island. Our plan: to spend a couple of days mooching around and generally enjoying life in an area called the Sunshine Coast. Our problem:...

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Welcome to another installment of the ‘Alphabet Photography Project’ and the letter W which stands for water. This picture was taken during the summer of 2012 one evening when we were anchored off Rebecca Spit near Desolation Sound. It was one of those beautifully still nights and, as the sun set, the colours reflected in the water were so vivid I had to try to capture them. ...

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David enjoying the view of one of the many beaches on Fury Island last year. Shearwater, Fury Cove, Blunden Harbour, Octopus Islands and now Carrington Bay – the last weeks have been a blur of activity . . . and movement. Things started off on a disappointing note. When we left Shearwater, we had a good forecast in hand and planned to stay a couple of night in...

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Welcome to another installment of the ‘Alphabet Photography Project’ and the letter V which stands for vessel . . . or S.V. (sailing vessel) to be more precise. This picture of Cambria was taken a few years ago in front of Lizette Falls in Fiordland Recreational Area, British Columbia.  ...

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Monday we did something I said I’d never do: We took Cambria through Jackson Narrows – a narrow, shallow, rocky, kelp-strewn, unmarked passage that separates Roderick and Susan Islands. Last year a friend and I spent an afternoon there kayaking and I was sure a sailboat our size would be asking for trouble if they tried to navigate it. I was wrong. At high water slack tide it’s...

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Our overall plan is to move south but to take our time and enjoy some of our favourite anchorages along the Central Coast as we do. So, we left Bishop Bay Wednesday morning and made our way down Princess Royal Reach, through Heikish Narrows, down Finlayson Channel and into Bottleneck Inlet for the night: we’d start there. The forecast for the weekend wasn’t the best and we decided...

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Welcome to another installment of the ‘Alphabet Photography Project’ and the letter U which stands for under sail. This picture was taken a few years ago on Father’s Day as we were crossing the Strait of Georgia from Nanaimo to Pender Harbour. There wasn’t much wind to play with, but it was enough to give us a free ride and a fantastic day. ...

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Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it. Ferris Bueller Blame the sunshine. Blame the natural hot springs. Or blame the good company. But nobody was in a hurry to leave Bishop Bay. Nobody aboard Cambria, anyway. And we were more than happy to pick up on Friday where Thursday had left off with some kayaking, soaks...

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They say there are two types of sailors: Those who’ve run aground, and those who will (although some refer to the second simply as “liars”). And I suppose being high and dry twice in 15 years isn’t bad percentage-wise, but it’s still incredibly embarrassing to admit (and yet I am). Embarrassing because it should have never happened. And increasingly embarrassing because I ignored every sign that clearly pointed...

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Welcome to another installment of the ‘Alphabet Photography Project’ and the letter T. Today’s installment will be short and sweet . . . T is for ‘territory’. Years ago, during our first season in Canada’s Central Coast, we spent a few days in Laredo Inlet (Princess Royal Island) in hopes of seeing the elusive Spirit Bear. We still haven’t seen one, but I did find this First Nations’...

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Regardless of where we’ve been or what kind of conditions we’ve encountered along the way, moving south is always a little depressing . . . and the first real sign that the season is coming to an end. Even this year, despite all the rain, the thought of leaving Alaska had us feeling down. But it wouldn’t too long before the first major storm of the season hit,...

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