Hello all,
Nanaimo sunset from Flying Colours moored at Cameron Island. For some reason the sunsets over Vancouver Island this summer have been spectacular – almost as if there’s been a volcano eruption somewhere west of us.
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We spent four nights in Nanaimo – while Kap went back to Seattle for a two day visit of surgeon and physical therapist appointments. The prognosis was that her wrist is sufficiently healed that she doesn’t need any more return visits, and only needs to continue physical therapy on her own as she feels her wrist needs it. I stayed on Flying Colours with ZuZu, Raz, and Gator – and got us re-provisioned for the next phase of the Summer 2010 Cruise.
We picked up a rental car for the three days, making it easier to get Kap to/from the Kenmore Air dock that’s located near the large B.C. Ferries dock about a mile north of the marina. We also needed some pet supplies, and the primary shopping centers in Nanaimo are sprawled along the highway north of town, definitely not in walking distance.
ZuZu is never happy about the elastic harness and leash she has to wear when out on the deck – her body language seems to say, “OK, I’ll wear it, but I won’t look happy about it! This harness makes me look like I’m in a gym costume!”
While Kap was gone I enjoyed a very good dinner at a French café on the main street of Nanaimo – the Café Francaise – that serves a great steak au’poivre, with a wonderful French onion soup for a starter. For lunch the following day I returned to try their Croque Monsieur – served on a baguette rather than square bread, and the cheese was Emmentaler (Swiss) rather than Gruyere – it was excellent!
I also spent the better part of the time Kap was away doing some housekeeping on Flying Colours. The living area isn’t very large on a boat of this size, but after being out for 57 days now everything needs a tidying up – so I vacuumed the entire boat, including a good dusting and a serious vacuuming of the salon and pilot house upholstery. After all, I may have a pretty face and I’m an OK cook and bottle washer, but I have to earn my keep around here in other ways too.
Kap is in line for passport processing with the Canadian Customs officers at the Kenmore Air dock in Nanaimo. The Grumman Widgeon on the left just arrived a few minutes before I got there to meet Kap. It’s a 1943 model – but note the engines have been swapped out for turboprops – and it’s from Florida. No idea who the owner is, or what the story with it is.
Saturday, September 11 – Nanaimo to Ovens Island SYC Outstation – 18 Nautical Miles; 2:33 Cruising Time
A Fleming 65, Hokolo, arrived across the dock from Flying Colours. Its home port is Vancouver, but I never got a chance to talk with the owners to find out who they are, or to get them interested in the Fleming Owner’s forum and web site. In appearance, the 65 is virtually identical to the 55, but with the extra 10’ of hull length it seems sleeker.
Our plan for the day was to go to Vancouver and hopefully spend a few days at a reciprocal moorage at the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club facility in Coal Harbour (just east of the entrance Lion’s Gate Bridge, and very near to the Bayshore Inn), but when we called them they indicated there weren’t any slips available. Royal Van doesn’t have dedicated guest slips for reciprocal use – only empty member slips – and since it’s past the cruising season there weren’t any empty slips. They suggested we could try at the Coal Harbour Marina, or we could go to False Creek over by Granville Island (which would have put us very close to where we buy Hungarian sausage to make hangover soup).
A Norwegian freighter (home port Bergen) lies at anchor outside Nanaimo Harbour. We’ve noticed for the last couple of years that all freighters now seem to have the emergency escape pods – note the orange “freefall lifeboat" at the stern, locked down to a set of rails it’ll slide down in an emergency. The pod looks like it’s about 30’ long, and from what I can find out has a capacity of about a dozen. Since 2006 they’re required on all freighters that have a risk of a fast sinking. There’s an interesting YouTube video of a launch test of one of these at: http://www.maritime-connector.com/ContentDetails/3904/gcgid/236/lang/English/1700-TEU-Container-Ship-Test-of-Free-Fall-Life-Boat.wshtml.
I also grabbed this close-up photo of a freefall lifeboat on another freighter. Here you can more clearly see the type of boat this is, and the rails that it free falls after breaking free. When you see the stern of a freighter up close you can tell just how high these things are off the water – and according to the YouTube video, they’re free falling at 35MPH when they hit the water. You’d really need to be buckled in securely to survive this impact, and I’ll bet there is still some risk associated with it. You can get a sense of the size of these lifeboats if you look at the guy standing at the railing in the lower right of the photo.
The other factor was that we don’t have charts aboard Flying Colours for getting into Vancouver – we have electronic charts, but Kap is adamant that she always wants back-up paper charts available for anywhere we go. There are three charts that cover our route to Vancouver, plus the two parts of the city, but when she went to the nearby boat chandlery they only had two of them. She tried the local chart and map shop in downtown Nanaimo, but being a Saturday, they weren’t open yet and we needed to soon get away if we were instead going down Dodd Narrows. In the end, we gave up on Vancouver for this summer – which we’ve done for the fourth straight year now, so it’s looking like we’ll never make it to Vancouver. Instead, we decided to head down Dodd Narrows on the west side of Gabriola Island, then figure out along the way whether we’d end up at the SYC outstation on Ovens Island (near Ladysmith on Vancouver Island) or Telegraph Harbour Marina on Thetis Island.
Dodd Narrows directly ahead of the bow. It was ½ hour before slack at high tide, so it looks quite wide. The current was running with us at 2½ knots, so it wasn’t a problem to get through, but the eddies caused by the current swung our bow from left to right about ½ dozen times going through.
Dodd Narrows – slack at 12:57PM. After picking up fuel at the Nanaimo Port Authority fuel dock, we arrived at Dodd Narrows around 11:30AM. There was 2 knots of current running with us, but Kap decided to go through without waiting. No problem, but there were whirlpools and eddies in the middle of it that were swaying our bow back and forth. Several sailboats on the other side were waiting, as it might not be comfortable for them with the current against them.
Here’s the Nobeltec chart plot of our course down Stuart Channel – Dodd Narrows is directly behind Flying Colours, and our course into Ovens Island in Ladysmith Harbour is shown in greed. Vancouver Island is on the right side of the image; Thetis Island where Telegraph Cove Marina is located is directly ahead of our current course line – and we might head there if the raccoons are too bothersome at Ovens Island.
On the way down Stuart Channel, we wagered (a Loonie) on whether we’d be alone at Ovens Island. Kap bet the outstation would be empty of boats, and I bet there’d be at least one boat. She won. As we rounded the western tip of the island the dock it was completely empty. If no one else showed up, we’d have the entire 800’x200’ island to ourselves. There’s no fresh water on the island, and the family of raccoons that live on the island (and the adjoining island to the north of it that’s sort of connected by rocks at low tide) board the boats at the dock during the night to lick up the heavy dew that forms on all outside surfaces. They also use the dock as their dining table each night, bringing up mussels from the rock wall shoreline, cracking them open on the dock, and leaving the shell litter on the dock. A morning ritual is to sweep the dock to get rid of the shells – and worse, any raccoon poop that’s left there. We also find muddy raccoon footprints at the most amazing spots on the boat, indicating just how agile these little critters are.
An empty dock at Ovens Island – just the way we like it!
After getting settled in, we took both dogs ashore, and regretting it in a few minutes, gave them free rein of the island for about ½ hour. We walked ZuZu around the island on a leash – but about 3/4ths around I spotted Gator up ahead with his mouth to the ground as if he was eating something. When I approached him he ran off, with something obviously in his mouth and it looked like a small rodent. I couldn’t catch up with him, so we took Raz and ZuZu back to the boat and then headed off in different directions to find him. I located him on the other side of the island, and yes, he was still working on something. This time he didn’t run away, but stayed there, and when I got to it I thought itwas a desiccated mouse. I got him away from it and headed back to the boat with him on a lead, hoping like hell he wouldn’t get sick over it. Kap thought it looked too big to be a mouse, but whatever it was she decided to get rid of it so that he wouldn’t head for it again. When she returned to the boat she said it was a small bone with some fur-covered skin still attached, most likely from a raccoon that had died. She threw it in onto the beach at a spot where he couldn’t get to.
Kap’s right wrist – yes, the same one she broke in May – is totally swollen up from the yellow jacket sting.
Back at the boat, we were just getting settled in, and with the salon door slightly ajar a yellow jacket (or wasp, don’t know which) came in and was buzzing around. I grabbed for the badminton racket zapper and was waiting for him to come close. Kap was about 2’ from me when the yellow jacket flew between us. I swatted him with the zapper. I hit him, and it must have just slightly zapped him, but it also knocked him right at Kap – and ricocheted off her right wrist and buzzed away. Kap instantly said she’d been stung by him, but I thought she was joking and having me on. Within moments a large red welt formed on her wrist, and it was obvious he had indeed stung her. Within five minutes the back of her wrist was swollen, and she decided it was time to take some Benadryl and get an ice pack on it right away. She sat for a long time in the pilot house with the ice pack. By dinner time the Benadryl had started to kick in and she was quite drowsy – but didn’t have any breathing problems or a rash (i.e., so we don’t think she is having an allergic reaction to the sting). By morning, it was even worse. We’re thinking that in this freak incident the yellow jacket might have released his full load of venom, either due to having just been zapped, or because he was knocked about by the zapper. At this point it’s uncertain whether we need to get Kap to a doctor today – and we’re wondering what else can go wrong on this cruise. Are we being “told” something, but we’re too thick to figure it out? When I corresponded via e-mail with Jim Phillips this morning – Mr. Big Hands Inc. – he wrote back, “WOW, tell BIG HAND to take it easy with that club!”
We’re also thinking we might head over to Telegraph Cove, but with Kap taking the Benadryl this morning we might wait another day to decide.
That’s all for today.
Ron