Aug 23 Thursday Gibsons-We take the truck again and decide to go visiting more this time former neighbors from Ebert street in Coquitlam where we once lived. Jim and Fern Breadner. We meet for lunch in town, then I do some shopping and we go to their house so Jim can be there.We catch up on the neighbor gossip. before going to the boat we check with Clark and Shelia and sure enough Jan and Neil are there visiting . They have started doing the RV thing so we compare notes.Another good visit. Bill returns the truck and I check e-mails and blog. Tomorrow we head for Ekins our BYC outstation. Then we will go to Center Bay for the pig roast then back to BYC to get ready for Australia. I will not have internet connection until we get home.

Aug 22 Wednesday Gibsons. A great sunny day. .We take the truck and go visiting. First we check the phone book and go to Joyce & Al’s. Joyce was my brides maid 43 years ago. Were they ever surprised. We have a great visit. They have 5 acres . I pick an ice cream bucket of blackberries in no time flat. They also have a tree full of apples. Yum. We move on and visit another couple, Brian and Marg Stanhope,. former BYC members who do gigs in Palm Springs area. They are very good musicians who have played on cruise ships too. We played telephone tag with them all winter. They were surprised to see us too. Tonight we go out for dinner with Bill’s cousin Ken & Linda. We go to Grandma’s pub. We have 6 new BYC boats here tonight

Aug21 Tuesday Gibsons We leave 7am on flat calm waters, the best yet. We arrive at Gibsons 11:30. 4 BYC boats here. I hike to the library to check my e-mails. They do not have WIFI but there is an internet café very close. I go back to the boat to get my computer and start walking when Bill comes along with his cousin’s truck and takes me to the café. Clark and Shelia are down at there boat, so we have a quick visit. Hugh Lloyd arrives with his new 68’ boat . No room at our dock.
Aug. 20 Monday Pender Harbour- It rains most of the day. We are entertained by a family of raccoons on the veranda of a house just above us. We watch a deer venturing along the shoreline. The water is rough outside and we end up with 6 BYC boats here for the night

sorry I screwed up the dates

Aug.17 Friday Pender Harbour. We wake up to Clark and Shelia leaving in the rain. It brightens up slightly and we lower the dingy and head over to the grocery store.Burrr 4 one of our BYC boats has a portable hot tub and the blow it up and put it in the water. What next. See photo

Aug 18 Saturday Pender harbour. 2 boats leave and we move over to allow for 2 more BYC boats to come out of anchor. Rain,sun rain sun all day long.

Aug 19 Sunday Pender Harbour-Every one leaves but us. We stay one more day and do laundry. 4 more BYC boats arrive and it is a beautiful sunny day.

August 15 Wednesday- another early rise as we have 2 rapids to go through. A very heavy dew falls on the boat last night .We get a good start and go all the way to Powel River. The first stop is the internet café. Shelia and I walk the lower part of town checking out art galleries Garry Salmon was here when we arrived with his new boat. He left and Rick and Beverly took his place. Shelia and I had our last game of scrabble.

August 16 Thursday- Pender harbour. We get a 9am start. The weather is changing. The water is a little lumpy but nothing we couldn’t handle. Bill drives on top even though it is pouring rain. I was nice and warm downstairs with the bus heater on (wimp). We arrive in Pender Harbour 12:30 and the sun is showing it’s face. We get a call from our wagon master for our Australia trip wanting to know if we wanted to sigh up for some extras. One was the bridge walk in Sidney -$185 . I dicided it was a once in a lifetime experience so say yes Bill doesn’t want to, I also sigh up for a $80 one hour massage in New Zealand. Clark and Shelia are here too and we go for a walk to the far end of the lake. There art 9 BYC boats here tonight and it pours rain all night.

Aug 14 Tuesday-Oleo’s.-We have to get up early (5.15am) to catch the tides and currents. The water is dead calm. We follow close to Clark and Shelia as there are fog banks. They have a GPS chart on their computer. Bill has not got his going yet as it is not compatible with his auto pilot . The fog gets pretty thick. We can hardly make out the shoreline. We are shrouded in fog as we can not even see the boat in front of us. A little eerie. Bill is down below following his radar. It clears up in about 10 minutes thankfully and turns out to be a beautiful hot sunny day. Clark and Shelia stop at Blind Channel for fuel. John and Midge come around the corner. They are going up Federick Arm ,we are going to Oleo’s. They have a full house (6 boats) I have the duck for dinner-so so.

early morning fog

Retraction- The Opera and Pierrie’s story were not true just a hoax. This is how rumors start. Sorry

Aug 13 Monday-Minstral -We start heading south today. Shelia and Clark leave first us shortly after (8am) We run into a small bank of fog so we slow down as visibility is limited. Just before Minstral we get good a cell phone signal. We check our 12 messages mostly from the girls. We are the only 2 boats here. Shelia Clark and I walk to the development camp at the other end of the island. Debbie still has her baby sapsucker ( not a woodpecker).They are just about finished the roads in the development. Nothing has changed at Minstral. The owners were not there and Dan didn’t bother to collect moorage

Shawl Bay prawns

Aug11 Saturday- We skip the pancake breakfast as we just had too much food yesterday. A light rain is falling off and on. Bill gets 60 prawns in his trap this morning .Shelia and I didle away the day playing games.

Aug 12 Sunday Bouillabaisse day ( fish stew) tonight. Bill gets 160 prawns in his trap today . He brings the trap in and we hoist the dingy and get ready to leave tomorrow morning. I will not have internet service until we get down to Powel River.

Aug 10 Friday Shawl Bay- Today is Robs birthday (23) he is the owners son. Clark and Shelia arrive today from Pierrie’s. They said Pierre turned down Jimmy Pattison’s boat with Opera on it. Wouldn’t that have been something to have dinner with Opera. Jimmy’s boat is 150 feet so I guess it was a little too big for their docks. Doug and Bunny arrive we haven’t seen them for a couple of years. We have a good visit they will stay as long as we do. A great pot luck for the birthday bash. They had a huge cake as they had a very full house.

Aug 9 Thursday Shawl Bay-Overcast. Bill brings in the crab trap (3) but only 1 keeper I under sized and 1 female. Shawl Bay again so I can post my blog. I haven’t been on line since Aug 3. Bill gets the satalite TV working half assed but he can listen to CKNW on the computer with WIFI so he is happy.

Aug 8 Wednesday- We wake up to clear skies and sunshine. Shelia and Clark leave and so do John and Midge. We stay for one more night .We change our crabbing spot to inside the bay and get lucky. 5 crabs that are keepers. Only 1 boat arrives in the bay all the other anchor outside the bay ( 4 ) I forgot to take pictures of the first bunch of crabs.

Aug 5-6-7 All 3 of us go to Claydon Bay to anchor. It is overcast in the morning but clears by noon. 9 boats are here .We spend 4 nights in this peaceful bay. We get a change of scenery every day as by noon we get 4-5 boats leave and 4-5 new boats arrive. We spend the days kayaking, crabbing and reading. The girls get together for a game every day and we meet for happy hour at different boats each day. There is something calming being in anchor as we drift around and get a 360 view all day as the slight current and breeze turns the boat around. It stays mirror calm the whole time. No bears even at the old logging piers where I saw them last time we were here. We share the bay with eagles, herons ,kingfishers, loons, crows and an abundance of gulls. Even a family of Canada geese are here.

Aug 4 Pierries’ Bay –my birthday It is cloudy and cold . We even have to put our furnace on. Our satellite dish works so we watch BC news on TV. After lunch it warms up so we lower our dingy. We going to Bill Procter’s museum . It is just around the corner from Ecco Bay He has quite a collection of old bottles and other stuff he found in the area We buy 2 of his books and proceed to Ecco Bay where I buy a dozen eggs and a red pepper. They do not have too much in fresh stuff. We check the bead shop across the way at Wind Song then return for happy hour. The pig roast was delicious. They have lots of left over pork and they say help yourself so I have meat for sandwiches . Pierre shows a short clip on whales. It was very well done . The WIFI is with broad band so I do not get on the net so I will post the blog when we get back to Shawl Bay again. Next weekend??????

Pierrie's pig roast

Aug 3 Friday We make a move a little over one hour away to Pierre’s Bay. http://www.pierresbay.com/ Saturday is BBQ pig roast 15.00 a head. One has to come one day ahead. The place quickly fills up. Some 70 feet boats. We 3 are the smallest and Clark and Shelia and us plus 3 more are the only Canadians out of about 25 boats here. I finally win a game of tri Ominoes. They have a big happy hour. We have a great dinner on Island Pride. 8pm is a movie in their littlr theater. They show Captain Bob with Kurk Russel, too funny. I catch a finger in our sliding door ouch. It is all black and blue and I had to take a pain killer to get to sleep.

I forgot to tell you in the kitchen of Jennis bay Carol-Ann Geroday was interviewing Allison on the history of Jennis Bay. She is a writer for boating magazines mostly Pacific yachting She has a good web site try http://www.writefromthesea.com/ .

Aug 2 Thursday Shawl Bay-We have to double up at the dock –Clark and Shelia tie up to us and Rick and Beverly get Derick and Rhonda as 3 Royal Vancouver classic wood boats arrive to tie up rafted at the end of the dock Shelia and I play tri Ominoes . She wins hands down all the games. We switch to Rummy cubes. That is a little more even score. Shelia goes for a swim. I chicken out. It was a beautiful sunny day.

August 1 Wednesday- We wake up to fog. It is kind of pretty makes for a good painting. After it clears somewhat we depart Jennis Bay . We stop at Sullivan Bay for fresh vegetables and gas for the dingy. This is a neat stop. Check http://www.sullivanbay.com/ We meet Clark and Shelia there. We all go to Shawl Bay for the evening. There are 4 BYC boats here tonight . www.shawlbaymarina.com

Jennis Bay

July 31 Tuesday Jennis Bay We stay another night as this is Cajun night. 10.00 a head . Bill gets 36 large prawns in the trap this morning. I help with Jambalaya and gumbo. I peel prawns and crack crab. The airplane comes to take some loggers out. Same lady pilot. There are 11 boats tonight some have to raft. This is the largest crowd yet for them..

Prawns in Dury inlet Jennis Bay

July 30 Monday Jennis Bay- Sunshine today . Bill checks his prawn trap to discover 64 small salad shrimp. A float plane arrives ( a good looking female pilot) delivers a hiker and the mail. There is a 12 mile long lake about 5 miles from here. They will take you by truck with your kayaks and fishing lines if you want for 25:00. They also rent bikes and kayaks. Today we have a happy hour. They have a fire going at 8pm for smores. There are 8 boats here a full dock load.