Our second trip out to Vancouver Island to take our sweet Grand Adventure out on a 2-week cruise started on Oct 1. We opted to drive out, since we needed a car to get us and a ton of supplies to the boat for 2 weeks. An overnight pitstop at the Holiday Inn Express (thanks IHG points!) in Kamloops, where we ventured across the street to the Casino for dinner. They convinced us when we walked through the door to sign up to their gambling program because they would give us 2 x $20 credits; 30 mins later, we walked out of the casino $55 richer! Woo-hoo! An early rise the next day to get to the ferry for noon thirty, only to find out that the ferry was an hour late for departure. Ugh BC Ferries….really?! We finally boarded around 1:30, and a short while later, headed for some last-minute groceries in Duncan before we arrived at the boat in Maple Bay Marina around 5:30. I am pretty sure it took us at least 5 wheelbarrow trips of two people to unload the car of goodies into the boat – including all the bananas! Little did I know about boats and banana superstitions (The Story Behind Banana on a Boat Superstition). We were exhausted and decided to go to the pub for a beer while our chicken cooked in the oven. We met a couple of locals at the Shipwreck pub (Fernando, Joanne and Rick). They entertained us for an hour, declared Todd had “something special about him” (we figured Fernando may be a swinger or other…and looking for something.) and we headed back to the boat for chicken dinner. It was an early night, we crashed hard and excited to start our cruise the next day.

It had been 5 months since our last cruise, so we figured it would be smart to start with a do-over of a couple of cruising locations that we are familiar with to re-hone our skills, like backing out of the slip and into the harbour, pulling up to a public dock and tying off and of course anchoring. We went through our startup checklist, and we were off around 10:30 am to Musgrave Landing. Re-learning knots was harder than I remembered! But Todd walked me through it while I was in full on panic mode staring at ropes knot knowing which way to twist, turn or pull! We managed to get her tied up on dock and brunch cooking within minutes. After a short walk around the area, we departed to Russell Island for the night – a place we know well and an easy anchor to refresh our memory! Here is a first look at the first day: Startup pics (rumble.com)  and here is a video of life on the water: First Yacht day (rumble.com)

The rain came overnight, and a bit in the am. But after a couple coffee’s, we pulled up anchor and headed our Navionics app towards Bedwell Harbor on South Pender Island for an exploration or two. It was a 2 hour trek, and wasn’t all roses…..the waves were bigger than anticipated, and about halfway there, the boat engine just stopped working! We were floating in 450 feet of water with no engine! Lucky Todd knows a thing or two about engines and he had us back up and running in 5 minutes. With all this new territory, and us being new to the boating world, we are learning as we go. When we were in training back in May, Mike told us we always needed a backup plan. For example we were going to anchor at Medicine Beach at the end of Bedwell Harbor, but when we got there, the fletch was really long and the waves were rolling; this means our sleep would be rough. We opted to go back halfway down the harbour to government buoys that were slightly more protected and stay there for the night. This was the best option – it was a peaceful night with very little waves! The next day was glass on water, so we headed out on another 1.25 hour tour around the bend to Port Browning. Check out the glassy water: Day 3 on the water (rumble.com) The marina came highly recommended for many reasons. Each marina (as we are learning) has a short term slip (and overnight) for boaters to come in and use the facilities (shower, garbage, water fill) and enjoy their local fare at the pub! We called in an they gave us slip 15A;  in a mad panic, I had to move all the ropes from the port side to the starboard side to tie off. Once we were settled, we both realized that we could have just backed the boat into the slip instead of moving all the ropes over! Things you see after the fact…..We had a great 4 hour pitstop here – the food was great, the beach amazing and the weather was perfect. Here is some evidence of that: More Pics (rumble.com) We departed around 3:45 and sailed a whole 5 minutes down the harbor to Shark Inlet – a frickin’ gem …not a single other boat here for the night. We anchored down, then took the dingy to shore to find a hike to the Mount Norman lookout. This. Did. Not. Disappoint. At. All. WOW!! You could see all the south Gulf Islands from this lookout! Mount Norman Lookout (rumble.com)

Enjoying a coffee the next morning, we watched as people launched their small fishing boats into the cove the next morning. The cove was so mellow, and quiet and clear and calm….we departed around 10 to tour through Plumpers Sound to go check out the empty freight boats from China and Panama (Mega Tankers (rumble.com)) on our way to Irish Bay on Samuel Island. The tide was crazy at Irish Bay, we turned around… and headed to Lyall Marina on Saturna Island for a brunch stop. It was a good practice for Todd to dock at the public Marina – the tide was flowing out, so it made it challenging for him to get us lined up correctly. Only 2 or 3 tries and eventually nailed it! Makes it a bit hard when the stern thruster isn’t working. Did a short walk over to Boot Cove and back, then took a nap! We were thinking of anchoring in Lyall Harbour for the night, but after our morning walk…it seemed like one of those places that the locals didn’t really want us there…so we left and headed to Winter cove. In the summer, they average 100-160 boats a night in this cove! It’s a gorgeous location in a protected bay; there is a 15-foot section on the north end that opens to the Strait of Georgia, so the tide can be insane! As always, we are watching the winds, tides and fletches to make sure when we anchor, we will stay anchored! There is also a shipwreck underneath us…somewhere. A short trip with the dingy over to the dock so we could take a 1 km walk to winter point to check out the tide flow. It was so cool to see the tide moving so quickly through it, there was no way we could get the boat through there…no way… Winter cove (rumble.com)

I had a super shitty sleep, waking up 35 times that night…kept dreaming that Todd had convinced me we could make it through that narrow passage at winter point! I was never so glad to get out of that stupid dream sequence! It was another calm, gorgeous day and this time we headed out towards Georgeson Passage during tide change. It was a slow passage, cause we were heading against the tide and it grabs the boat and moves it in the opposite direction; I was ok steering for a bit and then completely freaked me out….apparently a new sailing skill I need to learn. This only lasted about 30 minutes but Todd ensured we made it out unscathed, heading south towards Cabbage island and Tumbo Island. A short while later, we arrived at our new overnight spot – another government buoy between both islands. While here, we took the dingy to both islands for a walk around each one; it was a 10,000 step kind of day followed by naps and snacks. By nightfall we were the only boat in the bay. We realize its off season, but man it is so crazy that we always pick a location where we are the only ones there! Not complaining, the scenery is so gorgeous, and weather to boot is equally awesome!

The sunsets here are unbelievable!

A rainy overnight, followed by a rainy morning with a bit of wind and waves. We assessed our options for where we would go next and one of our main criteria included fueling the boat. Little did we know that when its off season in the Gulf Islands, it means almost all refueling marinas are closed during the weekday and only open on weekends! WTF! It was Tuesday morning….We weren’t in a super crisis mode (we had less than half a tank) but still – if we wanted to do some cruising for 8 more days, we were going to need some fuel! A few phone calls around, we decided to head to Saltspring island; specifically Ganges as the main marina opened their fuel supply on Thursdays! All other locations were either weekends only OR an additional 3 hour sail in the opposite direction from where we wanted to go.

It took about 3.5 hours and a couple of direction changes, based on tide schedule to get from point A to point B. We navigated through Georgeson Passage with the Tide in our favour; our average speed is about 6 knots and we were anywhere between 6.3-7.4 knots going through this passage and through Navy passage doing the same. As we approached Active passage (the one with all the large ferries) our speed dropped to about 4 knots! Both of us are getting the hang of navigating in calm, not so calm and tide waters. (Jill might freak out a little more than others in the crew during tide) We called ahead to ask the Ganges harbour guy about the Kanaka Public dock. The dock is first come, and there were very minimal spots left for a 35 foot vessel but we found a decent spot out front. Of course, it started to rain and the wind picked up about 5 minutes before we arrived, which made both of our jobs harder! I had the ropes and bumpers ready, Todd just had to pull in, do a shit hook and wait for the wind to push us into the dock. Miraculously all the stars aligned, and he nailed it without an inch to spare! Made the knots and ropes super easy for me! This camping on the water is so surreal…and bizarre, but also awesome all at the same time! The town of Ganges is super cute, very old (for Western Canada) and full of character. We had a walk around, met a few marina locals then headed for a shower and happy hour all before 4. We stayed here for 2 nights total – and took the second day to just relax, Todd was a bit under the weather, assuming I passed my bad cough on to him…lucky guy! Had a slow start to day 2, a bit of boat maintenance and then off to the fuel station.

Its now day 9 on this Gulf Islands fall cruising tour and although we haven’t had really any crisis’ like extreme weather or waves, I think we are both finding a bit more comfort and familiarity in our Grand Adventure boat. Understanding how she operates, how she handles in marinas with tide and wind, how to anchor and how we communicate with cues to each other to know that the operation or task at hand is good or bad. We are enjoying the downtime and the slow pace that yachting forces upon you. Nothing happens fast on a boat, and we are never in a hurry. Even if we were in a hurry, we wouldn’t be going fast! The Grand Adventure is a trawler boat – meaning she is built for slow cruising speeds for long distance cruising.

From Ganges, we didn’t go far…maybe an hour on the water and pulled in to Selby Cove on Prevost Island! We had to spend some time on Prevost you had to know that…as an homage to Ruby our Prevost bus. We took the dingy to shore so we could do a short hike to James Bay, the next cove over. Prevost Island jellyfirsh (rumble.com) The greenery on the islands at this time of year continues to amaze us Albertans! The cedars and arbutus trees are just something else. Like many of the islands, half of Prevost Island was under the Gulf Islands National Park and rest of the island was owned by descendants of the original owner (an Irishman named Digby deBurgh). A quick dingy trip back to the boat, some dinner, some card games and then it was bedtime.  We realize now too, that we have established a routine, like you just naturally seem to do. Get up, make coffee, look at the view, figure out where we want to go next, do our mini checklist, start cruising to the next destination. Secure the boat (anchor, marina slip or buoy) have lunch, go for a walk somewhere, come back, have a happy hour drink, make dinner, play some card games a go to bed. Repeat as necessary!

The next morning, we opted to head to Montague (pronounced “mon-ta-goo”) Harbour provincial Park on Galiano Island. This took about 45 minutes and when we got there, had no idea there was both a mooring dock and buoys to choose from. Of course we were the only boat there. Apparently, this place is hopping in the summer, and its been a mind blower that no one / no boats are around at all! We pulled up to the dock to check out the situation, then made lunch and decided to pull up to a mooring buoy for the night, possibly 2 nights. It is the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend, and the weather is supposed to be 17 C tomorrow, so after a walk around the provincial park, we decided that staying 2 days would be a great idea. The cove is perfectly protected from potential weather, the park has great beaches and a gorgeous hike with amazing views! By the time Saturday morning arrived, a few more boats showed up for the weekend. We took two trips in the dingy to the harbour, one for our morning walk to check out low tide and then the other was for our afternoon at the beach! We packed our beach mimosas and a handful of snacks and picked the perfect spot around 1:30. When we arrived, there was 1 person on the beach aside from us….but as the afternoon wore on, it got busier. It was so hot, Todd was in shorts and no shirt. The water was damn cold though! Here’s the last of the pics: All the other photos (rumble.com) and a video Montague beach (rumble.com)

The next morning we headed out around 9:30 – we had 3-ish hour cruise to get us to the Ladysmith area.  My highlight was the pod of porpoises just after we turned north towards Ladysmith. We opted for Ladysmith because last time we drove through, we both found a couple of delicious food options including the old town bakery, the meat pie shop and the GF bakery and restaurant. We anchored next to the public wharf with some other boats….but probably not the best “neighborhood” to be in. Basically anchored in the hood for the night….both beside and behind some sketchy looking slap’em together derelict boat “community”…We secured the boat and all things inside before we dingy’d to shore with our shopping bags in hand! Walking up to the main road is a chore in Ladysmith….everything is uphill in this town. Arriving at the meat pie shop to find it closed for the rest of the weekend, as was the old town bakery and the GF restaurant! Epic fail on our end. When we did some googling and walking around town there were VERY limited options available for lunch on a long weekend. Luckily we found the Bayview Brewing Company open; the atmosphere was chill, the drinks were cold and the food was delicious! Not exactly what we had in mind, but it’ll do. A short walk to the grocery store and we were back down to the harbour heading back to the boat. Our favorite activity here so far has been spying on other derelict boats with our binoculars, wondering how people can live this way….

The weather is taking a turn for the next couple days with rain in the forecast, although we didn’t have to return the boat to its home until wed, we assessed the weather and tides and decided to head her back to home to Maple Bay a day early…a 3 -ish hour trek and there was no one on the water except the ferries, the entire way back to Maple Bay. We took the extra day in the boat slip to do 4 loads of laundry, fill up propane and gas for the next user and clean the boat from top to bottom. Both Todd and I were suffering long covid the entire time – coughing, hacking, snot rockets…all the things.

Atop Little Mountain lookout

WOW! We couldn’t have asked for better weather or water in October for our first ever, on our own fall cruise! I don’t even know if we could tell you which place(s) were our faves…everyday we got to go someplace new and it was equally if not better than the day before. Very lucky and blessed we get to see and be with nature in places that not everyone can get to. We can’t wait to go back next spring!