Hello From Comox!!

Hi everyone! I haven’t had WiFi or any way to update this blog since I left. And before I left I was frantically working on the boat to solve issues, which made me leave 10 days late, and also prevented me from blogging. Considering that I left on the evening of Saturday the 10th, I think I’ve made pretty good time getting to Comox in 1 week =)

Here are some pics.

Leaving Seattle at night to go to Port Madison. Thank goodness for my Vesper AIS which detected all the big ships and tugs flawlessly!

Cooking breakfast burritos in Port Madison, which lasted me a couple days. Although I forgot those little tortillas start to get gummy and liquidy after awhile.

Organized the storage lockers in Port Madison so I can actually get to stuff.

Left Port Ludlow early Monday morning to catch the second half of the ebb tide, and made my top speed of 9.8 knots, with moments of 11.5 knots. I crossed the Strait of Juan de Fuca, which was pretty calm. As I motored up the west side of San Juan Island, I put my engine in top speed and I learned that Barbie’s Dream Engine does not feel happy in her highest gear. The exhaust got smoky, like she was warning me. I stepped it down a couple gears and over a half hour or so the exhaust went back to normal. I’m learning you shouldn’t push these old engines too hard!

The straits were very calm the whole time. There was not enough wind to sail, and anyway, I still hadn’t had time to finish rigging my sails. I was just trying to cover some ground and make up for lost time.

There were some confused currents in Boundary Pass going to South Pender Island from the San Juans, which just meant I had to be hyper vigilant with steering on the tiller to correct for the fact that it wanted to spin me in all sorts of directions.

I got all the way to Bedwell Harbour by around 4pm.

Tuesday I went to Susurrus Spa alllll morning: hot tub, sauna, steam room. Then I went back to the boat and cooked a feast that I’m still working on.

My boat anchored in Bedwell Harbour:

On Wednesday I motored up along the inside of Galiano Island towards Dodd Narrows

I loved it going through here. It was so glassy clam and sunny, and there was usually not a boat in sight. I had the whole place to myself. All the big container ships like to anchor up there, as you can kinda make out in the below photo. Even they were perfectly still like everything else.

I stayed in Pirates Cove overnight to wait for a favorable current at Dodd Narrows. This is me passing a catamaran that was going the other way out Dodd Narrows. I was hovering by the entrance waiting for slack tide, at 10:46am.

On Thursday in Nanaimo Harbour I went out to eat at a pub on Protection Island and then I took the ferry to Nanaimo Proper and got to work provisioning. I didn’t have a map or anything so I had to rely on my mom and Harriet to text me the names and locations of things through the Garmin InReach. It was this way that I found a grocery store and a marine chandlery.

On Friday I put up my sails for a few hours from Nanaimo Harbour to Lasqueti Island in the Strait of Georgia, but there wasn’t enough wind to turn off the engine.

In the evening I navigated through some reefs and rocks to get to Tucker Bay, where I anchored overnight.

On Saturday I waited till 1pm to leave for Comox because I wanted the current to be in my favor. This pic is on the way from Lasqueti to Comox:

Right now I’m sitting at the Komox Grind coffee shop near the marina.

I’m anchored in the harbor. I haven’t stayed at any marinas, just anchored. The Mantus with 150′ chain and then some rope for deeper places are keeping me good and stuck by the way.

There have been a few challenges, like getting stuck at low tide in Pirates Cove and needing help from some nice power boaters to get free. And my engine has required some continued maintenance while underway, but it’s working just fine! And then there was the mosquito attack in Tucker Bay on Lasqueti Island, from which I am still recovering.

Comox will be my jumping off point for Desolation Sound. I won’t be leaving till Tuesday because a) hardly any place here is open today because it’s Sunday, and I need to wait till I can provision (I especially need to find a small outboard for my dinghy, because rowing across a large harbor against wind and current can suck sometimes!!), and b) I need a rest day! Today I’ll just walk around sightseeing.