It somehow seems an apt phrase, seeing my last post was from Dec. 2019. Both Volti, and her crew, are still here. February & March were Winter Racing times at Point Roberts, but a tired Traveller was causing issues, so after spending time investigating less expensive options, and with Boatshow pricing, a new 4:1 unit was ordered. Just as I began installations, a CoVid related Border closure was becoming more and more likely. I did get the install completed just in time, but having not secured moorage yet, didn't remove her from US waters. At the time I truly believed it would be a 1 or 2 month (max!) event. Boy, did I ever call that one wrong. While we begrudgingly lost our Summer boating season, I REALLY didn't want to leave her unattended through the less favourable Fall/Winter seasons, so finally managed to arrange for her to get hauled, bottom cleaned, zincs replaced, prop scraped, and delivered to me at White Rock Pier in late August -so here's the late start to as much cruising as we can manage to make time for.....
Wed., Aug. 23 White Rock - Montague Harbour
As much as I needed to get on the boat, I think Lisa needed it even more. So with moorage finally secured in Ladysmith, and delivery to WR scheduled, I stuffed(!!!!) the car with gear -I'd take the boat over to Ladysmith, spend a few days cleaning/organizing her, and then Lisa would join me on the weekend and we could head out and get a week aboard prior to the new school year starting. Well, if you've walked WR Pier before and you think about my stuffed car comment, you can already imagine what the start of this adventure was like for me. I'd actually never walked it before; but with 11 or 12 trips of it that morning, I think I made up for that! I was bagged before leaving the dock. It had been a busy morning for boat deliveries that morning and things were backing up at the dock, so I tossed the lines and got out of the way. I hadn't even attached the main, just wanted to get off the dock! The predicted 18-20kt winds were more like 2-4kts so I knew it would be a motoring trip anyway. After lunch and a bit of time to recover, I thought of installing the main while underway, but then figured it would be better to wait until getting to Montague. As I approached Georgeson Point, the typical pick up in wind appeared, so I began to unfurl the headsail. Unfortunately, it was jamming and would only allow me to unfurl about half of the sail. Rather than get distracted with that, I grumbled a bit, then continued on with an uneventful motoring up to Montague.
Thurs. Aug. 24 Montague - Ladysmith Marina
Next morning, by the time I had gotten to the top of the pass between Montague and Parker Island, the sails were up and out and I was in a great 8-10 kt. breeze to shake some rust of my sailing -had a great sail to the south end of Wallace Isl. until the wind abruptly shut off and I had to fire up the motor again. Saw/radioed friends on Persistence as we crossed paths while rounding Southey Point. The wind began to fill a little as I approached the bottom tip of Tent Island and I was taunted into sailing again. By Escape Reef, I was motoring again; and would be the rest of the way to Ladysmith. Found our slip no problem, but after being at Point Roberts, where once you're out of the breakwater you're gone, here it feels like you've got another half an hour still to go (and you do!). I got tied up, then immediately on the horn to Steveston Marine for a new shore power plug/receiver (more on that later), welcomed by a neighbouring sailor, scrubbed and almost finished power washing, when PRM L-Dock friends aboard Sequoia came by to say hi. We chatted briefly, then the went on their way, with an invitation to swing by for a cold bevy later; I was happy to oblige after another long day.
Friday began with me starting to sort out all the chaos of 'stuff' aboard the boat. One of the things kept me hesitating on hiring a skipper, was I had our boat slipped on a different dock than our assigned location (where a dock box full of stuff, along with our dinghy were). While I was glad Westwind was willing to collect all our stuff -there was ALOT of stuff!!! Without a dockbox, I piled some stuff out on the dock -knowing it wasn't needed but would have to get taken up to store in the car once Lisa would be arriving Saturday, and continued working on sorting/storing things. The Sequoia team came by again, inviting me over for dinner later, so with that incentive in place, I hustled through the rest of a very warm day, had a quick shower, and got to enjoy a great salmon dinner and even greater company that evening.
Lisa came over on Saturday, with still MORE stuff! So we continued catching up on cleaning/prepping both Sat. & Sunday. While we intended to get going on Monday, but spent the majority of the day dealing with a frustrating update of nav. charts. In fact, I used all but the last 10 minutes of a midnight expiry of file access.
Although forecasted for sunny & hot, the clouds of the morning said otherwise. Looking ahead to a few days at Princess Cove, we opted to head to Telegraph; hadn't been there in a few years, and that way we could also ensure batteries would be topped up. Although hopeful of some sailing, any ripples we saw ahead of us kept dying as we neared them. As we came in to Telegraph, the first words out of a fellow taking our our lines was, "That is my next boat!". Not that many folks know about our boat (there were 41 made). Dropping back into old habits -even in the CoVid era- I extended an invitation to come aboard and view her. The next day brought his wife with him (Thetis Isl. residents, he was checking on his Fast34 they keep at the marina) and she agreed. While we're not about to consider it, it was very flattering none the less. Also had a chance to visit with Runaway IV -a Point Roberts boat that had began doing White Sails with us at PRYC back in the Fall.
With the Munro's now questionable for Princess, and Rickard's likely Sat., we opted for another night at Telegraph; ensure batteries are up, and get some waxing done done. Plus, the Pie Shack ran out on Wed. -we got 2 small (Bumbleberry & Peach) pies on Thurs. though :^). A bonus of sticking around was seeing friends from LPS arrive for the Tollycraft get together that was happening.
The max wind we saw was 2.1kts, so it was a motor over to Princess. With zero bars of Telus, we found a spot that could accommodate up to 3 of us with the option of rafting. We anchored second stern chain past the dinghy dock. Once secured and lunched up, we dinghies to Camping Point. Charm had both of us tearing up with laughter as she bounded around the rock hillside with the energy of a puppy. Spitfire crossed with good speed so elected to come directly to Princess, rather overnight at Silva Bay. We got them tied on our starboard. We haven't been out with them since last summer up in Desolation, so it was a great evening of catching up. Saturday & Sunday were pretty leisurely, a little puttering around, some hikes, etc. There was a clocking breeze along the west shore that was quite cool at times, yet directly across from us -on the west, or outside of the Point, it was windless and HOT(!), so everyone grabbed some blankets, snacks, and bevvies, and we continued visiting in much more inviting Labour Day weekend temperatures.
RVYC friends of Drew's, who I've also crewed with on Spitfire appeared, so they squeezed in between Drew & and the Dinghy dock. They were a little close together, but not rafted either. Richard and family have sailed for years, but they were on a recently purchased, new to them, CS36.
The extent of my checking fuel levels when we began the week was transferring what was in the 'emergency' gerry can and asking Lisa 'Is it full enough?'. So without a fuel dock in Ladysmith Harbour, we had to make a slight right and an additional stop at Thetis Marina to fuel up. Combined with the 3 or 4 boat line-up, we took our selves out of contention for the 3:45 reservation we had. After a bit of a boat tidy and transferring some stuff back out of the car and onto the boat again. It was around 5:30 by the time we got to Duke Point. Given the traffic reports and the Highway info boards were saying everything was 100%, we were pleased to actually get on the 8:45. It did mean a much later than intended arrival home, it could have been the 10:15 or even having to stay overnight.
Yes, it will be different this fall and winter, but we'll take advantage of cruising that area -hopefully a little deeper (and earlier come Spring) through this Fall/Winter. Where the Strait can change a little quicker, and more severely during the winter, which does make weekend trips a little less relaxing, having Volti already across may actually encourage us to do more overnight trips this year. If nothing else, if all the CoVid restrictions ease off during the Winter, we'll finally have a chance of making the LPS Kick-off Cruise to Ladysmith :^)
More photos here