April 22–May 4, 2015

It was a dark and stormy night. No, stop! It was a sunny late morning when we mounted our trusty bicycles to head down to Phase III. “Bikes?” you may be asking. Several friends offered to drive us down to the boat so we wouldn’t have to leave a car outside for 4 months, but we are hardy adventurous folks, plus we need our bikes for transportation. With the bikes secured up on the fly bridge our hiking buddy, John bid us farewell and helped cast off the lines. This journey began at 11:37 am on Wednesday, April 22^nd.

Looking back at Skyline Marina, Anacortes

Our first day out the captain exercised his right to change plans based on the weather forecast. Instead of stopping at Reid Harbor on Stuart Island we opted to proceed on to Sidney on Vancouver Island. We arrived, cleared customs, went out to dinner, and did our fruit and vegetable provisioning all before dark on Wednesday. Thursday, it rained off and on. Riding our trusty bikes we picked up the 28 liters of wine we had made in Sidney. Yes, 28 liters of wine is heavy, but remember we have our trusty bikes.
There are other boats from Anacortes traveling a similar route. M/V Tonic left the day before us, M/V Carlinda left a few hours before us, and M/V Hey You left the day after us. It was fun tracking the other boats using www.marinetraffic.com (when we had wifi). If you wish to track us, our boat name is Phase iii, our mmsi is 367388320. We are a pleasure craft. If you choose “Vessels” and then search on Phase iii you will see where we are. There is also an app – you can find it by searching google for marinetraffic.com app. The ipad app is $3.99. (Sorry for the commercial).
Our first wildlife spotting was a gaggle of geese that swam past the dock at the Capital City Yacht Club in Sidney. Ahhh spring and a new beginning.
 
 
 
 
Three years ago, I wrote in my blog about my quest for rhubarb. I don’t want you worry about how I will survive this trip. Fear not! I stewed up two pints of strawberry rhubarb sauce to get us going.

Rhubarb on 7-grain oatmeal with whippo!                     Rhubarb on pancakes with whippo!
From Sidney we moved on to Nanaimo where we joined up with M/V Carlinda and M/V Hey You. For those readers not familiar with west coast boating, tides and currents are important out here. In areas with narrow channels between islands the current can be rather strong and that can be a problem for a slow boat (6-7 knots) like ours. The period they call “slack” is when the current is minimal as the water changes from coming in (flood) to going out (ebb). It is preferred to go through narrows at slack. At Dodd’s Narrows going into Nanaimo we were a bit ahead of slack and ended up going through with a 3 knot current against us. At one point I could see the moss on the rocks in glorious detail, but Captain Dave straightened us out. ”I’ll kick up those RPMs and get us through”, he said bravely.
The weather looked good on Saturday, so we left Nanaimo and moved 74 miles north to Campbell River. This early in the cruising season, there was no one at the marina to collect money or give us the wifi code. Not paying was a bonus; not having wifi was a letdown. A large new shopping center spread out from the top of the dock. Dinner at the Pub offered an opportunity to use their wifi. It was okay, but slow. The next day we had lunch at the A&W where there was fast wifi. A late afternoon departure from Campbell River on Sunday allowed us to pass Seymour Narrows near the slack before the ebb. Small Inlet just 18 miles north was our first anchorage of the trip. The challenge now is to position ourselves to go around Cape Caution in the best weather conditions. At a marina with wifi we can check Predict Wind and other web sites for weather, tide and current, information. At anchor we have only the weather channel and they always seem to be saying “gale force winds”. There are to be several low pressure weather systems moving through BC, hence the rainy conditions. Outside temperature in the mornings has been in the upper 40’s to lower 50’s. Cool, but not unbearable. Our diesel heater warms the boat up in the morning. We are getting used to temperatures in the low 60’s inside the boat.  Notice the rainbow in the photo – a good sign!

Looking up Seymour Channel is spectacular even in the rain.

Moving north, we anchored at Small Inlet on Sunday evening.
Monday evening found us at the Lagoon Cove Marina on Minstrel Island. Jean Barber is still running the marina after her husband Bill passed away. She has new caretakers, Heidi and her husband, “what’s his name”. They welcomed our armada of 3 boats to the dock which already held one other northbound boat. “ What’s his name” apologized for not having a happy hour but gave each boat a big jar of frozen prawns. We were happy to have wifi again and delighted with the prawns. A big low pressure system passed through during the night and I listened to pelting rains as I tried to sleep.
Phase III and Carlinda at Lagoon Cove dock
From Lagoon Cove we pushed on to a beautiful anchorage surrounded by islands called Murray’s Labyrinth. After 7 hrs on the water with some three to four foot swells toward the end we were rewarded with calm inside the Labyrinth. Our trio of boats is now positioned to run around Cape Caution. To go or not to go, that is the question! Based on the weather now and future forecasts we decide to go.
It wasn’t our worst crossing, but it wasn’t our best. The ocean swells were erratic pushing us first left and then right. At one point we estimated the swells to be 12 feet. Green Island Anchorage couldn’t come soon enough. M/V Tonic was anchored nearby in Skull Cove.

M/V Carlinda in Murray’s Labyrinth     

Thursday, April 30^th our quartet of boats made way for Shearwater.  Shearwater is a town of 88 people with a restaurant, Laundromat, grocery store, fuel dock and other services. Yes, they also have wifi! 

Even the eagle in Shearwater was wishing the rain would stop.

The merry month of May is here, but the April showers have not ended. Leaving Shearwater we navigated Mathieson Channel, Jackson Passage and Finlayson Channel. It alternated between cloudy, rainy, and sunny.

Photos taken 30 minutes apart on Mathieson and Jackson Passage

On a positive note, all this rain has the waterfalls running full and fast. The thrill of Finlayson Channel was seeing our first two humpback whales. It clearly is too early in the season for the whales to give a full show. All we got was a little hump and then a tail as they dove deep. A helicopter dropping logs into a log boom also entertained us.

Nice office!

With 270 miles to go to Ketchikan our goal is to time our passage across Dixon Entrance for a day with low wind and low waves. Dixon Entrance is a stretch of water open to the ocean.  It marks the point where one crosses from Canada into the USA. Boaters must clear customs in Ketchikan before setting foot on US soil again.
From Shearwater we spend three nights at anchor in Bottleneck Cove, Lowe Inlet, and Hunt Inlet, respectfully.  

                 Bottleneck Cove                                                   Lowe Inlet
The highlight of the trip so far came on May 2^nd when just south of Butedale, Earl from M/V Hey You radioed that he saw a spirit bear on shore. It was amazing to watch the big slightly stained white bear calmly munching mussels off the tree branches that hung in the water. The spirit bears are a variation of black bear. They are very rare. It was a real privilege to watch this one.

Spirit Bear along Fraser Reach

If you would like to see a video go to:  http://youtu.be/XnT0p6QgbX4

We have had rain at some point every day since April 23^rd. However if I am selective with the photos I can make the weather look bright and sunny.
On Monday, May 4^th we departed Hunt Inlet at 6am to make a run for Ketchikan across Dixon Entrance. It was cloudy, but the winds were light and the waves low. We are now in Alaska!

Through the rain spotted windshield you can see the clouds clearing just in time for a little kayaking in Lowe Inlet.  Literally just 5 minutes after we put the kayaks back on the mother ship, as we call Phase III, it started to rain again.