Church House, Mainland

Sunday evening, May 26. We motored down from Ramsay Arm to anchor off of Church House. This is a good spot to be for traversing Yaculta Rapids and Gillard Pass tomorrow. These have to be carefully timed to transit at slack tide. There is another, Dent Rapids, 4nm further but we plan to only do the first two and the Dent on Tuesday. After this we will be going beyond where we have been before. We will probably not have cell reception much.

We had a great dinner of fish, chips, oysters and greens.

Church House is an abandoned First Nation settlement. The dock is gone and the buildings are falling down. But it’s a good stopover anchorage just off of Calm Channel. Last summer, while anchored here, we heard (but did not see) a huge whale blowing.

Ramsay Arm, Mainland

Sunday, May 26. We spent two days at the head of Ramsay Arm. The first day (and night) we parked in front of a small waterfall and refilled our water supplies. We are now in what we call the “deep & steep.” The land rises straight up out of the water and straight down below the water. We dropped anchor in 100’ of water, backed in to set and we were in 30’ of water about 15’ from a rock wall. It’s what you get. The issue is that you cannot put out the usual 3:1 ratio of anchor chain (called rode) to depth because you have to get so close to shore to get shallow enough for the anchor. If we put out 300 feet of chain, we could swing into the rocks onshore. So we put out about 175’ of chain and tied a line to shore.

We added 50 gallons to our main tank and an additional 13 gallons in jugs. One gallon jug at a time. It’s not as bad as it sounds. We have 16 one-gallon jugs. We loaded up the skiff and used the stern tie to ferry ourselves into shore, swung the bow around to one of the streams and filled up the jugs. Then pulled ourselves back to Calliope, hopped off, unloaded the jugs and poured them into the tank. Only took four trips. We could have topped off our tank at the marina, but we don’t want to drink city water.

After dinner I threw out a line and caught an 18” ling cod. Next morning we went across the bay to get oysters. The tide was just a little too high and I had to wade in to get them. I had just put on clean pants and there are no laundry facilities here. Not wanting to sacrifice my spanking clean pants, I did the obvious. We also found some more of that celery stuff that I have identified as Sea Plantain (aka Goose Tongue). Dinner!

Frances Bay, Mainland

We stopped at Frances Bay on our way to the head of Ramsay Arm. We want to go to Ramsay Arm because you can just pick oysters up off the beach, like rocks. It’s far enough from civilization that we feel they are safe to eat. There is also another, smaller waterfall where we plan to get drinking water. Roger doesn’t go there.

Raza Island and Raza Passage from Frances Bay

The head of Frances Bay is an old, abandoned logging camp. We went ashore and walked the overgrown road. I found mugwort, goat’s beard (astilbe), scotch broom and in the salt flats I found sea asparagus (which I’ve been looking for!) and something that tastes like celery. I’m drying the mugwort for tea, I ate the sea asparagus and the celery thing for dinner, and I brightened up the place with the goat’s beard and scotch broom. There was also a LOT of bear scat. This worries me but Alan is unconcerned.

Scotch broom, goat’s beard, couple of lilies leftover from Powell River and an orchid leftover from Nanaimo. Orchids are expensive but they sure do last!

We passed by Desolation Sound on our way to Cassel Falls. It’s a very popular destination and there are already lots of boats. We may stop on the way back.

Cassel Falls, Teakerne Arm, West Redonda Island

May 24. We just arrived at Frances Bay where Roger is giving us one bar. I’ll do what I can with that. We spent the last two days and nights anchored right in front of Cassel Falls at the head Teakerne Arm (where Roger doesn’t go at all). It’s awesome to “camp” right at the foot of the falls. Just above Cassel Falls, along a short but arduous trail, is Cassel Lake. We were here last year at the end of July when we stood under the falls and swam in the lake. Was too cold now. We like this place very much. It’s busy in summer but we had it all to ourselves these last two days.

Lund

Tuesday, May 21. We went to Powell River and got fuel and groceries (we got deer, elk and bison but no bear). We are now at Lund, end of the line for the highway. Tomorrow we are heading to Cassel Falls at the head of Teakerne Arm on West Redonda Island. We may stay several days and there is no cell service there (we know from last year).

Blubber Bay, Texada Island

May 20. Yesterday we motored 15nm up the remainder of the west side of Texada and anchored in Blubber Bay. It was a beautiful day, calm and sunny and the Strait of Georgia looked like a pond. We are waiting out some wind before continuing on to Powell River which is just 4 miles across Malaspina Strait on the mainland.

We like Powell River. It has a wonderful butcher shop called the Chopping Block. They often have bear, elk, moose and stuff like that. There is also a good organic food store. So we’ll get some groceries and fuel and head up to Lund, last town on the mainland with road access.

Texada Island is less populated than most, probably because of the limestone mines; too lowbrow for the wealthy. There are no McMansions or wall-to-wall waterfront condos, which is refreshing. There are only about 900 residents (I was told) on an island 10 times the size of Lummi. There is a really nice campground and trail at Mouat Bay. When leaving Mouat we cruised by some rocks that had about a hundred seals and some sea lions on them. As soon as we neared, the seals all hit the water. The one sea lion we could see stayed put but we weren’t close enough to get a good picture.

Mouat Bay, Texada Island

Saturday, May 18. Another one-night stopover. Furry Eyeful alert.

We sailed across Sabine Channel to Texada on a beam reach until we ran out of wind about halfway to Mouat Bay. We are cautious sailors and it is the case that a) you cannot sail without wind and b) wind makes choppy, sometimes scary seas. Yesterday the wind was howling from the south and the tide was going out with the current opposing wind. Whitecaps everywhere. We (wisely) decided to wait until after the tide turned and the wind calmed down. This didn’t happen until 1500 hours, putting us at our destination at 1800 hours. This is much later then we like, but conditions were right. We maybe left it just a little too long, with the wind only 9kt we could just make 3 to 3.5kt headway. Still, I’ll take it. Three knots for free and we were sailing with the wind AND the tide for a change. Our comfort range for sailing wind is 8-15kt. Above that and it becomes VERY active and tense. Yet die-hard sailors don’t even go out until the wind is 16kt or more. Well. People jump out of perfectly good airplanes too.

Scottie Bay, Lasqueti Island

Saturday, May 18. Spent the night anchored here last night just as a stopover. We feel like furry eyefuls. Furry eyefuls never close their eyes because they are afraid they might miss something beautiful. Here is one now:

Jedediah Island

Saturday, May 18. We LOVE 💗 Jedediah Island. Quite possibly our most favorite place ever. We stayed here for three days and three nights and left Friday around noon to avoid possible weekend crowd.

As soon as we started down Bull Passage we felt the magic.

We anchored in White Rock Bay.

This is another island that used to be privately owned and is now a marine park. The last owners left some goats and sheep which are now feral. As a result the entire island is manicured with sheep/goat trails everywhere. We got a glimpse of some sheep but no goats.

I was delighted to find a huge patch of oregano (of all things), which I helped myself to.

This island also had a lovely old growth forest. This time we decided to use ourselves as size indicators.

The island has many absolutely stunning bays.

Mother’s Day

Flowers bought in Nanaimo. We left Tuesday, May 14, crossed the Strait of Georgia and anchored in White Rock Bay on Jedediah Island. There was no cell service on Jedediah. We are now anchored in Scottie Bay off of Lasqueti Island waiting for the wind to calm down so we can head up the west side of Texada Island to Powell River. Roger is only giving us one bar here so will update more later. We LOVED Jedediah and took many pics.