May 17-20 - Friday Harbor (#16)

Monica and I set off from Cadboro Bay on Friday afternoon to head over to Friday Harbor for a C-dory get together. We joined almost 50 other "c-brats" for a weekend of sharing stories, comparing notes and boats,eating,  and drinking. The event was masterfully organized by Barry and Patti of C-Cakes, and we enjoyed ourselves greatly. I learned lots and got many ideas for improvements to make on Natural C-lection. Barry had organised a visit to the West Marine store in Friday Harbor as well as a good discount, so I spent a few dollars getting bits and pieces - including the basics of an electrical hookup. There were three other boats from Vancouver Island (Anonymous, Nomad and Kerri On), and though most of the boats were CD-22s, there were a sprinkling of other similar boats as well. The potluck on Saturday was attended by the "crew of 49 boats as well as a couple of "boatless" people!
After leaving the gathering around noon on Sunday, we made our way up to Jones Island State Park were we paddled ashore (we have decided that the West Marine scamper 2 inflatable works well as a tender for Natural C-lection) and went for a nice walk around the west part of the island. After that we made our way past Roche Harbour to Garrison Bay where we visited the "English Camp" from the Pig war and spent the night at anchor. I used a stern anchor to stop us swinging as much, and it seemed to work quite well.
The following morning, we set off after breakfast and made our way down the west coast of San Juan Island and then back over to Cadboro Bay, where we cleared customs, put Monica ashore to get the truck and trailer, and then went over to Cattle Point to retrieve the boat. On our way out of Mosquito pass I noticed that a channel marker buoy (#6) had moved overnight and was able to inform the US Coast Guard to that effect.
Clearing customs and immigration was easy both in Friday Harbor as well as in Cadboro Bay. Though I only spoke to people via phone, all were friendly and helpful.
A great weekend! We made several new friends, and it was great to put faces to many of the people I had only "met" on the c-brats site. Now to get back to organising a September gathering in Sidney!

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100 km, approx 80 L, so 1.25 km/l (seems a bit low, but I guess we were more heavily loaded for camping...)

May 5th - Gulf Islands (#15)

Monica and I set out from Tulista ramp on Saturday morning to meet up with our long-time friends Jack and Mary who were celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary by staying at the Galiano Inn in Sturdies Bay (ours is in September!). There was a stiff northerly wind which created enough chop that we could not go too fast, so it took us just under an hour and a half to get to Sturdies Bay. After having coffee with Jack and Mary and organizing moorage at the Inn's dock, we set off to spend the afternoon cruising around (the wind had dropped and stayed down for the rest of our trip). We went to Montague Harbour where we had lunch and went for a short hike. we then went up to Wallace Island and cruised around it too before coming back to Sturdies Bay for the evening (great dinner at the Inn!). Monica and I slept in Natural C-lection and were rocked around by the occasional wake and bumped by a floating log a few times. We had a great breakfast (Eggs Benny all around!) at the Galiano Grand Central Emporium, after which Jack and Mary caught their ferry back to the mainland and home to Alberta. Monica and I decided to cruise a bit more and went around Mayne, past Saturna and over to Pender, into Bedwell harbour and through the gap to have lunch at the pub in Browning harbour. After lunch we made our way back to Sidney, A glorious sunny weekend!

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138 km, 100 L (so about 1.4 km/l...)

April 21st - overnight with Jenny (#14)

Jenny met me at Tsartlip ramp just after Pete and the twins had left (thanks for the drop off Monica!) and we set out to drop the prawn traps and go for an over night and a bit of a cruise. It was still a bit windy but we were able to put our traps down OK and then made our way to Portland Island. We had though of anchoring in Royal cove, but did not have a dinghy so lining to the shore was not possible. Instead, we made our way around to the bay by the Pellow islets which we had to ourselves. We anchored in about 10 feet of water and had a quiet night in the bay.
After breakfast the next day we set off to cruise over to Sturdies bay for a recce. We went for a slow cruise along the shore of Prevost and then scooted through Active Pass to avoid ferry traffic. On our way back to the ramp we stopped to pull our prawn traps and came home with around 140 prawns again. I think that there is a much greater likelihood of getting crabs, starfish and fish in the traps if one has a longer set...
The combine trips of today and yesterday covered about 140 km and used about 95 L of gas, so again about 1.5 km/L. Much of the trip was at fairly high speed.

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close up of the prawn zone

108 km

April 20th - Saanich Inlet prawning (#13)

Pete, Margo, Graeme and I went out to go prawning again in Saanich Inlet. There was a bit of wind from the south but not too much to be concerned about. We went and set the traps, and then crossed over to the Mill Bay side to have lunch and check out Brentwood College and Mill bay. While we were there the wind backed to a westerly and became much stronger - to the point that there were waves in the 2-3 ft range coming across the inlet. This made it challenging to say the least, but with me holding station at the help and Pete on the prawn puller, we were able to retrieve our traps and about 140 or so prawns. By the time we got back to Tsartlip ramp, the wind had abated quite a bit. Not as productive as our last trip, but still a great day on the water!

34 km

March 31st - Haro Strait (#12)

Monica and I launched Natural C-lection early in the morning too take advantage of a 8 + foot Oak Bay tide to launch from the North ramp at Cattle point. We then went around to Cadboro Bay where I dropped Monica off on the beach and then put Natural C-lection on my mooring. Later in the morning Kyle came by and we took the boat into Haro Strait to try some Halibut fishing. We also dropped some crab traps off by Discovery island. The weather was beautiful - sunny and little wind but the current was running pretty strong and we did not have any bites. I did manage to catch the bottom with my jigs a couple of times, resulting in some lost gear... :-(

We tried a few different spots and then came back for the crab traps that had only picked up a few red rock crabs which we returned to the water.

On making it back to the ramp around 5:15, the tide was at 5.5 ft and we  had a challenge getting the boat out of the water. I had to use the winch and work hard to wind it onto the bunks. I should have used the 18 inch trailer extension! I wonder if an electric winch or a more powerful/better geared manual winch would help....

Anyway, it was a great day on the water, and I learned several things! I also need to figure out how to use my anchor puller system.

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56 km

January 19th - Saanich Inlet Prawning (#11)

I met Pete with his twins Margo and Graeme at Tsartlip ramp to head out for an afternoon of prawning.
The weather was a bit cool to start with but it cleared up and the sun came out. We put our traps out and left them for about 3 hours. We came home with   334 prawns! Again, the catch was pretty variable, ranging from 4 to 135 per trap, and salmon carcass being the most productive. One trap had a small red Irish lord who seemed to have helped himself to a few prawns! The motor trim lessons from the last trip continued to be applicable as we were able to reach 50 kph and 5900 rpm fairly easily.
After dropping the traps, we went up to Coal Point and then over to Mill bay and then down the coast to Spectacle falls. From Spectacle Falls back to the traps we went at about 1700 rpm and 9 kph with Graeme at the helm (the yellow section). Margo did a great job of keeping stats on the prawn traps
The trap puller also worked well!

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50 km.

The last two trips were about 66 km and used about 50 L of fuel - approx 1.3 km/L

December 30th - Saanich Inlet and Cowichan Bay (#10)

Monica and I launched NatC at the Tsartlip ramp ($14!) and went out into the inlet to drop some prawn traps. I had bought some nice large steel prawn traps earlier in the fall and it was the first test of the set. It was also the first (successful!) test of my line hauler.We dropped them in two different areas and then wen on over to Mill Bay looking for a lunch spot. Not seeing one, we carried on to Cowichan Bay where we tied up at the Government Dock and had a nice lunch at the Cowichan bay Pub. On our way back to the traps, we checked out several of the anchored empty freighters.
The prawning was pretty successful, with more than 250 prawns. The catch was pretty variable with one trap containing 133 prawns and another only 4! We were out from about 10:30 to 4:30 including our lunch break and made it a nice day on the water. The heater in NatC is very nice.
I also discovered by playing with the motor trim, that I can get almost 10 extra kph out of it by trimming the motors up (tilting the bow up a fair bit). I had to change the colorizing settings for GPSVisualiser to go from 0 to 50 kph instead of 0-40! I think we maxed out around 51 or 52 kph during the last section of the trip.

our day's track - click to enlarge

54 km