We’ve only seen a bear in PLI once before over 5 years ago. We were kayaking just like today. Only I saw it sleeping in what we now call bear burl. But today The Captain saw it first while we were kayaking and he got a video! I love Jim saying “How cool is that?” In the video.

Friends old and new

This summer we decided to use Pender Harbor as our base and go in and out of PLI many times. Friends came by seaplane and car. We broke bread and shared this very special place with people we knew well and people we had met briefly. We traded cheeseburgers for shrimp with dock mates. Making connections with people is what makes life special. We’ve chosen to make connections, not focus on differences. We’ve been welcomed with open arms by our Canadian friends and neighbors. Most of the fear in the news is just noise and really needs to be ignored.

Movie Friends

Throughout covid, Jim and I kept up our Cinemark movie membership, so we had lots of extra tickets. We met Steve and Marsha in line and asked them if we could buy them their tickets. Steve asked, “Why”? After we explained it to them, they said, “ok” and offered to buy us our popcorn. We were practically the only people in the theater to see ”My Old Ass.” Again, we stayed in touch. They came to see the True Love at Elliott Bay Marina after we shared our love of boating. During their family boating years they never made it to PLI, so we asked them to join us, and they did!

During their visit the PLI seal nursery was in full bloom. They both swam in the water. It was getting warmer, but still quite refreshing.

In fact, while Steve was in the water a pack of 16 male seals ventured into the inlet. We had never seen this before. They were prowling around like a biker gang. Of course, seals are generally harmless, but it was unnerving to me, although you can’t tell from how calm Steve sounds.

We thought they were interested in Steve joining their gang. Steve and Marcia’s grandchildren and daughter had gone to Malibu camp so they definitely wanted to visit there and we got a special tour.

Shore Tie Malfunction With New Friends

We met Ian and Denise while taking an end-of-day walk last year near Nanoose Bay. We instantly connected and they came back to look at the True Love. Throughout the following year we continued to connect and they decided to join us for a few days in PLI aboard the True Love.

They drove to Egmont, boarded the True Love and we headed into PLI after looking at the Skoomchuck Rapids. Because of the tides we left later than we usually do. We normally like to get settled well before the sunset, but this night high tide slack was at 7. Our favorite and easiest anchorage was taken, but our second favorite was available. Normally, PLI is super calm with no winds. But of course this night we had winds first from the South and then from the North. The shore tie was easy but we were definitely moving North and South more than usual. Despite that we had a delicious dinner and then after a long day, I went for shower. When I came out I looked at our shore tie and we had moved way too close to the shore. For some reason The Captain (who usually is so vigilant about monitoring the quality of the shore tie) didn’t spot the problem. With darkness falling we had to do what no boaters ever want to do: raise the anchor and redo the shore tie in the dark.

We tried many things. At one point the Captain tried using the engines gently to pull us further out but the shore tie ricocheted us backwards and we were literally in the overhanging trees next to shore. That was a shocker. The good news was that at high tide, depth wasn’t a problem. Now it was really dark so we were using spot lights on the bow and stern, pulling out our other flashlights, making lots of noise with our engines and thrusters.

Poor Denise who was a little worried about adventuring on the True Love to begin with, quietly asked if we could just move to a buoy. Unfortunately, they were all taken. Through out the process the wind was moving us closer to a boat that was nearby. We completely loosened the shore tie and had Ian and Jim eventually use the tender as a mighty little tug boat to pull the True Love further out and north. We dropped all 300+ feet of our chain and this time, it held. The upside of the adventure was that by the time our re-anchoring adventure was all over, the stars and Milky Way filled the sky. This was truly a bonding experience. We all collapsed and watched the sky together for over an hour and saw lots of satellites and several shooting stars.

The poor family who were in the nearby boat left our preferred shore tie location at sunrise so we moved and showed Ian and Denise how we can (sometimes) shore tie and anchor like pros. The following days were sunny and warm and the rest of our visit together was filled with good food, floating on the water, visiting Malibu Camp and lots of friendship.

Ukes And Friends

We also enjoyed a nice visit with Laird and Carol. They are old friends and have joined us on the True Love before. During their visit the water was at peak warmth, about 76 degrees. I spent lots of time in the water. In fact, for the first time I even swam across the inlet. I was swimming around the True Love and Jim was using the paddle board like a kayak and he escorted me across. I thought I might swim both directions but 1/2 mile was enough for me, so I climbed onto the paddle board and Jim paddled me back. Laird and Carol brought their Ukuleles on board and in the evenings we had a lot of fun playing together.

Kurt and Mona and Yes, Another Equipment Stoic Challenge

Our final guests are Kurt and Mona. We met Kurt through Saul and found out we both had a love of boating. His wife Mona had never been to PLI so they decided to fly in.

Once again we had a lovely visit with great food, wonderful wine (thanks to our guests) a visit to Malibu camp and lots of star watching. They were with us during the peak of the Persied Meteor Shower. Despite the full moon we saw lots of fantastic shooting stars and then watched the moon rise in PLI. Because of the moonlight, we couldn’t see the little shooting starts, but there definitely were some big ones that we all saw and cheered.

We are all looking forward to next year, when the Perseids will peak during a new Moon on the night of August 12 (put it on your calendars now!)

Kurt brought us a part that we needed to do a quick repair for the outside shower on our aft swim platform. But that wasn’t the stoic challenge. No, our generator failed to start on our last night with Kurt and Mona, after working fine a few hours earlier. The darn generator just wouldn’t turn over. After further investigation and multiple attempts, we still couldn’t get it to start. We even tried the magic “brain bypass” switch that Mike “MacGyver” Martin installed two years earlier but that also didn’t work. So we started the main engines and used our big alternators to top off the house batteries. Unfortunately, that was only a partial solution because we were now having a problem with the voltage of our house batteries. We checked our records and we bought them 6 years ago, so this was probably the end of their useful life. Together these failures meant we were going to have to leave PLI a day earlier than we had planned to go back to our dock in Pender Harbour where we could plug in.

After Kurt and Mona flew home on a Kenmore seaplane, we released our shore tie, lifted anchor and said goodbye to our wonderful summer in PLI. Unfortunately, slack tide on the Malibu Tidal Rapids wasn’t until 3pm, so we needed to cruise back to Pender later in the day, and against both a strong 20+ mph wind and a strong tide. Boy was it windy and wavy! But we also got an unexpected bonus: two humpback whales spouting near Vancouver Bay.

At around 7:30 we finally reached our summer moorage only to find another boat in our slip. On late stormy days, it isn’t unusual for people to find “any port in a storm” and the harbormaster let them stay in our slip because he thought we weren’t arriving until the next day. We could have stayed at the gas dock but instead we were saved by our Pender friends, Mike and Linda, who let us use some space at their private dock nearby and even came down from the house to help us dock in the wind!

That was so nice because the Captain and First Mate had reached our exhausted end. Once we were tied up and plugged in to power, we showered, heated a quick bite up in the microwave, and enjoyed a great night of sleep without “low battery” alarms waking us up.

Mike Martin to the Rescue!

Long story short, the fuel pump he installed two years ago failed. Of course fuel pumps should last much longer, but this one didn’t. So he left, got us another one and came back the next day to install it, cleaned up a few things that needed tightening and we were ready to go!

Big Rain and Wind before Crossing the Strait to Nanaimo

We need to be in Sidney this week for DDIR Family Assembly gathering in Victoria (about 30 minutes away by taxi). Originally, we planned to leave the True Love much farther north, in Campbell River and then rent a car to drive to Victoria. Our hope was to spend early September up north, but with all the boat issues we decided to head south and get this battery repair done here in Canada while we can.

From Montague Harbour it’s an easy 2 hour cruise to Van Isle Marina and the Philbrooks Boat Yard there. By now it was time to refill our 750 gallon fuel tanks and because Washington has decided to increase fuel taxes to some of the highest in the the US, the fuel prices here in Canada were lower than those in WA for the first time in our 17 years of boating. The excellent customer service at Van Nuy Marine rivals that at Dent Island: two dock people helped us into our slip and connected our power for us. Then we proceeded to wash off the massive amounts of salt spray from our crossing.

It’s Monday morning and the battery swap out including adding two more batteries has begun. The good news is they are smaller and more powerful.

Thanks again for reading.

The First Mate (writer) and Captain (editor)

Don’t forget to download and listen to the Curve of Time Podcast. It’s great for listening to on the boat or in traffic. We now have over 5200 downloads!

No boating season is complete without at least one stoic challenge. We are writing this blog while sitting at our favorite anchorage in Princess Louisa Inlet.

We last left you at our summer moorage in Pender. Since then we provisioned and cruised easily into PLI. This is the pay off for all the hard work in the off season that keeps the True Love in good condition.

Our favorite anchorage was taken for our first night. I’m now the person who drives the tendor to shore to get our shore tie set. Our secondary anchorage was available and together we executed a perfect shore tie.

The next afternoon our preferred spot opened up and because our first the tie was so perfect we almost didn’t move. But, we decided it was worth it to move to our “double waterfall” anchorage. Before we did we left, we added a rope to the shore tie tree to make it easier to do it next time. We also had the idea of using the tender to also put a rope around the tree we use at our preferred location. It’s been over twelve years of boating and we just figured this out because we are life long learners!

After successfully moving and doing a second great shore tie we relaxed. That’s when we realized that our watermaker was running, but . . . Wait for it! . . . Not actually filling the tank.

Time for another stoic challenge.

Because we have our starlink we can make calls. After calls and photos to our watermaker service lifeline we learned that it was most likely the water diverter solenoid, which first sends water to be tested and then, if it’s OK, sends it to the storage tank. Unfortunately, they don’t make the original part anymore. But after calls to Seattle and a part supplier in Victoria, we learned that there is a replacement part with an adapter that works. So we ordered it to be delivered ASAP to John Henry’s Marina.

That still left us with a broken watermaker, but … it adturns out that we could manually divert the newly made water to the tank by disconnecting a plumbing pipe and reconnecting it directly to the tank. It took us a number of calls, photos with drawings, but with the Captain and the First Mate working together we were able to do it. It takes running the water into a bucket while the first part of the desalination is happening, then tasing the water to make sure it’s ok and then attaching the tube in the proper location to fill the tank. Problem solved!

Clearly we prefer the automatic system. But with our McGiver skills we overcame another stoic challenge!

Learning to Use a VPN (Virtual Private Network)

We love watching Wimbledon, but all our streaming services that air sports weren’t working in Canada. It’s stupid, we pay for them and they include commercials, but whatever. I knew there was a work around. I just needed to learn how to do it. It’s a kind of technology McGiver thing. I did some research and learned how to install and use a VPN. This means we use a server in Seattle instead of in Canada. So we got to watch all the dramatic matches early in the morning. It doesn’t work very well on the IPad, but it does work on the computer. It’s not seamless and takes some trial and error but I can usually make it work. And we can watch Cal Raleigh and the Mariners too!

Our bandaid watermaker repair allowed us to stay in PLI for a week, including a 3-day visit from our friend Jeff Weiner. He flew in on a Kenmore Air seaplane during the rain and saw the amazing rain-filled waterfalls.

Jeff also learned to paddle board, hiked the trail to Chatterbox Falls and Ming’s Trail along the inlet and took the tour at the amazing Malibu Young Life Camp next to the tidal rapids at the entrance to PLI. We even got to watch an enormous yacht navigate out of Malibu rapids at low-tide slack. A full moon rose in the Inlet and we watched the mountains glow from the light of the moon.

Back to Pender Harbour to Wait for the Part and Repair the Watermaker

Jeff enjoyed the cruise back to Pender Harbour and then flew out from there. Now we took some time to enjoy Pender and wait for our part to be delivered.

This is why we love our summer moorage. It’s easy to provision, do laundry, go to good restaurants, and it’s also a great place to wait for parts.

The part arrived Monday morning by the Canadian post office. Incredible! Now we had to install it. But we were up to the task. It actually was one of the easier repairs that we’ve ever done. We crossed our fingers turned on the watermaker and watched the “brain” test the water and then send it to the tank! Yes!

Tuesday night a very large yacht came into the dock next to us and unfortunately, it was a bit noisy. The big yachts run air conditioning and other equipment all night. So we decided to head back to PLI a couple of days early.

2nd Visit to PLI

Our moorage was open and we’ve really enjoyed the last few warm days swimming, paddle boarding and kayaking. The night skies are clear and the stars are beautiful. Today we were supposed to have a cool rainy day. But it didn’t happen. Just more beautiful sunny weather!

Seal Pup Nursery & Jonathan Livingston Herons

This is the season for the seal pups. We have 5 pairs of Moms and pups close to our boat and they swim around and rest on the sun warmed rocks. We love having them around us. A small family of wood ducks also swam by. This afternoon three herons were flying about 5500 feet in the sky. This is very unusual, so I’m calling them Johnathan Livingston Herons. It sure seems like they were using a lot of energy and not getting any food.

Our second summer guests arrive tomorrow and it should be another wonderful visit while we share our special place with friends.

Thanks again for going on our journey with us!

The First Mate (writer) and Captain (editor)

Fawn and Jim

Don’t forget to download and listen to the Curve of Time Podcast. It’s great for listening to on the boat or in traffic.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/curve-of-time-podcast/id1633329225

This morning I woke up to quiet and stillness. On the boat the sounds vary from the “lap, lap, lap” of small waves and currents to waterfalls, falling rain, other boaters, and seaplanes. But sometimes, like this morning, only quiet and peacefulness. It doesn’t happen often, but it’s a glorious and calming way to wake up.

Last night we anchored in Montague Harbour on Galliano Island and stayed here to “clear customs” using the NEXUS system. This means calling Canadian customs before crossing the border and then anchoring or docking at one of the designated entry points. We anchored at 6pm and then waited until 7 in case the Canadian Coast Guard wants to check on us live and in person. They didn’t, and never have, but they might, so we always follow the rules.

We stayed on the boat and listened to James’ Little League win in the Allstar playoffs (James hit a single and TWO triples, giving his team 5 RBI’s in a 9-1 win!) Then we headed into the harbour for a yummy dinner at the Crane & Robin waterfront restaurant.

Our Summer Cruise began as always from Seattle. Our first stop was 4 hours north in Langley (on Whidbey Island) to see friends. It was cloudy when we left Seattle but sunny when we got to Langley and its been sunny every day since. Hello Summer!

Our second day was a long 7 hour cruise to catch up with Doug and Julie (and their friends Joe and Jen) on Sucia Island in the northern San Juan Islands. They found an older 40’ Tollycraft cabin cruiser at a great price and they are fixing it up while enjoying short cruises from their home port at La Conner. The “Jean Louise” reminded us a lot of our first “True Love”, which was a 40’ Silverton cabin cruiser.

We anchored near them in Echo Bay on Sucia Island. After visiting, we shared some cocktails that night and then lattes the next morning, then did some hiking along the east shoreline of Echo Bay. They left around noon and we stayed another night. Yesterday, the Captain got back into and out of a kayak (no problem) and I used my paddle board. We circumnavigate Echo Bay over 2 hours, seeing Eagles, red crabs, purple and orange starfish, swallows, kingfishers and of course, seagulls.

From there we went to Roche Harbor on San Juan Island to top off our fuel before going into Canada (where diesel is usually at least $1/gallon more). But just before leaving US waters, we spotted a gaggle of boats near the south shore of Satellite Island. Boats close together is usually a sure sign of orcas, so while the Captain was on the phone with Canadian customs I headed that way. Voilla! Probably a small pod of three, but it looked like a young one.

We’ve never stopped at Gibsons (north of Vancouver) because it usually isn’t on our route or it’s full. Our usual stop is Nanaimo, but the marina there was booked so our path north this year will take us across the Georgia Strait at Porlier Pass. The weather and winds look calm and we’ve heard really good things about the quaint town of Gibsons.

On our way into Gibsons, we saw more Orcas. Two days, two orca sightings. That is a good sign for the cruise. I read a really interesting article a couple of days ago about orcas sharing food with humans. It’s fascinating https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/climate-lab/these-orcas-have-been-trying-to-feed-people-new-research-shows/

Gibson is cute with plenty of foodie options. We choose Japanese and learned tonight that Gibson has the “world’s best water” according to our waiter.

The weather held beautifully and we easily cruised from Gibson to our summer moorage at John Henry Marina in Pender Harbour. It’s time for us to do some laundry and provisioning for fresh greens and fruit before heading up into our happy place, Princess Louisa Inlet in the summer.

Fawn Spady, writer/photographer

Jim Spady, editor/photographer of Fawn