Yet another great summer up here... (pics)

Faster · #1 08-24-2009

Record June temperatures and only a few rainy days in all of July and August set the stage for one of the warmest summer conditions in BC waters ever. We did our usual 6-7 weeks, interrupted this time for a one week trip into the interior for family stuff.

Water was swimmable virtually everywhere. We hooked up with a large group of our club and traveled with up to 13 boats at times, making for some nice large raft-ups. We also took in the festivals at Comox over the August long weekend - a hard-to-beat combination of a city nautical festival and the quite well known Filberg Festival for a knock-out menu of live music, arts and crafts, and on-the-water events. With the large group there were many happy hours and potlucks. Overall it was a great summer trip even though in Desolation this year there was either no wind or near gales, with little in between.

We did have good conditions for coming back into the Gulf Islands, and had some great sailing in the last week.

Possibly the highlight of the latter part of the summer was receiving a VHF hail from "Laurie-Ann" - Sailnetter jrd22 - on a whim John gave us a call, and when we responded it turns out they were less than a mile ahead of us just off Pender Harbour, where we'd both spent the night but missed seeing each other. We talked them into stopping for lunch on Texada, and we had a great afternoon get-to-know before they headed off to Jedidiah Island for their first time. John is indeed the gentelman he appears to be on Sailnet and we had a very nice visit with he and Laurie. We did see them again in passing a few times in the remaining week.

Some pictures:

Rafting with Laurie and John at Anderson Bay, Texada

Tucked into our favourite hideyhole at Jedidiah Island again

An amazing natural sandstone feature in Tribune Bay, Hornby Island

A tranquil evening at anchor. Tribune... the nearest boats are only in 15-20 foot depths!

Possibly due to warmer waters, but we found the moonjelly population exploding this year.

Petroglyphs at Walsh Cove, Desolation Sound

And finally, a couple of our club raft-ups:

AdamLein · #2 08-24-2009

Great photos... can't wait to ply those waters farther north. Glad to hear you had some wind, even if it was galey. Better than nothing! Most of my time at sea this summer has been at a snail's pace. I think the season actually runs from October to April around here, not the other way around... But you visited some beautiful places and made some great friends, which is what's important in the end. Hope you'll keep the photos coming!

jackdale · #3 08-24-2009

Just back from a trip from the Gulf Islands to Desolation.

Big winds in Malaspina. We had to pull into Lund after making no headway.

Great shots.

Jack

JohnRPollard · #4 08-25-2009

Faster,

We're going to have to ask you to stop posting these trip reports. They are killing us!!!!!

Seriously, what a place to sail! Semi-protected water like the Chesapeake, yet with the amazing topography to go with it.

Those raft up photos are spectacular. I wasn't surprised to notice that your and JRD's boats both have that bristol, ship-shape look about them. You guys obviously take a lot of pride in your vessels.

In that second club raft-up photo, what is the boat at the center of the raft-up?

Do you do much swimming in that water?

Did you say 6-7 weeks?!? Wow. Someday....

P.S. Somehow we ended up with a duplicate thread on this one. I combined them into one, but then noticed that the second post was edited by you, so I assume it is the final iteration. Normally we can eliminate the duplicate post, but not if it is the first one in a thread (the whole thread goes away). So if you want to make the same changes to the first entry in this thread that you made to the second one, I can then eliminate the second. Or you can simply edit the first post to read "see next post".

Cruisingdad · #5 08-25-2009

Hey Fast-

Awesome pics. Dad wants to go up there and go cruising there. He also wants to head up to Alaska. My wife hasn't bought into that one yet - but I would.

That is a gorgeous area and beautiful pics. What a lot of fun. I have never cruised in an area like that. Mine has always been beaches. I would love to do that and you do the trip justice.

Thanks for your story. We always enjoy them. If you would like me to duplicate it in General Sailing, I would be happy to. I also deleted your dupe here, per your request.

Brian

PS Man - that middle yacht around all those other boats in your raft up was awesome and beautiful. What kind was that again!?? HEHE!

JohnRPollard · #6 08-25-2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cruisingdad

I also deleted your dupe here, per your request.

Brian

You deleted the one he had revised. Pay attention, you knucklehead!

Faster · #7 08-25-2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by JohnRPollard

......In that second club raft-up photo, what is the boat at the center of the raft-up?

Do you do much swimming in that water?

Did you say 6-7 weeks?!? Wow. Someday....

Thanks, John.

The center boat in the second raft is a VERY well kept but basically out-of-the-box Catalina 34 MKII. I've said before that I think that Catalina's redesign/tweak of the 34, 36, and 42 in the early 2000s was ingenious. Park an original 34 next to a MkII and you'll hardly believe they are essentially the same hull. Same with the others. We have at least 3 of the newer 34s in the club.

We swam everywhere, with water temperatures ranging from a chilly 63F to personally in 76, and heard reports of water temps into the 80s in Pendrell Sound, another part of Desolation known for warm water.

Cruisingdad · #8 08-25-2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by Faster

Thanks, John.

The center boat in the second raft is a VERY well kept but basically out-of-the-box Catalina 34 MKII. I've said before that I think that Catalina's redesign/tweak of the 34, 36, and 42 in the early 2000s was ingenious. Park an original 34 next to a MkII and you'll hardly believe they are essentially the same hull. Same with the others. We have at least 3 of the newer 34s in the club.

We swam everywhere, with water temperatures ranging from a chilly 63F to personally in 76, and heard reports of water temps into the 80s in Pendrell Sound, another part of Desolation known for warm water.

Ahh-Haa! I thought me trained eye spotted a true yacht amidst all the other boats!!

HEHEH!

Nice job, Fast. I will move to General, per our discussion. And Pollard can BITE ME!

- CD

mccary · #9 08-25-2009

Nice images and beautiful sailing grounds!

JohnRPollard · #10 08-25-2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by Faster

Thanks, John.

The center boat in the second raft is a VERY well kept but basically out-of-the-box Catalina 34 MKII. I've said before that I think that Catalina's redesign/tweak of the 34, 36, and 42 in the early 2000s was ingenious. Park an original 34 next to a MkII and you'll hardly believe they are essentially the same hull. Same with the others. We have at least 3 of the newer 34s in the club.

We swam everywhere, with water temperatures ranging from a chilly 63F to personally in 76, and heard reports of water temps into the 80s in Pendrell Sound, another part of Desolation known for warm water.

Wow, that C34 looks a lot bigger from above.

In those raft-up photos, it looks almost as though the boats are actually Med-moored. Does everybody just put down their own anchor and run their own lines ashore, then snug up next to each other? In these parts, a typical raft-up has a single anchor off the center boat, and everyone swings with the breeze.