Friday August 25, 2017 - Happy Birthday Sue!

It got cold last night as the furnace came on in the middle of the night. But it was a lovely morning this morning, with blue sky! The nook was glassy and calm when we got up. We managed to squeeze a Telus signal out of the iPad and so I was able to do a little bit of email. It was very low tide this morning but no signs of any bears. We did see a group of 10 Merganzers cruising the area though.

We left around 10:30 to head up to Kwatsi. We went slow down Viner Sound so Greg put a rod out the back of Spellbound, but we saw nothing on the fish finder. Conditions were very calm and it was sunny and warm.

When we arrived at Kwatsi, Max was there but Anca was at a family gathering on the island and would not be back for a few days - we were sorry we were going to miss her. Rob and Sharon from Sirena had already arrived from Whatanna (sp?) Bay. We had something to eat upon arriving and then Byron and Greg put the prawn traps out. The afternoon was spent quite lazily enjoying the warm sun. I was even able to put on shorts and a T-shirt and did some sun worshipping on the flybridge.

Today is a potluck dinner at Kwatsi so we all bring a dish to share for dinner. I got started on making a greek pasta salad fairly early so it could "season". There were 3 other boats besides our 3 GB's - a converted fishboat called Ulf, GreyMalkin with Joel, Andy and Andy's mom Heather, and the regulars Beau and Deenaka on Beau-Dinky III. It started at 6pm and there was quite a lot of food and we ate well. Sue had made her famous corn casserole. People sat and talked until quite late which was nice. Once it was all over, we had the 6 of us on EG for birthday cake for Sue. I had bought a cake mix and pre-made icing at Sullivan and baked the cake in the morning on the way in. We had all had yummy brownies at the potluck, so this was "2nd dessert" and everyone was already pretty full, but hey, who can turn down chocolate cake.

Thursday August 24, 2017

Not too much going on in the morning. The marina WiFi was still working pretty well, but they still had the ability to *send* email turned off (using a true email application). So we grabbed all of our devices and headed up to the cell phone amps by the store to try and get a signal. It was weird, but we had 3 bars of Telus and 3 bars of Rogers, but still no joy - no connection to the internet. We all ended up in the store to buy a few more supplies and to checkout, and to chat with Tove. Sparky was checking out as well.

Back to Spellbound where we began to get ready, and Greg tried to answer 1 more support request. We headed out and made the short trip up to Viner Sound. Neither SB nor EG have been in here before, so it was a good day to check it out at least. We knew from talking to Rob and Sharon the night before that they had stayed here on the mooring balls more than once and had enjoyed it. There was 1 boat anchored in the middle of the sound when we came in. As we looked over to the south side "nook", the mooring ball was floating on it's side which didn't seem like a good sign. EG went into the north side "nook" first and took a look at the innermost ball and it seemed OK, really just an orange float with a hook on the top. We grabbed the outer one which was white with a hook. There were no markings on them at all. Being the dare devils that we are (!) we decided to try them out.

We all had some lunch and coffee etc and settled in. It turns out there was a small Telus signal here surprisingly, and so we were able to clear out some more email, but it wasn't a strong signal. Then we all went out for a dingy ride to explore the area.



There is a forest service campground with a picnic table and fire pit (and pit toilet?) just near where we were tied up. It's on a little island at high tide. Back at the end of the north nook, there is a small lagoon area with a reversing falls entrance. It was already too low for us to go in. We cruised around to the end of the sound and into the other nook. There were signs of old logging activity, but no signs of any animal life in or out of the water. This sound has in the past been the site of many land and water creatures for other folks.

Back to the boats. EG said they had a good strong signal with their cell phone amp, so we grabbed our devices and computers again and brought them over to EG. We put our iPad on their amp and were able to get a semi-decent signal so that I could upload the blog. I haven't wanted to "waste" the marina satellite WiFi on the data intensive Blog, but I'm perfectly happy to use up our own data. We sat and listened to the Ham Boaters Net and it only took 3 tries but I was able to get the Blog updated!

Dinner on SB tonight. We made BBQ salmon and asparagus and some fancy rice. And fresh baked chocolate chip cookies. Greg did a great job It was a lovely calm evening, but still no sign of bears.

Wednesday August 23, 2017

Overcast dull cool drizzly day. I tried to get on the internet in the AM, no joy. We picked up our cinnamon buns and said goodbye to Debbie and Chris. Saw there was no current at the dock, so we started them up and headed out around 9:45. Uneventful drizzling trip over to Pierre's arriving just after noon. Again, no Telus signal the whole way, but EG was able to download all their email just outside the bay. When we arrived, we asked to be put at the back so they put us on the "lodge" dock. When we arrived, there were constant swells coming in, not from boat wake (or maybe it was some boat wake) but from the tide. (This according to Sam the dock guy). In any case, the boats were slamming around. So we asked to just move around the corner to be in front of "Gambit" (cat from Ocean Falls) so we could take the swell bow on. Then EG asked to move around to behind the lodge dock, all bow out. We were the complainers. But it was much nicer. And, true to Sam's description, the swells subsided after about 1/2 an hour.

Up to the store to check in, get on the internet, have some coffee and some lunch. Around 3:30 we headed over to Billy's. They have a new "skookum" bridge over to the island and the trail has some brand new and numerous signs installed. We were able to sit, just the 4 of us, with Billy for about an hour just shooting the shit about everything Echo Bay. It was quite pleasant. He talked about shooting a bear this winter after it attacked and ate all his chickens, tore apart the hen house, tried to get in the smoke house, and then the final straw was attacking Buster. So now some guys across the island have skinned it and are cooking up the meat. I asked Billy if he ate any bear meat and he said "god no!". He also said that all the deer are gone (he never had trouble with deer!! Wha?) because there are a couple of cougars hanging around all the time. They're eating everything!



We left around 5:00 and headed back to the boats. Not too much time before we fed the dog and then headed up to dinner. Sue had saved places for us and for Jim and Judy from Sparky, and Rob and Sharon from Serena to sit together, and then we were also joined by another couple from Sidney who Rob&Sharon had hooked up with. It was fish n' chip night so we had Pierre's famous halibut and it was delicious. I pigged out on fish. Then there was also some kind of chiffon pie (lemon?) for dessert. Tove was her usual "kindergarten teacher" self and kept us all in line.

After dinner we met on EG and did some trip planning as we had no idea where to go. Rob and Sharon joined us as well, although they have been bouncing around here for quite some time. We had never been to Viner Sound before and it's on the way up to Kwatsi so that's what we decided. Weather coming from the south so according to Rob, not a good time to be in the "islands" part of the Broughton's.

Tuesday August 22, 2017

Byron and Greg went off fishing this morning. I was able to get on the internet and clear out my email and work on a couple of support requests. Then back to the boat to make some pasta salad for lunch. The guys came back from fishing empty handed and were pretty disheartened. Lunch on board and then a quiet afternoon.

We went to happy hour today since we hadn't been to any yet. Had a nice time with all the folks there. Back to EG for dinner where Sue made chicken kabob's with a nice rice and kale salad. Early night for this crew.

Monday August 21, 2017 - Happy Solar Eclipse Day

Full cloud cover this morning in the Broughton's. I spent the morning in the Happy Hour tent trying to get the marina WiFi to be nice to me, but it took a lot of work. Greg went back and forth from the tent doing the laundry and connecting to the internet, while I looked after the dog and did *not* connect to the internet. Byron and I spent the morning unplugging and plugging in the repeater that was there and that would often, but not always help. Eventually, after a couple of hours, I was through all the email and support requests and was done.

We had lunch, and then Byron and Greg took the dinghy out to go fishing. The fish are in theory running out by James Point and the place was filled with fish boats as we passed on the way in. They returned just before the Boaters net Ham Radio call, but had no joy. The afternoon on Spellbound cleared up and there was some blue sky and it got warmer. I did some reading and some Blog updates.

After much cleanup, we had a mini happy hour on Spellbound before heading off to dinner at 6:15. Chris made Indonesian rice and Asian prawns for dinner, and we even had cake for dessert. They served beer and wine with dinner, however, remind me not to have the house red again.

We went for a walk and ended up spending some time talking to Gary and Ginger from "LivLife". It turns out that he is Canadian and has also lived all across the country. Then we walked out to the "golf course" and Byron tried his hand at getting onto the platform. It is a hell of a long way out there and he had to whack the golf ball hard to get anywhere near it. His last one was quite close, but no free moorage. (Also, you need to do it while someone watches anyway). Back to EG to look at Sue's "critter pictures" slide show.



If you stay 2 nights at Sullivan, you get free moorage for your 3rd night. Since the weather is supposed to be good, we decided to stay for the free night so that Byron and Greg could go out fishing again. The opportunity is available and it doesn't cost us anything, so we might as well take advantage of it. Chris tells us to "fish the flood", go down to around 70 or 80 feet, and the hot colors right now are red and copper. OK. And he says Cody is going out on a charter in the morning so just follow "Wizard" around out there. OK Check.

Sunday August 20, 2017

Slack at Stuart Narrows wasn't until around 1:45 so we certainly had some time to kill this morning. It was a bit dreary, and at one point in the morning it seemed like the wind was coming up, but then it died off again and was it's normal glassy self.

Sue made fresh made scones for 2nd breakfast, so Greg made coffee's all round on Spellbound and we sat around and pigged on fresh scones and home made Jan Jam. Lovely. Some activity on the dock but not much. We spent some time talking to Inid on Astral Star and she talked about the logistics of getting her husband Richard into proper medical care while traveling up north. He ended up being medivacked from Bella Bella down to Vancouver and spending almost a month there. Although Inid is Canadian and originally from Vancouver, Richard is from New Zealand and that is where they currently live. And is where the boat is registered. They shipped it from NZ to Victoria last year, cruised to Alaska, and kept it in Anacortes over the winter. He is clearly much better now and they are working their way south to be in Vancouver for a followup appointment on August 31st. Not pleasant of course and they will have some decisions to make long term, but at least it was good to hear a positive story about the Canadian medical system.

Picked a few veggies out of the veggie garden, worked on the Blog, but otherwise didn't do too much. Our new shadow, Sparky, left first and then we also left and cruised slowly down to the Narrows in cloud cover but lovely water conditions. Sullivan Bay come up sooner than expected and there was no current at the dock so it was an uneventful trip. Headed to the store to check in and to pick up some groceries. The place was very quiet with not very many boats. Debbie said that it was the slowest June and July that she'd ever seen in 11 years. She said it was the weirdest year ever. And she said that the season was tapering off already as the number of boats had been decreasing. The amount of "stuff" in the store certainly reflected that too as it was quite cleaned out. Debbie and Chris were heading to Port McNeill though tonight to do a freight run in their own boat as the water taxi had "double booked" for tomorrow. Since it was pretty slow, they were taking a rare night off on shore and returning the next morning with freight for the store.

We bought some ice cream with our groceries and came back to EG to enjoy them. Had some quiet time and then had Fajita's for dinner on SB with nanaimo bars for dessert. (How did the store still have these, we don't know). We watched a so so supposedly "rom com" movie on DVD that we found in the movie bin in the laundry area.

Saturday August 19, 2017

Greg and Byron picked up crab traps in the morning - no joy. Slack at Stuart Narrows was around 12:30 or so, so people already at Jennis Bay would likely not be leaving until close to noon. We were pretty much ready to go even though it was too early, and we wanted to go look for this elusive cell signal and catch up on email. So we left around 10:00 and at first just drove around the Muirheads to the west and the north side looking, no joy. Then we cruised down Drury where others had said they had had a good signal - no joy. We cruised past Jennis Bay and ended up seeing a pod of Orca instead! We stopped and took photos a couple of times and just floated. You know, just in case the cell signal would come floating by - no joy.

Just before noon, EG arrived and we went in right behind them. Byron called for the harbor master a few times, but no one answered. There were a few boats on the dock, including "Astral Sky" who they had met before. There was some miscommunication about where exactly the harbor master was. Anyway, EG was able to pull in right behind Astral Sky. There was room on the other side of the dock for us, but then one of the boats that was already there was leaving, so once we waiting for them to leave, there was a ton of room.

Got tied up and asked for the WiFi password from the others. Got a *great* connection!!! We were able to download a ton of email messages without issue. Also, "Sparky" who had been in the nook with us in the Muirheads came in and we did some boat moving to make room for them. Then Greg and I sat on our computers answering support requests that had come in in the past 5 days. It was a mad dash to try and get them all answered. Although other people were saying that the network wasn't that good and went "in and out", it was completely solid for us and we were able to get a lot done. Finally joy.

After a couple of hours, it was time to lift our heads from the computer screens. We went for a small walk and took a look at the garden. The previous caretaker, Warren, is still around and has planted a bunch of vegetables all around the compound on land, and in every conceivable container on the dock. He apparently says for everyone to help themselves. There was a lot of lettuce and a lot of "wanna be" tomatoes, and lot's of spaghetti squash. Sue tells me that Warren said that you shouldn't plant spaghetti squash in your garden because it will cross pollinate with *everything*. I don't know what that means veggies will look like though!

At this point, EG said that they had 4 bars of Rogers on their boat. And we checked and we had nothing. So, Greg wants to know why. Is our cell amp broken or what? So after some tests and checks, he "borrows" EG's cell phone amp and brings it over to Spellbound. Now we have a cell signal too. So now we know at least that our antenna is fine, but that either the Amp itself is broken, or Greg thinks that it is just no longer for the right frequencies. Unfortunately, we need to use Telus as our internet connection for the rest of the trip, so it's not clear what the right solution is.

Richard, on Astral Star, informs us that he will be making dinner for the 6 of them on the dock that have been here all week. He says he would like to include us as well, but he checked and just not have enough supplies to include us. We say not a problem of course, we can bring our own dinner and just join them on the patio. He says they'll get together around 6:00 and have dinner between 6:30 and 7:00. So we bring some drinks and some chips and salsa to the patio for 6:00, but it's just EG, SB, and our new friends on Sparky. The rest end up going to eat on their own at 7:00 inside the office cabin. OK fine. So we have prawn pesto pasta on SB for dinner, and Sue bakes fresh chocolate chip cookies. Whatever they ate, couldn't have been as good as what we ate.