Another motor day for us! Experienced SE winds as we continued our journey home. A rather chill and uneventful day boat wise BUT got treated to 6 humpback whale sittings, breaches, porpoises feeding on fish, and some curious sea lions. Gilbert the cat enjoyed some deck time and got some good sniffs. We managed to pick up marine debris 1) massive deflated helium balloon that contained what we are calling a sea dragon (sorry we have no photos) and released it back to the sea 2) a small peice of polystyrene. We anchored in Buccaneer Bay right off of BCs rate sandy white beaches. The wind picked up and we kept on eye on our proximity to other boats as we swung all night. Made a dinner of amazing green curry and watched the amazing sunset. Not a bad life out here.

A longer day for us on this day. Even managed to get the main sail & the foresail up for some bites of motorsailing. Once the wind died we were back to just the main but still felt good to harness the wind! We enjoyed good music and some dancing. Sun tanning as we cruised our way to Tenedos. We resupplied in refuge cove to grab some more veggies, meat and ice and then on our way again. As we arrived at Tenedos a fellow by the name of graham sidled his dinghy up to us and said hello. Elle recognized him as another sailer we had met 2 days prior. He welcomed us to his 4 boat raft and we were inclined to say yes! This was my first ever 5 sailboat raft and it was such a good time! Graham and his family were wonderful. The girls and I went to land to enjoy beautiful Unwin lake and were back by sundown to clean the belly of the boat, change the zincs and share a potluck dinner and stories with our new float family.

After 2.5 weeks of leaving Oz (Elles sailboat) moared in Cortes Island we were reunited!! Now with Jules in tow. Getting back to Cortes Island via Squamish (by land) was abit of a tricky journey as Elle and Jules had a ride all the way to Lund, where as I and Gilbert (the cat) had to hitchhike all the way - which included 2 ferries. All was smooth traveling though as I managed to line up both my hitchhiking options straight to Lund where I met up with the girls and all three of us boarded a friends sailboat who motored us the last leg to squirrel cove to get Oz sail ready! (Travel day was Aug 21) One Aug 22 we provisioned at squirrel cove, and then with the potential of good times and good company around the corner at Mansons Landing - we decided to put off our Journey into desolation sound by one day. The wind was calm so we choose to motor on over. We arrived and met up with lots of sailor friends! Did our final provision at the nearby grocery store, checked out the very unique white sand interior lake, and then had a little cocktail hour on Elles friends private mooring dock. Had yummy dinner of pasta and then as more people came aboard OZ I turned down for the night early - falling asleep to the lovely sounds of friends enjoying each other company.

26 knots of wind on the stern with a 1/2 reefed Jib and a max speed of 8knots - not too bad for a first day sailing for Claudia and her darling cat Gilbert. Not to mention I was on a work call for the last hour a multi tasking at its best! We aborted on the original destination of Ballet Bay on Nelson island and tucked in to the government wharf in Madeira Park in Pender Harbour! Tomorrow it looks like we’ve got Thunderstorms with a chance of Waterspouts! 😳

After a glorious day of swimming then tinkering on the outboard it finally worked so we could make a trip over to Gibson’s to get some Oysters at Smiddy’s! The sail back to Bowen gave everything from no wind to too much wind for the full main and the 130% Genoa. Of course just I take a break from the helm and chill out my friend Simon was giving Vic a helming lesson (this being her second time sailing in her life) when the wind built to (I’m guessing) 17-20 knots and we started round up! The poor girl thought she was going to die! Haha It would help if my wind speed indicator worked but you know when there’s white caps the boat is going to start getting over powered and you need to reef! I guess the captain doesn’t get to rest after all - it sure was nice getting Oz up to 7.9knots and that was while towing the dinghy (which I’m sure causes me to loose a knot!).

With the prop shaft finally fixed I was so ready to get out cruising for the weekend! 3 of us departed Bowen, my crew was Lionel and a gf Vic (it was her second time ever sailing). We had a mix of motor sailing and sailing over to Keats Island, Plumpers Cove Marine park and it was all really pleasant. I’ve been there probably close to 100 times now and it never gets old as a local weekend spot. If you get there early you can grab a mooring buoy and then the cute town of Gibson’s is a quick dinghy ride, that’s if your outboard works! It was my first time having outboard issues so I had to troubleshoot with some friends help. I have a newer Yamaha 15hp 4stroke so I’ve not had to get acquainted with the workings of it before as I’ve been too busy dealing with the big boat. After a lot of head scratching it turned out to be a bunch of water in the fuel so I drained the carb and put fuel polisher in the tank and she eventually ran again not without a friend persevering when I just wanted to chill! I also went up the mast to clean off all the green slime that grows esp on the north side! It was a little challenging being on buoy with all the boat traffic around but looks so much better now! Note to self get a better bosuns chair. 😅 We had our own private fireworks show too! What a weekend!

Whoa - who’s had a prop shaft shear and then back out of their transmission before? Set off at 8am. Motored down the sound then sailed south from Gambier to Bowen. Dropped the sails to find out we had no propulsion! Sailed onto a buoy and now for the expensive repairs to haul out and get a new prop shaft. Luckily we had beauty weather, the best crew and boat angels showed up with beers & gin!