The only thing worse than no backups is restoring bad backups. A database guy should get these things right.  But, I didn’t, and earlier today I made some major site-wide changes and, as a side effect, this blog was restored to December 4^th, 2007.  I’m working on recovering the content and will come up with something over the next 24 hours. However it’s very likely that comments between Dec 4^th and earlier today will be lost.  My apologies.

Update 2008.04.13: I was able to restore all content other than comments between 12/4/2007 and yesterday morning.  All else is fine.  I'm sorry about the RSS noise during the restore and for the lost comments.  The backup/restore procedure problem is resolved.  Please report any broken links or lingering issues. Thanks,

                        -jrh

James Hamilton, Windows Live Platform Services
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H:mvdirona.com | W:research.microsoft.com/~jamesrh  | blog:http://perspectives.mvdirona.com

We always spent Christmas afloat, usually in Canadian waters. Some years we've travelled to the Sunshine Coast, Desolation Sound, or the Broughtons. This year we stayed closer to home, in the San Juan Islands. We had considered going to Barkley Sound on the west coast of Vancouver Island instead, but didn’t have time to research safe anchorages for winter storms. In the end, we were glad we didn’t go—the storms were worse this year than any previous Christmas afloat, and the west coast of Vancouver Island receives the brunt of them. While winter storms are the downside of winter boating, the upside is that we have all the best anchorages to ourselves. And we love being safe at anchor while a storm rolls through, especially if we have a view out to the wind and waves.

Pictures and stories from the trip are posted at http://www.mvdirona.com/trips/SanJuansChristmas2007/.

This week, boxes of Cruising the Secret Coast were delivered to the warehouse at Robert Hale and Co. Click here for book details, including sample pages and an overview by Waggoner publisher Bob Hale, and to order online.

The book was a long time in coming. In 2002 we began researching what would become Secret Coast, and published our experiences in Pacific Yachting and PassageMaker magazines. And we sent our findings to Bob Hale, who printed many in the Waggoner Cruising Guide. At the same time, Jennifer also was working on a book describing the history of the Broughtons and surrounding area. Bob had reviewed several early manuscript drafts and provided critical feedback and advice.

By early 2004 we had enough material gathered to consider writing a cruising guide. The book was a natural companion to the Waggoner, and since we had been working so well with Bob as correspondents and on the history book, he was a natural choice as publisher. When we suggested the idea to Bob, he and the rest of team at Robert Hale and Co. were interested. We continued to gather material for the cruising guide and work on the history book until 2005, when it became clear that only one project could be done at a time. We decided to focus on the cruising guide and put the history book on hold.

Thus began an intensive two-year effort of writing, editing, map production, picture selection, and many, many, many rounds of reviewing and proof-reading. During that period we exchanged more than 1,500 emails with Bob and graphics designer Marni Erwin. Finally, following nearly a three-month print cycle overseas, the books have arrived. It’s wonderful to see the finished result.

We’ll be signing copies for the first time on April 12^th from 8am to 12pm at the 48° North/Fisheries Supply Boater’s Swap Meet. The annual event is popular. The Fisheries Supply upper and lower parking lots and the street west of the store will be open to people for selling, and Fisheries Supply also sells discontinued items at deep discounts. Although the official swap meet hours are 7am to 1pm, sellers start arriving at 4am to establish a good location, and the selling starts by 5am.

While anchored in Blakely Harbor over the weekend, we watched an example of neighborly support. [Map of area.]

About 7:30 Sunday morning, a dinghy sped across the bay east of us. This was a little odd, because it was a cold and rainy morning, not ideal for a dinghy tour. Then we saw its destination—a sailboat aground near pilings along the north shore. We were surprised that we hadn’t noticed the grounded boat the day before, but then realized a sailboat was missing from its mooring along the south shore. We anchor at Blakely Harbor a lot, and that sailboat almost always is moored along the south shore. The boat must have come free overnight and blown across to the north shore. The winds weren’t very strong, at most 20 knots at West Point on the opposite side of the Puget Sound, so that likely wasn’t the issue. Unrelated, the Coast Guard reported another vessel blown aground east of nearby Eagle Harbor that morning also.

The dinghy then travelled towards the head, and met up with a neighbor in a capable-looking aluminum power cat. The two then set off to try to free the sailboat. The cat maneuvered between the pilings and a line was run from the cat’s bow to the sailboat. Water churned up behind the cat as they attempted to pull the sailboat free, but the ground vessel did not budge. The boat was well over on its side and the tide was falling. The dinghy crew had climbed aboard the sailboat and were trying to apply weight up high to tip the boat over further and get the keel out of the mud. Eventually, they were successful and the boat came free. They then worked the sailboat through pilings and tied it off to a nearby dock. The boat didn’t appear to have any exterior damage—if so, they were lucky that it didn’t smash into those pilings instead of grounding. And they were lucky to have such a helpful and capable neighbor.

In the pictures below, the first picture, looking east towards Seattle from our anchorage near the head of Blakely Harbor, shows the sailboat at its mooring the night before. And in the last photo, the boat moored beside the sailboat is Our Island, a 68-foot DeFever-designed steel trawler featured in the current (April/08) issue of PassageMaker magazine.

For us, an ideal cruising destination combines solitude with a chance to explore new territory. We seek places that are little covered in the cruising guides and where few people go. Besides an appealing anchorage, we are always on the lookout for interesting side trips, such as a trail to a view or a lakeside perch, or a lagoon to explore in the dinghy or kayak. We’ll periodically post locations that for us meet this criteria under the “Secret Coast” category. Some are documented in Cruising the Secret Coast, while others are beyond the scope of the book, such as in the south Puget Sound or the northern central BC Coast. We’ll start with Suquash.

By boat, Suquash is thirteen miles southeast of Port Hardy, opposite the western tip of Malcolm Island. The Suquash Coalfield is the reason that nearby Fort Rupert—which offered the closest shelter—was established in 1849 by the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) of Great Britain. Mining was halted in 1852 when a superior coal source was found near Nanaimo, but the HBC continued to operate Fort Rupert due to their investment in the outpost.

In the early 1900s, a private company deemed the Suquash Coalfield worth mining. This time, it was a major operation that anchored an on-site settlement large enough to support a school, post office and regular steamship service. It closed before the Second World War, but much of the equipment was abandoned in place. It is an easy walk from the beach at Suquash to see the ruins, and they are extraordinary. The first ones we found were huge shovels, perhaps four metres high. Farther along was a metal wheel with one-meter spokes.

To the south, and closer to shore, were the ruins of the foreman’s house. Two intact river-rock chimneys soar skyward, blending into the second-growth forest. Inshore and south was a narrow concrete and stone structure, about seven metres high, with an archway through the centre. We couldn’t guess its purpose. Beyond was the mine shaft itself, where a massive steam engine rests on a concrete bed. The engine ran a huge spool of cable to raise and lower a carriage through the mine shaft. The shaft is said to extend across Queen Charlotte Strait nearly to Malcolm Island. Legend has it that miners could identify ships passing overhead by the ships’ vibration signatures.

For more detail on Suquash, directions and anchoring advice, see chapter eight, Fort Rupert, in Cruising the Secret Coast.

In busy Pacific Northwest anchorages, stern-tying is a common option to allow more boats to fit in than would if they all swung free at anchor. Smuggler Cove Provincial Marine Park along the southern BC coast is a good example:

We aren’t often in anchorages that busy, as we tend to favor less-traveled areas.  Nonetheless, we still stern-tie frequently.  We do it as a way of tucking into beautiful little anchorages where there just isn’t the space to swing free.  One of our favorites is this little nook in the south end of Jedediah Island in Jedediah Marine Provincial Park:

We sometimes use a stern anchor instead of a stern tie when swing room is limited and no suitable shore tie exists. This can happen when the nearest shore is private property, or too far away, such as this anchorage at Rupert Island in the Hakai Luxvbalis Conservancy Area:

I recently came across a set of pictures from Sweden that are notable for two reasons: 1) the anchorages are amazingly beautiful and 2) the local style in that area is to drop a stern anchor and then pull the bow up to shore.  Have a look at these pictures: http://baylinerownersclub.org/forum/showthread.php?t=6139&highlight=carman. We’ve just got to find a way to go boating in Sweden.

                                                --jrh

James Hamilton

jrh@mvdirona.com

I recently came across a posting that is a good reminder for all of us.  It was a standard 30-amp shore power cord.  On the outside, there was slight evidence of heat.  Upon taking the plug apart, it’s completely melted.  It’s not my picture so I’ll not post it here but you can see it at: http://www.baylinerownersclub.org/forum/showthread.php?t=13761. Also on that thread is a posting by a Harbormaster showing one that completely failed and burned.  

When flowing through a corroded connection, even considerably less than 30 amps will produce a dangerous amount of heat. Corrosion brings resistance and resistance brings heat.  One good technique to efficiently chase these problems down is to use a small infrared heat sensor.  When you are running an electrical load, check for warming at the connectors and in the wiring within the boat to the main breaker panel. A good electrical load is an electric space heater. Where there is heat there is resistance, and you want to catch it before it becomes a fire risk.

I use a Fluke 561, pictured below.  This one runs around $150, but I’ve seen IR temperature sensors as low as $35. And, of course, you can feel for warmth as well. I use the IR temp sensor for so many different purposes that I wouldn’t dream of doing without it at this point.

Check out the pictures referenced above and remember to check your cables and connections a couple of times a year. Replace them when there is any evidence of corrosion, browning, or heat.

James Hamilton, jrh@mvdirona.com