The vast majority of time, close quarters maneuvering at low speed is fine. But strong current or big wind gusts can greatly reduce the margin for error. We recently saw an example of exactly that at Eagle Island, where strong currents wrap around the island. A particularly large exchange that weekend made for especially swift currents.

The people on one pleasure craft had just finished raising anchor. As they cleaned off the tackle, the current carried their boat towards another moored to a buoy. As the boats closed, someone on the moored boat became concerned and walked up to their bow. Those on the drifting boat moved their vessel forward slightly so that they drifted closely past the moored boat. But their dinghy passed on the other side and hooked on the buoy.

Held by the buoy, the drifting boat now spun towards the moored boat. The person on the moored boat jumped into the dinghy to try to free it and prevent damage to his vessel.

Soon after, the painter snapped from the strain. The dinghy rocked violently and the person aboard was thrown in the water. Fortunately, they appeared unhurt and were able to make it to their stern and climb aboard at the swim platform.

Big clouds of diesel smoke came from the drifting boat as the crew throttled up to turn and retrieve their lost tender.

When things go wrong, either on our boat or another, we try to learn what we can from it in the hopes of avoiding a similar incident. We thought about what we would do if our boat were in the same situation as the moored boat. The first step would be to get our engine started to give us maneuverability. Then we could release the line to the buoy and hopefully get away. Were we at anchor, with the engines running we still would have a reasonable amount of leeway to move the boat around and perhaps even let out more rode. Slipping the anchor quickly might be difficult because our first 200 feet of our rode is all chain. Was our boat the one drifting, we’d want to get well away at the first sign of trouble. Barring that, we’d release the tender if it hooked.

We arrived back from nearly 3 weeks exploring the Outside Passage.  And, similar to our exploring in Queen Charlotte Sound, we found a wonderfully complex shoreline with literally thousands of anchorages.  Some were quite challenging and most were incredibly beautiful.  For example, the entrance to Port Stephens is a bit of an eye opener at low water.  We chose to enter at high water J.

Particularly notable was Cann Inlet, where we anchored in front of three waterfalls. 

The one consistent factor is there simply was no boat traffic.  During the entire time we were in the area, we rarely saw another boat and never shared an anchorage.  The crabbing was good, the exploring was fun, the hiking was amazing, and we’ll certainly be back.

We’ll post more when we get the time. Here’s the overall trip summary:

·         1,309.5 miles traveled

·         204 total engine hours

·         Fuel consumption over trip: 966 gallons of fuel @ $5,566

o   Least expensive: $5.06/gallon (Campbell River)

o   Most expensive: $6.84/gallon

o   Average cost: $5.76/gallon

o   Average MPG: 1.36 MPG

o   Average GPH: 4.74 gallons/hour.

·         Fuel consumption running north (2100 to 2200 RPM):

o   33.4 hours

o   359.4 Miles on 511 gallons

o   0.70 MPG

o   15.3 gallons/hour

·         Fuel consumption while in Outside Passage (1050 to 1100 RPM):

o   88.9 hours

o   404.5 miles on 192.28 gallons

o   2.1 MPG

o   2.16 gallons/hour

·         2,232 pictures

jrh@mvdirona.com, http://mvdirona.com/

We’re voyaging north to further explore the Hakai Luxvbalis Conservancy Area and the outer islands north of Seaforth Channel, so we won’t be blogging again until we’re back and caught up in the mid-August time frame.  More then.

Jennifer & James Hamilton

Jennifer@mvdirona.com / jrh@mvdirona.com

Hi James,

As I recall, your website shows pictures of you using your laptop on the bridge of Dirona. Can you tell me what laptop you use that is viewable in the bright sunshine? Is your laptop dedicated to Nobeltec or other software or does is get all-around use?…….Excel, Word, Photoshop…..that sort of thing.

Nice work on Cruising the Secret Coast. I didn’t make Trawler Fest, but perhaps you could do a presentation for the Power Squadron in the fall?

Thanks,

Gerald Albertson

Response:

Gerald, you can buy products like the Panasonic Toughbook that are ruggedized.  We chose to spend less and, if necessary, replace more frequently rather than pay extra for a ruggedized system.  Essentially we self-insure.  Over the course of the last 8 years, I think we have established that it was the right approach.  We buy inexpensive laptops, they last quite well—typically  around 3 years—and then we upgrade.

For screen brightness, any screen is a problem in the sun and there is no avoiding that problem entirely. We do find considerable variation in laptop screen brightness.  We favor those that are on the bright side and we have always found them usable.

We run Nobeltec, Word (boat log), Excel (fuel log), Photoshop, weather software, a NMEA multiplexer, and logging software all on the same laptop (I wrote the last three software packages).  If we ran single functionality, we probably would spend less time chasing the odd weird issue, but that would require more laptops. Each costs money and each requires power.  We choose to run everything boat-related on the one boat laptop and it works fine. We do, however, have a backup laptop that is running Nobeltec and always is ready to go if we run into problems.  And we have a backup GPS system in case the main GPS fails.

Sure, we would be happy to do a presentation for the Power Squadron in the fall.

            --jrh

While heading south through Colvos Passage on July 3^rd, we heard on the radio that Quartermaster Harbor was closed to all boats until 6pm that day due to the Tall Ship Parade of Sail. We arrived in the area just as the last one, the CGC Eagle, was leaving Quartermaster Harbor. An impressive number of pleasure craft surrounded the parade, and an equally impressive security contingent guarded the boats. The Eagle had a particularly large entourage: two 110-foot patrol boats, the Sea Lion and the Orcas, and two large tractor tugs, the Henry Foss and the Wedell Foss. A myriad of other small Coast Guard and Coast Guard Auxiliary craft in everything ranging from Coast Guard 27-foot utility boats to 50-foot pleasure-craft to jet skis zoomed throughout the crowds and the parading ships, while the Coast Guard’s 175-foot buoy tender Henry Blake stood off the entrance to Quartermaster Harbor.

We idled off the Ruston shore to watch the ships pass, then joined the crowds in the Foss Waterway as the ships docked and fighter planes swooped overhead.

Queen Charlotte Sound has many amazing white-sand beaches, but the best we’ve found are at the McMullin Group. The sand is deep and soft, and almost every beach has view east to the Coast Mountains.

The island group is wonderfully complex, making for interesting dinghy exploration. As we toured around, we kept finding what we thought was the best beach, only to find an even better one around the corner. And as at many of the nicer beaches in Queen Charlotte Sound, we found an elaborate kayaker camp, complete with a rope swing. From the camp, a trail led to the western side of the group, for views across the Pacific. We later took the dinghy into the outer reefs west of the islands. That was exciting—the seas were reasonably calm, but breakers crashed over the reefs all around us.

For more detail on the McMullin Group, directions and anchoring advice, see chapter twenty, Bardswell Group, in Cruising the Secret Coast.

Earlier this month, Michael Short of the radio show Let’s Go Outdoors interviewed us on Cruising the Secret Coast. Michael asked a variety of questions, including how we got started in boating, why we wrote the book, and some of the experiences that have stood out over the years. The show aired this past weekend as Episode 10 of Let’s Go Outdoors Canada (LGO Canada). Listen online.

We lived for years in Victoria, B.C., where both our families had owned various small boats. Work took us to Toronto for a decade, and during this time James’ parents had purchased a larger boat, Hunter’s Moon, a Hunter 31. When we returned to the West Coast, the time we spent on Hunter’s Moon convinced us we needed a boat of our own.

A few years back, we arrived one Friday night at Silverdale at the head of Dyes Inlet. It’s usually not a very busy place, but the docks were packed and a fair number of boats were at anchor. We dropped the hook away from the crowds a bit, nearer to the head, and settled in for the evening. About 9pm, a tug with a barge arrived from the south. The tug captain slowly picked through the anchored boats and eventually stopped near the head a few hundred yards away from our boat. We couldn’t figure out why a tug would be arriving at night like that and what it would be doing at the head. No docks or industry were there and there just didn’t seem to be any good reason for it.

We got our answer at 10pm. Explosions erupted on the barge and light filled the sky. It was a fireworks barge and we had the best seat in the house. We’d arrived at the beginning of Whaling Days. The annual event includes an always-impressive fireworks display, a street fair with live entertainment, and outrigger canoe races. It’s a real family affair—with kids and adults of all ages. On a hot summer day, the warmer waters of Dyes Inlet are ideal for swimming. The festival atmosphere extends to the docks—they’re packed and everyone is having a good time. Each year we’ve been, several dozen cigarette boats roared in on Saturday as part of a poker run and roared back out again just as quickly. We could hear their engines for miles.