Hello Family and Friends! Time for some catch up on the blog. We have not had good connections until now.

September 8

It was extremely foggy outside so we had to stay put another day. For those of you who do not understand why we stay put for a whole day, we have current times that we have to meet in order to transi t some of the rapids in daylight and that will be flowing in a favourable direction. For us, we want the ebb tides as we go north.

The fog did finally lift later in the morning. We had a little sleep in, as much as I can sleep in. We have also had good SSB connection with Barbara in Sidney. It is a steep learning curve to operate the SSB but I am persisting.

Before leaving Victoria, I had purchased some very nice and new fender line. Thanks, Fern, from Bosun's Locker! I changed all the fender lines today so have now gotten rid of some of the less than desirable fender line that came with the boat. What I purchased from Fern works on the Chinese Pull Finger method and it is great to handle. For you who have boats -go see Fern.

I tried my had at fishing from the dock but nothing bit in the first 5 minutes so I gave up, but did try again and no bites so I gave up again. Good thing it is not my job to feed the crew - we'd all starve.

September 9

Woooo whoooo we are leaving Cordero Lodge. Not that is is not a nice place to wait but there is so much more to see. Today we transit Green and Whirlpool Rapids. Our destination - Forward Harbour. Did I tell you that it is raining buckets. We are in our winter gear.

It is stunning scenery up here. And that is without seeing the tops of the mountains. I still don't know how high they are visually however the chart does indicate the height.

We made it to Forward Harbour in record time. We caught the last of the ebb through Whirlpool and had a good ride. Anchoring went without a hitch. Another boat was just ahead of us and we had a sheltered little bay without a breath of wind. We anchored in 50 ft of water so let out all 300 ft of chain. It was a good thing we did because no sooner did we anchor and I looked to the east and I could see unsettling skies and I could hear the water start to ripple. Yes sireee-we anchored just in time to ride out a four hour storm with winds gusting up to 36.8 knits. Double that for a rough estimate of kilometers per hour. We made a decision that if the wind didn't settle by 4 PM we woud weigh anchor and move to the head of the bay.

All went well - we stayed the night. I rowed Winston to shore to do what dogs need to do then rowed for another 45 minutes enjoying the calm and quiet. It was so quiet that I could hear the seaweed brush by the dinghy.

All in all we had a very peaceful night with four other boats that joined us in the early evening. They missed the storm. We have great faith in our new anchor.

September 10

Today we need to make some decisions. As you already know we have decided not to circumnavigate the island but thought we would mosey on north a little while before heading south for Victoria. Well, another option came available. We have some warranty work that needs to be done on the boat. Specialty Yachts can fit us in to have the work done. It was a tough decision - go north or Granville Island; go north or Granville Island. Ron and I knew that the best decision is to go ti Granville Island and have the work done while we have the time. It will be much more complicated to get the work done once Ron starts working in Vancouver. There it is... we are turning around. Sad but true. It was tough for both of us but is is the right thing.

Today we left Forward Harbour for Port Neville. From Port Neville we charted our new route to Vancouver. We always like to take new routes so we can see new thinngs. Well, as they say "everything happens for a reason". We saw two pods of whales! How exciting. The first pod was about 6 whales. They were on both sides of us. The second pod was about 10 whales and babies. Yes, we did keep our distance even though it was tempting to get closer. We didn't want to intrude.

There has been no wind for sailing. We had a nice motor to Blind Channel - a stunning little place. Moorage is only a buck a foot but electricity is expensive - nearly $20. a night. Thank goodness we are green and have our solar panels.

We had BBQ chicken and cole slaw last night for dinner. Food always tastes better when we are somewhere new.

We saw stars tonight. They were magnificent and the planets shone like lightbulbs. We sat outside until about 10 PM picking out the constellations we know. We noticed that the big dipper is starting to spill its contents.... winter is coming.

September 11

This morning we had about 50 feet of visibility - fog surrounded us and we could hear the fog horn at Chatham Point. Not a good sign for heading into Johnstone Strait. It's a good thing that we do not have to leave until noon. The fog has been slowly burning off. It is about 1030 and the fog horn has stopped. Looks like it will be a go to leave as planned. We are off to Campbell River. Funny thing but we have never been there by boat before so it will be an adventure.

All in all even though we are heading to Vancouver it is good. We will still see new sights, have new experiences and above all we are still vacationing.

Cheers!