Barkley Sound July 2009

I told Rumor to watch out for birds!

I was talking about watching out for Eagles though!  Out here on the 'Wild Coast' there are eagles everywhere you turn.  They have the funniest bird call that is high pitched and very un-eagle-like if you ask me...but they're all over the place.  The eagles are also notorious for swooping down on fisherman to snatch away their fresh caught salmon.  We have even had customers who lost their little 'toto-like' dog to an eagle who swooped down

and took him right off of the foredeck and flew away for a nice lunch.

When I told Rumor to watch out for birds she took note and as soon as we anchored in Joe's Bay...in the middle of the Broken Islands Group in Barkley Sound, we were surrounded by hummingbirds.  They are all around us.  

It didn't take long before one flew into 'Sea Fever' and was flying into the glass trying frantically to get out.  Just a few minutes later one flew into Insignia's bright pilothouse causing Rumor to jump for joy!  She was

bouncing off of the settee with fresh hummingbird flying just out of reach. It was all I could do to catch the hummingbird with one hand and the cat with the other in hopes of saving a bloody memory of Joe's Bay.   If Rumor

ever got the taste of fresh bird...her canned duck pate cat food would never again suffice!  

Thankfully Tori and Dixie returned to help free the poor hummingbird who had no idea he'd flown into the wrong boat this afternoon!   "That boat has a cat in it!!"   ...and I told her to watch out for the birds!  (I didn't want

Rumor to be an Eagle's snack!!)  little did I know Rumor would have fresh bird right over where she nestles in the pilothouse!

We had a fun July fourth weekend coming up from Seattle to Victoria.  Mike Buckley and Anne Cipolla joined us for the trip across the straits which were uneventful save for the wild gyrations of Insignia under the control of her

disoriented autopilot.  Turns out our big 'pots and pans' locker is adjacent to the fluxgate compass that the autopilot uses to know where to go.  Once we removed the pots and pans to a new location and recalibrated the magnetic compass our autopilot began to behave normally again once again.

Vicoria was fun!   Jim & Gail Innes, customers and friends from White Rock joined us in their beautiful new Beneteau 49 'Red Sheila'  (with her Tuscan 'Safety' Orange canvas she's quite a sight!)    We had a party  of 12 for a great birth-month celebration dinner at Il Terrazzo!

The weather forecast pinned us in Victoria for an extra night as we waited for the outer coast weather to settle down a bit but we survived!   We were surrounded by a large Orca Whale pod as we punched through 35 knots of

breeze while clearing Race Rocks just west of Victoria.  We took shelter in Becher Bay for our brief night before our 5am departure to head out the Straits of Juan de Fuca towards Barkley.  This is the part of the trip that

is the toughest.   It's one very long day up the long line of shipwrecks that parallel the Pacific Coast hiking trail that runs from Port Renfrew out to Barkley Sound.  We had light winds, a little sloppy wave action and some

nice sailing at the end of the trip past Bamfield and into Robbers Passage.

Our crab trap came up empty this morning so we headed across the sound into the Pacific Rim National Park and the Broken Islands.  This is literally a 'Sea of Rocks' and it's our first time with the aid of electronic

navigation.  I'm not sure if it's helping lower the stress level...or increasing it!  Too much information!   We've been here several times before but this trip we have a deeper draft (keel depth of 7 feet this trip) so we

have less clearance and no room for error.  The girls on Sea Fever draw 8.5' with their boat...even more!

We've seen one other sailboat and one powerboat all day as we slowly cruised through the archipelago...there are very few pleasure boats, so far more fishing boats and way, way more kayaks.   We're each carrying two kayaks and

we're hoping to spend this coming week working on our upper arm strength as we paddle around the islands.   The mist and clouds hover right over the tree tops and it makes for a mystical experience.  One tends to be quiet in

the stillness...until the hummingbirds arrive!

From Joe's Bay....Barkley Sound, BC

-Robbie