Gerrans Bay to Harmony Islands

Poor little tug.  A submerged wreck is nearby.

When we left you last we were creeping slowly into Gerrans Bay where we spied a red buoy that itself was submerged by a few feet.  We coasted by and looking down into the depths we could see the fore deck of a sunken ship about 8 feet down. Some poor soul had lost his boat to wind, weather, or neglect.  Upon anchoring, Connie gave me the pumping fist signal meaning "The anchor is dug in well."  We readied the dinghy for a trip across the bay.


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At this time I might talk a little about our anchoring routine. Our preferred method is to locate our spot, do a circle watching the depth sounder to assure enough depth so we don't run aground when we swing the other way at low tide.  After we have the spot, I approach head to wind and bring the boat to a complete stop, watching the water beside me to see when we've stopped moving.  Then I begin to back up and signal Connie up on the bow to drop the anchor. 


By this time she knows how deep the water is so she can calculate how much rode to let out.  The anchor swims to the bottom and as I back down Connie lets out chain so that it lies on the bottom in a fairly strait line.  Once we have at least a three to one scope (Say in 30 feet of water we have 90 feet out) Connie will tighten the clamp on the windless and put her hand on the chain to feel what is happening underwater.  As the boat goes back, the anchor chain tightens and hopefully the anchor will dig in. Connie might hold up her hand in a stop signal and I'll put the boat in neutral and let her drift backwards.  Then if the anchor chain goes bar hard Connie will give me the happy fist-pumping signal that means "It's cocktail time!"


When it comes time to up anchor we have some signals that work well for us.  Up on the bow, Connie holds her arm out to one side so I can see it through the wind screen.  She might motion forward with her fingers or give me the "just a little bit" gesture.  Palm back is stop.

When bringing the chain on board, I drive the boat and follow the chain (as per Connie's signals) as it lies on the bottom.  Connie will point one way or the other and that's the way I'll point the boat.  It's better to drive the boat up to the anchor location instead of making the windless do all the work to pull the boat.  When we've come up right above the anchor I'll creep forward slowly. Because Connie knows the depth and the markings on the chain tell her how much we have out she can easily tell when we are directly above the anchor and when it's time to break it out of the bottom.  If the windless slows down and the chain strains, then Connie knows it's stuck pretty well.  In order not to stress the windless I ease forward and Connie brings in the chain until it's bar hard.  Then on her signal, I'll power forward and this usually will lever the anchor out of the mud or sand. Once she's broke free Connie gives me the scooping back and forth hand motion to tell me it's off the bottom. As the anchor comes up, I hold the boat steady in the water, trying to keep her head to the wind.  Once the anchor is aboard Connie circles her arm in the air and points to our exit from the bay and off we go, happy as clams. 


So you see, most of our anchoring is done without a word being said and certainly without anybody yelling.  If there is a problem, I'll put the boat in neutral and walk forward to have a quiet conversation. Or Connie will walk back to the cockpit to discuss it with me. In this instance I've positioned Connie on the bow with me at the wheel.  However, we switch positions often so we're both familiar with the bow and stern duties.


We seem to see lots of folks on boats who have stressful anchoring experiences or who just anchor badly. It's a fun cocktail activity to sit and watch the fleet come in and anchor.  The later in the day, the less selection of good anchoring spots is available.  The most common bad practice we see is a boat drop the anchor while moving forward at speed.  Now if you are anchoring under sail, that is a valid method, but not for motoring.  We also see folks drop the anchor, pile a lot of chain right on top of it, and call it good.  That anchor is not set and possibly it will be fouled in the chain.  And we hear a lot of yelling, one person screaming something and the other yelling "What?" 


And of course there are the professionals who wear headsets so they can have a nice little conversation as they go about their anchoring duties on different ends of the boat.  With Connie and I, we use hand signals.

S/V Tula stern tie operation at Harmony Islands

Lately, we've been doing a lot of stern ties, where you drop and set an anchor then take a line to shore in the dinghy, bring it around a tree or through a ring, then back to the stern of the boat, suspending the vessel between the shore and the anchor.  That way the pull on the anchor is always in one direction and there is room for many boats to do the same alongside. Again, it is a fun cocktail activity to get your stern tie in early, then sit back and watch the fun begin.

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Back in Pender Harbor, using the public float at Madeira Park we offloaded our garbage and recyclables and walked up the hill to the liquor store, pharmacy, and Thriftway grocery.  While Connie shopped for produce I stood guard over the cart full of wine outside the store.  I ducked inside and asked, "Do you have internet here? I haven't checked my mail in a week."  The young man at the service counter said, "Sorry, we don't have public internet."  His coworker coldly studied me for a moment then told me the office password. "What's it matter? Go ahead and use it." Canadians are so nice, aren't they? 

Heading up Jervis Inlet with a strong breeze behind us

From Pender Harbor we sailed up Agamemnon Channel to Green Bay.  Making our way to the head of the bay we circled the small rocky anchorage. There was a little house on the rocky shore with a small dock upon which a young lady was nude sunbathing. Upon our arrival she rushed up the trail to the house.  Sorry about that! We circled around watching the depth sounder. Rocks abounded left and right.  The wind was building and we were on a lee shore.  Connie gave me that look that means she is uncomfortable with the location so we motored back out of the bay and continued up Agamemnon Channel under sail, taking advantage of the afternoon up-channel winds. 


We crossed Jervis Inlet and found the Harmony Islands where it took us three tries in the windy conditions to get the anchor set mid channel in 50 feet.  Luckily there were numerous iron rings set into the shoreline rock face and it was comparatively easy to run the stern tie to shore. Actually, it was really easy because there was a guy rowing about in a dinghy and he took my line ashore for me while I held Traveler stern to shore in reverse gear.  We settled in and watched the show as a big 45 footer struggled to get his 300 feet of line strung from boat to shore and back when the boat was 200 feet from the ring.  I finally jumped into the dinghy and gave the skipper a hand. Turn about fair play, eh?


The following day the Tobiasons arrived in Tula, their Catalina 36 and we were all set to buddy boat up Jervis.


The next day while heading out, we heard and felt a change in the propulsion and a little bit of thumping noise.  Neutral, reverse, forward.  Still some sound.  Neutral, reverse, forward, less sound but still something there.  I began to worry, thinking about propeller shaft, cutlass bearing, the propeller itself....  In forward gear the shaft was vibrating causing the dripless bearing to spew salt water into the bilge.  We thought the worst but hoped it was just a little something caught in the propeller.

OK, I'll do it.

I hailed the Tobiasons on Tula to see if they had their Go-Pro underwater camera aboard.  They came by, rafted up, and Scott Tobiason attached the camera to a pole and took a movie of the propeller and rudder.  Sure enough, there was something brown wrapped around the prop shaft.  Daylight was burning, as John Wayne would say, and we didn't have too much time to waste if we were going to make it to Malibu rapids at slack.  Connie was having wrist problems and I didn't feel comfortable trying to free dive the prop.  We talked about setting up the compressor and using the hookah so I could go down, thinking that would take us an hour or so to complete. I looked at Scott Tobiason with a raised eyebrow and he finally said, "OK, I'll jump in there and do it." 


Scott's father Dick set his timer.  Exactly 8 minutes later the propeller was cleared of a strip of bark and we were casting off and heading north to keep our appointment with Malibu rapids.  A strong wind built pushing us up channel and giving us an exhilarating, head sail only, ride up the famous Jervis Inlet.

Alan and Scott and the offending piece of bark

............posted from Squirrel Cove on Cortez Island. 
                                                                            More to come as soon as I get time to write it..........