May 2010: Cowichan Bay to Comox

Our departure was once again early to necessitate transiting Dodd's Rapids at slack time (1050hrs).

The weather has been much of the same: cold, windy, lots of rain, low, low, low cloud (ie. fog), basically pretty crappy! Our plan is to head up Vancouver Island to Comox and Campbell River, along the way we spent another night at Newcastle Marine Park and at Ford Cove on Hornby Island.

We used our steadying sail and were extremely pleased with the affect! That little sail dampened our roll caused by beam seas and winds; as well as adding a little bit of speed which was an added bonus! We should have been deploying our sail a long time ago!

Wet and Miserable leaving Nanaimo for Hornby Island

Steadying Sail.... Doing fine!

Ford's Cove Marina on Hornby Island

We tied up to the breakwater as there was no room on the docks!

May 2010: Cowichan Bay

The cruise from Nanaimo to Cow Bay was windy but relatively non eventful with the exception of a loose fitting on the transmission which caused fluid leaking concerns. Craig finally traced the problem to an access bolt which had loosened off, once tightened the problem was fixed. Whew.... no major mechanical fix or cost was needed!

We arrived in Cowichan Bay where our boating friends Penny & Mike live! This is our second visit to "Cow Bay" with Kozad!

We arranged to come to Cow Bay this trip so we could watch Craig's niece Kaya compete in the BC Performing Arts Dance Festival held in Duncan. Last year we drove to Prince Rupert so we could watch her compete in 2009!

Welcome to "Cow Bay"

The weather had kept us from arriving on schedule and as we sat on the dock at the Dungeness Marina, we were blown about by the strong winds and unsettled seas.

Marine weather map; the red area depicts severe wind and gale warnings!
We have had this weather advisory for the past 7 days.

We were rock'n on the dock with beam winds/seas!
So we raised our steadying sail which dampened our rolling.
First time used & it worked!

Penny and Mike had us to their home for a great BBQ Salmon Dinner

Next day we helped them tidy up their cottage on Cowichan Lake

The "Cow Lake Cottage"



Sunset at Cow Bay



The weather was a bit of a challenge!



We woke up to more clouds with a bit of sun shining through!


The Family complete with Comet!
They joined us for supper at the Rock Cod Cafe
to celebrate Jan's Birthday!


This is the first time Guy, Akosua, Kaya, Branden & Dillon have seen our boat!



Kaya doing that Titanic thing!



The Fire Department was inspecting the docks and doing a practise



Fire Practise at Cow Bay

We have planned to stay in Cowichan Bay until Kaya's Dance competition is over; which means we will be leaving on Friday to work our way up Island!

May 2010: Newcastle Island Marine Park

After the 4 days of Gale Warnings and being landlocked by high winds we shoved off the dock early Friday 21st of May for a bumpy, lumpy and bouncy cruise from Pender Harbour to Newcastle Island; which is just across the harbour from Nanaimo.

This was our first visit to this marine park and it was a great surprise! This park is absolutely beautifu; with great hiking trails, nice beaches, great docks and a wonderful views of Nanaimo!

Newcastle Island was a summer campsite for early First Nations people; then European Settlement saw white settlement which included a shipyard, coal mining, sandstone quarries which supplied the sandstone which built the San Francisco Mint. These quarries then produced giant pulp stones which were used in North American pulp production!

Japanese Fishermen also used the Island for salting Herring and in 1931 the Canadian Pacific Steamship Company purchased the island and operated it as a pleasure resort; building a dance pavilion and bringing vacationers for day trips from Vancouver on their Princess Steamships.

We really, really enjoyed this stop! Ted & Terry, SV Ciao Bella, also docked at Newcastle as Silva Bay was full for the May Long Weekend. They decided to extend their stay here as it was so nice, and there were festivities planned as well as fireworks on Sunday night!

Entrance from public dock to Newcastle Island Park

Lots of First Nations History!

The Marine Park Docks; great place to catch Rock Crab right off the dock!


These are nests for Purple Martins; which are being reintroduced to the region!


Purple Martin Recovery Program

Two Totem Poles are on the grounds of Newcastle Island.
The small one belongs to Craig!

This is the cutting bore drill which cut the Pulp Stones!

The history of the stones! Sort of sounds like Harry Potter Film.....

These are the bore holes!

These are some of the cast off stones which are approx. 48" in Diameter

View of Nanaimo Harbour from one of the hiking trails!

We saw a lot of wildlife; including a large population of Canada Geese & Goslings

On one of our walks we saw three white tailed deer!

There is reported to be a population of Albino Racoons who inhabit the Island.
This guy must have been the black sheep of the family!

Large numbers of Heron feed on the tidal pools and beaches at low tide!
They have wing spans of approx. 6 feet!

Kayak rental returning and restocking from Nanaimo!
Newcastle Island is very popular and there are passenger ferries which run constantly.

A nice place for Kayakers to stop.
There are numerous campsites on the Island as well as large picnic gathering areas!

Kozad on the dock at dusk with a gorgeous view of Nanaimo!

We thoroughly enjoyed our very brief visit to Newcastle Island. It was an unplanned stop due to the weather, so we have the winds to thank for introducing us to this beautiful spot! We are planning on returning here when we cruise North from Cowichan Bay to Comox!

May 2010: Pender Harbour

We were to stay one night in Pender Harbour on our way south to Cowichan Bay! As boating happens the weather plays a minor influence on our plans. In this case there was a Gale Force Wind Warning; with winds of 50 knots! The winds were bad for the better part of four days and kept us at the Pilot House Marina where we met up with Ted & Terry from SV Ciao Bella!

We explored Pender Harbour, taking in some of the local flavour with some hikes, dinghy rides and visiting!

Kozad at Pilot House Marina, Pender Harbour, B.C.

Ted & Terry from San Juan Island
They were sitting out the storm at the same marina.

Don and Pat, SV Syringa, also were anchored near our marina!
They were the one's who followed us into Chatterbox Falls.
The mass of rope was entangled in their propeller after they went thru MacDonald Island prior to departing Malibu Rapids

Craig going grocery shopping at the Maderia Park IGA
We took the dinghy to the public dock so we could resupply our provisions!

At the IGA we bumped into Larry & Bev, SV Pearl Jem, with their Portugese Water Dogs.
They, along with John and Kate from England, were also sitting out the storm at the public dock!

Our third day the sun came out and we went for a walk to Garden Bay.

We spotted a prawn boat who was unloading spotted prawns!

These hold 10 pounds of prawns each! Yummy!!!!!

Here is one of the big ones!!!!

The prawn is quite large too!

We had a delicious feast on SV Ciao Bella; Prawns, Salad, Bread & Wine!


Cape Pine is a 1942 WWII Wooden Sub Chaser
Ronin the owner also operates Pilot House Marina

MV Shear Fantasea from Bimini Islands is approx. 140' in length

Their tender is bigger than our 30 foot boat! It can go faster too!
Notice the underwater lights at the stern of MV Shear Fantasea
Lights up the water so you can be entertained with sea life activity!

As the weather was clearing the local Dragon Boat Team went out to practise!
Jan would have very much liked to join them as their "Head Stroker"
A position she gave up this year so that we could cruise on Kozad!

On Friday morning we cast off the lines and headed off to Nanaimo on our way to Cowichan Bay!