Update on September Cruise and things!

Sorry it has been so long since we have updated the blog; we have had an extremely busy summer and fall! As you read in our last post, our Kelowna home of 12 years sold and we have moved to a new townhouse in the Coldstream/Vernon area, which is 40 minutes from Kelowna. The sale and move to the new home took a lot of our time! We were finally able to get out on our Kozad in September, from the 16th to the 1st of October.

We cruised the Gulf Islands, then into Washington State where we spent time in the San Juan Islands and then down to Port Townsend. The trip saw us at the Ganges Saturday market, we toured the Saltspring docks taking in the PNW work boat gathering, then the Port Townsend Film Festival for the screening of a documentary film, the Long Road North, which was produced by Ian from SV Sylvia (see June Blog entry). We also attended the 2nd annual Pacific Northwest Willard Rendezvous and caught up with 9 other Willard owners. You may wish to view the PNW Rendezvous at 2009 Willard Rendezvous.

The weather was great with the exception of two days of 50mph south westerly winds; luckily we were tied securely to a dock at Friday Harbour! Jan was on the dock trying to help out a 45 ' power boat which was blown against three docked boats; a lot of damage was done to this chartered boat.

We came through the winds unscathed with the exception of 8 stitches Craig received on his hand. Not fending off any stray boats but in a clumsy move while cleaning the bilge.

The trip was absolutely wonderful; we had a great time and upon returning have put Kozad to bed for the winter. As always our great friends from Victoria, Garry and Joanne along with their daughter Jennifer, are keeping a close eye on Kozad during the winter months.

We are planning on being aboard Kozad from mid April till beginning of June 2009; okay - our last cruising plans did not work as planned, but hopefully these will!

We have a few photos to share; but as our digital camera decided to go on strike we missed out on some great shots! So here are a few we were able to take:

Jennifer helping out on Kozad - cleaning and provisioning prior to departing Brentwood Bay

One of the work boats at the Saltspring docks; owners only had time to paint 1/2 of the boat before attending the rendezvous!

Fresh clams given to us by one of our dock neighbours! Great Linguini Dinner!!!

This is what I see when we are cruising - Jan at the helm 98% of the time!

This is the 2% of the time cruising when Craig get's to operate Kozad!

Red sky at night - Sailor's Delight! Friday Harbour, San Juan Islands, Wa.

We saw a lot of wildlife and birds on this cruise; including sea lions, seals, eagles and dolphins.

Friday Harbour Pub looking for a good cook!!!!

July & August Cruises on Hold!

We have had to adjust our July and August cruising plans as our house in Kelowna has sold. There is a quick possession date of August 18th and we will be moving into our new townhome in Vernon on August 15th.

This has altered our plans considerably with purging, downsizing and packing to meet the dates for sale and purchase.

We will miss our Kelowna home; but are only a 35 minute drive from the close friends and relationships we have established over the past 12 years.

Update: Jan and I love our new place in Coldstream, this is the first time we have experienced living in a town home environment and are enjoying no yard work, less house cleaning (we went from 4400sf to 2400sf), no snow shoveling, etc.

This life style allows us the convenience of leaving when ever we want for boating and travelling; just pack, lock the door and not to worry about anything.

This is the patio area of our Kelowna home; a lot of work went into building this area and it was all done by Craig with some help from family and friends!

We had 11 huge Koi fish in our pond; they were given a new home at Rick's Garden World which is owned by our friends Kim & Martha. We are pleased to say they are all doing well and have even had babies!

We had nice views of Okanagan Lake from both the side and front of our house; we will miss our old home where we raised our family for 12 years and made life long friends.

This is the town home complex where we are making our new home in Coldstream

View of Kalamalka Lake from our new deck;
we have downsized and moved 5 minutes from Jan's parents
to be closer to them in their elderly years

June Cruise on Kozad

We have just returned from spending a wonderful 11 days on the boat, 9 of them touring the Gulf Islands. We absolutely love the boat and had a great time!

As Jan says, we are still married so it could not have been too bad!

We experienced so much during our time on the boat; two drunks in a dinghy going over a log, a pair of swans with four babies, starfish hook retrieving a BBQ, a quick fishing trip on Dana's boat, there is so much to share but it keeping the Blog short and concise we are trying not to bore you!

The following is a map which outlines our cruising paths and corresponding locations where we spent some of time:

1. Friday 13th to Monday 16h June: we departed Brentwood Bay and were pleasantly surprised to meet up with Janice & Glenn on MV Whiteshell. They took the time to stop and wait for us near Deep Bay when they were returning from their cruise.

Janice & GLenn Benoit

We had scheduled one night at Ganges Harbour on Saltspring Island but that quickly changed to three nights after finding the town a joy to explore; especially the Saturday Market with it's produce, crafts, food, and local flair, we also spent a lot of time at the Mouat's Store(s)!

Harbour Walk at Ganges
We met friends Dana & Carmen who arrived on their 20' Trophy fishing machine and also some new people - Mike and Penny Baker from Cowichan Bay!

Dana & Carmen Johnson
Mike & Penny Baker

STARFISH HOOK

This is one of Jan's most favorite experience. Dana retrieved a sunk BBQ using his starfish hook. He located a suitable sized starfish, tied a length of rope around it's body and then lowered his retrieval device down into the water. Ensuring that the starfish was sitting on the BBQ and latched on, he successfully pulled up the BBQ. What a feat of engineering!

2. Monday 16th to Tuesday 17th: we took a short cruise to Galiano Island and tied up to a mooring buoy at Montaque Harbour Marine Park. Great hiking trails, nice broken shell beaches and a unique floating bakery was anchored in the harbour! The bakery is on a 1930's car ferry which has been converted to a live aboard home and bakery! Of course we bought one of almost everything!

Floating Bakery at Montaque Harbour

Dinghy Dock Entrance to Marine Park

Beach at Montaque

3. Tuesday 17th to Wednesday 18th: we went north from Galiano Island to Clam Bay which is situated between Kuper and Thetis Island. We dropped anchor and spent a quiet afternoon with rain; once the weather cleared we dropped the dinghy and explored a channel between the two islands which led over to the west side of the islands. "The Cut" is only accessible at high tide by small craft, dinghy or kayaks.

Kozad at Clam Bay

"The Cut" at High Tide - Thetis & Kuper Islands

4. Wednesday 18th to Thursday 19th: headed off to Pirates Cove on Decourcey Island just south of Nanaimo! This is a very picturesque cove and one of the most popular marine parks in the Gulf Islands. We met a very nice young family on their sailboat "Sylvie"; Ian, Molley and Jackie (4 year old daughter) are from Port Townsend! They were a wealth of information and had a lot of suggestions for places to visit as well as cruising tips for getting to Port Towsend (for our fall rendezvous). Lots of hiking, beach combing, dinghy rowing and exploring while the weather was excellent, including an awesome sunset.

Pirates Cove - Treasure Island!

Kozad Stern Tied at Decourcey Island

Great Beach Combing

Ian on SV Sylvie

Sunset at Pirates Cove
5. Thursday 19th to Friday 20th: started heading south for a night on the dock at Telegraph Harbour Marina on Thetis Island - we needed a shower! This area was one of the recommendations from Ian; a very nice marina with an old fashion ice cream bar, within walking distance a small honor system store, a small coffee roasting operation and nice peaceful roads to walk on. There was a Beneteau Rendezvous scheduled for the weekend - lots of sailboats were on the dock... Also on the dock was SV Sylvie, they were provisioning from the "free" store and coffee shop and stopped in for ice cream.

Telegraph Harbour Marina

Shopping at the "Free Store" on Thetis Island
Pot of Gold Coffee Roasting Co.

Assisting a Young Damsel in Distress

This young girl had an accident and peed her pants, she had taken them off and asked Craig if he could carry her wet clothes; and take her back to her boat!

6. Friday 20th to Saturday 21st: off to Cowichan Bay to explore this eclectic little town and also to have supper with Mike and Penny Baker! We tied up at Pier 66 and heard "Hey Kozad" and would you believe that SV Sylvie was at the Gov't Docks! Once again we have bumped into the Sylvie and her crew!

Ian, Molly & Jackie - Crew of SV Sylvie

We spent a great afternoon eating ice cream at the Udder Guys Ice Cream Bar, Pretzels from the local famous bakery, and stopping into shops and wandering the streets. We met up with Mike and Penny for a wonderful evening, which included a drive to Maple Bay and then a wonderful supper. All in all a great last evening to a wonderful week of cruising.

Pier Homes at Cowichan Bay

Pier 66 - our marina in Cow Bay

This Guy Was Talking to Kozad!

Cow Bay - Mike & Penny's Home Overlooks this Bay

Home: Saturday 21st to Monday 23rd: we headed to Brentwood Bay on Saturday and spent the next two nights on board. We cleaned Kozad and picked up the odds and ends which we needed for the boat! Visited with Jim, Ian and Luke, took them out to the Fifth Street Bar and Grill in Victoria - well worth the time to drop in for a nice meal! We had a vicious wind storm on our last night but surprisingly were able to sleep with all the noise and bouncing around! Said our good byes and then headed off to Kelowna on Monday morning....

We were sad to leave Kozad but luckily we are back for two weeks in the middle of July.

Jim, Ian & Luke - our boys in Victoria!!!

MV Kozad's Summer Cruising Schedule

We have scheduled the following summer cruises and will update the Blog when we get back from each cruise:

• June 13th to 23rd: cruising through the Gulf Islands and East Vancouver Island from Victoria to Nanaimo return
• July 12th to 26th: run up to Comox, Campbell River and Desolation Sound. Time and weather will dictate how far and how long we are in Desolation Sound area before heading back to Victoria (a four day run or so in our 6 knot boat)
• August 9th to 17th: time exploring the Sunshine Coast i/c Princess Louisa Inlet, Texada & Lasqueti Islands (Jan has to work so she won't be on this cruise)
• September 19th to 28th: exploring the San Juan Islands on our way to Port Townsend, Wa. where we are attending a Willard Rendezvous for three days.
  

A Time for Boating

As we purchased Kozad a year earlier than planned; family, work and vacation commitments along with upgrades/work on Kozad kept us from getting out on our boat during the summer and fall of 2007.

This will not be the case in 2008! We have already been out a number of times and have a lot more boating scheduled for June, July, August, September; with plans to keep on cruising into the winter months.

Jan and I were able to get out on Kozad over the Easter Long Weekend with our good friends Garry & Joanne. Then I spent three weeks at the boat (20 April till 11th May) and was able to cruise into the San Juans as well as Bedwell Harbour. This cruise was with the Whiteshell, a 45' Carver, and good friends Glenn, Don, Bob & Terry!

Clearing Customs - Roche Harbour, Wa.

Kozad rafted to Whiteshell at Massacre Bay, Orcas Island, Wa.

Kozad clearing customs, Poet's Cove, B.C.

Cocktails on Kozad at Friday Harbour

Jan and I returned to the boat on the May Long Weekend and anchored out at Beaumont Marine Park in Bedwell Harbour, South Pender Island. We enjoyed three days of hot weather and soaked up the sun while exploring the area by dinghy.

Kozad on Mooring Bouy

Dinghy ride heading under the N & S Pender Island Bridge

Jan Relaxing at Anchor at Poet's Cove, South Pender Island

Jan at the helm exploring South Pender Island

Life is Good, Craig Relaxing While Jan Pilots Kozad

Loving it at Bedwell Harbour!!!

We had a great time and are looking forward to much more time aboard Kozad!

Moving Kozad

We moved Kozad on 19th May, 2007 to Portside Marina in Brentwood Bay, B.C., from Oak Bay Marina which is just outside of Victoria, B.C. Our close friends Janice & Glenn Benoit, who have a lot of boating experience, came along for morale and physical support! Both were needed as this was the first time I had operated a single screw, full keel & displacement hull boat! To say the experience was humbling would be an understatement. Many hands, including feet, fenders and boat hooks were needed to get us off the dock! The experience was heart pounding, but worth a few laughs once we were safely off the dock....

But wait! We still had to get back onto the dock at some point in time......

The wind was howling, there was a minus 2 foot tide which facilitated us leaving just in time to catch a 5 knot current; reducing our speed to 1 knot per hour for the first 90 minutes. The weather and the speed could not dampen our enthusiasm of having our own boat.

We made the trip from Oak Bay to Brentwood Bay in a little over 6.5 hours; Jan likes to say we are in the slow, slow lane of boating, crawling along while all the other traffic is passing us by! She equates us to being on a bicycle while the cars are whising by!

And yes by the way, we did make it onto the docks in Brentwood Bay just fine; mainly due in part to all the extra hands, feet, and opinions on how I should be docking this beast!

The plan now that Kozad was at Portside Marina, was to have Abernathy & Gaudin Boat
Builders in Brentwood Bay, work on the minor items identified during the survey, as well as doing some work on the boat for us.....

We wanted to personalize our boat to our style of boating; being out for extended periods of time at anchor, having access to battery power and an ease of getting on and off the boat while on the hook!

So, we needed new ground tackle (windlass, chain & anchor), a davit system so we could easily launch and retrieve a new Walker Bay Genesis RIB and Yamaha outboard motor, an upgraded electrical system including new batteries, battery charger and inverter, along with a rather large list of additional extras!

As well, we felt obliged to keep the boat in pristine condition after the amount of effort that the previous owners had done in refitting and updating the boat; so now it was our turn to ensure we maintained the boat in like new condition. So, the new leak we found on the rough ride over needed to be taken care of as well as a few other cosmetic and minor structural items.

Well, it was a good thing we bought the boat a year early as the work took a little longer than we thought to finish, along with an unexpected chain plate leak which had destroyed some of the Pilot House coring, and a few minor (but costly) repairs kept us from using the boat in 2007!

We now know what a BOAT unit is - Bring On Another Thousand, as in dollars; Kozad has a few of these units invested since we have taken ownership!

Ah, the joys of owning a boat!

Naming Kozad

Our new boat, of course, had a couple of prior names; the most recent owner had called her Silent Waters II, and before to that she was called Sindbad. Now it was going to be our turn to name this boat!

We chose the name "Kozad" in memory of our very close & dear friends (Iolla & Leonard Cozad; Leonard was given the nick name Cozy). This elderly couple befriended us in our younger years when we were first posted to Campbell River, B.C. (1975 to 1978). They were avid boaters, and Cozy introduced Jan and I to boating, fishing, prawning, crabbing, and many hours of enjoyment on the ocean.

Cozy & Iolla at their 50th Wedding Anniversary

Kozad: the new name for our first boat!

Both Iolla and Cozy passed away twenty years ago - in their mid 80's. We thought it was befitting to name our first boat after this wonderful couple: thus, Cozy reflects the look of the boat and Kozad is the name given in honor of our close friends!


We are looking forward to many enjoyable years cruising the PNW, BC Coastal waters and who knows, maybe even up to and including Alaska if we are brave enough!

Who knows where Kozad will take us!