May 2010: Cowichan Bay to Hornby Island

Our departure from Cowichan Bay was early once again so that we would arrive at the proper time to necessitate transiting Dodd's Rapids at slack time (1050hrs). This leg of our journey had us travelling up Vancouver Island to Comox! It is a long two day cruise on a 6 knot boat, so we spent the first night, once again at Newcastle Marine Park!

The weather has been much of the same: cold, windy, lots of rain, low, low, low cloud (ie. fog), basically pretty crappy! This of course means we are spending more time than normal in our boat; good thing we still like one another!

While at Newcastle this trip we were the only boat on the dock, a stark contrast to last week where the place was full due to the May Long Weekend.

This time we took the opportunity to explore Nanaimo by foot, and paid our toonies to board the little foot passenger ferry which travels between Newcastle and Nanaimo! We visited some shops and Thrifty’s Grocery store and walked the foreshore which was well worth the time and effort.

The next day, again under low cloud and high winds, we headed for Ford’s Cove on Hornby Island using the steadying sail is now mandatory on these windy days.

Ford's Cove is a small working marina!
The only space available was on the break water.

There is a small art gallery and a well stocked general store.

The beach walking here is spectacular with wave sculpted sandstone carvings.

Yes, after 5 weeks on a small boat we are still alive!

Craig has not yet had to walk the plank!

The shoreline was a spectacular gallery of sculpted stone.

We spent a couple of hours just walking this beach.

And of course Jan had to take some more photos!!!

The unsettled weather has provided us with some beautiful sunsets.

We departed Ford's Cove for Comox which was 3 hours to the Northwest.