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Summer Cruising – Shoal Bay Music Fest

Shoal Bay is a cool little spot in the Discovery Islands. It’s the epitome of laid back – the kind of place that I’m sure you’d be just fine if you forgot your high blood pressure medicine at home.

Located on the northeast corner of East Thurlow Island, you’ll find the Shoal Bay Lodge, which lies near what once was the site of a thriving community of over 5000 inhabitants, drawn to the areas logging, mining, and fishing industries. Rather than spend too much of your time and mine telling you about the location, its past, and its future, I’ll direct you to their website, and encourage you to check out every informative and entertaining page within. If you only have time to read one page, make certain it’s The Story…

On August 9, Shoal Bay hosted their annual Music Fest, and this year’s cruising plans included this as one of the planned stops. During last year’s cruise, we were a week late, and learned of the event and how much fun it was. Being a “musician” (no claims of being a good one), I enjoy an opportunity to play and sing.

Briar Patch, Enough Time, Jolly Mon, and Little Bear arrived on Friday, the day before the Fest, to nearly-full docks with multiple boats rafted, and the anchorage filling by the hour. I found a nice spot to settle and drop my hook in about twenty feet of water.

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Summer Cruising – Bear on the Beach!

As we continue making our way home – currently at anchor at Tumbo / Cabbage Island – I’ll share another highlight from this year’s trip north. Since my last post, we enjoyed an uneventful crossing of the Strait of Georgia within a perfectly-timed window of light winds and spent a night in Mark Bay in Nanaimo. From there, continuing southbound, the next stop was Montague Harbor, and finally, today we’re anchored at Tumbo. I’m here with Briar Patch and Little Bear, and nobody is in any hurry to get home. You can see where we’ve been so far, by visiting my SPOT Adventures Page.

So, about the bear on the beach. On the northbound trip, we spent a night in a little anchorage in the Discovery Islands, called “Anchorage Lagoon” by some – not sure of, or if, it has an official name, but it’s located between Cameleon Harbor and Thurston Bay on Sonora Island. The narrow entrance is quite shallow and best entered at high water.

After an early morning departure from Campbell River, the fleet was resting after getting the hook down and everything settled. I had just woke from a nice little nap, and was sitting in the cockpit, shaking the post-nap cobwebs while surveying the area, thinking to myself that this was a place that one might see a bear. There, on the beach, was – a grizzly bear – munching away on berries and whatever else he was rooting for. I loudly whispered, “Bear on the beach!” to the others, and the cameras and binoculars came out.

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We watched the bear make its way down the beach until it disappeared into the woods. A while later, we saw it emerge onto the beach at the head of the bay. Wanting to get a closer look, we hopped in a tender and idled in its direction. We kept our distance, but were able to get a good look and capture some great pictures.

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This wasn’t the only wildlife encounter on this trip…

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Summer Cruise – Motoring to Tribune Bay

I’m currently out on a three week trip to Desolation Sound and the Discovery Islands. While, at this point, our little flotilla is making our way slowly in the direction of home, I’ve been away from reliable internet for a good part of the trip.

Rather than provide a day-by-day account of the trip – which takes a bit of work, and is probably not too exciting for the reader – I’ll share some of the highlights of the trip. And there are some!

So far, we’ve visited Nanaimo, Tribune Bay (Hornby Island), Campbell River, Anchorage Lagoon (Sonora Island – unsure of its “official” name, if it has one), Shoal Bay, Toba Inlet, Pendrell Sound, Refuge Cove, Squirrel Cove, Westview (Powell River), and currently at anchor in Garden Bay, Pender Harbour. It’s been a great trip, and I’ve seen and experienced a lot. You can see where the trip has taken us by checking out my Spot Adventure Page.

For this post, the first highlight I’d like to share was a few moments from the trip from Nanaimo to Tribune Bay on Hornby Island. After spending a couple of days in Nanaimo, watching the wind blow and following weather patterns, we saw a window of opportunity to move on. Leaving in the afternoon and cruising at slow speed put us into Tribune Bay after dark, but the prize for doing so was motoring into a beautiful sunset.

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Going North

This year will be a first for me… The first time I’ve taken my boat to Desolation Sound. While I’ve spent a lot of time in the Canadian Gulf Islands, I’ve never made the leap across the Strait of Georgia and and ventured north to add to my cruising pedigree. I’m excited, the boat is ready, and time off from work secured.

I’ll be traveling with Briar Patch, Enough Time, Little Bear, and Wind Walker; all Desolation Sound veterans. Big Sky and Jolly Mon are first-timers. We have no real itinerary, other than a date we need to return by.

I’ll do my best to keep a log of my travels and things we do and see along the way. This post will contain several days.

Day 1: Saturday, August 10

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Briar Patch, Enough Time, and Jolly Mon departed Anacortes at about 5:30 am – just before daylight. The several mornings prior, Anacortes was socked in with fog, but this morning was the exception, so we were thrilled when we had the opportunity to leave early with clear skies. Wind Walker, the lone sailboat in the group, left the day before. Our plans were to make Nanaimo by evening.

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Looking Back..

I’ve gotten a bit behind on my cruising log, and for various reasons I didn’t get around to entering last summer’s cruises. Here it is February, and while I’m already making plans for this years cruising season, I’ve been fortunate to get out for a few very nice winter cruises.

But first, a quick re-cap of last summer, just so you can be convinced the boat was well-used.. Here’s a few highlights:

March:Impromptu Easter weekend overnight cruise to Obstruction Pass. Ran into JaCarol… Had some wine. Had some more wine. Afternoon cruise turns into overnight. Good times!

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