Category Archives: Travel

June 23 – Squirrel Cove to Dent Island

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squirrel cove moon setting

At Squirrel Cove, when we got up, the moon was just setting behind the trees. It was calm and serene…a gorgeous morning.

What a change! It was clear when we woke up this morning at our Squirrel Cove anchorage on Cortes Island, Desolation Sound. The full moon was just setting above the trees to the west and it was flat calm. Soon the sun came up over the trees to the east and it was just an absolutely gorgeous morning. Reflections of nearby boats gleamed in the calm water, and it was so peaceful and quiet. Time to choose our next destination!

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June 22 – Pender Harbour to Squirrel Cove

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Squirrel Cove Store

Squirrel Cove is located on Cortes Island in Desolation Sound, B.C. There is a small dock and store on the shore, but the anchorage is located beyond. We can use our dinghy to get to the store. When we passed the Squirrel Cove store on our way to the anchorage, it was low tide. It was one of the lowest tides of the year.

Last night when we ran the generator in Pender Harbour, we noticed that the battery monitor indicated we had lost more charge during the afternoon than normal. Also the charging usually starts out in a bulk mode when the batteries are discharged, and this didn’t happen when our charging started. So, now what? Is our battery monitor failing? Or is there a problem with our batteries?

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June 21 – Nanaimo to Pender Harbour

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Pender Harbor Northwest

Garden Bay in Pender Harbour, mainland B. C., looking Northwest. The anchorage was very comfortable and the evening was delightful.

It was calm and overcast with a light drizzle this morning. The forecast for Georgia Strait called for light winds rising to southeast 10-15 later in the morning. We really don’t like to try to cross Georgia Strait in any kind of southeast wind. We have had consistently rough passages crossing Georgia Strait in southeast wind, especially when the wind opposes the current at any point during the crossing. However, we had been in Nanaimo LONG ENOUGH, so we decided to head out toward our Pender Harbour destination and see what the conditions were like.

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June 20 – Still In Nanaimo

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Admiral_of_the_Fleet

One of the colorful statues in the Maffeo Sutton Park along Nanaimo’s Harbourfront Walkway is “Admiral Of The Fleet,” a tribute to ‘Black Frank,’ a prominent Nanaimo community leader, who helped launch the Nanaimo Bathtub Race. A colorful pirate costume was worn to promote the bathtub event.

We ended up staying another day in Nanaimo due to weather. It was rainy, foggy and windy. Not a good time to try to cross Georgia Strait—a 35 mile trip with about 15 miles in open water—and known to be nasty when the wind kicks up. It was a good day to work on inside things…and NOT have to work on the engine! We did some reading, organized some of our supplies, and caught our breath from dealing with the engine issues.

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Moving On

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harbour chandlery

Harbour Chandler in Nanaimo has lots of serious boating and fishing gear.

It took all day, but Jim thinks he finally has enough fluid back in our cooling system so that we can safely run our engine. After he flushed the heat exchanger and reassembled the cooling system, he wasn’t able to get all the fluids back into the system. He thinks this is because he ended up with an air bubble or bubbles in the system when he put things back together.

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In Nanaimo

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nanaimo from walkway

Looking back from the Nanaimo Harbourfront Walkway, the city of Nanaimo sparkles.

We’re on our third day at Port of Nanaimo. Jim finished cleaning out the heat exchanger, but is still in the process of adding the fluids back into the cooling system. He had to remove fluids in order to clean the heat exchanger. After three days in the engine room, he is ready for a break!

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