Mike and Beth's Adventures

I am always a bit sad when our time in the PNW draws to a close.  Each visit is amazing.  Maybe I feel this way because of the grandeur of the experience.  One never knows when or if you will again visit.  It is like saying goodbye to an old friend who lives far away, hence there is uncertainty about future time together.  The PNW experience invokes strong emotions, feelings and thoughts.  It is beautiful in its stature and harmonious in its vastness.  It is the kind of emotion that feeds the soul.  You do not want it to end.  Being in nature reminds you that there is a rhythm to life that is simplifying in that it strips away the unnecessary chaos which waits to assault upon return to “civilization”.  Perhaps my reluctance to leave is procrastination.  I like the simple rhythm and want to delay the tenseness and harshness that accompanies chaos.  Perhaps this all boils down to the fact that I like being on vacation and the sim...

Our ramblings this last week have included celebrating Canada Day in Ladysmith and then returning to the shelter of Newcastle Island to wait for a weather window to cross the Strait of Georgia.  This wait lasted 4 days as the wind made a passage untenable.  On the day we departed Ladysmith we could see that an extended wind event was arriving.  Our hope was we could sneak across the Strait before it built to a nasty level.  Our hope were dashed within the first mile of poking our nose out into the Strait.  It was one of our first warm days of summer so we left the skylights in the cabin roof open.  We did close the one on the top of the vee-berth.  We could see white caps out in the Strait, but thought we could use a technique where we pick up our speed and skim along their tops.  Wrong!  Didn't work this time.  The wave height and interval resulted in Amy Marie burying her bow and sending water over the top of the cabin, creating a love...

  When crossing from Vancouver Island to Vancouver, the city, on the mainland, the decision on which route to take is an important one.  This is for several reasons.   First the geography of the area.  The west coast of Vancouver Island is pleased with a densely packed collection of islands.  Second is the seas water which must move around these islands as the tide cycles between low and high.  This change is large at around 14 feet, but can be even higher under certain conditions.  As large volumes of water must move through narrow passages, it must move quickly.  The movement can often be violent accompanied by aggressive swirling that mimics whirlpools and is easily capable of capturing and spinning a boat if passage is attempted when currents are at their max.  A much safer tactic is to transit these areas at slack water. This is the time when the current pauses as it prepares to move in the opposite direction due to the tide change....