Christmas Day 2018– Truly, this post is about going back in time, in more ways than one. Yes, it’s winter now and I still have to finish up our boating blog from this summer! So, while it’s a miserable 42 degrees and raining, sit back and dream of the coming summer on the water. More posts to follow.

Sunday July 29th – We woke up to the sound of the falls at the stern of our boat and drank coffee overlooking the calm, secluded beauty of the area. After pulling anchor we slowly motored southwest back down the channel headed for Malaspina Inlet’s Isabel Bay 34 nm away.

This summer has been extremely hot and today was no different. Todd found a cozy little spot to anchor then we tied up to him. We all swam and relaxed in the sun. Julie and I took the dinghy out fishing to a spot where Skylar and Zach have caught some nice Lingcod in past trips. Skylar was a little pissy about being left behind but we need some time away from the kids so sorry kid.

Julie and I zipped around to the main channel and dropped the line in some water that was still running fast from the tide. It was a nice relaxing trip but no fish. Once back at the boat I couldn’t tell if Skylar was happy or sad we didn’t catch anything without him.

That evening we explored a huge shallow inlet by dinghy. It was kind of creepy and eerie. In the flat calm water with nothing around we kept going deeper and deeper into the inlet. Just when we thought It ended we found a small creek that kept us pushing further up the flats. Motoring up the creek the feel turned into something you might see in Florida. It felt like at any moment a crocodile would take the boat out. Todd turned full bayou redneck for about 5 minutes never getting out of character. There could have been a little alcohol involved. It was hilarious and a fun adventure!

Monday July 30th – We needed some groceries and to get rid of some stinky garbage. Todd devised a plan to dinghy over to the small government dock on Malaspina Peninsula then take a taxi to Lund. Lund is a tiny little town on the other side of the peninsula. By boat it’s a long way but by car its only about 5 miles.

After researching taxi services, he found one, the only one! Upon meeting the taxi at the head of the dock we learned this was not your ordinary taxi. A 1940’s (I think) Mercury that had a long history of taxi service in Chicago, was now the only taxi in Lund and the owner sure had a lot of fun with it. He told us all about the history of the car as we cruised the 5 miles across the peninsula at about half the speed limit. Once in Lund we stocked up then made the reverse trip back to our boats.

That evening we all cruised back to the government docks for dinner at the Laughing Oyster. What a fantastic restaurant looking out over the water with nothing else around it. We all ate dinner relaxing in the warm evening then realized it was getting dark, so we raced back to our boats for the 10-minute fast dinghy ride back home.

Saturday July 28th – Today we are leaving the marina headed up Toba Inlet. Toba runs inland about 22 miles with steep forested walls, waterfalls and snowcapped peaks. Its remote, nothing around except the occasional logging camp. Todd and I were hoping to find a place to anchor for the night somewhere up the inlet, but everyone said it’s not a good idea due to sudden winds that can come up and poor anchorages.

The cruise was incredible! With almost no other boats, it felt like you were really in the wild, and we were. Multiple waterfalls, sheer cliffs, and water that was so turquoise it felt like you were in some other land.  Defiantly one of the most beautiful places we have ever been.

About 3/4s of the way up we found a large exposed rock face with a waterfall. I thought it would be a great place to have lunch, so I tried anchoring in 140’ of water just in front of the falls then backing our stern up to the rock face. With about 250’ of anchor chain out and a line to shore off our stern, we set the hook. Todd tied up alongside us and we had a great lunch watching the falls just off our stern.

At some point we just decided to stay the night. The kids messed around in the waterfall pools panning for gold (I think they may have even found some) and we sat on the back deck watching and listening to the falls. It was fun to be so remote, we never even saw another boat after we anchored. Lilly, Todd and Tami’s dog, even thought it was a remote location. Skylar and Zach dropped her off on shore to poop then took the dinghy to the other side of the falls to fix the shore line. She did what was asked, then got really nervous about the dinghy not being there to pick her up. She looked like she was going to jump in and swim back to the boat, but Todd and Tami said no way, she would never do that. Sure enough, she got real nervous and lept into the water swimming back to the mothership as fast as she could just to make sure she was not left behind. We all laughed and cheered her on!

We had an amazing evening all alone in the wilderness.

(Another side story)
I gotta say my friend Todd is a smart dude. He knows more about boats and boating (and a lot of other things) then anyone I know! We have a lot of fun boating together every summer and I have learned so much about boating from him, but this may not have been one of his better decisions.

So, the story goes, I anchor as stated above in Toba Inlet. Todd ties up to me, then decides that if we are going to stay the night he should probably put out an anchor as well. Smart thing to do, except that his anchor markers that tell him how much chain he has out were all out of whack, or at least it seemed that way at the time. After pulling back on the anchor and tying back off to me it became evident that the anchor was not fully deployed as intended.

A little frustrated, he decides that rather than untie the boat again and re-anchor, he would take the anchor out on the dinghy (still connected via chain to the big boat) and drop it in the water. It’s a great thought but an anchor and 200’ or so of chain weighs a LOT! The anchor dropped in the dinghy no problem, Zach let the chain out as Todd motored out away from the boat. With the dinghy in the right spot and all the chain out, Todd and all his strength lifted the anchor out of the dinghy, then chucked (tried to) it off the side of the boat. It almost made it except for that darn pointy end of the anchor just barley snagged on the inflatable side ripping a huge gash in the side of the boat!

With a look of Ohhhhh…. Sh*t, what did I just do on his face, he tries to lift the anchor off without success. In defeat he motors the dinghy back to the big boat and lifts the anchor off with the windless. Luckily the dinghy is made up of many air chambers so only one was popped. We made due with one anchor that night.  Wont do that again!

Friday July 27th – Today we left Squirrel Cove and headed to a new to us destination just at the start of Toba Inlet called Toba Wilderness. They recently put in all new docks and a nice covered gathering place on land but that’s all there is. It’s a remote location, all their power is provided via a diesel generator and water comes from the falls just above the docks.

Skylar and Zack got in the dinghy we were pulling behind the boat and started fishing just off the docks. Before we even got tied up they had 2 nice Yellow Eye Rockfish.

Once tied up we shut the generator off and plugged in to shore power. The generator was running while we were underway because we had the washer and dryer going. Now on shore power, we didn’t need the generator to run the equipment, but I noticed that we were not getting full 240 or 220 volt power at the dock. It was only 188 volts.

We all hiked to the waterfall up a trail then took the dinghies out to go swimming. Lots of fun in the hot weather and we found a waterfall that shot out into the sea. I got the nose of the dinghy so close it doused Skylar and filled our boat with what felt like 10 gallons of water. A super fun day filled with incredible views.

(Sub story below. Related to the voltage at the dock. Well not actually related, but I thought it was)
Ok, I’m going to fast forward a couple days, so I can tell this whole stupid story in one post. The following all happened over the course of the next several days. After leaving the dock the next day our dryer would not turn on. Todd and I checked that we had power getting to the dryer, which we did, and I also noticed the dryer door would not shut. However, the dryer power light indicator would not turn on. I figured that because of the low voltage situation at the dock we had fried the main board and the latch that keeps the door locked when in use had locked in the closed position with the door open when the board fried.

After a lot of phone calls and help from Kurt at American Tugs we found a new board at a parts supplier in California. Skylar had a couple friends flying up in a few days, so I had the board shipped to his friend’s house, so he could bring it up with him when he came up on the floatplane. I was proud of my resourcefulness.

For the next week and a half, we hung our clothes out to dry on the boat, luckily it was hot.

When the parts arrived, I installed the new board. Much to my frustration after install it still didn’t work!! I must have done something wrong I thought, so I went back and checked my work. Still didn’t work. Super frustrated I asked for help. Todd’s dad had his brother Brian onboard and he owns an auto repair shop, so I asked him for help. He went through everything and all checked out ok.

Then Brian discovered something very disturbing. Turns out the dryer didn’t turn on because the door wasn’t shut, and the door wasn’t shut because the lint trap was in backwards!!!! There was never anything wrong with the dryer! All we had to do is turn the lit trap around, so the door would shut.

I’m not even sure why I am writing this in the blog. I consider myself to be fairly mechanically inclined, but this was not one of my better moments.