I learned two valuable lessons today. Well, was reminded of two things I already know: Continue Reading »
Posted in Bicycling, Lessons Learned | Tagged cruising, Hans Christian 33t, Sailing injury | 4 Comments »
The last five weeks or so have been non-stop action! First, we sailed (or motored when there wasn’t much wind) from northern British Columbia to Bellingham, Wash., in nine days—two of those days we sat out weather on the hook. So in seven travel days we did about 375 miles. When you go five to six knots an hour, that’s 50-60 miles a day, and 10- to 12-hour days. Whew!
After securing Sundown on Squalicum Harbor’s dock, we took a shuttle to Seattle, flew to Denver and then drove to Fort Collins with one of our sons. We’ll take the traffic in San Juan Channel in July over that on Interstate 25 any day!
The next three weeks was filled with lots of family, friends and fun. We cuddled with our dog; paddled, biked, ran and swam; cooked for dozens of people multiple times; celebrated birthdays; ate at our favorite restaurant, Los Tarascos; worked (yes, that “W” word); and more! While we went home rather emergently, everything/everyone ended up being fine.
- Replacing the cutlass bearing on the propellor
- Making sure the engine was aligned properly (it was)
- Replacing a couple zincs
- Re-painting her hull and boot stripe
- Buffing her topsides
- Polishing all of her stainless steel rigging, and finally
- Cleaning the deck and windows.
Posted in Bicycling, Boat Maintenance, Where in the World is Sundown | Tagged boat maintenance, Colorado, Hans Christian 33t, travel | 5 Comments »

Posted in Adventures, Where in the World is Sundown | Tagged Bella Coola, British Columbia, cruising, Hans Christian 33t, sailing | 1 Comment »
Where in the world are we?
Posted in Adventures, How to Live Afloat, Where in the World is Sundown | Tagged adventure, British Columbia, cruising, dolphin, grizzly bear, Hans Christian 33t, sailing, seal, whale | Leave a Comment »

Posted in Uncategorized | 8 Comments »

Sundown in Emily Bay.
I woke the morning we were going to make the next big leap north toward Alaska feeling confident and ready. But as we crossed the north entrance of Raymond Passage out of Shearwater on Denny Island, I had an overwhelming gut feeling we needed to immediately change direction. I said as much to Clay and we did. Rather than continue out and around Price Island and up Hecate Strait, we went the opposite direction up Return Channel (the name was not lost on me) to Emily Bay in Briggs Inlet. It’s a beautiful spot surrounded by granite walls and high forested mountains with a small river at its head. Perhaps, for whatever reason, north British Columbia is meant to be our destination, not Alaska.
Posted in Adventures, Where in the World is Sundown | Tagged adventure, Alaska, British Columbia, Hans Christian 33t, National Outdoor Leadership School, sailing, travel | 9 Comments »

Clay scantily clad on the beach?
When we’re not sailing, you probably imagine we’re strolling on white sand beaches at sunset, dipping our toes in the surf. Actually, we’ve only walked on two sand beaches in our journey so far and we had our Bog boots on. One of the beaches was about 100 yards long by 50 feet wide until the flood tide when it shrunk to about 100 feet long and 10 feet wide, but there was sand, nonetheless. The other was during gale force winds (34-47 knots knots) with rain coming down in sheets. It was marvelous! We HAD to get off the boat that day after being cooped up for a couple previously, so we dressed in our foul weather gear and dinghied to the Hakai Institute landing in Pruth Bay to hike to the west side of Calvert Island where we could check out the Pacific Ocean. Then we hiked to the island’s northern shore—just because we could. Continue Reading »
Posted in Adventures, How to Live Afloat, Where in the World is Sundown | Tagged adventure, British Columbia, cruising, Hakai Institute, Hans Christian 33t, lifestyle, sailing, travel | 6 Comments »
When Kim and I aren’t moving from one anchorage to another, I stay busy doing important stuff like maintaining the engine and fishing. I won’t do the math, but it has been an expensive hobby so far. I started with a rod and reel, a couple dozen big lures, a crab trap and a prawn (shrimp) pot. I’m down to the crab trap and about five lures…and I haven’t lost my rod and reel yet, either. Nor have I come home entirely empty handed, so perhaps I’m close to breaking even.
During our recent journeys, we’ve enjoyed some amazing sailing days and were blessed to have a traveling companion, Chris on Puget Escape, to capture some great Sundown moments for us.
When we’ve been able to go ashore and bushwhack around, we taken photos of lots of different plants, mushrooms and animals of the Pacific Northwest, and have seen signs of the First Nation People in the form of petroglyphs.
Life is good!
Posted in Adventures, How to Live Afloat | Tagged cruising, fishing, Hans Christian 33t, lifestyle, petroglyphs, sailing, sealife, travel | 8 Comments »
Friends are made fast when cruising. Since we’re confined to a boat the majority of every day, it’s wonderful when we get to interact with people. (Yes, Clay and I have each other and we actually still like each other, but I’ve already heard all of Clays stories. He loves having a new audience.)
Our friends Bob and Sandy, who we met in Deer Harbor on Orcas Island, traveled with us for a few days when we first entered Canada. We window shopped in Ganges, hiked around Wallace Island, played cards and just hung out. Our time together with these kindred spirits came to an end when they decided their turn around point was just before Dodd Narrows. So Clay and I continued on as a duo until we anchored in Walsh Bay in Desolation Sound preparing to go through the Yuculta and Dent Rapids. That’s where we met our new friend, Chris Bowman.
Chris recently retired from running the nano fabrication facility at Carnegie Mellon University. He’s on solo trip in his 36-foot Catalina, Puget Escape. We became fast friends in the course of a week (was it only a week?)–eating dinner together every night while reviewing the next day’s weather and routes, listening to music and just getting to know one another. He’s super smart, well-educated, an experienced sailor and a pilot, so we appreciated having his opinion about conditions. (It was the old “three heads are better than two” theory at work.)

Chris and Puget Escape sailing across Queen Charlotte Strait
It also was comforting having each other nearby to render aid if necessary, like when Chris’ dinghy painter got wrapped around his boat’s propeller and Clay got to use his newly honed propeller unfouling skills (see one of our recent blog posts for details). Or when we snagged an underwater logging cable with our anchor. Chris was preparing to help free us from the bondage just as we were able to unhook ourselves from the steel tether.
Clay and Chris also fished together. It was fun to watch the two of them head out in Chris’ RIB (or rigged inflatable boat, which is a big dinghy with a large outboard motor on it…think FAST!). They both sported large grins making them look like they were up to something, which I’m sure they were. Their excitement was contagious when they caught lingcod, black bass and rock fish, as well as crab and prawns. Together they laughed off the days the fish and the lures got away.
But the Broughton Islands are Chris’ turn around point. After a couple more weeks, he’ll head back south to Olympia, Washington, where he moors his boat. We are continuing our northerly passage bound for Alaska.
The frequent goodbyes are a bit sad, but on the flip side, it’s exciting to see who we get to meet and befriend next. Who knows, maybe we’ll even find our friend Steve Jones. If all has gone according to his plans, he should still be making his way back to his home in Craig, Alaska, and might just be around the next bend.
Posted in Adventures, How to Live Afloat, Where in the World is Sundown | Tagged adventure, British Columbia, Broughton Islands, Carnegie Mellon University, cruising, Hans Christian 33t, sailboat | 2 Comments »
I have to confess that I have some misgivings about this trip to Alaska. The scenery gets more breath taking, but the resources get more scarce. The farther north we go, the more I think I’m developing a case of fuel insecurity…as in diesel for the boat and food for us. Continue Reading »
Posted in Adventures, How to Live Afloat, Lessons Learned, Uncategorized | Tagged adventure, Alaska, British Columbia, cruising, foraging, Hans Christian 33t, mushrooms, sailboat, sailing, sea food | 6 Comments »