I just finished writing a long post, and it up and disappeared!!  great!  i will start again…..We went to Port McNeill on June 28th, our anniversary, to do the laundry, get supplies at IGA .  Port McNeill is a friendly place, everything is there that you need, even a pet shop.  We stayed one night and then anchored across from the marina, didnt stay there long though, as a SE storm was coming, and it would not be a comfortable place, as the waves really built in the entrance.   So, back in the marina for another night and then across to Sointula, on Malcolm Island, a historic place, with a very nice feel to it, the people here are from Finnish background, everywhere you look, are children with very blond hair. The town is well over a 100 years old, with rustic looking houses, old fishing boats, and a hundred year old co-op store. On June 30th, we left Sointula to head across Queen Charlotte Strait, tide was in our favor, wind was suppose to be from NW, 5-15 knots.  Bert put up the main, staysail and the genoa, and we moved along nicely at 5 knots.  Slowly the wind picked up…… we reefed the main, took down the staysail, by now the wind was 15 knots and not about to taper off, one out in the open, it picked up to 22 knots, reefed the genoa, the waves made it hard to enjoy this for me, as i had a cat down below that was slowly turning a bit green……Wind was 25 knots by the time we came to the other side, cat  was sick, and i had enough.    But things got better, the coast is beautiful here, very rugged, very wild, the entrance to Blunden Harbour is tricky, lots and lots of rocks. The harbour consists of a large main Bay, and several lagoons, and a smaller Bay, which was empty!!!  We took that spot.  Anchored  in 10 metres, mud bottom. The next morning, we put air in the kayaks, and watched, as there are salmon jumping all over the place, the local eagle pair diving down to try to get one.  We also see a lot of Ospreys, and their loud call sounds at first like an otter. We kayaked all around the lagoons, and went over to the large midden, in the main Bay, where the sight is of an old Kwakiutl village, there is nothing left anymore, so hard to believe that this was a thriving community.  In the broken shell lie lots of  treasures, pieces of pottery, old iron pegs, old glass, all from the early 1900’s. There are suppose to be tradebeads here also, but i only found one piece of one.Early the next morning, when i stuck my head out of the cockpit, i looked into the eye of a Dolphin, a very big, Pacific White Sided Dolphin, and he was not alone, 13 others were swimming all around the boat, what a wonderful sight!!!   i nearly killed myself , trying to get the camera, should listen to Bert, who says to keep it handy at all times…….i did get a few shots, they stayed for a while, apparently they hunt for Capelin, a small fish that is on the increase here on the coast. We were the only boat here, in the small bay, all the other boats coming in, 7 of them, went to the larger bay.    We decided to move on , on July 4th, towards Cape Caution.

We are a retired couple, and have been living on board of our sailboat for 9 years now. The boat is a Fraser 42,centre cockpit,and she was built in Vancouver , in 1978, designed and built by the de Kleer brothers. She is fully insulated, and we had no idea at the time, how important that is. Her hull is solid fibreglass, and her deck is one piece together with the deckhouse.

This makes her very strong. She is cutter rigged,and recently we installed furlers for the front sails, and also installed a new mainsail.We make our own power, with two solar panels, windgenerator, and if there is no wind, no sun, then we use the 2000 watt  Honda gas generator, which fills the battery bank up in no time.Also , Bert, my husband, installed a watermaker, which is very important. i will tell more about her later on.

She is warm and cozy inside, has an open design,no large bulkheads, and has  big hatches, so lots of light comes in. We sleep in the aft cabin, and the V-berth holds our two folding bikes right now, plus the cat, Annie, who loves to sleep there. For heat we use our trusted diesel stove,a Dickinson,Newport model, also Bert installed a Hurricane hotwater heating system, which can seperately heat the hot water too, for the shower.When the engine runs, we can use the bus heaters.

Her engine, which we installed in 2004, is a diesel, Isuzu 56. She came originally with a very old  Mercedes diesel engine, we had to start it with ether, just not a comfy idea!!!           Curtsy has hydraulic propulsion, very different from the usual gears, and it takes away from our power, but its very reliable, there is no neutral,we can go forward or reverse in one move.