Sept 30

Are you all sick and tired of sailboat pictures?-Take heart-the season must be nearly over.

We joined 4 other boats for a trip to Texada Island for lunch today.

Great fun-Marv went with us. Kathy couldn't come she was saling (garage saling).

We were brave enough to put up our mainsail, but not the jib.

Baby steps.....

September birthdays

Kathy (in pink) and Harley on the left are 1 year older-that makes Harley pretty ancient (but of course, wiser), but Kathy is still under the magic age of 60. We had dinner at the 'Eagle's Landing Bistro' south of town. Very good food.

Helen's birthday is next; oh dear, we may have to do it again......

Sept 27

Another glorious day-as you can see the harbour is like glass

I went down specifically to try to get a picture of a blue heron walking along the dock as they often do-but they must have seen me coming with a camera and fled.

Just a few noisy kingfishers, flapping from boat to boat, making a big mess on each landing spot. But they sure are pretty.

You can see a heron guarding the breakwater as our friend, Guy, from the yacht club heads out looking for a breeze.

Dolphins? Porpoises?

Right away I will tell you that I didn't take this picture-I had good intentions; I had the camera-but with dead batteries.

Nonetheless this is what we saw.

Ken had his nose in the GPS so I was steering when I spotted them. I steered towards them and they seemed to want to play. They went back and forth under the boat. The water was so calm that we could follow their course quite easily and predict where they would come up.

What fun-we all played for about 20 minutes.

They seemed to be dark grey, and the underside of the dorsal fin was light grey or white.

What a lovely day to be out on the water.

We're off now with friends to a spaghetti supper fundraiser for Cops For Cancer- a bicycle tour of the lower mainland and Vancouver Island to raise money for kids with cancer.

This weekend

Okay this isn't us and it's not our boat but we were out in rough seas yesterday-racing with the yacht club. What were we thinking?

We had our trusty instructor on board hollering at us because everything has to be steered/tightened/loosened/adjusted IMMEDIATELY.

We practiced about 10 starts, just following instructions-not having a clue about strategy. I looked back at one point and one of the other boats was flying across behind us,about a foot off our stern-in an attempt to take the wind out of our sails.

......and they were laughing!!!

Yes, we had water coming up over the bow, and over the sides when we heeled, and yes, I had to go out on the bow and pull the sails down.

Today we stayed on dry land (well, not quite dry -a bit soggy)and took part in the Terry Fox run.

The wind is howling now- no sailing today...

September

Fall comes to Powell River

The leaves don't turn colours here, so we can be envious of you guys in Ontario. I suppose because there isn't any frost. They just seem to turn brown, dry up, and fall off.

Today is a blustery windy day, and I took these pictures north of Willingdon Beach

looking towards the Hulks.

Rain is on the way.

Roses again

Linda was asking about my flowers. After a month or so of doing nothing, the roses have all started blooming again. This time I'm bringing them in to enjoy.

This one is called "Double Delight'.

It should be Triple Delight since it's cream, pink AND fragrant.

All of these blooms are on 1 stem.

Harwood Island-Sept 3/2006

Today was another in a long stretch of beautiful days. Nary a breeze, about 26 degrees and the area is dry to a point of being a problem.

The big news out here is the water shortage in Tofino.

We talked to a friend who has been logging up the lake and they've been pulled out because of the extreme fire hazard.

We aren't seeing smoke from the Washington state fires but I guess the lower mainland and the Okanagan are bad.

Anyway we chose today to circumnavigate Harwood Island. Remember I said no breeze?

Well our little 9.9 motor just toodled right along lickety split.

Lots of sailboats out there but not many sailing.

Sailing without sails is called 'cruising'.

Harwood is an island across from the mill. It's owned by the Sliammon nation, and

no one lives on it because apparently it's haunted and likely to tip over.

It doesn't look like it's imminent, but what do I know?

Anyway off we went and it took about 2.5 hours. We expected it to be windy and rough out in Georgia Strait but it wasn't.

Our new GPS is such fun-thanks, kids......

Water traffic was light today but I think it will be busy tomorrow with all the Vancouver and U.S. people heading south.

Our next adventure involves going up to Lund for lunch someday. Boats are chock-a-block up there in the summer so we'll wait until everyone goes home.

We are considering getting a little fibreglass dingy to tow behind the boat so we can anchor and go ashore. Right now we have a blow-up boat which is only adequate.

Try and picture climbing down a ladder at the back of the sailboat and stepping into a wiggly dingy without a solid floor or seats-not fun in the harbour-what would it be like in a storm, on the rocks, carrying a dog?????

BTW, you guys would be amazed at how good Ken is getting at inning and outing from the harbour.

Smooth as silk.....
Bailey spreads out on the couch in the boat as if she's been there all her life.