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CHAPTER To Ketchikan, Metlakatla and Clover Bay To Partage, Hobart and Endicott To Funter, Tenakee and Saltery Bay To Still Bay, Ship Cove and El Capitan To Nichols and across Dixon Entrance Prince Rupert, Captians Cove and Ala Passage To Kwakume, Fury Cove and Blenden Harbour To Port McNeil, Neville and Gowlland To Henry Bay, Northwest Bay, Nanaimo and Pender Harbour
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CHAPTER ONE
Wow, what an invitation!! When the phone rang a couple weeks ago and cousin Marg Lewis' husband, Dave, extended us the invitation to join them on their sail boat, "Maggie Lou" (a 37.5 ft. Hunter) to travel to
Alaska with them - we were flabberghasted to say the least!! This would be a new
adventure for us!! Power boating has been our style for many, many, years so this
was something we had to think about - for a few minutes, anyway!! Norm's first
response - "I don't think we would be able to do that" - but after a few pokes
in the ribs from "his Mary" he started to come around to a more positive
state of mind and replied that we would surely think about that. Well, when we
e-mailed him to the affirmative we soon received the reply - "Yahoo - Maggie
Lou"! We felt they were happy to have us come aboard! The next
couple weeks were filled with Dr. appointments, whipping the yard into shape,
getting proper clothing lined up, etc. We are quite used to this by now,
but on Sunday evening were still hurrying but finally ready to board ship in Nanaimo
Harbour with all our belongings and a good supply of groceries. The thought of
ever getting hungry can be quite frightful, right? We wanted to start out with our
share so between Marg. and I we had every available nook and cranny on the
boat filled with something or other. I wonder who will be the
cook?? We will share - so meals will never be boring?? So here
we were - our first night on the ship. Slept good in our queen-sized lovely bed and
Monday was a lovely sunny day. A good way to start off - but a comedy of errors on
the departure. You will never believe who got left behind?? Maybe I
shouldn't share this - kind of embarrassing, -but non-the-less it created a good
laugh. We had untied the ropes, pulled away from the dock, and then came Dave's
question - "where is Marg"??? After a check around the boat and not
to be found we remembered her saying she was going to run up and leave a box behind that
we wouldn't be needing. "Annie", their lovely little dog was also missing so we
assumed Marg. had decided to take her for her "little walk". Well, - now to
get this big boat back to a position where we could pick the two of them up (a very
crowded area and close to the rocks on the shore but Capt. Dave, an expert at such a
challenge, managed the fete with just slightly touching the corner of the dock on the side
of the boat leaving only a slight rub mark. Whew!! We discovered that Dave is
quite good humoured in such a situation. We soon saw Marg. with a very surprised
look on her face as she came running down to the end of the dock wondering whatever was
going on??? Wow, she got there just in time - I don't think Dave was about to
spend too much time waiting!! After all he now had an able crew on board and ready
to go. Tee Hee!! Anyway we enjoyed the sunny day as we crossed Georgia
Stait on over to Lewis' house at Pender Harbour (part way we had the sails up otherwise we
used the "iron wind", a new term for us meaning the engine, as not enough wind
for the sails. Now it was their turn to get all their "stuff" down to the boat
and Dave was busy working on the water changer - which will be so great to be able to
change the salt water to fresh on the boat. No more skimping and worry about
running the fresh water tank dry before we are close enough to a place where we can
re-fill. Dave needed "parts" for the installation of the water maker so I
went along with Marg to Sechelt where we tried our hardest to find what we needed and it
turned out to be a lovely drive for me as I had n`ever travelled that part of the
Sunshine Coast by road before - and it was a beautiful, sunny day. How nice was
that?? Second night we spent on board at their dock - after having packed a
multitude of things to the boat from "their house" now, and tried to leave
things presentable (you know just in case someone breaks in while we are away we
didn't want to leave things in a mess), anyway, we departured on Tues. morning at 7am.
Sailed some and then motored and arrived at Campbell
Wed., May 16. Up at 5:30 am (well most of us anyway, guess who likes to sleep in a bit?). Had to wait for slack tide at Campbell River and had an easy passage through Seymour Inlet and anchored at Otter Cove for the night. Watched a black bear on the beach next morning and motored to Port Harvey and anchored. I caught a sole jigging and we put it in the crab trap for bait and caught two "nice" crab which made four delicious sandwiches for our lunch!! "This is the life" - and we are just "starting" our coastal experience. Saturday at Port Hardy we did some laundry, phone calls, read and on Sunday went to Church - friendly congregation and good service. Good to see Marian and Peter Matilpi. Sunny day. I tried to catch something to put in the crab traps from off the dock, but failed. Luckily I got into conversation with a couple crew members (Dave Lascota from Cedar for one) off a big halibut boat tied up nearby and they gave us some octupus pieces from their freezer. Nice!! We bought a bbq chicken from Overwaitee and a berry pie and ice-cream for dessert, which we shared with Carol and Dean, so had a nice Sunday dinner!! We are waiting for a good weather forcast to cross Queen Charlotte Sound.
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