One week left

The hardest part of this trip was turning left at the entrance of Juan de Fuca.  Next time I make no promises. :D  I am in Oak Bay now and will try to catch up on my writing but I make no promises.  Wind and Weather might steal me away

How to receive the news that the Coast Guard is looking for you.

I think that the only way to hear that the Coast Guard is looking for you and you are reported as an Overdue Vessel is while sipping a cup of tea while sitting in Hot Spings Cove.

On my trip down the coast I had a little run in with a bit of water and my interface with my little transponder died a very sad death.  I have never had as much trouble with electronics as on this trip. 

I also had a small problem with my main and so when I heard via text that I didn't have a guest for the long weekend. I went to sleep and then eventually back tracked a bit to Hot Springs Cove.

Having to hand sew dacron king of sucks.  It took me just over two days to finish restitching the seam that I blew off of Kayuit.  The other repair was having to switch out my anchor.  Of course I forgot to take a picture of that.

So instead here is a picture of the hot springs

Sailing without Radar

Or there is a very load horn sounding over there.

Blackfish Sound was very frustrating for me with the fog.  I didn't too much when there was no wind.  But sailing from Sunday Harbour there was wind.  When I got to Lizard Pt on Malcom Island I had good wind and a fog bank so solid I  couldn't justify sailing into.  There is something very unsettling about fog horns.  Ended up watching two cruise ships and the above tug and tow come out of that bank.

Sunsets

Smallest ferry

The ferry between Denman Island and Hornby is the smallest I have been on.  The run takes only 10 mins.  From the discussion at Phrog (yes I do remember that night) they are planning on replacing it with a cable ferry.

Ghost Pipe

 Something I found on Mayne Island and could figure out what it was.

 The following is from my friend Emily (it is good to have a botanist as a friend):

Monotropa uniflora, ghost pipe, corpse plant, or indian pipe.  COOL!  It's pretty interesting, and not very common!  A non-photosynthetic plant that doesn't have chlorophyll to give it the normal green color, it doesn't get energy from light like most green photosynthetic plants do.  Instead, it's a saprophyte - kind of like a parasite, but instead of living off of other living things (like a parasite) it lives off of dead things - rotting trees or other plants or animals.  More recent research hypothesizes that these plants have a symbiotic relationship with fungus.  Because it doesn't get it's energy from the sun, it can grown in deep forest.  Monotropa uniflora is in the Blueberry family, the Ericaceae, most of which have pendant (hanging) pale flowers.  Other pacific northwest saprophytic plants include more commonly seen Pterospora (pinedrops), also in the Ericaceae family, and Coralrhyza (coral roots), an orchid.

Posting on the west coast

I am not sure if I will have any Internet access so I am planning a few post and if I can cell coverage I will be sending small posts via text.