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Princess Louisa to Pender Harbor

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The trip to Pender was characterized by the same lovely scenery but with increasing head winds and opposing current. Unfortunately, where the winds were building from behind us on our way up through here to Princess Louisa Inlet. Now they were building head winds as we were going back. Normally we would have started earlier in the day so that we could have powered through the 44 miles while the winds were comparitively light. However we had to wait for near slack water at Malibu Rapids before beginning the trip. We just had to suck it up with these winds. In addition to the wind being against us, the current was also not in our favor. It just wasn't the best cruising day for the Fogelquists. I played the edges of the inlet looking for back eddies in the current and some relief from the head wind. Sometimes it worked out but other times it did not.

All in all, the day wasn't very eventful. After motoring along with Tom'n'Judy and taking pictures, we diverted away from them when we made a course change to follow the inlet. They stayed more or less on the same course valiantly trying to sail. We could see them getting smaller and smaller as we bore away. Actually the same thing happened to us later in the day when WE were the ones who were trying to sail and they were motoring. They almost caught back up to us. Anyway... we just motored and motored and I watched our VMG (Velocity Made Good) go lower and lower as the current built up. The increasing wind was also a problem. But after going through Queens Reach, Princess Royal Reach and Prince of Wales Reach, the wind finally clocked around enough to where we could put up some sails and go more or less in the direction we wanted. We sailed most of the way down Agamemnon Inlet and the rest of the way to Pender Harbor. We were extremely close hauled but damn it! I was going to do some sailing if it was even remotely possible. Anyway, Tom'n'Judy almost caught us as we entered the Harbor. But we didn't see them until they walked up to us on the Government Dock. I had just done a pitiful job of docking and was feeling a bit contrite when they just walked up to us and said 'hi'. I was grateful that they hadn't seen my landing. It was a fun surprise to see them.

Now that we were in Pender Harbor again, we could do some laundry, go grocery shopping and yes... take a shower. We had a shower on the boat but it seemed like I was the only one who dared to use it. But here they had great showers. I think they were pretty expensive though... something like a Looney per minute. If I remember correctly, a Looney is a Canadian Dollar. A Canadian dollar isn't quite the same as a U.S. dollar but it's close so these were indeed expensive.

The Government Dock was great! Easy walking distance to everything we needed and it was pretty quiet. The Sportsman's Dock (our first night in Pender Harbor) was a bit more rickety and it was hard to get to anything that you might need by walking. We ended up taking the dinghy. Fortunately we didn't have to do any provisioning during our first stay at Pender Harbor. But if you're ever in the neighborhood, use the Government Dock.

It was still mosquito country so that night Jack slept in the boat instead of in the cockpit. Dealing with the mosquitos was getting to be an evening routine. Around the time the sun would set, we would go into "lock down". Usually we'd be playing Spades at the time. Someone would see the first mosquito, and then between hands, we'd frantically go around closing everything. After that, we'd try to kill as many of the little blood suckers as we could on the inside of the boat so we'd be safe during the night. Almost always we'd miss one or two which led to some post lights-out mosquito chasing as we'd hear the buzzing and try to take em out. But except for being cooped up in the boat, it was kinda fun.

The next morning we went on this major grocery buying expedition at the local market for a final restock before the Gulf Islands. We also picked up some more beer, Bailey's and wine. We were on vacation... we could check into AA later. Oh and we got to lay in way too many of all these fun Canadian cookies that no one had seen before too... Hey.. like I said, we're on vacation!

A massive granite outcropping		Jack taking a leak while his dad trys to capture the moment
Long trip back... I liked it when the boys would fall asleep in the cockpit. It was oddly comforting.		This boat just smoked by us. I thought we were in a hurry...
You can see the headwind in this picture. It's over 12 knots here		These mountains were awesome. You can see them all the way over in Washington
		Near the entrance to Agamemnon Inlet. That would be the Jervis Inlet entrance on the right.
See we did have our sails up. And we weren't even having to point as high as we could		Agamemnon straight ahead
Jack driving the boat with the sails up. Not sure if he's ever done this before. It's good thing I gave him some sailing lessons before leaving California		One of the many BC Ferries. It always seemed like an event when one of them passed by. I guess that's why I took so many pictures of them
The entrance to Pender Harbor		Donna helping me find the harbor entrance marks

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