Walsh Cove and Back Down to Garden Bay
Day 5, Wednesday, Aug 8
Our planned departure time was 10:00am, again at slack tide. One night at Dent is not enough. It really is just a little slice of
heaven. On the task list before
heading out was water, ice, beer and fixing the generator. The first three were
easy, the last item took a little more work. First the boys checked to see if the raw water intake needed
to be primed. That failed, so our
friend Jamie suggested it may be an impeller problem. This did not hinder the guys from continuing to go down the
priming route. After futilely
flushing tens of gallons of precious fresh spring water into the ocean, they
were finally convinced it was indeed an impeller issue. Jamie walked the guys through the
simple steps of removing the faulty impeller and installing the new one. It was yet another lesson in boating fun.
We pulled away from dock as scheduled and made our way back down through
Gillard Passage, down Calm Channel, then through Pryce Channel down to
Waddington Channel and into Walsh Cove to raft on to our friend’s boat. Walsh Cove is a beautiful little spot
with a couple of tiny islands to explore on and around.
After an easy arrival and tie on, we decided to drop our shrimp pot and
then Maggie and I would go explore the tiny islands. Our flotilla turned out to be five boats and several
dinghies in all with plenty of paddle boards, canoes, paddle canoes and kayaks
to be used.
On the menu tonight was grilled prime tenderloin steaks, shrimp wrapped
in prosciutto, sautéed corn and romaine salad. No sauces, etc., just a little salt and pepper. Excellent.
After dinner, be borrowed a raft mate’s tender that had an electric pot
puller to pull our shrimp pot. We
dropped the pot in about 250 feet of water…that’s a lot to pull up by
hand. Marcel was relieved at this as
I had already told him he was going to ‘get’ to pull up the pot. The pot did not see much time in the
water, but we were planning an early departure the next morning, so it had to
be pulled before dark tonight. Our
quick drop yielded only ten spot prawns, but we were happy not to be
skunked. We will have them as an
appetizer tomorrow night.
It was another fabulous day in the books. After a little movie watching, a little star gazing, it was
off to bed. Early morning for us
tomorrow as we start our trek back down to Vancouver.
Day 6, Thursday, August 9
I actually set my alarm this morning for a 7:00am wake-up targeting an
8:00am departure. We were up late
last night making it a more difficult wake-up. We tried to quietly slip away in the morning so as to not
disturb the rest of the cove, but the inevitable start of our engines and the
pulling up of our dinghy did create a bit of a ruckus. We were fortunate enough to fill our
water tank with water off of our friend’s boat and then we were off.
The captain requested a captain’s muffin, with bacon, for
breakfast. So, a lengthy bacon
frying session ensued as BLTs were on the spreadsheet for lunch today. Might as well get it all done in one
go.
Our route today was south through Waddington Channel, then leaving
Desolation Sound behind, hugging the eastern edge of the Strait of Georgia on
back down to Pender Harbour and finally anchoring in Garden Bay. It was a long day to get down here, but
we did so on fairly calm waters and blue skies.
After anchoring, we took the dinghy over to Madeira Park for a stop at
the market to get some ice cream, something green to eat and a refill on chips
and soda. I have been feeling a
serious lack of roughage, and will be making up for it tonight. For dinner we are having food processor
cut cheese burgers and grilled broccoli and the spot prawns we caught yesterday
as an appetizer.
I made the burgers at home and again, froze them for the trip. I used Costco beef short ribs and processed
them to a rough cut to form the patties.
I sautéed some sliced mushrooms to go with the burgers. Beecher’s Flagship cheddar, lettuce and
tomato rounded out our burgers for everyone but Chris, who opted for American
cheese stating it interfered less with the taste of the beef.
Stella made a quick attempt at fishing as we discovered an Eagle was out hunting for its babies and she was hoping to catch a fish for the eagle to bring back.
Tonight’s dinner discussion was how each of us would alter the boat to
better suit our likes. Chris
wanted a hard enclosure and rigid windshields in the cockpit area and solar and
wind generators. Marcel would like
a little more headroom as he has banged his head countless times on various
overhead surfaces. I’d like to
have everything bigger. Maggie
would like an even wider boat and redesign the interior salon area to include a
larger kitchen and an outside grill station and have solar panels to help power
the boat. Stella would like a
larger water tank as she could not fully grasp the concept that we are not
hooked up to a water line and a straight instead of a curved couch for better
lounging ability.
After dinner, we all got into the dinghy for an after dark cruise around
the harbour and then tucked ourselves into bed for a good sleep.
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