I love doughnuts

I have a big anchor (I bet you say that to all the ladies)...for real, I have a big anchor (that's what she said)...I'm serious, I have a big anchor (I could keep going but that's probably enough). It's a big anchor. It looks like a set of horns hanging off our boat kind of like an old Cadillac with the bull horns on the front. I've been told by some men that they have anchor envy. I've been told by others that it's too big. I think it's just right. I call it a sleeping pill (I can't take credit for that term...I've heard it said by a guy with a bigger anchor than mine...say it ain’t so!). It's been called a sleeping pill because when it's down on the bottom it sticks like glue and I can sleep through anything mother nature sends our way...which means I don't have to worry about it dragging in a big blow and us ending up on the rocks.

I am telling you this because it has been windy since we left the San Juan Islands a few weeks ago. I don't know how many of you reading this have slept on a sailboat while it is anchored but it can be a great experience. It can also be the worst night of your life. I have now lived on a sailboat for more years than I have lived on land, which means that I have spent a lot of nights on a boat. I can tell you with pretty good accuracy how windy it is by the hum of wind through the rigging. I can tell you how hard it is raining by the pitter-patter on the cabin top. I can tell you how scared I get when lightning flashes through the windows (the only times I've been really scared on a sailboat are in lightning storms...I never seems like a good idea to sleep with a 65 foot tall metal pole only a few feet from your head while lightening is striking nearby). Anyway, for the last few weeks, other than our stop in Princess Louisa Inlet, we have had some pretty tough nights. Mostly wind and noise, but it makes it tough to sleep when I can tell by the hum of the rigging that its blowing 20 knots and I have seen a few other boats nearby have their anchors drag and almost end up on the rocks.

Because of all this wind and noise, we haven't really been sleeping very well. But you have a “sleeping pill” you say. Well, I do have a sleeping pill but I am still a light sleeper and every big gust of wind, or yell by a nearby boater who's anchor is dragging, or noise that doesn't sound just right keeps me up. It may be because everything we now own is riding in this boat. It may be because as my Mom would say, “we have precious cargo on-board” (the precious cargo being Brenda and myself). Or it may be because I am just a light sleeper. Since I haven't really been sleeping very well, I tell Brenda that I would love a nice and peaceful night tied to a dock. “Great” she says. It's a lot easier to go for a walk when you don't have to take the dinghy to shore so she is excited...and it will make it a whole lot easier to stock up on the groceries that we need.

We are anchored at the Harmony Islands at this point and Powell River is the nearest place with a dock and stores so we decide to go there. We actually had a perfectly calm night at the Harmony Islands but it was melt your face off hot, and where we anchored was on a solid rock shelf so every time the boat shifted, the anchor chain would scrape on the rock and send an ungodly noise reverberating through the boat...so neither of us slept. We were ready for an easy night.

Off to Powell River we go. We head out and it's flat calm. We checked the weather and it said light wind in the morning and 25-35 knots late in the afternoon. We are pretty sure we will make it to Powell River before the late afternoon and we are sort of in a daze from the lack of sleep so we don't really bother to prepare the boat for the trip. Flat calm. We are heading out of Jervis Inlet and into the Malaspina Strait and see a couple of boats duck in and basically park behind an island. We both think it's strange and can't figure out what these boats are doing. It's flat calm but the people look haggard...like they just got in a fight with a bear and lost. Interesting. Still in a daze, we wave at the weary crew and we make the turn into the Strait...and the wind is howling. The seas have a 4 to 5 foot chop that is coming from every which direction. Way worse than the storm we had crossing the Strait of Georgia. Now we know why these boats ducked in and looked like they lost a fight...because they did. The wind is blowing 25 and gusting to the low 30's, which really wasn't too terrible, it's the waves that are beating us up. Really like being in an industrial sized washing machine. No rime or reason for the direction of the waves so we get tossed around quite a bit. Since we didn't really prepare the boat, we scramble to strap things down and put away. Once we get the boat settled, we hunker down and ride it for the few hours it takes us to get to Powell River.

The marinas in Canada are quite a bit different than the marinas in the States. Up here, they are much smaller and tighter and you have to parallel park your boat. I can hardly parallel park a Volkswagen Bug when I have a whole city block to myself so imagine the look on my face when the marina says that I need to parallel park my 42 foot boat in a 43 foot spot. To make matters worse, the marina tells me that I actually need to do this backwards. “Whhhhuuuuut?” You know...backwards. “What the whuuuut?” Instead of driving into your spot like a normal human being, you need to pull into the marina, turn your boat around, and then parallel park so you are backwards in the parking spot. “Whaaaaat the double what?” Ok. They're in charge.

We pull into the marina and this place is tight. I'm talking get a shoe horn to fit my boat in here tight. Now I have to do a doughnut in the space of a doughnut hole and then parallel park backwards. Great. I love a good doughnut so I crank the wheel over and give it all she's got, just like it was a rental car, then slam it in reverse and give it all she's got again (we have a good friend who claims this maneuver is called a cookie...I am sticking by the claim that it is a doughnut). All of this is happening with 30 knots of wind on our side and a whole lot of other boaters standing by who have the same look on their face as I do from the backwards parallel parking. I think I'm looking pretty cool. Just as cool as when I practiced these maneuvers in my Mom's car when I was 16 in the high-school parking lot. “You can do it” I say to myself. It was just about as perfect as one could hope for, except that the huge steel post that holds the dock in place just happened to be right where we were supposed to backwards parallel park.

Back to the huge anchor that I have. This anchor sticks out about 2 feet from the front of our boat. 2 feet is just about 2 inches longer than the amount of space that my expert maneuver required. With all of the boaters cheering me on and me being 2 inches from perfect, a large “bang” noise occurs that was never in any of my practice maneuvers while in my Mom's car. Long story short (too late), I rammed the steel post with my massive anchor and now have a bent huge anchor. We did however make it into the dock relatively unscathed and now have a battle scar to show for it. Most of the other boaters were far enough away to not hear the “bang” and made their way over to congratulate us on our expert docking skills.

Unfortunately we didn't end up having a very peaceful night. 25-30 knots of wind on our side all night makes for a loud and bumpy night, even while tied to a dock...no sleep again.

The next day we take care of what we are really here for. Groceries. The marina has a free shuttle to the store but of course Brenda wants to walk. The store is only about a mile away but we have to go up what the locals call “cardiac hill”. 12 elderly boaters have apparently died while trying to climb the hill to the store. We have to do it 3 times to get all of the supplies we need. 

We end up staying at the marina one more night because it is still howling out and we are beat from cardiac hill. It ends up calming down around 10 and we finally get some good sleep. Hallelujah!!! We feel like real people again!

I've said it before and I'm going to say it again...Canadian's in general have been incredibly kind and friendly. We have had complete strangers offer us rides, dinner, even their cars...”take my truck anytime, the keys are in it” has been said more than once to us. Amazing.

We are now in Lund and are heading into Desolation Sound in the morning and we will most likely be out of touch for a handful of days. A new adventure awaits!