So, it's that time of year again

Yes, it's Tulip Time in the beautiful Skagit Valley and last weekend was prime! Grandson's Matthew and Simon were with us while the parents visited Sin City. The weather was great all weekend and we had a terrific time. It was truly deja vu for us -- past reminders of the times that Michael and Aaron spent summer weeks with us roaming around Martha's beach and the playground of Shelter Bay.


Once again our thoughts and plans turn to getting the boat prepped for our summer sojourn. I thought I'd start up the blog again to keep everyone up to date on where we are going and what we are doing.

I'm not quite sure where we are going but both of us have said we want to go to Hot Springs Cove so perhaps we'll find ourselves in the Barkley Sound area for a while.

More later,
Mom

Update --- the end of the boat trip!

I haven't posted for quite a while! Richard and I had a great tour of the Brother XII house in Nanaimo that was for sale. It was intriguing but an awful lot of work to restore it to it's former glory. We spent an unexpected overnight and day at the Nanaimo fisherman's dock as our raw water intake pump broke -- just as we left the dock. No damage to anything but a delay of 6 hours while we tracked down a mechanic to refit a part to a spare that we had on-board.

On our way, we went to Butchart Gardens, grabbing an anchor buoy and touring the Gardens in the hot summer sun. It was in full bloom and a real treat to see again.

We went off to Fulford Harbour the next day and that is where the beginning of the end of our trip occurred. As we were walking into town to have lunch, I sprained my ankle quite badly, tearing ligaments and pulling tendons. Lot's of drama but the synopsis is that we headed home early the next day as my ankle continued to balloon and turn a range of red, blue, green, orange and yellow. It will soon be two weeks since it happened and I am just now off crutches for short distances. It does get better every day but has been a real frustration.

Our little grandson Matthew, had his open heart surgery postponed to Sept. 8th. Rich and I will be up in Canada for that week looking after the family. After Matthew gets out of the hospital in about a week, we will come home and bring brother Simon with us for a week so that Matthew can have a quite recovery time at home.

Hope you all enjoyed the boating blog!

Away Heriot Bay Quadra Island

Coming back to civilization is a bit of a shock. We docked at the Heriot Bay Hotel Marina, got our laundry done and had a scrumptous halibut and chip dinner. Next day we replenished the larder, visited the second hand store and Rich and Jack went off to the Indian Cultural Center. Donna made a terrific prime rib dinner and we said our goodbyes for the summer as they will now go off to Desolation to join up with other RCYC members and we will travel south.

We leave at 6:00 a.m. -- with a beautiful sunrise coming down from the heavens.

With a course dead straight south, we cruise 5 hours down to Hornby Island where beautiful Tribune Bay offers a wonderful sunny afternoon of relaxation. The white sandy beach is littered with kids, dogs, parents and all type of watercraft for having fun. It's great to hear kids voices again -- makes us miss our grandkids even more.



Reading and relaxing up on the Command Bridge

Skipper takes a rest too.....


And we end our day with a gorgeous sunset on the bay -- and almost a full moon. We will head off to Nanaimo tomorrow and then through the southern gulf islands once more.

Octopus Wandering - Again!

Richard, me, Pat Bernie inside the art shack at Octopus Island -- you gotta love Dad's yellow boots....

Gunkholing in the Octopus Islands -- Our boats are rafted ahead.

We found the memorial plaque to Joy and Al Rothstein -- they were RCYC members and friends of ours who died within six months of one another in their early 60's.


From the beach where the plaque is mounted in stone you can see our boats basking in the sun.

The Cabin at Octopus Island Marine Park

It's hard to pick only a few of the pieces to show everyone...

Here is a little Mermaid

Wilson and friend....

The Octopus greets us at the front door...

We hang our momento -- next time we'll spend a little more time creating ......

Adventures in Octopus Island Park

We spent a great (and hot!) afternoon and morning exploring in the tender. On our way across to the "Art Shack" we discovered some barely submerged rocks -- one of the many that are in the park but these have a 'blue' paint that is strongly similar to the bottom of Mya II..... Hummmmmm

Jack's rock.....


We disembark for a quick hike up to the "Art Cabin" in Octopus Island Marine Park

Here we are -- or at least Bernie and Richard -- a closer look inside follows. This is a private island in the park but the owners have made this older cabin available to hikers and boaters alike. Everyone creates an original piece of art with their name on it and hangs it in the cabin. We have found a piece of drift wood and leave Acappella's name there too....

On the Way Back Down

Our last stop in the Broughton's before we head back down south is the Lodge on Cordero Channel. It is owned by a German couple who also have a restaurant on the dock and serve up a fantastic German meal. The Schnitzel is out of this world.
The dock at Cordero Lodge


We are up and off by 10 am to make sure we have a smooth trip through the two Oskiollo Rapids and arrive at Octopus Island Marine Park -- a terrific spot, albeit crowded.

A few from the dinghy in the Octopus Island Group


The Bos'un Chair -- Will, do you remember doing this same thing?


Here we are all tucked in our corner of the Octopus Group.