15 Aug 19

We were up early-ish to decide how the day was going to play out. “Massilia” decided to go to French Creek so John can check on the progress on his Qualicum Beach project. We decided to go straight to Jedidiah Island; “Massilia will join us tomorrow. We sailed off the anchorage at 10:45 and had a nice reach across the Strait of Georgia in a NW 5-15 wind, which held until we round Fegen Light at the north end of Lasqueti Island. At that point the wind got light and flukey, so we started the engine and motored the rest of the way to Deep Bay at the north end of Jedidiah Island, where we anchored with a line ashore at the head of the bay at 14:55. On the way in, I set the prawn trap in Bull Passage in about 100 m of water; no oysters just prawn bait and oil. After we got settled, we went for a short walk - 2 miles - on Jedidiah; it is such a lovely island. We spotted a new (to us) nest of ospreys close to the home place. Back to the boat in time for happy hour and dinner (shrimp and rice). As we were chatting after dinner, I leaned my head back for some reason and my prescription sunglasses fell off the back of my head bounced twice on the deck and went over the side and straight to the bottom in 30 feet of water, exactly at high tide; damn. Tomorrow, at low tide, I will attempt to find them in only 19 feet of water, without any real hope of success.  

49-30.295’N, 124-12.826’W; Log = 17.3, Sum (2019) = 830.7 N-m

16 Aug 19

The wind got up a bit during the night, so we got to listen to the chain rattling along the bottom all night long. After breakfast, I rowed out to check the prawn trap; 72 good sized ones this time, with only bait and prawn oil. I reset the trap in slightly shallower water with a couple of oysters in the trap as bait. After we boiled and tailed and peeled this lot, it was close enough to low water that I donned the shorty wetsuit and went looking for my sunglasses. Fortunately, I dropped a kellet weight yesterday immediately after dropping the glasses; it was about 4 feet away from where the glasses were found on the 3rd dive (hooray!!!), in about 12 feet of water. After a celebratory beer and lunch, we went for another walk on Jedidiah Island. “Massilia” showed up and rafted alongside at 16:00, while we were off walking. We got back in time for happy hour and dinner aboard (beef/lamb skewers), followed by a rousing game of Settlers of Catan.

17 Aug 19

It was cool and cloudy when we got up, but the wind was down. After breakfast, I rowed the Admirals ashore and then John and I rowed out to check on our respective prawn traps; I had 72 good-sized prawns and John had 42. We came back and boiled and tailed them immediately and were all cleaned up when the Admirals got back in time for a late lunch. I’m a little bit concerned about the house batteries; although the SOC was 82.6% and the CE was 95.4 A-hrs, the voltage was down to 11.8 V. So, SOC and CE are in line with historical records, but the voltage is way low for this SOC/CE level. I think the batteries are nearing the end of their life - sigh. In the afternoon, we all just lazed around the boat, reading, snoozing and doing boat chores; I got the mounting block for the rear-view mirror installed on the dinghy. Happy hour and dinner (chicken breasts and mixed vegetables). A bit of planning resulted in us deciding to head in the general direction of Vancouver tomorrow, while “Massilia” heads for Wallace I. tomorrow and then onto Canoe Cove on Monday. We will probably see them in Vancouver and hope to catch a presentation of Shakespeare’s “Coriolanus” at Bard on the Beach on Friday, if we can get tickets.

18 Aug 19

“Massilia” left at 07:30, to make their long run down to Wallace Island, so I got up then to help them get away. After breakfast, I spent some more time working on the battery assessment spreadsheet. After looking at the data available from the last two years, it appears that the house batteries are working as well as they were last year; maybe I’m just getting paranoid, but I will see about conducting a load test on them over the winter. Anyway, I started the generator to charge them up fully. We decided to just sit tight here in Deep Bay for another day or so, before we start to work our way down to Vancouver. Hopefully, the SE winds will play out and we can get a nice northwesterly to run down on, after the current low pressure system moves on or dissipates. I also spent a bit of time planning out this year’s extensive decommissioning and winter repairs campaign.