24. July 2011 - Sunset over Conover Cove

Last evening on Wallace Island before returning to Maple Bay....

18-24 July 2011 Conover Cove Images

Millennium Dragon at her host dock in Conover Cove, Wallace Island.

I Trimaran (home made brand) anchored in the shallow end of the cove. It had an English saddle on the foredeck, however, the horse to go with it was nowhere to be seen.

Rear patio of a beautiful Grand Banks trawler, with a small doggie patch made of Astro-turf, for use of Dizzy Lizzy, the boat dog. Quite a high tech affair, this little canine comfort station: a fibreglass pan, a square of artificial grass, a drain leading into the boats scuppers....all ready for doggie's pleasure, and ready for owners daily hosing without having to take doggie toilet apart.

Queen of the Cove, this little girl always had the most captivating smile on her face....

The Meadows ashore. Today is is deserted, a day later about 30 people camped here. Most of them belonged to a four family Canoe party, with about nine babies in diapers and toddlers in tow. One must be VERY keen on camping to face the complicated cooking, washing, sleeping, accommodation and water arrangements, where most of the explorers are barely of walking age.

Wallace Island map...only a couple of acres are private, owned by the descendants of Mr. Conover, who ran a resort here in the Forties - even Marilyn Monroe visited it - once.

The rest of the island belongs to Parks BC and is absolutely unspoilt - walks along the length of the island, cozy small coves, tall trees, fallow deer, owls, giant woodpeckers, mink, eagles (who eat the mink), blue jays, purple martins....and what is left of the raccoon population.

Parks BC staff taking construction materials ashore. Four large 200 lbs concrete slabs, and a huge aluminum container - ingredients for a food cache. Raccoons eat campers out of house and home, not even stopping short of life jackets and other garments with a trace of food odor. Now, the public strongbox will curtail the robbery of at least the food and potato chip supply.

The 'Office'. After a ten minute walk along the ridge of the island towards the south, where a vast vista spreads out for miles, one reaches 'the office'. The only location on the island, where cell phone reception shows 'four bars'; everywhere else one is presented with the 'no service' indicator.

Daddy collecting his kids and three dogs, the one on the right being grandma - the senior citizen dog, to take the dinghy shuttle back to his anchored boat.

The raccoon proof food cache - made for grizzly sized raccoons.

The old Conover residence, dating back to their pioneer days. Today I had the chance to cast a short glimpse inside.

Donations collected from park visitors over a long time finally sufficed to buy some materials to restore the old relic. A volunteer hailing from San Diego of all places, arrived today to complete the Restoration work: replace a rotten porch, paint, cover the old windows with Plexiglas...

The Conovers must have been extremely hardy people, as the creature comforts certainly were scarce during their term of residence here.

The sun room of the Conover residence, usually covered with sheets of ply wood. The view is spectacular, which compensated somewhat for the lack of running water, electricity, communication.

One of the volunteers painting window frames of the Conover house.

Finally a little bit of summer, which made the week on Wallace Island sheer enjoyment....

17 July 2011 - Weedy Heads...

Things that plug up marine toilets...marine flora in abundance makes it's way into pipes and settles in a clump in front of critical valves. One takes it all apart, uses a long thin bent wire, fishes out the little plants fron narrow hoses, blows a little air with a dinghy pump through the water hose, listens to the bubbles emerging into the ocean deep under the hull, pours a little bleach into the open hose, re-assembles the whole thing, and hopes for the best.

I left Montague for Wallace Island, enjoying perfect sunshine for a change, and docked a couple of hours later at Conover Cove.

Now for the head test. Ah, what wonderful gushing sound! Water was certainly travelling through the hose - judging by the profuse leak near the hose connection. The infallible mirror-test (in a tight space one uses a mirror like a dentist) showed, that the pump casing had cracked in the effort of removing the hose. Nothing much to do until I could buy a new pump back on land a week hence.
However, not a problem. Conover Cove is 'civilized' and has the tidiest and cleanest biffies at the and of the dock.
Pretty quiet in the Cove, not too many boats.
So far only one 'almost grounding'. The owner was absent.
Another boater and I combined efforts, he lent an anchor to pull the sail boat of the rocks. After securing the boat, I went in search for the owner and his two little kids, I found him reading peacefully, sitting on a comfortable bench, with a great view of his boat. He had not noticed a thing - must be an absorbing book!
He grabbed book, kids and backpack and paddled back to his vessel to fix the situation. In the meanwhile, the young boys stayed ashore in mute shocked silence whilst their daddy was struggling with anchors, chains, shore lines etc. Daddy did not want outside assistance, and after almost loosing his whole anchor chain into the drink, he finally managed to get his boat safely re-anchored.
Boys joined daddy aboard.

BC Summer...

Oh what fun it is to ride in an umbrella covered water sleigh....

It must be the latest trend in dinghy fashion: colourful umbrellas as essential equipment.
Ceaseless rain instead of 'typical' West Coast summer weather, i.e. everlasting sunshine and hot days.
Boat traffic is down from previous summers, no wonder with this rain, fair weather sailors are staying home. The rest buys umbrellas....

Interlude between Marine Host Volunteering

Rainy morning and the kids go to play

Rainy Morning and the dogs need to pee...

Finished 10 days volunteering in Pirate's Cove as Marine Park Host for BC Parks. Those stories and pictures will come a little later, when I have REAL Internet connection.

Rain and more rain...and my marine toilet water intake has been plugged with bits of twigs. Back to flushing with a bucket full of sea water - what fun - until I can clear the valves and hoses, without sinking the boat.

No danger of that right now as my attempt at repairing the problem was frustrated by my inability to pry the hoses of their connections, and play 'plumber snake'. So all is still watertight and plugged of course.

Luckily , though, the business end of the head (toilet) is still functioning, which means that I do NOT have to join the dinghy flotilla carting dogs ashore to do their 'business'. There are park outhouses - just in case...

Not much fun for the canine owners, when it rains and their little dinghy outboard stops dead, as it happened to one unfortunate dog owner this morning.

Well, here is hoping for dryer weather, it would be nice to step ashore, restock the fridge, do the

Shaw Email thing, which does NOT work with all WiFi's (hence the delay in posting earlier blog drafts - still in limbo).

And then, the great decision: volunteer for another week with an hand flush toilet....or return to home dock and have a strong arm fix the offending hose assembly plug.

5 July 2011 - Pizza and View

The spacious new dock in Sturdies Bay - Galiano Inn

A long elegant pier connects the dock with Galiano Inn, with it's welcoming gardens and Pizza Gazebo

Galiano Garden Adornments

Summer daisies along the country road

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The Montague Harbour Marine Park plaque...

Summer wild flowers....

What would a stay in Montague be without a lunch of freshly baked pizza in the pleasant Gazebo of the Galiano Inn? The view of the expansive Georgia Strait backed by snow-capped mountain ranges, the partly English style wild garden mixed with cleanly cut lawns and inviting shade giving huge cedars, the elegant architecture of the pier and dock, are worth the rather 'festive' price of the admittedly delicious pizza. A place worthy of recommendation for boaters, who transit Active Pass - Galiano Inn is on the eastern entrance of the Pass in Sturdie's Bay. Truly an opportunity to enjoy a lunch or an overnight stay awaiting the turn of the current in the Pass or just 'taking it easy'.

5-14 July 2011 Pirate's Cove

Pirate's Cove entry reef. This is covered with water at high tide. Despite markers ashore and on the reef, boaters still try to cross it....

Pirate' Cove and a new statuette created by an unknown boater artist.

A few young entrepreneurs built a log house - with two rooms, a few tree stumps for seats inside, and a glorious view through the cracks in the log walls

Ok - the treasure is BURRIED here - somewhere...

Pirate's Chest in Pirate's Cove

And another bit the dust -at least until high tide re floated her...

Back on the Park Host dock first time this summer season. The 'Patio', as I call the dock, consists of a little floating concrete island in the middle of a mini Eden. The dock box contains an official uniform jacket, report books, brochures of every marine park in the Gulf Islands - except the one I am in - replenishment treasures from the dollar store for the 'Pirate's Chest' ashore, and two of the most uncomfortable folding stools ever designed for human posteriors. Happiness for the next ten days....
It is unusually quiet, with a much reduced visitor volume to the park...even on the weekend I counted only 20 boats, a fraction of the usual summer crowd.
That does not mean 'no groundings' in the somewhat tricky anchorage. So far, only one sailboat crewed by two merry making couples (the vino and cerveza were speedily being depleted aboard to lusty shouts and exuberant laughter) found itself teetering stern upward, bow down on the rocky slope of west shore at low tide. As it was calm, the happy and oblivious crew slept throw the whole thing. They floated off to their next destination after recovering sufficiently to figure out which end was the bow...
A young couple from Germany stopped over in their Russian design (faster to paddle) tandem Kayak, portable version, loaded with all their gear to cover all eventualities of a five week paddling Odyssey. They started in Haida Gwai, the islands previously known as Queen Charlottes, and had made their way down partly by ferry and partly by kayak. That is a hard trek in any boat - but a kayak??
The cove showed itself from it's most agreeable side, not plagued by anchor dragging winds, nor plastered by mood dampening rains, but blessed with summery pleasant temperatures, inviting visitors to cannonball from their top decks into the water, or taking dips into the invigorating waters from their stern ladders.
However, after one particularly cold night I dug out the Charlie Noble (chimney) and started a roaring blast in my cabin heater - the place was freezing!
The eagles are parenting an invisible brood somewhere, judging by their incessant twittering and hunting around, so close to the boat that one could almost count their tail feathers. The raccoons still ply the muddy shore at low tide, and the herons stalk amongst the oysters on the rocky ledges.
Life is good.

Mid July 2011 - Pirate's Cove Marine Life

My attempt at interior decorating - a few wild daisies and a smal twig of salal

And another on the center reef..., but lots of help to pull him off.

That's my identifyer...

Indefatigable children rowing around all day. Only when they turn into grown men arises the perceived need to propel one of those with several horsepower outboard engines.

Mango, the dog, in his fibreglass dinghy with friends and family.

There you go - the official title.

Kayakers preparing their swift craft for departure.

Cedar fence along south beach

Canine swimmer

Human swimmers

And another on centre reef, with Noah at the helm. And like, Noah, he finished up high on he mountain when the waters fell. Except this one did not send out any pidgeons to scout the place first.

After a few days of uneventful park hosting, things are starting to liven up a bit.

In a time span of one hour this very morning, one boat found itself anchored with 10 cm of room to spare under the keel - and the tide still falling.

Another boat, Galatea, skippered by someone looking like the twin brother to Noah, found itself straddling a reef - and the tide still falling.

A dinghy loaded with two hikers lost engine power (and carried no oars) half way across the cove, and luckily drifted into the swim ladder of another boat. Problem: a safety switch in the wrong position proved to be the easily fixed culprit in that case. New oars are on the shopping list for that one.

Another dinghy motored over to my park host dock, and the occupants advised me the 'someone had taken the toilet seat and lid' of one of the park outhouses.

The tide still falling - and it is cold outside....

Yesterday, another monster yacht aptly called Private Reserve, and looking like an expansive Private Resort flying the US flag, inched through the cove at sundown looking for a suitable place to park that giant limousine. All hand aboard, three handsomely attired men, manned the towering pulpit, remote steering control and anchor control in hand. A few anchoring attempts later, with the background music of expensive intermittend growls of powerful engines, they dropped the hook over a submerged rocky flat ledge. Well, at this time the tide was high, but.....come morning depth would drop by about ten feet, the ledge would no longer be submerged, but propping the yacht up quite nicely. Their dinghy (which would have been handy for scoping things out) was neatly packed away under a mountain of protectrive canvas, way up on the fourth floor of the vessel somewhere.

Anyway, David had to go visit Goliath....I untied my little dinghy, all 8 feet of old hypalon rubber and a couple of plastic oars, and rowed 'powerfully' to the other end of the cove where Private Reserve swung to her anchor. During my journey across the bay I passed the already anchored boats, from which I got a few questions and comments such as: 'Are you going to tell them they are sitting on a reef? We are looking forward to low tide entertainment...'etc etc.

I arrived at the plastic cliff rising above me, and called out to the skipper. George - he introduced himself. Pleasantries and welcome exchanged; he was here for the second time.

I pointed out the 'hidden surprise' to him, as well as the expected drop in water-level, and felt like a presumptious busybody, telling the captain of THIS magnificient vessel a couple of the few bits of local knowledge at my disposal. He graciously listened, was going to 'swing the boat around on it's anchor' to verify adequate depth during high tide' and 'and said he planned to leave at 08:00' - before things got messy.

I rowed my little toy all the way back across the cove (mercifully flat as a mirror and easy to row over) to my far end of the cove, which yielded another bunch of comments: are they going to stay there? When is low tide so we can watch the action....etc etc.

Well, he left at 06:00 the next morning - things must have gotten messier a couple of hours earlier than planned.

We had Mango the giant Labrador/Newfoundland dog in the cove....he had his own fibreglass dinghy, as the inflatable used by the kids, would have deflated pretty quick under the onslaught of his cougar sized claws.

During the day, the water seemed pleasantly warm enough, judging by the four legged and two legged swimmers paddling around.

I made a consession to interior decorating on Millennium Dragon, and gathered a few daisies and some salal to grace a little vase, which is suspended from the lower portion of the mast inside the cabin.

Well, off to work....

3. July 2011 From Tango to Tides...

Leaving Milongas and Practicas behind for a little while to throw myself from the arms of Milongueros into the lulling arms of Neptune.


First stop - as usual - Montague Harbour and all the conveniences that come with it.






Here she is, all shined up, spending the Long Weekend hanging off a buoy. The Marine Park rangers all welcomed Millennium Dragon back into the Park Host volunteer family. Although, here in Montague, I am just a guest, not a 'worker'.




Canada Day at the floating Nature House.


The weather has finally turned summery, and sunshine bathes the harbour and beaches, boats and people in a warm ambiance. But, there seems to be a smaller crowd, and a quieter crowd populating the camp ground and the harbour. No fire works, no loud yahooing, no screaming around and about with the dinghy motor at full throttle.


The campground is emptier as well, partly due to the fact that about 11 of the hillside/forest campsites are closed as of this season. Winter rains caused a small land slide, a geomorphist (??) was called upon to assess the slope stability, and the hillside campgrounds were declared off limits for human habitation.



However, the long white shell beach facing north towards an impsing vista of sea, islands and far away mountains is safe, and inviting. Logs are conveniently washed up all along the shore, serving as both, bar benches and foot rails. Parents take in the scene, kids dig in the tidal flats, and Labradors swim in the shallows, eagles swoop overhead...and the world is wonderful.

The kayaks come out and provide a viewing platform for violet coloured sea stars, scurrying crabs and schools of herring.

Low tide exposes long rocky reefs jutting out into the water, great for beachcombing and watching gooey ducks and other clams spurting small fountains of sea water into the air.

And the view goes on forever and ever....

At the Montague Marina, rental kayaks are awaiting intrepid paddlers for an afternoon cruise arond the cove.

The marina gift shop sells 'essentials'....these ones sure not to reproduce.

A profusion of summer blossoms make up for the delayed arrival of warm weather. Blackberries are only now in full bloom, so the sweet harvest for the wandering boater will be later than usual.

Another couple of days here in Montague, then heading somewhat more north to start my stint as Park Host in Pirate's Cove. No internet there, so blog updates will be spotty - at least until I am back in cyber friendly waters.