Sea Jay Goes North

Spent two nice days in Nanaimo.

We found a great store for charts (Nanaimo Maps and news on Church street phone number 250 754 2513). Just a short walk from the marina this shop has been selling charts for 60 years and the very nice fellow running it was a Catholic priest helping out the owner. He really knows the charts and we purchased (the roll was like carrying a log over your shoulder) many new charts for our venture to Hartley Bay and Grenville Channel in the Queen Charlottes region. After the chart acquisitions we headed to the Harbor Chandler Marine supply store on Esplanade Street. Said to be a 5 minute walk, 30 minutes later we arrived and it was worth the walk. I bought some fabulous number 8 X 1.1/4” flat head square drive screws; a couple of stainless quick connects for the tow line and a key chain float. It was heaven I tell ya. This is a very well stocked marine supply store for future reference

Doug and Gail Stewart joined later that afternoon and we had a wonderful gourmet dinner at the Coast Hotel. Before dinner we took the F16 around Newcastle island in 3 foot slop and the boat did fine but we did get a little damp and Dougie while sitting in the bow did get his bum soaked when we hit a large breaking wave.

After dinner the wind had died down considerably so the four of us took the F16 for a high speed (up to 55mph) run to Dodd narrows. The boat handles superbly with 4 adults on board. We then watched a new sales DVD on the f 16 and afterward noticed that we possibly had pulled the anchor a bit too close to shore so Doug and Gail untied from Sea Jay and found a cozy moorage on the dock on New Castle Island.

Today June 19 we will head towards Campbell River possibly stopping half way for the night.

Doug got a call from Nat Collier last night from Salt Spring Island just south of us and they may catch up with the beginning of the Codvill Armada today.

We plan to leave Nanaimo at 09:00 depending on the weather.



Arrived in Campbell River at 2:30 with good sea conditions all the way... Called ahead to arrange for an oil and filter change on the generator sets, a decal on the F 16 for registration number and Tender to Sea Jay and I had an electronics shop come by to see if they could make the sat phone work for incoming calls.

The sat phone guy was a big mistake!

He did something to the KVH sat TV and it went bizerk! Now it does not work at all and he did nothing to help the sat phone issue.

He did bring me a chip so the new Garmin 440S will work in the dinghy because I could not find the Garmin 555S card that I already had.

Now we must stay over on Monday to hopefully get the KVH reprogrammed on Monday morning.

I will demo the F 16 today to the Dave Gosnell who is in charge of Painters fishing lodge guide boats. They have 40 Boston Whalers at this location and he said the have 300 boats in their fishing fleet empire which includes 16 and 18 foot Boston Whaler guide boats. I talked to him a year ago about this project and he seemed interested. The demonstration to Painters Lodge went much better than expected. The manager of the fishing fleet Dave Gosnell (250-203-3430) was very impressed. The first thing he wanted to see is how the F16 handles in whirl pools and strong currents so he heard straight for Seymour Narrows. When we got there the large whirlpools were forming and the currant was beginning t run. He headed along the edge of them at first and was really amazed at how well F 16 held it heading with hardly any movement due to the strong current as he operated the boat he became excited and bolder with his maneuvers. The we headed back to Painters Lodge and I showed him the DVD as we were leaving he excitedly invited another guide t join us and we went out in the channel and Dave quickly found a large wake from a larger boat and he boldly crossed the wake at considerable speed while the other guide keep saying this is amazing. With three of us in the boat he achieved 52 mph with a big grin on his face. (Wowee this is fun).We could never do this in a Boston Whaler.

Dave took me back to April Point where we met and I told him we would like to work with them to build a guide boat based on the F 16 platform. He agreed that that would be a good idea so I told him OZ AKSAN would be in contact with him to work out the details.

This after noon we will leave Campbell River join the Colliers on Quadra Island on Hyascinthe Bay (about 10 miles from here) to dig for Clams Mussels and prawns.

The Stewarts will stay in CR to visit relatives.

On the way over I ran the engines up to 2 knots and sea Jay liked it. Then I slowed to avoid some debris and when we resumed speed the starboard engine would not make power and showed no boost pressure on the turbocharger. More problems with the mighty Cat engines.

Arrived Hyascinthe Bay late afternoon and rafted to Nat & Linda Collier who were moored at a fabulous private 10 acre waterfront estate. We went for a tour of the property which included a very large house two guest houses, a care taker house plus a caboose house built for the grand children. All buildings face the water which is a beautiful private bay surrounded by small islands, rich with clams and oysters.

The main house is hard to describe but included a huge kitchen complete with commercial Viking appliances and 12 foot vaulted ceiling throughout. The most outstanding feature was a very large wine cellar room with a dinning table large enough to easily seat 18. This is truly a wonderful setting.

Sunday June 21 Father Day

Happy Fathers Day to all you Dads and it is the longest day of the year.

We are up at the crack of 8 ready to dig clams and oysters.
We started digging at about 9:30 and it was awesome… all of the butter clams were restaurant size and there were mountains of oysters. We harvested a nice 2 gallon bucket of clams and the same in oysters.

We are now for sure not going to starve.

Then we went out and pulled the prawn pots bringing in a harvest of 4 large prawns. There is a commercial prawn boat working the area and he has picked it clean.

After the clam dig we went to Heriot Bay for Lunch and it was wonderful. It is just off of Rebecca Spit which is a wonderful anchorage and beautiful beach.

We cut loose and headed back to Campbell River and will stay the night hoping to get the Starboard engine turbo boost fixed tomorrow by the local Cat dealer Fining Canada.