Trying to clear ice off the wipers (for the third time) under an I-80 overpass.
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Blog catch-up
Sorry folks, the blog has fallen by the way-side the past couple of weeks while I prepared for the holidays. I threw a Christmas party at my home and I had a lot to do to get myself and the house ready. Nothing makes you finish up home improvement projects like inviting a bunch of people over--so I matted and framed eight photos from Europe and got them on the wall, had the fireplace chimney cleaned so I could have a nice cozy fire, cleaned the house and yards up and did the grocery shopping and food preparation for the party. The party was tons of fun, it was great to have some of my friends that hadn't met each other able to find out who these mysterious people are I have been talking about.
This weekend I did a little holiday party hopping myself and spent most of the weekend visiting with friends. Today I finally had a chance to clean up after my own party last week and pick up the leaf mess in the backyard. Here are some pics I took this weekend.
My crazy psychodelic blue house:
Crazy psychodelic blue Christmas tree:
And finally a temporarily clean backyard:
This weekend I did a little holiday party hopping myself and spent most of the weekend visiting with friends. Today I finally had a chance to clean up after my own party last week and pick up the leaf mess in the backyard. Here are some pics I took this weekend.
My crazy psychodelic blue house:
Crazy psychodelic blue Christmas tree:
And finally a temporarily clean backyard:
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
the holidays
The holidays are a busy time for everyone and surprisingly that is still true even though I am only working four days per week. Beyond the usual social calendar and trips to the gym I have a couple of winter projects going on at home. One simple housing project always involves five more associated projects, i.e. the Jeremy Clarkson "how hard can it be?" syndrome. For example, I am adding lighting above my kitchen cabinets to illuminate the soffit and while I'm at it I might as well add lighting under the cabinets to light up the countertops. So I need to make room for one switch on the wall--no problem, I will consolidate a separate ceiling fan and light switch into one multi-switch. But to do that I have to upgrade from the existing toggle-type switches to the newer flat paddle type switches. And while I'm buying switches I might as well add the nice dimmer switches now that I am converting to LED recessed lighting. Which means a new wall plate, which happens to be 5mm larger than the old one and requires removing, trimming, repainting and reinstalling the wall moulding to accomodate it. Wow, a simple project made not-so-simple; that's how I roll, apparently.
Among all of the not-done things I did manage to complete a few seasonal projects. Christmas lights and Christmas trees are pretty uncool items to have in February so I figured I might as well get moving on those. Christmas tree up and decorated, check. Christmas lights on house, check. I made a day of Christmas tree shopping with my friends Mike & Marin and Marin's sister Shannon and husband Dave and their children. We went to a tree farm near Placerville that lets you pick out your tree, cut it yourself, then you can hang out and drink hot apple cider and roast marshmallows around one of two firepits. We followed up with a stop at Z-Pie in Placerville and then home to get the tree situated. The tree is now up and decorated and the house smells great between the douglas fir tree smell and the fires I've been running in the fireplace.
Tonight I will pick up some 5x5, 8x10 and 11x17 photos I had printed of my trip to Europe. I already purchased frames and mats so there's another project to add to the list.
The Thanksgiving holiday was wonderful--great food, family and fun. Hope you all had a good one as well.
Among all of the not-done things I did manage to complete a few seasonal projects. Christmas lights and Christmas trees are pretty uncool items to have in February so I figured I might as well get moving on those. Christmas tree up and decorated, check. Christmas lights on house, check. I made a day of Christmas tree shopping with my friends Mike & Marin and Marin's sister Shannon and husband Dave and their children. We went to a tree farm near Placerville that lets you pick out your tree, cut it yourself, then you can hang out and drink hot apple cider and roast marshmallows around one of two firepits. We followed up with a stop at Z-Pie in Placerville and then home to get the tree situated. The tree is now up and decorated and the house smells great between the douglas fir tree smell and the fires I've been running in the fireplace.
Tonight I will pick up some 5x5, 8x10 and 11x17 photos I had printed of my trip to Europe. I already purchased frames and mats so there's another project to add to the list.
The Thanksgiving holiday was wonderful--great food, family and fun. Hope you all had a good one as well.
Friday, November 12, 2010
cash for.... ???
When life brings you lemons, make lemonade; and likewise, when the economy is in the toilet, take advantage of every stimulus package you can. (Without putting yourself in debt, of course.) I am taking some good friendly ribbing at work for it, so now I've made it my mission to take every one I can. It started with the controversial first time home buyer's tax rebate--I was on the fence about buying a house in declining economic times, and especially after taking a paycut while I was shopping for a home. That stimulus package ultimately gave me the confidence to pull the trigger.
Next was the 'cash for clunkers' program which I certainly would have used had I owned a clunker. You have read about my involvement in Roseville's 'cash for grass' program and that worked out super well for me. I spent just under $300 on plants from the UC Davis Arboretum, $50 on irrigation supplies and $150 on mulch, or around $500 total. The City wrote me a check for $445, covering nearly the entire cost. [Speaking of which--the City did their final inspection last week and they asked if they could come back next spring and photograph my yard (if the plants are still alive, LOL) and use my house in their marketing material--that made me happy.] I would not have initiated this project had it not been for the City program.
Yesterday I took advantage of the 'cash for appliances' program. I had been using an old 18 cu.ft. refrigerator that I bought used from the previous tenant of my east sac house. It was old, small, inefficient and noisy and looked silly in my kitchen. My countertops and cabinets left a hole 11" wider and 7" taller than my old fridge, so it looked like the equivalent of a smartcar parked in a Cadillac Brougham parking spot. I really liked the appearance and features of the Samsung models but I nearly blew a heart valve when I saw the multi-thousand dollar price tag of the counter-depth model refrigerators. I shopped around and found the exact Samsung model I wanted at Sears Outlet--it was new in box, but had a ding in the side that you can't even see. I paid one-half of retail price and it still carries the full warranty because it is new. Throw in another 5% off for the Sears card, plus both the State and City of Roseville energy efficiency rebates and I got a sweet new fridge for way less than the going-rate. I never thought I would be excited about a fridge, but I rather like this one. It's a french door style, full LED-lit interior and control panel, purified water and ice in the door and has a unique dual compressor arrangement (which is nearly silent, btw) so the freezer and refrigerator have completely separate systems. When you open a door and let the cool air out it only has to run one small compressor to cool that side rather than running one large compressor to make up for the lost air. And because the air circulation is separate, the smell of your chicken in the fridge can't pass into the freezer and make your ice taste like chicken. (I like chicken, but chicken-flavored ice is a bit much.) If you need appliances, check out Sears Outlet before you buy anywhere else.
There are two more programs coming up that I would like to be involved in. The Senate is expected to pass a new 'cash for caulkers' program that allows rebates for further energy efficiency upgrades. They will help pay for a tech to come to your house and use FLIR (forward looking infared) to scan your attic and walls for air leaks. I have always wanted to do this because simple and easy to repair air leaks around windows and in HVAC ducting can kill your home's energy efficiency. And next spring the City of Roseville will initiate a new water efficiency program. Their focus is changing out sprinkler heads for new technology that reduces leaks and malfunctions and new sprinkler timers that use a combination of an outside temperature probe and/or soil moisture meters to change irrigation water schedules based on the weather. I would love this since I take extended summertime trips and have to over-water the duration of my absence. The City of Roseville told me that due to this year's cool summer, people's water use was way down over past years. Then we saw three consecutive days over 100-degrees where water use ramped up by nearly 50%. The City staff told me that people never re-adjusted their sprinklers after that event, so water use stayed at those ultra-high levels through the remainder of the summer. The new sprinkler controller technology would prevent such waste.
Beyond the various incentive programs I've been finding that printable online coupons are becoming much more common. I'm talking about coupons for big stuff from places like Home Depot, Lowes, Pier1/World Market, Sears, etc. I'll throw some examples out there--yesterday I used both a sale ad and a 20% off coupon at Harbor Freight to buy a handtruck for moving the refrigerator. None of my friends owned one and U-haul wanted $12/day just to rent one. I paid $31 for a new one at HF. I've been using these coupons at Lowes and Home Depot as well, got nearly half-off on my TV (thanks to a co-worker) and a super deal on photo prints and frames thanks to an online link from my sister.
I know some people disagree with these various economic incentives. I'm going to be one-sided here because I can, but the first time home buyer's rebate likely saved my home from becoming another slum-lord rental house or worse-yet, a vacant bank-owned home waiting to be vandalized. The various energy and water efficiency rebates will reduce my carbon footprint as well as my water and fertilizer use. As energy use rises the utility companies have to make costly investments for new infrastructure, which always have environmental impacts and, as ratepayers, we have to pay for that infrastructure via higher utility rates. I read that if U.S. citizens were to reduce energy consumption by 1% per year, the U.S. could meet its current and future energy needs without building new facilities. These incentives also encourage spending, which helps pump money into the economy that otherwise wouldn't be there.
Next was the 'cash for clunkers' program which I certainly would have used had I owned a clunker. You have read about my involvement in Roseville's 'cash for grass' program and that worked out super well for me. I spent just under $300 on plants from the UC Davis Arboretum, $50 on irrigation supplies and $150 on mulch, or around $500 total. The City wrote me a check for $445, covering nearly the entire cost. [Speaking of which--the City did their final inspection last week and they asked if they could come back next spring and photograph my yard (if the plants are still alive, LOL) and use my house in their marketing material--that made me happy.] I would not have initiated this project had it not been for the City program.
Yesterday I took advantage of the 'cash for appliances' program. I had been using an old 18 cu.ft. refrigerator that I bought used from the previous tenant of my east sac house. It was old, small, inefficient and noisy and looked silly in my kitchen. My countertops and cabinets left a hole 11" wider and 7" taller than my old fridge, so it looked like the equivalent of a smartcar parked in a Cadillac Brougham parking spot. I really liked the appearance and features of the Samsung models but I nearly blew a heart valve when I saw the multi-thousand dollar price tag of the counter-depth model refrigerators. I shopped around and found the exact Samsung model I wanted at Sears Outlet--it was new in box, but had a ding in the side that you can't even see. I paid one-half of retail price and it still carries the full warranty because it is new. Throw in another 5% off for the Sears card, plus both the State and City of Roseville energy efficiency rebates and I got a sweet new fridge for way less than the going-rate. I never thought I would be excited about a fridge, but I rather like this one. It's a french door style, full LED-lit interior and control panel, purified water and ice in the door and has a unique dual compressor arrangement (which is nearly silent, btw) so the freezer and refrigerator have completely separate systems. When you open a door and let the cool air out it only has to run one small compressor to cool that side rather than running one large compressor to make up for the lost air. And because the air circulation is separate, the smell of your chicken in the fridge can't pass into the freezer and make your ice taste like chicken. (I like chicken, but chicken-flavored ice is a bit much.) If you need appliances, check out Sears Outlet before you buy anywhere else.
There are two more programs coming up that I would like to be involved in. The Senate is expected to pass a new 'cash for caulkers' program that allows rebates for further energy efficiency upgrades. They will help pay for a tech to come to your house and use FLIR (forward looking infared) to scan your attic and walls for air leaks. I have always wanted to do this because simple and easy to repair air leaks around windows and in HVAC ducting can kill your home's energy efficiency. And next spring the City of Roseville will initiate a new water efficiency program. Their focus is changing out sprinkler heads for new technology that reduces leaks and malfunctions and new sprinkler timers that use a combination of an outside temperature probe and/or soil moisture meters to change irrigation water schedules based on the weather. I would love this since I take extended summertime trips and have to over-water the duration of my absence. The City of Roseville told me that due to this year's cool summer, people's water use was way down over past years. Then we saw three consecutive days over 100-degrees where water use ramped up by nearly 50%. The City staff told me that people never re-adjusted their sprinklers after that event, so water use stayed at those ultra-high levels through the remainder of the summer. The new sprinkler controller technology would prevent such waste.
Beyond the various incentive programs I've been finding that printable online coupons are becoming much more common. I'm talking about coupons for big stuff from places like Home Depot, Lowes, Pier1/World Market, Sears, etc. I'll throw some examples out there--yesterday I used both a sale ad and a 20% off coupon at Harbor Freight to buy a handtruck for moving the refrigerator. None of my friends owned one and U-haul wanted $12/day just to rent one. I paid $31 for a new one at HF. I've been using these coupons at Lowes and Home Depot as well, got nearly half-off on my TV (thanks to a co-worker) and a super deal on photo prints and frames thanks to an online link from my sister.
I know some people disagree with these various economic incentives. I'm going to be one-sided here because I can, but the first time home buyer's rebate likely saved my home from becoming another slum-lord rental house or worse-yet, a vacant bank-owned home waiting to be vandalized. The various energy and water efficiency rebates will reduce my carbon footprint as well as my water and fertilizer use. As energy use rises the utility companies have to make costly investments for new infrastructure, which always have environmental impacts and, as ratepayers, we have to pay for that infrastructure via higher utility rates. I read that if U.S. citizens were to reduce energy consumption by 1% per year, the U.S. could meet its current and future energy needs without building new facilities. These incentives also encourage spending, which helps pump money into the economy that otherwise wouldn't be there.
Friday, October 22, 2010
done...now I can relax
My day started at 7:00am when a triple axle big rig showed up at my house (1 hour early, by the way) to deliver a massive load of shredded cedar bark/mulch. I planted the remaining 14 plants, now 30 total. My buddy Bill came over and engineered a cool water energy dissipator so all of the tile drain water from my backyard now filters through a subsurface gravel area rather than pouring over the top of my bark and putting muddy water on the sidewalk. The whole area was covered in bark and my yardage calculations came out exactly as hoped--I had enough leftover bark to fill every planter box in my front and backyards.
It doesn't look like much now--the plants are are horribly small but most of them grow to around 1-2 feet in height and 2-3 feet in diameter. I finished today right as the rain started, a perfect ending to a long, tiring project. Best of all, no more mowing that ridiculous slope!
I still have some work to do around the utility box in the foreground. Contrary to any photos you may have seen in the past, the grass that used to be in this location really didn't look very good--there was lots of clover, crabgrass and spotted spurge. If things go to plan then I will likely apply for this program again next year to convert the remainder of the sideyard grass to native vegetation.
It doesn't look like much now--the plants are are horribly small but most of them grow to around 1-2 feet in height and 2-3 feet in diameter. I finished today right as the rain started, a perfect ending to a long, tiring project. Best of all, no more mowing that ridiculous slope!
I still have some work to do around the utility box in the foreground. Contrary to any photos you may have seen in the past, the grass that used to be in this location really didn't look very good--there was lots of clover, crabgrass and spotted spurge. If things go to plan then I will likely apply for this program again next year to convert the remainder of the sideyard grass to native vegetation.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
There's no going back now...
I jumped both feet first into a huge project. As of last Friday I am participating in the City of Roseville's "Cash for Grass" program where I agreed to rip out 340 square feet of lawn and replace it with low water use native vegetation. I sort of forgot how many weekend commitments I have through the rest of October and November, thus I decided to take this week off work to get a jump on the project before we are hit with six days of rain starting this Saturday.
Last Friday I met with City staff at my home and they took measurements, photos and gave me a run-down of what they would like to see done. They pay $1 for each square foot of grass removed, so I expect I will be able to do this project for a minimal investment. I already had a pretty good idea what I wanted to do but the City staff were very helpful in providing ideas and left me some schwag like some native landscaping books, a really nice plant selection DVD, an adjustable hose nozzle/gun thingy and a soil moisture probe. I've had such pleasant dealings with the City and this experience was no exception.
My home is on a corner lot so I have a lot of grass to mow. There's a strip 10 feet wide and 120-feet long on the outside of my fence that is a real pain to mow. The slope raises six feet in height over 8 feet of horizontal distance, so you can imagine how high the suckage factor is for mowing. I like the slope though, it puts my house well above street level and gives a nice level of privacy in my backyard. The goal is to remove the grass so I don't have to mow it, fertilize and water it and ultimately I hope the native vegetation offers lower maintenance and a nice visual appearance.
I basically chose all UC Davis Arboretum "All Star" plants. These are 100 plants selected by people that know a whole lot more about plants than I will ever know and these plants are either native to California or grow like natives--in other words, they are selected for their hardiness, resistance to our high summer temperatures and our poor soils. I figure my chances of actually keeping these suckers alive for any length of time are much better if I go the All-Stars route. My Aunt is in town from Seattle and she accompanied me on Saturday to pick up a truckload of plants at the UCD Arboretum native plant sale. I had pre-selected the plants and drew up a proposed planting map so the decisions were made prior to the plant sale.
I am sitting here on the computer because a full day of tearing out grass really wore me out. It took two days to remove the old grass and I lined the bottom of the slope with about a half a ton of large river rock boulders. I am having to dig up the old sprinklers and separate irrigation zones and am converting a portion of the system to drip. This part is going slowly. I changed my plans and will start planting tomorrow and will deal with the irrigation later. The plants need to go in the ground now before we are hit with a week of rain.
So here's how it looked when I was half-done.
Tomorrow will be another hard day of digging and planting. Hopefully I'll have good news to share at the end of the week. If you get bored and feel like helping drop plants in the ground, you know where to find me!
Last Friday I met with City staff at my home and they took measurements, photos and gave me a run-down of what they would like to see done. They pay $1 for each square foot of grass removed, so I expect I will be able to do this project for a minimal investment. I already had a pretty good idea what I wanted to do but the City staff were very helpful in providing ideas and left me some schwag like some native landscaping books, a really nice plant selection DVD, an adjustable hose nozzle/gun thingy and a soil moisture probe. I've had such pleasant dealings with the City and this experience was no exception.
My home is on a corner lot so I have a lot of grass to mow. There's a strip 10 feet wide and 120-feet long on the outside of my fence that is a real pain to mow. The slope raises six feet in height over 8 feet of horizontal distance, so you can imagine how high the suckage factor is for mowing. I like the slope though, it puts my house well above street level and gives a nice level of privacy in my backyard. The goal is to remove the grass so I don't have to mow it, fertilize and water it and ultimately I hope the native vegetation offers lower maintenance and a nice visual appearance.
I basically chose all UC Davis Arboretum "All Star" plants. These are 100 plants selected by people that know a whole lot more about plants than I will ever know and these plants are either native to California or grow like natives--in other words, they are selected for their hardiness, resistance to our high summer temperatures and our poor soils. I figure my chances of actually keeping these suckers alive for any length of time are much better if I go the All-Stars route. My Aunt is in town from Seattle and she accompanied me on Saturday to pick up a truckload of plants at the UCD Arboretum native plant sale. I had pre-selected the plants and drew up a proposed planting map so the decisions were made prior to the plant sale.
I am sitting here on the computer because a full day of tearing out grass really wore me out. It took two days to remove the old grass and I lined the bottom of the slope with about a half a ton of large river rock boulders. I am having to dig up the old sprinklers and separate irrigation zones and am converting a portion of the system to drip. This part is going slowly. I changed my plans and will start planting tomorrow and will deal with the irrigation later. The plants need to go in the ground now before we are hit with a week of rain.
So here's how it looked when I was half-done.
Tomorrow will be another hard day of digging and planting. Hopefully I'll have good news to share at the end of the week. If you get bored and feel like helping drop plants in the ground, you know where to find me!
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
The economy and managing finances
I have always enjoyed managing money by moving savings around to the highest yield accounts and purchasing my own stocks and deciding where to invest extra income for retirement. The ‘extra income’ part of the equation isn’t what it used to be, partly due the costs of home ownership and my interest in trying to furnish, landscape and upgrade my first home, and partly because the governor’s office is still playing around with the state’s furlough program. And each time I feel like I am doing a pretty good job of managing it all I meet with my financial planner and my world is turned upside down. Tonight was one of those nights.
A good financial planner will look at all aspects of your financial life. They should evaluate your insurance policies for life, auto and home and make sure you are adequately covered. After all, how much sense does it make for a financial planner to make you money, only to lose it because you had inadequate insurance to cover some sort of accident? He made significant changes to all of my policies a couple of years ago, so no insurance changes this time-around. He is requiring that I photograph or video my possessions and store that media content somewhere other my own home. Three years ago when my home in East Sacramento was robbed, I struggled to determine what I owned and what might (or might not) have been taken. Photos would help jog your memory for filing insurance claims.
Apparently this combination of furlough pay, a full year’s worth of mortgage interest on my home and my contributions to tax-sheltered retirement programs means that by August of this year I had already completely paid my 2010 state and federal income tax obligations. He changed my withholdings to ‘Married’ with 15(!!) dependents and even with that I will still have a sizeable tax return this year. That’s cool, as long as I don’t have to produce 15 dependents. This will increase the size of my monthly income, balance my budget and allow more money to be invested each month. And he’s pretty dead-set on not letting the government collect interest on my tax money each year.
Retirement planning is where the largest and most surprising changes are being made. I have been contributing pretty heavy to a 401(k) since I was 24 years old and he is now recommending I cut that to 1/3 of my current contribution. Not only that but he has changed the deferrals to different asset classes (like a combination of international stocks, small/mid/large cap stocks, etc.) and moved entire balances from one fund to another. I tend to get lazy and let my retirement deferrals stay where they are while he evaluates the performance of each fund for current and future predicted performance and makes changes accordingly. (For you fellow state employees, he says our CalPERS retirement programs is “one of the best run pension programs on the planet.” And we get 2% at age 55 compared to the federal govt that pays only 1% at age 62!) He calculated that I am over-investing in tax-deferred retirement and I need to increase my contribution to post-tax retirement, as well as non-retirement investments.
Earlier this year my planner directed me write a really big check that I didn’t want to write for a Roth IRA and now he set up my account to auto-pay into this Roth each month. At least now I don’t have to write that ugly check each year. Finally, tonight he opened four new non-retirement mutual fund portfolios for me. Each one had a $1,000 minimum opening deposit (x4, OUCH, another big check I had to write!!!) and is allocating money I used to put into 401(k) into these non-retirement portfolios via automatic withdrawal from my checking account. These are all big changes for me. At first I wasn’t sure what to think as we sat down, opened new accounts and money starting pouring out of my savings like blood from a headwound, but the more I think about it, the more sense it makes. In the middle of 2008 I was making over $100 per month in bank interest alone. At today’s bank interest rate I make less than 1/10th that amount. It makes more sense to invest money at economic times like this (and buy many shares cheaply) than it does to make 0.4% interest in the bank. And unlike my retirement accounts, if a disaster occurred and I had already exhausted my savings account I can still cash-out non-retirement portfolios without penalties, unlike retirement accounts. I am excited about these new changes.
As I thought this all through, I realized this weird economy may have actually helped me. Sure, my income is reduced but it made me evaluate what I truly need and made me purge monthly expenditures that were unnecessary. It allowed me to accumulate retirement and stock shares at a very low price. But most of all it made me realize that I don’t need a large income to be happy. That said, I am certainly hopeful that the economy makes a turn for the better…I have cut everything left to cut and salary increases will be necessary to plan for my future. It’s difficult to justify paying for a financial planner at a time like this, however this might be the time when financial planning is most important.
A good financial planner will look at all aspects of your financial life. They should evaluate your insurance policies for life, auto and home and make sure you are adequately covered. After all, how much sense does it make for a financial planner to make you money, only to lose it because you had inadequate insurance to cover some sort of accident? He made significant changes to all of my policies a couple of years ago, so no insurance changes this time-around. He is requiring that I photograph or video my possessions and store that media content somewhere other my own home. Three years ago when my home in East Sacramento was robbed, I struggled to determine what I owned and what might (or might not) have been taken. Photos would help jog your memory for filing insurance claims.
Apparently this combination of furlough pay, a full year’s worth of mortgage interest on my home and my contributions to tax-sheltered retirement programs means that by August of this year I had already completely paid my 2010 state and federal income tax obligations. He changed my withholdings to ‘Married’ with 15(!!) dependents and even with that I will still have a sizeable tax return this year. That’s cool, as long as I don’t have to produce 15 dependents. This will increase the size of my monthly income, balance my budget and allow more money to be invested each month. And he’s pretty dead-set on not letting the government collect interest on my tax money each year.
Retirement planning is where the largest and most surprising changes are being made. I have been contributing pretty heavy to a 401(k) since I was 24 years old and he is now recommending I cut that to 1/3 of my current contribution. Not only that but he has changed the deferrals to different asset classes (like a combination of international stocks, small/mid/large cap stocks, etc.) and moved entire balances from one fund to another. I tend to get lazy and let my retirement deferrals stay where they are while he evaluates the performance of each fund for current and future predicted performance and makes changes accordingly. (For you fellow state employees, he says our CalPERS retirement programs is “one of the best run pension programs on the planet.” And we get 2% at age 55 compared to the federal govt that pays only 1% at age 62!) He calculated that I am over-investing in tax-deferred retirement and I need to increase my contribution to post-tax retirement, as well as non-retirement investments.
Earlier this year my planner directed me write a really big check that I didn’t want to write for a Roth IRA and now he set up my account to auto-pay into this Roth each month. At least now I don’t have to write that ugly check each year. Finally, tonight he opened four new non-retirement mutual fund portfolios for me. Each one had a $1,000 minimum opening deposit (x4, OUCH, another big check I had to write!!!) and is allocating money I used to put into 401(k) into these non-retirement portfolios via automatic withdrawal from my checking account. These are all big changes for me. At first I wasn’t sure what to think as we sat down, opened new accounts and money starting pouring out of my savings like blood from a headwound, but the more I think about it, the more sense it makes. In the middle of 2008 I was making over $100 per month in bank interest alone. At today’s bank interest rate I make less than 1/10th that amount. It makes more sense to invest money at economic times like this (and buy many shares cheaply) than it does to make 0.4% interest in the bank. And unlike my retirement accounts, if a disaster occurred and I had already exhausted my savings account I can still cash-out non-retirement portfolios without penalties, unlike retirement accounts. I am excited about these new changes.
As I thought this all through, I realized this weird economy may have actually helped me. Sure, my income is reduced but it made me evaluate what I truly need and made me purge monthly expenditures that were unnecessary. It allowed me to accumulate retirement and stock shares at a very low price. But most of all it made me realize that I don’t need a large income to be happy. That said, I am certainly hopeful that the economy makes a turn for the better…I have cut everything left to cut and salary increases will be necessary to plan for my future. It’s difficult to justify paying for a financial planner at a time like this, however this might be the time when financial planning is most important.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Happiness is...
- ...eating an entire chicken pot pie from Ikeda’s Produce and Bakery, effectively un-doing tonight’s gym workout.
- a soak in the hottub after said workout
- 3-day weekends
- a weekend visiting with family and some great social gatherings at friend's houses. I’ve been meeting some really fun new people lately and I always enjoy expanding my circle of friends.
- a nice river hike on a hot day with fun company
- a camping and 4wheeling trip with friends in beautiful country.
our camping spot:
the crowded parking lot:
the overlook: 
Friday, September 10, 2010
The Nikon is finally starting to pay me back
My quest for interior artwork has come up dry. After a year of searching I was unable to find anything that I liked AND could afford. Sure, I would love to have a Vicky Asp (local artist) vineyard tripytch on my wall, but it costs $2,850. And I found lots of stuff I could afford, but you will notice those were left behind like a bad habit. I finally came to the conclusion that some of my photos are good enough to hang on the wall, so I did it. Here's a canvas triptych that I had printed and is now hanging in my living room. Maybe it's the fact that I took the photo, maybe it simply reminds me of an amazing vacation with amazing friends and family, or maybe it's ugly as sin and I am afflicted with the "face only a mother could love" syndrome, but here it is:
The thing is pretty big at 64x32" plus the spacing between panels. It fills the space nicely between two windows and the yellow colors match another photo I have hanging above the fireplace. I like how the image wraps around the corners and provides dimension. I will be having more canvases made for other rooms of my house and a friend is blowing up my "Shoal Bay in the morning fog" photo posted a few weeks ago from my British Columbia trip to hang in her living room.
The 4Runner just turned 10 years old and just hit 100,000 miles, so it got a bath and a detail. I still like this truck as much as the day I bought it.
The thing is pretty big at 64x32" plus the spacing between panels. It fills the space nicely between two windows and the yellow colors match another photo I have hanging above the fireplace. I like how the image wraps around the corners and provides dimension. I will be having more canvases made for other rooms of my house and a friend is blowing up my "Shoal Bay in the morning fog" photo posted a few weeks ago from my British Columbia trip to hang in her living room.
The 4Runner just turned 10 years old and just hit 100,000 miles, so it got a bath and a detail. I still like this truck as much as the day I bought it.
Monday, September 6, 2010
Another week of mostly great stuff
This week offered a nice mix of fun and productivity. I'll start with the put-you-to-sleep content--up until now my backyard has been a malaise of dirt and poor choices made by the previous home owners. I spent the better part of a year tearing out a forest of trees, bushes and shrubs, all of which were in sad shape from a four month period where the house was vacant. Earlier this summer I installed a new sprinkler system in the backyard in preparation for a small 150 sqft lawn area. I am not a huge fan of grass but having a little bit in the backyard is nice. After my travels this summer I borrowed a friend's trailer and picked up a load of soil amendment and sod and got finished off another area of the backyard. So the sod is in, the sprinkler system works great and the hammock I brought home from Corsica is now hanging between the backyard redwood and maple trees. Later this year I hope to become involved in a City of Roseville program that will convert my corner lot sideyard from grass to native vegetation. This will cut my water and fertilizer use and the amount of time I spend mowing a sideyard that I do not use. The backyard is far from done but at least it shows signs of progress.
Now the bad. Friday one of my credit card transactions was declined. Turns out someone duplicated my credit card and is trying to use it in North Carolina. Thursday night they charged $3 worth of food on the card (it is typical to start with a small charge to make sure the card works, then move on to the big stuff), then early Friday morning I used my charge card to buy breakfast, then apparently 15 minutes later a $330 charge was requested at Game Stop in North Carolina. The credit card fraud department recognized that two charges thousands of miles apart in less than 15 minutes is suspicious so the card was locked down before they got anything major. I normally run all of my expenses through my credit card and then pay it off every month, so I have my work cut out for me in re-establishing autopayment for virtually everything with my new card.
Labor Day weekend I packed-in the activities. Two bbq's with friends, an overnight "camping" trip with my Dad, sister and Joe and two days of waterskiing on New Melones Lake. Our group had two legitimate tournament ski boats, a Ski Sanger and an MB Sports for you boat people, and it was a real treat to ski behind boats designed specifically for waterskiing.
Here's a not a very flattering picture of me getting up on the ski:
And of course having two ski boats meant we had to have a race. We won. :)
Considering what state I was in this time last year I was simply *elated* to get up on a slalom ski. Seriously, I don't think anything could have made me feel as great as I did at that moment.
Now the bad. Friday one of my credit card transactions was declined. Turns out someone duplicated my credit card and is trying to use it in North Carolina. Thursday night they charged $3 worth of food on the card (it is typical to start with a small charge to make sure the card works, then move on to the big stuff), then early Friday morning I used my charge card to buy breakfast, then apparently 15 minutes later a $330 charge was requested at Game Stop in North Carolina. The credit card fraud department recognized that two charges thousands of miles apart in less than 15 minutes is suspicious so the card was locked down before they got anything major. I normally run all of my expenses through my credit card and then pay it off every month, so I have my work cut out for me in re-establishing autopayment for virtually everything with my new card.
Labor Day weekend I packed-in the activities. Two bbq's with friends, an overnight "camping" trip with my Dad, sister and Joe and two days of waterskiing on New Melones Lake. Our group had two legitimate tournament ski boats, a Ski Sanger and an MB Sports for you boat people, and it was a real treat to ski behind boats designed specifically for waterskiing.
Here's a not a very flattering picture of me getting up on the ski:
And of course having two ski boats meant we had to have a race. We won. :)
Considering what state I was in this time last year I was simply *elated* to get up on a slalom ski. Seriously, I don't think anything could have made me feel as great as I did at that moment.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Pulled the plug on cable TV
I once made a claim that I wanted to be the last man on earth to 1) get a facebook account and 2) upgrade my 'big box' television. Sometimes life just doesn't work out the way you plan--I somehow ended up with a facebook account and I hear there's a guy in Botswana that still has not joined. Crazy man in Botswana-1; Ken-0.
Let's talk cable TV--I was paying $142/month for phone, internet and cable tv/dvr. Then Comcast reinstated my contract at the rate of $189 per month; this, I believe, is a prelude for their own destruction, particularly when a-la-carte internet TV is finally catching on. I responded by cutting the cord.
So what now? I bought a TV. I held-out long enough that four generations of television sets have been sold in the U.S. since my television rolled off the showroom floor. You know the type, a tiny 27" screen stuck inside a box the size of most cars sold in Europe. My friends brag about the size of their television screens; I, in turn, bragged about my television's girth.
The new one is an LED TV that is connected to the Internet (yes, the Internet that Al Gore invented). Local television channels (like "the Office") come in HD-format via a digital antenna. Free movies are coming from Youtube and Hulu with additional movies coming from a $8.99/month instant streaming Netflix account. All of the programming I was watching through Comcast is available from one or more of the above sources. No PC required, it is all available on a menu built into the TV. Depending on what programs you watch, this setup might not work for you, but it works for me and saves me a huge amount of money every month.
A few other things I like--the TV has USB ports that allows me to view photos, videos or listen to MP3s via flashdrive or external harddrive. (This is great when friends come over and want to share photos.) I can turn on a Yahoo widget bar at the bottom with stock quotes, weather, number of unread emails, etc. I can view my Picasa online photo albums, as well as albums shared by friends, use Skype and it even folds my laundry.
My $142 Comcast bill (renewed at $189/mo.), was replaced with a $42 Surewest Internet and phone bill and an $8.99 Netflix Instant Watch account. My old TV is up for grabs, I will let it go for 80 cents per pound. You carry.
Let's talk cable TV--I was paying $142/month for phone, internet and cable tv/dvr. Then Comcast reinstated my contract at the rate of $189 per month; this, I believe, is a prelude for their own destruction, particularly when a-la-carte internet TV is finally catching on. I responded by cutting the cord.
So what now? I bought a TV. I held-out long enough that four generations of television sets have been sold in the U.S. since my television rolled off the showroom floor. You know the type, a tiny 27" screen stuck inside a box the size of most cars sold in Europe. My friends brag about the size of their television screens; I, in turn, bragged about my television's girth.
The new one is an LED TV that is connected to the Internet (yes, the Internet that Al Gore invented). Local television channels (like "the Office") come in HD-format via a digital antenna. Free movies are coming from Youtube and Hulu with additional movies coming from a $8.99/month instant streaming Netflix account. All of the programming I was watching through Comcast is available from one or more of the above sources. No PC required, it is all available on a menu built into the TV. Depending on what programs you watch, this setup might not work for you, but it works for me and saves me a huge amount of money every month.
A few other things I like--the TV has USB ports that allows me to view photos, videos or listen to MP3s via flashdrive or external harddrive. (This is great when friends come over and want to share photos.) I can turn on a Yahoo widget bar at the bottom with stock quotes, weather, number of unread emails, etc. I can view my Picasa online photo albums, as well as albums shared by friends, use Skype and it even folds my laundry.
My $142 Comcast bill (renewed at $189/mo.), was replaced with a $42 Surewest Internet and phone bill and an $8.99 Netflix Instant Watch account. My old TV is up for grabs, I will let it go for 80 cents per pound. You carry.
Friday, August 20, 2010
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
B.C., kayaking and flight home
Thursday, Aug 12:
I might have waaay overslept this morning...enough so that the others had been out fishing for hours before I woke up. They had been out in the dinghy since 6:00 a.m. with no luck and when Trenton decided two or three hours later to drop his line in the water from the bow of the Sanddollar he immediately hooked a huge ling cod. The rest of us couldn’t believe the luck. They are not the cutest fish ever but they sure taste amazing.
The NOAA weather radio is still reporting gale force winds on the Johnstone Straits. My seaplane ride home is scheduled out of Nanaimo on Vancouver Island and we have to cross the Straits to get there. That’s two day’s travel and the way things are looking there is no way we will make it. In Tenedos Bay we are far from a working phone and there are no yachts with unlocked internet connections, so we are moving south toward Lund, B.C. where a few more services are available.
We arrived in Lund, refilled the fresh water supply and tied up to the dock outside of the small community. Lund, B.C. has the distinction of marking the beginning of U.S. Highway 1 which extends down to southern Chile. A “mile marker 0” display in town proudly displays this fact. There is a landline phone and internet here and I was successful in moving my Kenmore flight 75 miles to the northeast out of Bliss Landing. Following a nice little chat with the woman on the other end of the line they waived the $75 change fee since I apparently have “preferred status.” Not sure what that means but it’s probably better than being on the “no fly list.”
With the stress of missing two flights lifted off my shoulders we strolled into the bar and restaurant to catch up on email. They offered it to us for free so we decided we should order some drinks. Along with a couple of rounds of drinks some halibut fish and chips found their way in front of me. With all the above now consumed we checked out the store, some of the new restaurant offerings, the wharf and setup reservations for our kayak rental for the next couple of days.
It was a bit of a rough night on the boat that night. At anchor the boat naturally points its bow into the waves and you don’t notice the chop through the night. Being tied to a dock is a completely different story, with waves coming at the beam and the boat moving up and down against the dock, along with the noise of the other boats doing the same makes for a less peaceful night. I slept well, I just recall some of the motion more-so than other nights.
The Sanddollar tied to the dock in Lund:
Friday, Aug 13:
We picked up our rental kayaks this morning from probably the biggest pot smoker on earth. Ask the guy the simplest question and after a huge amount of thought he would reply in a tone of voice that was so mellow you’d be half asleep before he finished the sentence. We limited our questions to the bare essentials and got them down to the boat. It took 40 minutes or so to get the kayaks loaded on the boat, utilizing the davit (crane on the top of the boat) to winch them up and rope them down to the pilothouse. Our plan is to anchor in the middle of the Copeland Islands, affording us great views and a great homebase for day-paddling. We found an anchorage in 45 feet of water in a cove with a small island in front, which should block boat wakes from reaching us through the Thulin Passage. Because the cove is small there isn’t enough room for the boat to pivot around its anchor with the tide so we had to also stern-tie to some rocks behind us to lock the boat in place. By noon or so the kayaks were in the water and we were off for our adventure.
The Copeland Islands are a popular paddling destination. There are many small islands clustered together that offer constant changing scenery, there are coves and reliefs in the shoreline that you can paddle into and poke around (some going dry at slack tide, which is fun for clamming), the tides and currents are relatively low in this area compared to further north, the end of Highway 1 in Lund means this is as far north as you can go on Coastal B.C. without a boat or seaplane and there are kayak rental shops in town. We paddled around all of the islands north of the boat, leaving the southern stretch for the next day. We came back to the boat, did some swimming and had brazed lamb with lentils mixed with red peppers and onion for dinner.
Saturday, Aug 14:
We started my last day on the boat with breakfast and a paddle around the southern Copeland Islands, not quite getting to see all of them before heading back to the boat to pack. The last day on the boat is always a sad day for me. My Kenmore reservation is out of Bliss Landing, about a 10 minute dinghy ride north and the flight leaves at 1:30pm but they want me there by 1:00pm. I say my goodbyes and watch the Sanddollar slowly disappear as we motor away in the dinghy. Trenton and Uncle Raymond are waving from the pilothouse and I sort of chuckle at all of the kayaks and dinghies tied up to the Sanddollar. We make it to Bliss Landing about 40 minutes early and much to my surprise see the seaplane sitting there. I checked the paperwork to make sure I wasn’t late…we were in the bay now and subject to the 5 mph no wake zone, so it seemed to take forever to get there. The plane was completely opened up with no pilot present. That gave us a chance to take a few pictures before the pilot greeted us and started dealing with luggage and checking my passport information for customs clearance. The pilot tells me I can have any seat in the house so obviously I was excited to grab co-pilot seat. I have some weird fascination with all things mechanical, so it was a treat for me to sit there and watch the pilot move switches and levers, not to mention the great view I had out the front and sides of the plane.
The planes Kenmore flies, the De Havilland Beaver, are world famous for being the very best bushplanes ever made; production started in 1948. The Beaver was designed for flight in rugged and remote areas of the world. Its short takeoff and landing capability made it ideal for areas normally only accessible by canoe or foot and they can be equipped with skis or floats. Because they were designed to fly into remote locations, often in cold climates, its oil reservoir filler is located in the cockpit and oil can be filled in flight--this would be a nice feature in some of the cars I’ve rented. There is something about these planes and their history that I just love. Kenmore not only services and rebuilds their own aircraft, but they purchase every Beaver they can find, wrecked or not, and do custom restorations. They even mill some of their own parts that are no longer in production. They are also famous for extending the fuselage to accommodate two more passengers (up to eight from six) and they retrofit a jet turbine engine in place of the original Pratt and Whitney radial engines. The plane I am flying in today has the jet turbine conversion.
After a quick safety information pep-talk the pilot unlashes the mooring rope connecting the floats of the plane to the dock, spins up the turbine and we taxi out of the bay toward open water. The pilot rolls the throttle to full and we bounce along the surface of the water and into the air, the loud rush of the turbine making sealife scatter. We fly at 1,000 feet and put back down in the water at Refuge Cove—the little store I photographed earlier in the trip—to pick up one more person. Like me, she had been out with family cruising for a couple of weeks. We take off again and begin the 50 minute flight to Nanaimo, where I should have been departing had the weather been more cooperative. We fly over the Copeland Islands and I spot the Sanddollar at anchor, nestled between two other boats in the bay. All I can say is it’s breath-taking up here…the scenery just does not get better than this and I’m loving the flight. We pass over Savary Island, one of my favorite places in the world, Texada and Lasqueti Islands with the neat Bull Passage anchorage laying in-between and we land in the water in Nanaimo and de-board the plane so it can be refueled. I was talking to the guy refueling the plane and he said Kenmore’s bill just to top off the middle tank on the plane with JET-A fuel would be $400. He says Kenmore brings in six planes per day to that location and pumps around $4,000 per fuel just at that location alone. I’m not sure flying is the cheapest hobby a person can have.
From the air--the Sandollar (2nd boat from the right) at anchor in the Copeland Islands:
Savary Island:
We take off again with another hour left in the flight back to Seattle. We pass over Gabriola and Thetis Islands and I can spot the cool town of Ganges on Salt Spring Island out the pilot’s window. I can see the San Juan Islands in the distance so I know we will be back in the U.S. any minute now. After passing over Anacortes I can spot Puget Sound and the Seattle city line in the distance. We circle Lake Washington for our final approach and I spot the Space Needle and the impressive Mt. Rainier. Our low final approach afforded some great views of the Microsoft millionaire’s homes on the lake front and we set down on the water…the mass of boats in our landing path dispersing quickly when the pilot hit the landing strobes and feathered the prop to be as noisy and visible and let those below us know “you had better move!” I waited on the custom’s dock for my final inspection, reality now setting in that I’m back to work in two days.
Final approach, Lake Washington:
My family I left behind will be on the boat for another two weeks, spreading their time between Desolation Sound and the San Juan Islands. I will never take for granted the opportunities they have given me year after year—I recognize the uniqueness in being able to spend up to a month aboard a private boat, cruising remote islands and experiencing the local island culture that few people get to see, eating my Aunt’s absolutely amazing cooking and enjoying dinghy rides, kayaking and hiking with them, as well as late-night card games (Spite & Malice) while we sit in some of the most amazing country I have ever seen. To Aunt Christine and Uncle Raymond, thank you so much and I look forward to hearing about the second half of your trip!
I might have waaay overslept this morning...enough so that the others had been out fishing for hours before I woke up. They had been out in the dinghy since 6:00 a.m. with no luck and when Trenton decided two or three hours later to drop his line in the water from the bow of the Sanddollar he immediately hooked a huge ling cod. The rest of us couldn’t believe the luck. They are not the cutest fish ever but they sure taste amazing.
The NOAA weather radio is still reporting gale force winds on the Johnstone Straits. My seaplane ride home is scheduled out of Nanaimo on Vancouver Island and we have to cross the Straits to get there. That’s two day’s travel and the way things are looking there is no way we will make it. In Tenedos Bay we are far from a working phone and there are no yachts with unlocked internet connections, so we are moving south toward Lund, B.C. where a few more services are available.
We arrived in Lund, refilled the fresh water supply and tied up to the dock outside of the small community. Lund, B.C. has the distinction of marking the beginning of U.S. Highway 1 which extends down to southern Chile. A “mile marker 0” display in town proudly displays this fact. There is a landline phone and internet here and I was successful in moving my Kenmore flight 75 miles to the northeast out of Bliss Landing. Following a nice little chat with the woman on the other end of the line they waived the $75 change fee since I apparently have “preferred status.” Not sure what that means but it’s probably better than being on the “no fly list.”
With the stress of missing two flights lifted off my shoulders we strolled into the bar and restaurant to catch up on email. They offered it to us for free so we decided we should order some drinks. Along with a couple of rounds of drinks some halibut fish and chips found their way in front of me. With all the above now consumed we checked out the store, some of the new restaurant offerings, the wharf and setup reservations for our kayak rental for the next couple of days.
It was a bit of a rough night on the boat that night. At anchor the boat naturally points its bow into the waves and you don’t notice the chop through the night. Being tied to a dock is a completely different story, with waves coming at the beam and the boat moving up and down against the dock, along with the noise of the other boats doing the same makes for a less peaceful night. I slept well, I just recall some of the motion more-so than other nights.
The Sanddollar tied to the dock in Lund:
Friday, Aug 13:
We picked up our rental kayaks this morning from probably the biggest pot smoker on earth. Ask the guy the simplest question and after a huge amount of thought he would reply in a tone of voice that was so mellow you’d be half asleep before he finished the sentence. We limited our questions to the bare essentials and got them down to the boat. It took 40 minutes or so to get the kayaks loaded on the boat, utilizing the davit (crane on the top of the boat) to winch them up and rope them down to the pilothouse. Our plan is to anchor in the middle of the Copeland Islands, affording us great views and a great homebase for day-paddling. We found an anchorage in 45 feet of water in a cove with a small island in front, which should block boat wakes from reaching us through the Thulin Passage. Because the cove is small there isn’t enough room for the boat to pivot around its anchor with the tide so we had to also stern-tie to some rocks behind us to lock the boat in place. By noon or so the kayaks were in the water and we were off for our adventure.
The Copeland Islands are a popular paddling destination. There are many small islands clustered together that offer constant changing scenery, there are coves and reliefs in the shoreline that you can paddle into and poke around (some going dry at slack tide, which is fun for clamming), the tides and currents are relatively low in this area compared to further north, the end of Highway 1 in Lund means this is as far north as you can go on Coastal B.C. without a boat or seaplane and there are kayak rental shops in town. We paddled around all of the islands north of the boat, leaving the southern stretch for the next day. We came back to the boat, did some swimming and had brazed lamb with lentils mixed with red peppers and onion for dinner.
Saturday, Aug 14:
We started my last day on the boat with breakfast and a paddle around the southern Copeland Islands, not quite getting to see all of them before heading back to the boat to pack. The last day on the boat is always a sad day for me. My Kenmore reservation is out of Bliss Landing, about a 10 minute dinghy ride north and the flight leaves at 1:30pm but they want me there by 1:00pm. I say my goodbyes and watch the Sanddollar slowly disappear as we motor away in the dinghy. Trenton and Uncle Raymond are waving from the pilothouse and I sort of chuckle at all of the kayaks and dinghies tied up to the Sanddollar. We make it to Bliss Landing about 40 minutes early and much to my surprise see the seaplane sitting there. I checked the paperwork to make sure I wasn’t late…we were in the bay now and subject to the 5 mph no wake zone, so it seemed to take forever to get there. The plane was completely opened up with no pilot present. That gave us a chance to take a few pictures before the pilot greeted us and started dealing with luggage and checking my passport information for customs clearance. The pilot tells me I can have any seat in the house so obviously I was excited to grab co-pilot seat. I have some weird fascination with all things mechanical, so it was a treat for me to sit there and watch the pilot move switches and levers, not to mention the great view I had out the front and sides of the plane.
The planes Kenmore flies, the De Havilland Beaver, are world famous for being the very best bushplanes ever made; production started in 1948. The Beaver was designed for flight in rugged and remote areas of the world. Its short takeoff and landing capability made it ideal for areas normally only accessible by canoe or foot and they can be equipped with skis or floats. Because they were designed to fly into remote locations, often in cold climates, its oil reservoir filler is located in the cockpit and oil can be filled in flight--this would be a nice feature in some of the cars I’ve rented. There is something about these planes and their history that I just love. Kenmore not only services and rebuilds their own aircraft, but they purchase every Beaver they can find, wrecked or not, and do custom restorations. They even mill some of their own parts that are no longer in production. They are also famous for extending the fuselage to accommodate two more passengers (up to eight from six) and they retrofit a jet turbine engine in place of the original Pratt and Whitney radial engines. The plane I am flying in today has the jet turbine conversion.
After a quick safety information pep-talk the pilot unlashes the mooring rope connecting the floats of the plane to the dock, spins up the turbine and we taxi out of the bay toward open water. The pilot rolls the throttle to full and we bounce along the surface of the water and into the air, the loud rush of the turbine making sealife scatter. We fly at 1,000 feet and put back down in the water at Refuge Cove—the little store I photographed earlier in the trip—to pick up one more person. Like me, she had been out with family cruising for a couple of weeks. We take off again and begin the 50 minute flight to Nanaimo, where I should have been departing had the weather been more cooperative. We fly over the Copeland Islands and I spot the Sanddollar at anchor, nestled between two other boats in the bay. All I can say is it’s breath-taking up here…the scenery just does not get better than this and I’m loving the flight. We pass over Savary Island, one of my favorite places in the world, Texada and Lasqueti Islands with the neat Bull Passage anchorage laying in-between and we land in the water in Nanaimo and de-board the plane so it can be refueled. I was talking to the guy refueling the plane and he said Kenmore’s bill just to top off the middle tank on the plane with JET-A fuel would be $400. He says Kenmore brings in six planes per day to that location and pumps around $4,000 per fuel just at that location alone. I’m not sure flying is the cheapest hobby a person can have.
From the air--the Sandollar (2nd boat from the right) at anchor in the Copeland Islands:
Savary Island:
We take off again with another hour left in the flight back to Seattle. We pass over Gabriola and Thetis Islands and I can spot the cool town of Ganges on Salt Spring Island out the pilot’s window. I can see the San Juan Islands in the distance so I know we will be back in the U.S. any minute now. After passing over Anacortes I can spot Puget Sound and the Seattle city line in the distance. We circle Lake Washington for our final approach and I spot the Space Needle and the impressive Mt. Rainier. Our low final approach afforded some great views of the Microsoft millionaire’s homes on the lake front and we set down on the water…the mass of boats in our landing path dispersing quickly when the pilot hit the landing strobes and feathered the prop to be as noisy and visible and let those below us know “you had better move!” I waited on the custom’s dock for my final inspection, reality now setting in that I’m back to work in two days.
Final approach, Lake Washington:
My family I left behind will be on the boat for another two weeks, spreading their time between Desolation Sound and the San Juan Islands. I will never take for granted the opportunities they have given me year after year—I recognize the uniqueness in being able to spend up to a month aboard a private boat, cruising remote islands and experiencing the local island culture that few people get to see, eating my Aunt’s absolutely amazing cooking and enjoying dinghy rides, kayaking and hiking with them, as well as late-night card games (Spite & Malice) while we sit in some of the most amazing country I have ever seen. To Aunt Christine and Uncle Raymond, thank you so much and I look forward to hearing about the second half of your trip!
Thursday, August 12, 2010
B.C. coast, continued
Saturday Aug 7:
It rained consistently throughout the night and into the morning. We woke up to a light drizzle and the fog obscuring the mountain on the opposite side of the bay. We decided we should take on a few more supplies before heading deeper into the Inside Passage, so Aunt Christine, Trenton and I put on our rain suits and headed out in the dinghy for a 6-mile journey to the store at Blind Channel. It was drizzly and cold but I was hiding behind Trenton, who took the bulk of the wind-driven rain and bow splashes for me. We passed several whalewatching boats loaded with people and were hoping to get a glimpse of some passing whales in Mayne Passage, however the whalewatching boats had come from Campbell River and might have been using the passage as a shortcut to Cordero Channel, a known J-pod area. After an hour of poking around the dock, picking up ice and groceries and some fuel for the dinghy we headed back to the boat for showers and lunch, which consisted of Rueben sandwiches--grilled pastrami with sauerkraut and cheese on rye bread.
We spent most of the late afternoon and evening on the boat due to the weather, which gave me a chance to do some reading about some of the buildings and architecture I saw in Rome that I couldn’t identify at the time and read a little on the history of Shoal Bay where we were staying. When we did a short hike on the island the previous day I had a sense of déjà vu but couldn’t figure out why. As it turns out I have been here before but the huge white government building at the end of the dock that was here last time has since been destroyed.
We cracked the remainder of the crab we had on board, we watched Indiana Jones’ Raiders of the Lost Ark and Temple of Doom (I hadn’t seen these since I was a little kid) and otherwise spent the late afternoon and evening relaxing. For dinner Aunt Christine made the most amazing crab cakes I’ve ever had. They don’t stick together like the ones you buy because these are filled with crab, rather than just the batter in most crab cakes. In them were crab, garlic, green onion, celery, mustard, mayo, horseradish, Worchester sauce, Tabasco and panko breading and egg, all topped in lemon and served on a bed of rice with polenta. We watched three eagles circle the boat as we did one last check of the anchor before going to sleep.
Shoal Bay in the morning fog:
Sunday Aug 8:
We packed up in the morning and headed out toward the Octopus Island Group. The Kerners paddled this island group a couple of years ago while we were a few miles away in Prideaux Haven. I remember them talking about how beautiful it is there, so I was excited to head that direction. We headed east down the Cordero Channel then south-southwest down the Nodales Channel. We turned down the Okisillo Channel between the northern end of Quadra Island and down into the Octopus Island Group. We saw a few pods of porpoises along the way. It is really beautiful here—there are dozens of small broken islands all in close proximity to one another—most certainly a kayaker’s dream. We dropped anchor in the bay and headed out for a dinghy ride in the late afternoon. We stopped in to check out a cabin that has been open to the public for many years—people carve signs out of driftwood, some of them quite elaborate, with their family name, boat name and what year they were there. We found Trenton’s that was placed there exactly 11 years ago…he was only 3 months old at the time they placed his placard and after all of the years of hearing about it, he finally got to see it in person.
We spent an hour or so cruising around the islands in the dinghy. It was now late afternoon so we headed back to the boat for appetizers/dinner. Aunt Christine prepared lamb in a chimi churry sauce, avocadoes filled with fresh crab with sides of polenta, bruchetta (tomatoes with mozzarella cheese and basil on top) and apples with white cheddar cheese on top. After the feast Aunt Christine and I headed out in the early evening for a hike on Quadra Island that extends from Waiatt Bay to Small Inlet off Kanish Bay. The island looked like a rainforest, dense in vegetations and you can barely see up through the forest canopy. We got back to the dinghy just after dark and headed back to the boat in the pitch-dark. We watched the third Indiana Jones movie—the Last Crusade and went to bed.
A photo of an aerial of the Octopus Islands:
Monday Aug 9:
We woke up to a light drizzle that gave way to a beautiful sunny day by 9:30am. By 10:30 or so we loaded up the dinghy for a ten mile roundtrip excursion to the store at Surge Narrows on Read Island. Surge Narrows runs up to 16 knots, running twice each direction each day with the tides. You can’t run the narrows in a large boat (perhaps at slackwater), but in a dinghy capable of 22 knots or so, it seemed do-able. We ran it with the current going in and it was quite a wild ride—there were whitecaps, strong current and whirlpools everywhere, so we had to carry a lot of speed to keep from losing control of the boat. I would never want to get stuck in something like this in either a large boat or a kayak—the likelihood of going aground in a large boat or getting sucked into a whirlpool and pulled under in a kayak are pretty high. When we finally arrived at the store we were disappointed to see it had been closed. My aunt says remote services are disappearing each year and she thinks it’s due to the increasing size of yachts cruising the area—they have large enough freezers, refrigerators and storage space to stock-up before a trip rather than needing to purchase supplies along the way.
We headed back up Surge Narrows, this time we were running against 10 knots of current, so the progress was much slower. I have to admit, it was a little freaky—the whirlpools here are strong. We ran the dinghy as fast as it would go and made it through without a problem. We made it back to the big boat and took a dip in 65-degree water. It was a little cold at first but after your body went through a little shock it was all good.
On yesterday’s dinghy ride through the Octopus Islands we found a narrow passageway between islands that was only ten feet deep with a sandy bottom and decided that would be a good place to go clamming at low tide. We took some garden trowels and went to work, finding most of them 6-12 inches deep in the sand and came back to the boat with 26 pounds of clams in our bucket. We will submerge them in water for the next few tidal cycles so they spit the sand out and prepare them for dinner.
This is where we went clamming—pic was taken before the tide went out.
Tuesday, Aug 10:
We pulled anchor in the morning and headed out through Hole in the Wall between Maurell and Sonora Islands, across Price Channel and into Raza Passage and east through Pryce Channel to the small cut between East and West Redonda Islands to Walsh Cove. This is one of my favorite places in previous years—the scenery is difficult to beat, the water is warm for swimming and there are plenty of fun islands to poke around in the dinghy. There’s also a wall with Indian pictographs—a Salish ancient burier site—on the far side of Walsh Cove.
Walsh Cove
We pretty much spent the entire day swimming, checking out the adjacent islands via dinghy and Aunt Christine and I took a long dinghy ride out into the main channel to check out the kayaker resort at the beginning of Toba Inlet. We had ribeye steak with garlic potatoes and vegetables for dinner.
Wednesday, Aug 11:
Overnight the currents through Walsh Cove picked up and several boats had to reanchor in the middle of the night. When we woke up our situation didn’t look a whole lot better, the anchor was holding the rock bottom firmly but the scope of the anchor was far from ideal and the sternline that was attached twenty feet up the cliff behind us had gone slack. We decided to pull anchor and head out. We headed south down Waddington Channel and turned the corner around the south end of West Redonda Island and went to the store at Refuge Cove. When I say “store,” this is not a Nugget or Whole Foods Market. This is one of the larger stores around and nearly all of them rely on generator power to keep the lights on and refrigerators cold. As you can imagine their prices reflect and pass on these costs. We did our grocery shopping and ate our first meal out—burgers at the stand at Refuge Cove.
The 'supermarket' that is Refuge Cove:
The NOAA weather reported wind gusts of 35-50 knots in the Johnstone Straits so we changed our game plan…instead of continuing north and dealing with gale force winds we moved east into the protected anchorage of Tenedos Bay, just barely south of Prideaux Haven. Water temperature here was over 70-degrees. We anchored and stern-tied in 75-feet of water with a small bay to ourselves. We took the dinghy to shore and hiked to Unwin Lake, a freshwater lake. We ran into some kayakers who were traveling in a group of eleven—five families with children ranging in age from 6 to 14. They had paddled 11 miles in one shot from Lund to a campground here on the island. Not sure how they got all their gear on their kayaks, they looked better-stocked than some of the grocery stores up here.
Aunt Christine prepared a nice meal with spaghetti and the fresh clams we claimed a couple of days ago. Seafood this fresh is hard to beat.
I will be home in four days. :(
It rained consistently throughout the night and into the morning. We woke up to a light drizzle and the fog obscuring the mountain on the opposite side of the bay. We decided we should take on a few more supplies before heading deeper into the Inside Passage, so Aunt Christine, Trenton and I put on our rain suits and headed out in the dinghy for a 6-mile journey to the store at Blind Channel. It was drizzly and cold but I was hiding behind Trenton, who took the bulk of the wind-driven rain and bow splashes for me. We passed several whalewatching boats loaded with people and were hoping to get a glimpse of some passing whales in Mayne Passage, however the whalewatching boats had come from Campbell River and might have been using the passage as a shortcut to Cordero Channel, a known J-pod area. After an hour of poking around the dock, picking up ice and groceries and some fuel for the dinghy we headed back to the boat for showers and lunch, which consisted of Rueben sandwiches--grilled pastrami with sauerkraut and cheese on rye bread.
We spent most of the late afternoon and evening on the boat due to the weather, which gave me a chance to do some reading about some of the buildings and architecture I saw in Rome that I couldn’t identify at the time and read a little on the history of Shoal Bay where we were staying. When we did a short hike on the island the previous day I had a sense of déjà vu but couldn’t figure out why. As it turns out I have been here before but the huge white government building at the end of the dock that was here last time has since been destroyed.
We cracked the remainder of the crab we had on board, we watched Indiana Jones’ Raiders of the Lost Ark and Temple of Doom (I hadn’t seen these since I was a little kid) and otherwise spent the late afternoon and evening relaxing. For dinner Aunt Christine made the most amazing crab cakes I’ve ever had. They don’t stick together like the ones you buy because these are filled with crab, rather than just the batter in most crab cakes. In them were crab, garlic, green onion, celery, mustard, mayo, horseradish, Worchester sauce, Tabasco and panko breading and egg, all topped in lemon and served on a bed of rice with polenta. We watched three eagles circle the boat as we did one last check of the anchor before going to sleep.
Shoal Bay in the morning fog:
Sunday Aug 8:
We packed up in the morning and headed out toward the Octopus Island Group. The Kerners paddled this island group a couple of years ago while we were a few miles away in Prideaux Haven. I remember them talking about how beautiful it is there, so I was excited to head that direction. We headed east down the Cordero Channel then south-southwest down the Nodales Channel. We turned down the Okisillo Channel between the northern end of Quadra Island and down into the Octopus Island Group. We saw a few pods of porpoises along the way. It is really beautiful here—there are dozens of small broken islands all in close proximity to one another—most certainly a kayaker’s dream. We dropped anchor in the bay and headed out for a dinghy ride in the late afternoon. We stopped in to check out a cabin that has been open to the public for many years—people carve signs out of driftwood, some of them quite elaborate, with their family name, boat name and what year they were there. We found Trenton’s that was placed there exactly 11 years ago…he was only 3 months old at the time they placed his placard and after all of the years of hearing about it, he finally got to see it in person.
We spent an hour or so cruising around the islands in the dinghy. It was now late afternoon so we headed back to the boat for appetizers/dinner. Aunt Christine prepared lamb in a chimi churry sauce, avocadoes filled with fresh crab with sides of polenta, bruchetta (tomatoes with mozzarella cheese and basil on top) and apples with white cheddar cheese on top. After the feast Aunt Christine and I headed out in the early evening for a hike on Quadra Island that extends from Waiatt Bay to Small Inlet off Kanish Bay. The island looked like a rainforest, dense in vegetations and you can barely see up through the forest canopy. We got back to the dinghy just after dark and headed back to the boat in the pitch-dark. We watched the third Indiana Jones movie—the Last Crusade and went to bed.
A photo of an aerial of the Octopus Islands:
Monday Aug 9:
We woke up to a light drizzle that gave way to a beautiful sunny day by 9:30am. By 10:30 or so we loaded up the dinghy for a ten mile roundtrip excursion to the store at Surge Narrows on Read Island. Surge Narrows runs up to 16 knots, running twice each direction each day with the tides. You can’t run the narrows in a large boat (perhaps at slackwater), but in a dinghy capable of 22 knots or so, it seemed do-able. We ran it with the current going in and it was quite a wild ride—there were whitecaps, strong current and whirlpools everywhere, so we had to carry a lot of speed to keep from losing control of the boat. I would never want to get stuck in something like this in either a large boat or a kayak—the likelihood of going aground in a large boat or getting sucked into a whirlpool and pulled under in a kayak are pretty high. When we finally arrived at the store we were disappointed to see it had been closed. My aunt says remote services are disappearing each year and she thinks it’s due to the increasing size of yachts cruising the area—they have large enough freezers, refrigerators and storage space to stock-up before a trip rather than needing to purchase supplies along the way.
We headed back up Surge Narrows, this time we were running against 10 knots of current, so the progress was much slower. I have to admit, it was a little freaky—the whirlpools here are strong. We ran the dinghy as fast as it would go and made it through without a problem. We made it back to the big boat and took a dip in 65-degree water. It was a little cold at first but after your body went through a little shock it was all good.
On yesterday’s dinghy ride through the Octopus Islands we found a narrow passageway between islands that was only ten feet deep with a sandy bottom and decided that would be a good place to go clamming at low tide. We took some garden trowels and went to work, finding most of them 6-12 inches deep in the sand and came back to the boat with 26 pounds of clams in our bucket. We will submerge them in water for the next few tidal cycles so they spit the sand out and prepare them for dinner.
This is where we went clamming—pic was taken before the tide went out.
Tuesday, Aug 10:
We pulled anchor in the morning and headed out through Hole in the Wall between Maurell and Sonora Islands, across Price Channel and into Raza Passage and east through Pryce Channel to the small cut between East and West Redonda Islands to Walsh Cove. This is one of my favorite places in previous years—the scenery is difficult to beat, the water is warm for swimming and there are plenty of fun islands to poke around in the dinghy. There’s also a wall with Indian pictographs—a Salish ancient burier site—on the far side of Walsh Cove.
Walsh Cove
We pretty much spent the entire day swimming, checking out the adjacent islands via dinghy and Aunt Christine and I took a long dinghy ride out into the main channel to check out the kayaker resort at the beginning of Toba Inlet. We had ribeye steak with garlic potatoes and vegetables for dinner.
Wednesday, Aug 11:
Overnight the currents through Walsh Cove picked up and several boats had to reanchor in the middle of the night. When we woke up our situation didn’t look a whole lot better, the anchor was holding the rock bottom firmly but the scope of the anchor was far from ideal and the sternline that was attached twenty feet up the cliff behind us had gone slack. We decided to pull anchor and head out. We headed south down Waddington Channel and turned the corner around the south end of West Redonda Island and went to the store at Refuge Cove. When I say “store,” this is not a Nugget or Whole Foods Market. This is one of the larger stores around and nearly all of them rely on generator power to keep the lights on and refrigerators cold. As you can imagine their prices reflect and pass on these costs. We did our grocery shopping and ate our first meal out—burgers at the stand at Refuge Cove.
The 'supermarket' that is Refuge Cove:
The NOAA weather reported wind gusts of 35-50 knots in the Johnstone Straits so we changed our game plan…instead of continuing north and dealing with gale force winds we moved east into the protected anchorage of Tenedos Bay, just barely south of Prideaux Haven. Water temperature here was over 70-degrees. We anchored and stern-tied in 75-feet of water with a small bay to ourselves. We took the dinghy to shore and hiked to Unwin Lake, a freshwater lake. We ran into some kayakers who were traveling in a group of eleven—five families with children ranging in age from 6 to 14. They had paddled 11 miles in one shot from Lund to a campground here on the island. Not sure how they got all their gear on their kayaks, they looked better-stocked than some of the grocery stores up here.
Aunt Christine prepared a nice meal with spaghetti and the fresh clams we claimed a couple of days ago. Seafood this fresh is hard to beat.
I will be home in four days. :(
Friday, August 6, 2010
BC, continued
Tuesday, Aug 4:
We pulled anchor and continued north up the Trincomali Channel between Galiano Island and Saltspring Island and ran the Dodd Narrows with 1.2 knots at our bow. I was at the helm and felt relieved to be the only boat in the narrows at the time. With currents large enough to produce eddies and a passageway only approximately 120 feet wide, it feels tiny in a 40-foot boat even when we have it to ourselves. The penalty for error is hitting a rock face on either side, bringing a sudden end to an otherwise relaxing vacation.
We came into the harbor at Nanaimo just as the wind and waves were picking up from the Straits of Georgia. We ate the remainder of the chicken curry croissant sandwiches and Uncle Raymond and I got to work changing the oil in the dinghy while Aunt Christine shopped for food at the grocery store in Nanaimo. The waterfront at Nanaimo always promises a nice walk among the ice cream and souvenir shops, tourists and fisherman coming and going from the docks and seaplanes picking up and delivering passengers. The city constructed some new condos on the waterfront and did a beautiful job on the landscaping, utilizing local artists to create nautical sculptures out of stainless steel to fill the plaza outside. We had barbequed chicken marinated in butter and garlic for dinner.
Wednesday, Aug 4:
The early departure we spoke about the previous night was apparently lost on me as I woke up to the sound of water splashing against the hull; we were already well underway before I even noticed. The slight rocking of the boat each night makes me sleep through just about anything. I sleep in the V-birth, which, as the name implies, is the forward-most room in the boat, shaped like a triangle from the tip of the bow of the boat and extends about 10-feet back with a closet. In the hallway outside is another closet, a bathroom with a shower and the master stateroom (think master bedroom) is quite large with a queen-sized bed, wardrobe closet, built-in dressers and drawers and a cabinet housing the washer and dryer. On the second level above this is the pilothouse where you operate the boat and there’s a couch to seat four plus the captain’s chair, a table and a watchberth where the captain can sleep with 360-degree views out the cockpit windows. The pilothouse is nice because we can all sit together when underway with views out every direction. At the stern of the boat is the salon (kitchen) with everything you have at home, albeit slightly smaller. Above the salon is the deck that holds the powerboat (dinghy) and a small sailboat and the crane used to lift them into the water. The interior of the boat is solid teak and it’s beautiful.
We headed northwest out of Nanaimo and through the Ballenas Channel. We can’t take the heading we want because Whiskey Gulf, the testing grounds for the Canadian Navy, is active today. There are warnings on the VHF radio and Navy boats circling the area to keep people out as there are active torpedoes in the water at the moment. Apparently last night an eighty foot yacht ran Whiskey Gulf and had the Navy helicopter over him saying “hey you in the boat with the helicopter overhead, you’re in a restricted area!” It’s amazing how oblivious some people can be. We stayed west of Lasqueti, Texada and Savary Islands and headed up the channel between Campbell River on Vancouver Island and Quadra Island. We entered a protected anchorage between Steep Island and Gowlland Island, just north of April Point and spent the night anchored in 62 feet of water, with steaming cups of chili for dinner.
Thursday Aug 5:
We slept in this morning and following a quick breakfast took the dinghy over to April Point to look around. They offer kayak, mountain bike and scooter rental, you can take a dive boat or whale watching boat into Discovery Passage or hang out at the restaurants, bar, gift shops or spa to keep yourself entertained.
We left Quadra Island and headed up Discovery Passage, rounding Sonora Island and up Nodales Channel. We spent the night tied to a log raft at the end of Frederick Arm. After pulled pork tacos with cilantro and lime, we took the dinghy up a river to a saltwater lagoon. Our hike on the island revealed a pair of very large mountain lion tracks. We thought that was a good time to leave. Afterall, waiting back at the boat was filet mignon with a sauce made of wild mushrooms, garlic, wine, a mixture of herbs, onion, butter and flour, with a side of cucumber, cherry tomatoes covered in a ranch-like dressing and grilled potatoes and polenta.
Friday, Aug 6:
We awoke to a bright and sunny day. After eggs, bacon and toast we headed out on the dinghy for another try at the saltwater lagoon. It was high tide but there was still not enough water under the prop to get the boat through. The water was warm enough in the river between the lagoon and the bay that we were able to comfortably swim. We dropped the crab pot twice with one chicken thigh per drop and were rewarded with 14 crabs we could keep. You can only keep the males and they must be over 6.25” across the shell. We loaded up the big boat and headed southwest into Shoal Bay on the northeast corner of East Thurlow Island. We anchored with a view looking up Phillips Arm of the bay. For dinner…obviously…we ate the fresh crab over rice with butter, cucumber, tomatoes and carrots.
I’m sitting in a tiny pub in Shoal Bay that offers only two things, beer and internet. I have all I need here.
We pulled anchor and continued north up the Trincomali Channel between Galiano Island and Saltspring Island and ran the Dodd Narrows with 1.2 knots at our bow. I was at the helm and felt relieved to be the only boat in the narrows at the time. With currents large enough to produce eddies and a passageway only approximately 120 feet wide, it feels tiny in a 40-foot boat even when we have it to ourselves. The penalty for error is hitting a rock face on either side, bringing a sudden end to an otherwise relaxing vacation.
We came into the harbor at Nanaimo just as the wind and waves were picking up from the Straits of Georgia. We ate the remainder of the chicken curry croissant sandwiches and Uncle Raymond and I got to work changing the oil in the dinghy while Aunt Christine shopped for food at the grocery store in Nanaimo. The waterfront at Nanaimo always promises a nice walk among the ice cream and souvenir shops, tourists and fisherman coming and going from the docks and seaplanes picking up and delivering passengers. The city constructed some new condos on the waterfront and did a beautiful job on the landscaping, utilizing local artists to create nautical sculptures out of stainless steel to fill the plaza outside. We had barbequed chicken marinated in butter and garlic for dinner.
Wednesday, Aug 4:
The early departure we spoke about the previous night was apparently lost on me as I woke up to the sound of water splashing against the hull; we were already well underway before I even noticed. The slight rocking of the boat each night makes me sleep through just about anything. I sleep in the V-birth, which, as the name implies, is the forward-most room in the boat, shaped like a triangle from the tip of the bow of the boat and extends about 10-feet back with a closet. In the hallway outside is another closet, a bathroom with a shower and the master stateroom (think master bedroom) is quite large with a queen-sized bed, wardrobe closet, built-in dressers and drawers and a cabinet housing the washer and dryer. On the second level above this is the pilothouse where you operate the boat and there’s a couch to seat four plus the captain’s chair, a table and a watchberth where the captain can sleep with 360-degree views out the cockpit windows. The pilothouse is nice because we can all sit together when underway with views out every direction. At the stern of the boat is the salon (kitchen) with everything you have at home, albeit slightly smaller. Above the salon is the deck that holds the powerboat (dinghy) and a small sailboat and the crane used to lift them into the water. The interior of the boat is solid teak and it’s beautiful.
We headed northwest out of Nanaimo and through the Ballenas Channel. We can’t take the heading we want because Whiskey Gulf, the testing grounds for the Canadian Navy, is active today. There are warnings on the VHF radio and Navy boats circling the area to keep people out as there are active torpedoes in the water at the moment. Apparently last night an eighty foot yacht ran Whiskey Gulf and had the Navy helicopter over him saying “hey you in the boat with the helicopter overhead, you’re in a restricted area!” It’s amazing how oblivious some people can be. We stayed west of Lasqueti, Texada and Savary Islands and headed up the channel between Campbell River on Vancouver Island and Quadra Island. We entered a protected anchorage between Steep Island and Gowlland Island, just north of April Point and spent the night anchored in 62 feet of water, with steaming cups of chili for dinner.
Thursday Aug 5:
We slept in this morning and following a quick breakfast took the dinghy over to April Point to look around. They offer kayak, mountain bike and scooter rental, you can take a dive boat or whale watching boat into Discovery Passage or hang out at the restaurants, bar, gift shops or spa to keep yourself entertained.
We left Quadra Island and headed up Discovery Passage, rounding Sonora Island and up Nodales Channel. We spent the night tied to a log raft at the end of Frederick Arm. After pulled pork tacos with cilantro and lime, we took the dinghy up a river to a saltwater lagoon. Our hike on the island revealed a pair of very large mountain lion tracks. We thought that was a good time to leave. Afterall, waiting back at the boat was filet mignon with a sauce made of wild mushrooms, garlic, wine, a mixture of herbs, onion, butter and flour, with a side of cucumber, cherry tomatoes covered in a ranch-like dressing and grilled potatoes and polenta.
Friday, Aug 6:
We awoke to a bright and sunny day. After eggs, bacon and toast we headed out on the dinghy for another try at the saltwater lagoon. It was high tide but there was still not enough water under the prop to get the boat through. The water was warm enough in the river between the lagoon and the bay that we were able to comfortably swim. We dropped the crab pot twice with one chicken thigh per drop and were rewarded with 14 crabs we could keep. You can only keep the males and they must be over 6.25” across the shell. We loaded up the big boat and headed southwest into Shoal Bay on the northeast corner of East Thurlow Island. We anchored with a view looking up Phillips Arm of the bay. For dinner…obviously…we ate the fresh crab over rice with butter, cucumber, tomatoes and carrots.
I’m sitting in a tiny pub in Shoal Bay that offers only two things, beer and internet. I have all I need here.
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