Happy Christmas from the crew of OYSTERCATCHER.
Dream daringly this year.
All our best wishes on a prosperous, safe, and peaceful New Year...
Friday, December 18, 2009
Monday, December 14, 2009
Off to ski the rain away
Frosty hike to Georgie and Songhees Lakes out of Port Hardy. Thank again to our Boatminder Tom Cook for turning us on to another great hike.
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Well we spotted the trailhead to the former home of Ripple Rock, and stretched our legs from the car ride. We only made it as far as the first suspension bridge, but it was a fun destination.
Cabled to three huge trees, the whole thing moves with a hiker's weight - note the sag under Mo and Chance. She swears it wasn't those pesky holiday pounds.
Interesting and simple two by four ladder with large rubber belts for stringers. Really molds to the rocky sections.
Back at the harbor, the ice was closing in with the week-long cold snap.
Oystercatcher all tarped up, triple tied and ready for winter hibernation.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~After winterizing Oystercatcher, we drove to Courtenay for some skiing at Mt. Washington, and stopped at the trail to Ripple Rock. Once apon a time Ripple Rock was a dangerous hazard to ships navigating through the Inside Passage. Nothing a few thousand tons of explosives and some Canadian mining engineers couldn't solve. Here's the story of the largest non-nuclear blast in history.
Well we spotted the trailhead to the former home of Ripple Rock, and stretched our legs from the car ride. We only made it as far as the first suspension bridge, but it was a fun destination.
Cabled to three huge trees, the whole thing moves with a hiker's weight - note the sag under Mo and Chance. She swears it wasn't those pesky holiday pounds.
The skiing at Mt. Washington was a blast. We shredded those blue groomers up good. The crosscountry skiing trails were fantastic and the facility unbelievable. And we thought Kincaid Chalet was nice. Guessing it was built with Olympics dollars. Several national ski teams were scheduled to train there beforehand.
We're now in Bellingham, WA again and are gathering steam for a ski road trip East.
Tuesday, December 01, 2009
Thanksgiving and the rains cease - a bit
Happy Thanksgiving from the crew of Oystercatcher. We ate enough for all of Canada. That's smoked black cod in the foreground. Find it. Buy it. Eat it. It's amazing stuff.
A candid of two of our local buddies. Tom, at left, is living aboard with wife Robbie. Randy, at right, works at the marina. They are actually both quite nice, regardless of the photo.
We found this police scene to be kind of funny. This was a seatbelt trap set to snare unsuspecting motorists. The instrument of choice for enforcing the seatbelt laws? A high power spotting scope to see the shoulder strap - or if someone was quickly trying to pull it on.
When sitting waiting for the scalloped potatoes to be done, one has a little time. If one has an orange. One could create an anatomically correct orange peel man. One could.
To burn a few calories post-T-day, we took Tom's son Tom's advice on a trail out to the crash site of a WWII cargo plane. Chance is standing on the helicopter pad built to fly in the Governor-General of BC for the memorial dedication.
It is surprisingly intact, though and an interesting destination, though slightly macabre.
Four RCAF planes were flying a training mission in April 1944 when they encountered low visibility conditions. The planes lost visual contact with each other and had to split up. The crew of the doomed plane finally spotted the coast and realized they were close to Port Hardy airfield. Dangerously low on fuel, they tried one pass, but were too fast, so they turned to try again and were on approach when they ran out of fuel, a mile from the runway.
The two pilots were killed instantly. The cockpit is essentially gone. The navigator was injured, but survived and made his way to the coast through the brush and forest. It must have been truly hell for him. A boat searching for the wrecked plane spotted him. This photo shows the landing gear shoved up through the wing.
A nice view to the water from the trail, made possible by clearcut. 
Today we took advantage of 10-20 knot winds and clear skies to sail a bit. Mostly just to brag we sailed in December. Those snowy peaks are calling us. We eagerly look forward to continuing north come Spring, but hope to play in the snow this winter, and might have a line on some winter Olympic tickets. Who knows? We may just show up in your neck of the woods begging for a place to dry the ski boots.
The weather was chilly, but it was a treat to be out there. The kayak happily bobbed behind.
The sun set on the sailing year. It was a year on the water we'll never forget. We will always be thankful for this dream coming true.
A candid of two of our local buddies. Tom, at left, is living aboard with wife Robbie. Randy, at right, works at the marina. They are actually both quite nice, regardless of the photo.
We found this police scene to be kind of funny. This was a seatbelt trap set to snare unsuspecting motorists. The instrument of choice for enforcing the seatbelt laws? A high power spotting scope to see the shoulder strap - or if someone was quickly trying to pull it on.
When sitting waiting for the scalloped potatoes to be done, one has a little time. If one has an orange. One could create an anatomically correct orange peel man. One could.
To burn a few calories post-T-day, we took Tom's son Tom's advice on a trail out to the crash site of a WWII cargo plane. Chance is standing on the helicopter pad built to fly in the Governor-General of BC for the memorial dedication.
It is surprisingly intact, though and an interesting destination, though slightly macabre.
Four RCAF planes were flying a training mission in April 1944 when they encountered low visibility conditions. The planes lost visual contact with each other and had to split up. The crew of the doomed plane finally spotted the coast and realized they were close to Port Hardy airfield. Dangerously low on fuel, they tried one pass, but were too fast, so they turned to try again and were on approach when they ran out of fuel, a mile from the runway.
The two pilots were killed instantly. The cockpit is essentially gone. The navigator was injured, but survived and made his way to the coast through the brush and forest. It must have been truly hell for him. A boat searching for the wrecked plane spotted him. This photo shows the landing gear shoved up through the wing.
A nice view to the water from the trail, made possible by clearcut. 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Finally a few nice days in a row, after 2.6 feet of RAIN. Yes rain. A Vancouver Island record. Blain worked on the leaks in the the cockpit cubbyholes.
Today we took advantage of 10-20 knot winds and clear skies to sail a bit. Mostly just to brag we sailed in December. Those snowy peaks are calling us. We eagerly look forward to continuing north come Spring, but hope to play in the snow this winter, and might have a line on some winter Olympic tickets. Who knows? We may just show up in your neck of the woods begging for a place to dry the ski boots.
The weather was chilly, but it was a treat to be out there. The kayak happily bobbed behind.
The sun set on the sailing year. It was a year on the water we'll never forget. We will always be thankful for this dream coming true. 
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