After our trials with having water in our diesel engine, we took it easy the following day. Marcia stayed aboard to read while Dave joined us on another walk ashore. We found the wetlands alive with birds of all varieties, with many new ones we hadn’t yet seen. We called Marcia on the walkie-talkie and she decided to come ashore with her camera. Clark rowed out to get her. We spotted water snakes, turtles, lizards; Townsend’s, Wilson’s, and Yellow-rumped warblers; finches, winter wrens, red-winged blackbirds, hawks, merganzers, and our first pair of wood ducks. They were stunningly beautiful and I tried in vain to capture a good photo of them as they slid between the water grasses. There were Pileated Woodpeckers and Varied Thrushes too.
Dave and Marcia bird-watching on the boardwalk.
About 3:30 PM, Clark and I took a jaunt out to the point overlooking Malaspina to check on conditions. The waters were still lumpy though the wind seemed to be subsiding. Over wine, we four decided to head over to Pender Harbour the next day.
A pair of mating lizards captured our attention.
Before 7 AM, we followed Juniata out of Smuggler Cove. Once inside Pender Harbour, we tied up at Madeira Park’s marina for a 4-hour stay. We were shocked to be charged $19.75, their half-day rate, for the privilege. The wharfinger loaned Clark a bicycle so he could ride up the hill to the hardware store but that didn’t seem enough to compensate. We went to the market and the butcher shop, I went to the yarn shop for some supplies. We bought a British Columbia provincial flag and a prawn trap at the marine store. We off-loaded some garbage and then went across to bay to John Henry’s for fuel.
Clark borrowed a bicycle from the wharfinger to get to the hardware store.
Madeira Park government floats. Rikki-tikki is way out on the end as usual.
We thought we might find a more open spot toward the head of the bay, though we were concerned about a not-very-well-charted rocky reef on one corner. Let me correct that- the shoal wasn’t charted at all. Marcia knew about it from an aerial photograph taken at low tide shown in the Waggoner cruising book, which we didn’t have. The breeze was bit gusty as we maneuvered. I spotted the rocks and yelled but Clark wasn’t able to stop quickly enough. The wind aggressively encouraged Rikki-tikki to investigate closer. There was a loud CRUNCH! We both winced. Clark was able to back off the shoal and we wondered what memento Rikki-tikki was sporting on his tummy. As we later discovered, it was just a minor scratch and we learned yet another lesson. We sheepishly went back to side-tie onto Juniata. It was better in this snug spot for two boats to swing on one short radius of chain than for two boats to rotate on separate anchors. Rikki-tikki uses mostly nylon rode and requires a much larger swinging radius.
Our iBook on the “dashboard”, shaded by my Thermarest© chair. We were able to pick up an open wi-fi connection and get our email.
Next morning, May 10th, at 5:30 AM, we untied from Juniata very quietly and motored away from Dave and Marcia, leaving them sleeping. We wanted to get to Malibu Rapids for the 12:21 PM slack so we could prepare for Rikki-tikki-tavi’s 2nd birthday party! We had decided that Chatterbox Falls in Princess Louisa Inlet was the most appropriate place to celebrate this auspicious event. I have extremely fond memories of first visiting Chatterbox in 1964 with my grandparents aboard their 37-foot sloop. Our forward cabin is graced by a framed photograph, taken by my father, of Serendipity on the dock at Malibu Club, on a placid early morning. In my grandparents’ log book is the signature of the “Ambassador of Princess Louisa”, Mac MacDonald. Princess Louisa is a very special place to me.
Nina & Clark