Best and Worst Anchorages of Southern British Columbia
Scream has spent a couple years cruising the BC coast. While we have no means conducted an exhaustive search of the many hundred anchorages, we do feel qualified enough to offer some suggestions: Best Hot Springs Cove (49.24.0 N 126.15.3W ) Roomy, well sheltered, reasonable depth, great holding, and the best off the water recreation. […]
The Travel Plan
While these sorts of plans rarely work out as expected, the plan for Scream's travels is as follows: Sept-Oct 2008: Pacific Coast of the US Nov 2008 - April 2009: Pacific Coast of Mexico May 2009 - January 2010: Central America February 2010: Galapagos Islands March 2010: Pacific Crossing April - October 2010: Polynesia November […]
Farewell to the fleet of 2008
Scream attended the August rendezvous of the Bluewater Cruising Association this weekend in Montague Harbour. The August rendezvous is the official sendoff for the fleet. Scream received her leavers package and said emotional good byes to many friends. As far as I know the Vancouver Island fleet of 2008 is: Idyll Island Warana Moondancer X […]
2008 Petersen Cup
Scream had the great pleasure to partcipate in the 2008 Petersen Cup. The Petersen cup is s a cruising rally held every year by the Bluewater Cruising Association to honour the memory of Lex Petersen (?-2004). The rally starts on the last Saturday in July at the Dinghy Dock Pub in Nanaimo. This year the […]
West Coast Vancouver Island
How Inaccurate Weather Forecasts Plagued My Week. Scream traveled the west coast of Vancouver Island this week. We were careful to study the weather and picked a window of opportunity with favourable winds: Northwest winds from 20 to 35 knots were predicted for the entire duration of our trip. Thirty-five knots is a lot of […]
Alert Bay
Alert Bay is a mixed native and non-native community on Comorant Island. We visited the big house where we were educated by the Tsasala Cultural Group. We also visited the excellent U'mista cultural centre. There we viewed a large collection of artifacts, including all of the items seized in the Christmas Potlach Raid. We thoroughly […]
Other Boats and Waterfalls
If there are two things that the Broughtons have a lot of, it's other boats and waterfalls. For no good reason, we imagined the Broughtons to be a lot like the west coast of Vancouver Island - remote, rugged, beautiful and more or less empty. We anticipated going days without seeing another person and maybe […]
Fixing our Profurl Roller Furling
Scream is a cutter rigged sloop, which means that we have two foresails. Both foresails are on ancient, tough-as-nails profurl roller furlers. These devices store the sails for us when we aren't using them and allow us to "raise" and "lower" the foresails from the cockpit. We've been having some trouble with the furlers for […]
Mamalilacula
Scream visited the remains of Mamalilacula, an abandoned first nations village infamous as the site of the Christmas Potlach Raid. There isn't much to see in Mamalilacula. The whole place is overgrown with wild roses and blackberry bushes. I strongly recommend visitors wear long sleeves and pants and gardening gloves to protect against the thorns. […]
Port McNeill
Scream spent three days at the Port McNeill Boat Harbour waiting for the EURO 2008 Final. The boat harbour is nice and in the centre of town. Port McNeill a town, in contrast to several places Scream has been recently. Their grocery, chandlery and several other establishments lightened Scream's pockets as needed items were obtained […]