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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 […]
Shoal Bay
On Waggoner's advice, Scream stopped at Shoal Bay after clearing Dent Rapids without incident (Yay!). Shoal bay was once a town, and therefore has a government dock. It now has one resident, Mark, who is both wharfinger and publican. The Shoal Bay Lodge is a cabin that serves cold beer on the deck and in […]
Gorge Harbour Marina
Scream enjoyed a wonderful day at the Gorge Harbour Marina on Cortez Island. We arrived early enough on a sunny Sunday afternoon to catch brunch at the restaurant. We provisioned at their store, did laundry, took long showers on land, and even recycled our cans. In the evening we even had a fire at […]
Quartz Bay
Scream spent one night at anchor in Quartz Bay on the north west side of Cortez Island. We anchored in the western cove along the shore behind the small island. The view of the cliffs on the nearby shore and the snow-capped mountains in the distance was quite nice. We anchored in 55' on a […]
Solar Power
We are pleased to report that we recently added a pair of solar panels to Scream. Scream has a pair of Sanyo HIP-195BA3 solar panels. Each panel is warrantied to create 195 watts of electricity under ideal conditions ten years from now. Conditions are of course always less than ideal, but the panels weaken with […]