Les and John’s 2019 EXTREME Winter Cruise

Dec 25, 2000
5,703
Hunter Passage 42 Shelter Bay, WA
Some might be shocked, but snowing arrived again right on schedule.
 
May 7, 2012
1,338
Hunter e33 Maple Bay, BC
Some might be shocked, but snowing arrived again right on schedule.
Some might be shocked but S/V Mahalo may be out of range of a shore based AIS receiver. Both Vesselfinder.com and MarineTraffic.com has them suspended in time. Either that or they are just being stealthy and have silenced their transmitter.
 
Dec 25, 2000
5,703
Hunter Passage 42 Shelter Bay, WA
Ugh. Forecast update, three to five more inches tonight. More tomorrow. No school Tuesday. Summer break getting shorter and shorter.
 
Jan 5, 2017
2,263
Beneteau First 38 Lyall Harbour Saturna Island
Mahalo arrived safely. All showered and fed and back on the boat. Pics to follow I'm sure. Snowing like crazy here.
 
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Apr 5, 2009
2,774
Catalina '88 C30 tr/bs Oak Harbor, WA
Mahalo arrived safely. All showered and fed and back on the boat. Pics to follow I'm sure. Snowing like crazy here.
Thanks for the update. I am sure that more than a few of us were a little concerned about the AIS tracker stopping short of the destination and then radio silence for 8 hours.
 
Oct 22, 2014
20,995
CAL 35 Cruiser #21 moored EVERETT WA
Sorry guys. We were met by Michael at the Saturna dock. Arrived amid wind and snow blowing, Michael waving and ready to receive our lines at 12:10. We snugged in on the inside of the dock in 12 feet of water. A rock wall is about 15 feet off our port side.

After getting the boat secured and the generator going Michael was invited aboard for a medicinal greeting, pastrami sandwich, weather discussion, and general sharing of “Are you guys out of your minds?”

Once suitably revived we walked up the road to Michael’s for showers, a glass of wine and a visit. Michael has a beautiful place covered in white snow. A comfortable inviting warm wood stove, a lazy cat and cute little dog that greeted us all and cussed Michael for being gone so long and not letting him out sooner.

First order of business was hot showers. Michael was then coxed into sharing his adventures and secrets of cruising the inside Passage and multiple trips around Vancouver Island. These have been multiple months long cruises that explored popular sites and some hidden gems which only he and a cruising friend explored. They would arrive at an interesting inlet only after sitting and waiting for enough water to show up could they sneak across the entrance.

We returned to Mahalo in-time to stow our gear and head to the pub to await the arrival of the ferry and a beer. The ferry is the link between the island and the outside world. Folks hater at the pub to greet friends and neighbors much like towns awaited the arrival of a stage coach. The ferry arrived bringing Michael’s lovely Admiral Bev and his truck (which Bev had informed Michael “if you want it off the ferry you need to come down and drive it off”) back from the mainland. We sipped local Race Rock pints (mmmm), onion rings while watching visibility drop from the acceptable 1-3 miles of our morning cruise down to 100 meters and snow blowing horizontally. What’s the phrase “ It ain’t a fit night out for man or beast!”

Here’s Les and I ready to explore the pub. Mahalo and the next door rock cliff. Taken before the snow decided to really come down.
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Once we were warm, had a beverage and gathered in the Pub, our waitress snapped this image of the merry band.
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Looking just over Les’s right shoulder you can make out the edge of the ferry dock in the snow. The dock is less than 100 yards from the porch railing.

After brews and dinner Ward suggested that we needed more accuracy in our cruise title.
Suggesting:

Les and John’s EXTREME 2019 Winter Cruise.

We will take this under advisement.

We’ll be reaccessing the rest of our schedule in the AM as we await to see what type of conditions the weather gods decide to throw at us.
I did learn from Les that the Viking sailors raided and plundered the Irish Coast. Perhaps we are related, brothers from different Great great great great Grand mothers.

Oh and Stu. The ferry captains have been very friendly. Giving us a vhf shout before meeting us in a between island Passage or wide berth down channels. It is a wonder what you may have done to get their rath. They seem like wonderful marine ambassadors to the Mahalo crew.
 
Apr 5, 2009
2,774
Catalina '88 C30 tr/bs Oak Harbor, WA
Thanks for the update. Sounds like Saturna has been a great stopover. Any idea as to why your AIS left you parked 2 miles from your destination?
 
Oct 22, 2014
20,995
CAL 35 Cruiser #21 moored EVERETT WA
None Maybe the rock hill we are docked next to is masking our signal. VHF is line of sight. We are tucked in close to reduce the 25-40 knot gusts and blowing snow that shutdown the BC ferry system yesterday.
 
Apr 5, 2009
2,774
Catalina '88 C30 tr/bs Oak Harbor, WA
I noticed that it finally put you in port but it sat at the last waypoint about 2 hours out for at least 8 hours. That coupled with no comments from anyone near the boat left a few of us scratching our heads.
 

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May 7, 2012
1,338
Hunter e33 Maple Bay, BC
Thanks for the update. Sounds like Saturna has been a great stopover. Any idea as to why your AIS left you parked 2 miles from your destination?
MarineTraffic.com tracked Mahalo within accepted time delays, 0 to 30 minutes. I would say that maybe VesselFinder has limited thus spotty AIS receivers in the area. Or a power or internet outage in the area would affect the ability to receive AIS signals and get them back out to the VesselFinder webpage/app.
 
May 20, 2016
3,014
Catalina 36 MK1 94 Everett, WA
Lots of excitement last night. Had the little Honda charging the batteries while we got showered and fed. Back at the boat the suggestion was made to refill and run the oil heater till the gas ran out (about 7:30pm). Well at 3:30 the Honda was still purring, but the CO alarms were beepin and flashing. Turn off the generator, let the freezing air in then back to sleep after the Adrenalin Rush passed. Woke every two hrs to make sure everyone ok (other than a bit cold. Just closed the fore vent. Everyone ok.

Seems the high wind pushed the exhaust into the cabin despite being turned away.

I think we must have killed a few mor brain cells cause we are getting ready to head to Friday Harbor.
 
Jan 5, 2017
2,263
Beneteau First 38 Lyall Harbour Saturna Island
Not the very best weather, but the wind should be good. Enjoy the trip and stay safe out there. It was great meeting you guys.Will have to do that again soon.
 
May 7, 2012
1,338
Hunter e33 Maple Bay, BC
This is a partial excerpt from a MarineTraffic FAQ. I would definitely consider the Gulf Islands and most of the sailing areas North of Nanaimo as remote areas WRT AIS-receiving stations:

"... Class B Stopped or sailing up to 2 knots Every 3 Minutes
Class B Sailing faster than 2 knots Every 30 Seconds

Also, the update frequency of the incoming data depends on whether the AIS signal can be picked up by a terrestrial AIS-receiving station or not.
  • Vessels that sail within the range of the MarineTraffic network of AIS-receiving stations get frequent updates in near real-time.
  • Signals from vessels that sail in remote areas can only be covered using Satellite AIS. The positional updates provided by this service may vary from a few minutes up to several hours (regardless of how often the subject vessel transmits positions). On average, we get one position update per hour for ocean-going vessels equipped with a Class-A AIS transponder. ..."
https://help.marinetraffic.com/hc/e...-of-the-vessels-get-updated-on-MarineTraffic-