Sunshine Coast North

After leaving Princess Louisa, we motored down Jervis Inlet, with our planned destination being the Harmony Islands, a small marine park just below the bottom of Jervis inlet.  Owing to our early start, we were there in plenty of time.  The guidebooks describe them as a beautiful place, but they also have some concerning comments about anchoring.  Typical of this part of the world, the water gets very deep very fast.  The separation between the islands and the mainland is maybe only 200 feet or so, but the water is 60 to 100 feet deep for most of this distance.  Even with a stern tie, I wanted 200 feet of anchor chain out.  We made a few attempts, but found that the anchor was struggling to get a good bite in the rocky sea bed.  We finally got it to stick, but after being unable to get a stern line at the correct angle, we decided to give up, and fired up the engine again, and headed to Saltery Bay, where the ferry terminal to the upper Sunshine coast is.

We tied up to the dock, and headed out in search of food.  The only restaurant of sorts was the "Snack Shack" a divey looking roadside burger stand.  The food was surprisingly good - it turns out that the owner is a highly trained chef, and had just moved to the area and took over the dilapidated stand.

Fort building on way to Lund

I was in need of an office day, so we headed off fairly early for Powell River.  The marina there supposedly has good WiFi, so we headed straight there, motoring a couple of hours on one of the only rainy days so far.    The marina WiFi turned out to be non-existent where we were docked, so I headed off in search of a coffee shop with Emily, while Sara cranked out a few loads of laundry.

After my work day was done, we headed back down to meet Sara.  We stopped for a while to watch a couple of sea otters frolic in the marina, before heading to the boat for dinner and an early evening.

I was back at the "office" by 7:00 the next day, to finish off my various business commitments, and to keep things moving forward on the planned purchase of Arctic Tern.  Sara and Emily came and collected me for lunch, before walking up to the grocery store to stock up on food for the next week, and then returning to the boat.

Powell River had a good feel to it.  What had started out as an industry town has morphed into the sort of town not unlike Fernie, where people of all walks of life have moved to be close to nature, and to escape the exorbitant cost of living in the lower mainland.

We got away late afternoon and headed up to Lund, which is the northernmost village you can drive to up the coast.  We really liked it when we were through sailing when Emily was one, and had a very relaxing day here.  So relaxing that we couldn't muster the necessary energy to pull away the next afternoon, and stayed a second night.  As soon as I finish this blog post, however, we will be releasing the dock lines and heading up into Desolation Sound.

Another day at the office - note the palm tree!