Love Your RV & Boat! Newsletter - 09/24

Hello, and welcome to the September 2024 Newsletter.

Oct 02, 2024

What's New With Us

We are back in our RV! The boating season is over for us. It’s bittersweet, as we had such a fantastic time out on the boat, but we are happy to be back in our cozy RV now that the cool, wet fall weather is upon us.

The boat was lifted from the water near the end of September and put back into dry land storage for the winter. I’ve been busy moving all our stuff off the boat into the storage room and our RV. Once all that is sorted, I’ll winterize the boat’s plumbing/engine and attach its winter cover. We’ve booked the first two weeks of October at a nearby RV park, so we will have lots of time to finish with the boat and prep the RV for our winter travels.

In the August newsletter, we were still in Blind Channel, enjoying Charles Bay. We left in early September, stopping overnight at the Shoal Bay Marina before transiting Dent and Yuculta Rapids the next day. The timing of the rapids is critical in a slow boat like Vestri. The narrow passage’s current can be extreme as the tides ebb and flood, creating swift flowing currents and whirlpools as much as 13 feet across!

Captain Anne planned it perfectly, so the trip was smooth sailing. The weather and the scenery were fantastic. It was the first time we had seen this beautiful section of the coast, and we were impressed. A bonus treat was wildlife viewing of huge Stellar Sea Lions hauled out, sunning themselves and fighting on the rocky shoreline.

Scenery as we pass through Dent and Yuculta Rapids

We headed to Von Donop Inlet, Cortez Island, and anchored there for several days. The temperatures warmed, allowing us to get a few more summer swims in the ocean.

Next, we returned to Lund Marina, where we began our summer journeys in June. We needed to restock and check on our truck and trailer, so we hit the dock for a couple of days, grabbed our truck, drove it into Powell River for a big grocery shop, and visited the laundromat. Thankfully, all was well with our truck and trailer. I was a little worried since it had been several months since we left them.

Pretty sunset light on the breakwater dock in Lund Marina

Once restocked, we headed back out into nearby Desolation Sound for the remainder of the season. We anchored in two locations, one new to us and another a favorite from last summer. The first stop was Galley Bay, where the highlight was the gorgeous views of the BC coastal mountains. A storm blew through, making the view even more stunning as the clouds/fog came and went. Also, being later in the boating season, we were all alone most days, so it was very peaceful.

The second stop and final of the season was up at the end of Waddington Channel in Walsh Cove Provincial Park. We spent about a week in the pretty cove.

We explored the nearby shore in our dinghy, viewing the tidal sea creatures, birds, and ancient pictographs drawn on the sheer cliffs. A highlight for me was harvesting oysters for the first time. They were plentiful in the area due to the constant currents back and forth through the channel. Big Pacific Oysters - fresh and tasty! I did a batch on the barbeque and breaded and fried another. Yum!

Now that Vestri is getting tucked in for the winter stay tuned. We are back in the RV until next summer. Plans are to spend another month in BC and then slowly make our way back south for another winter of boondocking adventures in the southwest desert.

PS. If you are a new subscriber or have missed any videos from this summer’s boating adventures, here is the video playlist for a catch-up.

Image of the Month

Looking down Homfray Channel at the pointed peak of Mount Denman near Desolation Sound Marine Park on the British Columbia coast.

Thanks for subbing to my monthly newsletters. I appreciate it. Cheers! Ray

Check out the updated Love Your RV & Boat Amazon Shop

Amazon now allows video uploads to my shop page. Over the summer, I have been slowly adding a selection of past review videos to my Amazon shops on both the USA and Canada sites. There are now over 100 videos showing items I use in the RV or on the boat or reviewed favorites. In the future, I’ll still publish reviews on YouTube and then upload a modified version to Amazon if the item is available there.

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