British Columbia Coast | FindPenguins

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🇨🇦 Area B (Halfmoon Bay), Canada
British Columbia Coast Traveler
Smugglers Cove day two
Yesterday in Canada ⋅ ☀️ 61 °F
Very pleasant night here last night. This morning I learned that our local assessors back home did not agree to my request to lower their appraisal on our home. They raised our appraisal 4.6% from last year, while all the data I have found shows 1.6% is the market increase. I have spent a lot of time in the past getting our appraisal to an accurate number, using free market analysis and then monitoring the data of what the market is doing. The appraisers have been within reason for several years, but not this year. So I sent a request to appeal to our City Clerk to forward to the Board of Review…. Then I went for a kayak ride around the cove here. Back to the boat for lunch. While getting ready to take the kayak to shore, I noticed a weird animal or something, swimming near C-Traveler. I got on my kayak to head over to shore to go hiking, but first stopped next to the snorkler to see what he was doing. We had a nice conversation, and I learned he had ridden his motorcycle in to the marine park here, put on his wet suit and was looking at the water life. He informed me that he had seen several large crabs, so after hiking around the park, I came back and dropped my crab pot in. Soon after starting my hike, Bill and Mike arrived around 1:30p. They reported a pretty bouncy ride out on the Strait. They got anchored and set up, then off they went to explore the cove in their Kaboats. During my hike, I looked for and found a geocache. There were some descriptive signs along the trail describing some of the plant life and early life here in the cove. Smugglers Cove was once the home of the “King of the Smugglers”. It derived its name from a time when “assisting” Chinese laborers across the border into the United States was profitable. Checking my crab pot this afternoon, I see I already have some crab in it. Looking forward to seeing how many are in it in the morning. Seeing the crabs cheered me up. Getting back on my kayak after my hike, my handheld marine radio must have fallen off the kayak, as it was gone before my next stop.Read more
TravelerCheer up Colby. You are in nature’s paradise. You have an Interesting trip , and it is fun to follow you on your major Expedition Cruise. Jim
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British Columbia Coast Traveler
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Smuggler Cove
April 30 in Canada ⋅ ⛅ 61 °F
Nice peaceful night last night on False Creek. I forgot to mention yesterday, that our anchorage out of the main Fraser River channel, in a small open cove, wasn’t so great. Waked all night long by passing ships and tugs, that rolled and rocked the boat. So last night made for great sleep! This morning, Mike wanted to go to a museum, so he and Bill spent the first half of the day in Vancouver, before heading out 20 miles for some bays just north of Cowen Island. While I very much enjoyed the Cannery museum in Steveson, I came on this adventure for nature and the scenery. So I split from Bill and Mike this morning, and came 40 miles to Smugglers Cove. Not to worry, the three of us will join up again tomorrow, so I’ll get some down time tomorrow to explore the cove and some of the trails around the marine park here. After I pulled anchor, I noticed Mike was having trouble getting his anchor up. He does not have an anchor windless, so got his workout this morning. He was able to finally get the anchor up beside the boat and saw that it had snagged a 1” diameter steel cable. Cable was probably buried in mud. He was able to get his anchor freed from the cable, and let the cable drop back down. So any fellow boaters visiting False Creek, beware of the bottom if you anchor at the very end in the corner near Science World! The ride in the Strait of Georgia was pretty rough today. First hour was pretty good leaving False Creek. The next three or four hours, in 1 ½ to 2 foot choppy seas. Then the last two hours were relatively smoother, with just some light chop (waves less than a foot.) This is a beautiful cove with several basins. I anchored in the inner basin. There are four or five other boats here. Sail boats and some larger trawlers. The inner basin is more shallow, so for tonight, I have it to myself. There are stern ties along the shore; basically chains that are anchored in rock. That’s to keep the boats from swinging, as the cove and basins are small. I ran a long line thru one of the chain links, and secured both ends back at the stern of my boat. That’ll allow me to just pull the line through when I’m ready to leave, so I won’t have to untie it first. Somewhere I read the mosquitoes here are bad. As the sun set, that was not a lie… Before leaving Vancouver, I decided to top off my fuel, even though I had only burned 18 of my 100 gallons. Although, I think I added just shy of 20 gallons, if I did my conversion from Liters correctly. Doing all the math, the end result with exchange rates, I paid $6.75/g for non-ethanol. Not as bad as I thought it would be. But I expect it’ll be more in some of the more remote locations as we go north.Read more
Traveler So pretty
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Traveler Look at all the pretty trees around C-Traveler
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TravelerI do love trees, lol!
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Vancouver False Creek
April 29 in Canada ⋅ ☀️ 61 °F
Underway by 7:30a this morning. Turned off into the North Arm of the Fraser River to head west, back out to the Strait of Georgia. Nice ebb current behind us. Rounded University Hill Noon Breakfast Point, and entered Burrard Inlet to make our way into downtown Vancouver’s False Creek. Pretty much smooth sailing all the way. The North Arm was filled with log booms along the shore. And various tugs that work them. My favorite being the “bumper tugs”. I’ve seen video of them where they just kind of bounce around rolling to push the logs into position. Before turning off the main Fraser River channel, watched a couple tugs assisting a RORO (roll on roll off car freighter) get docked. Once we were anchored at the end of False Creek, Bill and Mike got their Kaboats down and went exploring. I eventually got my peddle Hobie kayak down, and peddled around the bay here. The three of us are anchored between Science World and the Rogers Arena.Read more
Traveler That is a nice site
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Traveler Nice capture of all 3 boats
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Traveler Thanks Bill
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British Columbia Coast Traveler
Fraser River
April 29 in Canada ⋅ ⛅ 57 °F
Took over 200 photos today. How do you whittle that down to 25 to meet FindPenguins maximum photos per footprint? I called the Steveston Harbour Authority at 8am to find out my fee for staying on their dock last night. The person that answered the phone asked if she could call me right back as she needed to get the information. I went outside to check some stuff, and found a “Report to the office” notice to check in. Apparently one of the Harbour guys made a round at 10pm. The office gal did call me back. C$45, which worked out to around $35US I believe. There is no charge for day usage. Bill and Mike came over to the dock soon after. They walked around town while I continued my breakfast. At 10am I met them at the Gulf of Georgia Cannery Museum. Very interesting museum. After we spent some time walking through the museum, reading all the signage and examining all the machinery, one of the docents that I had asked some questions of, came back and offered us an impromptu tour. We took her up on it, and learned quite a bit more. Not really enough room here to share a full report. Just suffice it to say, very cool and interesting! After finishing up our tour there, we walked to the other end of town to see the Britannia Shipyards National Historic Site. While the Cannery was more about the work here, the Shipyards was more about the social or living life here. Again a very good museum. But I will admit I enjoyed the Cannery more so. While walking between the two museums, we looked over to the dock that Bill and Mike stayed on last night. The tide last night was only about half a low tide. The day time low tide was a full low tide. The dock was on land. This morning Bill was not able to put his motor all the way down due to the depth. Good thing it was only a partial low tide. And I really felt more comfortable about coming over to the Harbour Authority dock last evening. The side I would have docked on that other dock was more shallow than the side that Mystery Girl and Little Joe rafted on. I have a rather short attention span and finished seeing that last museum before Bill and Mike, so went to find some ice cream. Canada is the only place I’ve had it, “Tiger” flavor. It’s orange with a ribbon of black licorice! Took me three ice cream shops to find one that had it in this town. (And no, I didn’t have ice cream at the first two. Lol) After that I walked back to C-Traveler, made lunch, and waited for Bill and Mike to get back. We departed the dock around 3:30p and continued up a side channel to the Fraser River. Shortly after coming back out on the main River, we found a spot next to some industrial places to anchor for the night. We are about 10 miles east of Seveston.Read more
TravelerNice pictures of Colby and Mike, Bill too
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Steveston, Fraser River
April 28 in Canada ⋅ ⛅ 55 °F
This morning, Bill and Mike checked in with the Marina office, and then we took our trailers over to Bella Storage. We were able to park our vehicles in the marina parking lot. Finally on our way on the water around 11:30 am. First stop was at the customs dock in Whiterock. It is not a manned station, so we called Canadian Customs on our phones from there. All three of us got cleared, and then continued on 37 miles to the Fraser River. We are currently in Steveston. I stayed at the Steveston Harbor Authority transient dock, while Bill and Mike went across the small channel to an old dock that didn’t appear to be used for anything. Tomorrow morning we plan to go visit the Gulf of Georgia Cannery National Historic Site museum. The dock I’m at is the closest, so Bill and Mike will come over here tomorrow morning. (This dock has a fee, but the office was closed when I called, so I guess I’ll find out tomorrow what that fee is… The dock across the way was pretty small and water relatively shallow on one side. Wasn’t sure how much more of a tide drop, so I just felt more comfortable at the dock I’m at.) We were in pretty rough water for a little over an hour, earlier today. Mostly because we were parallel to the swells/waves, which were only about a foot in height.Read more
Traveler Wowsa! Very pretty
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Blaine, Washington
April 27 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 57 °F
Enjoyed C-Brats, Gary & Colleen, hospitality last evening. This morning I got to see their three cows and some chickens. If you know me, you know I'm like a little kid around farm animals. Only 350 miles to go today, so got a little bit of a late start, just a little past 8am. Traffic was busy in Portland, Or., and Seattle, Wa, but at least I wasn't in rush hour. Bill, who was coming from the east, met up with me at the River Rock Tobacco and Fuel stop in Arlington, Wa. Mike was still an hour or so behind Bill. I thought we were stopping at Angel of the Winds Casino, as another C-Brat friend from the area shared that would be the cheapest gas in the area. There were big signs along the highway for the exit, but then realized we actually stopped at River Rock. I think gas prices were the same as the Casino, and it was maybe another mile past River Rock. Lines were long at River Rock, not unlike Costco gas stations. After gassing the pickup, I left for our destination, Blaine Harbor. Bill was about 30 minutes behind me. The exit for Blaine's marina, is the last one before Canada. In fact, you could see Peace Arch at the Blaine exit. I got checked in at the marina, as I decided I would launch and stay in a marina slip tonight. Bill came straight to the boat launch, as the marina office was closed when he arrived. I finished prepping C-Traveler for launch, and then Bill helped me at the ramp. Mike arrived, and then he and Bill finished prepping their boats to launch, and joined me at the guest dock. They'll check in with the office tomorrow. We still need to take our trailers to where we are storing them, and then park our trucks and SUV in the marina's long term lot. I did a small load of laundry, and was happy to see the marina's laundry room only charged $2 for each, washer and Dryer.Read more
Traveler You got to see the cows
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Traveler And the chickens. You’re loving life
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Traveler Three peas on a pod
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British Columbia Coast Traveler
Williams, Ca, to somewhere Near Monmouth, Or
April 26 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 70 °F
Covered about 480 miles today. Originally I had planned to get to Salem, Or, and find a place to park for the night. However, Gary and Colleen, from DayBreak, offered for me to park at their farm in the country near Monmouth. Gary and Colleen are also the ones that coordinate/host the Friday Harbor gathering in May. They live about 20 miles off of I5, and it was too good of an offer to turn down. Especially since it was only about 20 miles less than I had planned to travel today anyway. I turned off at Albany, OR, where I stopped at Costco to top of C-Traveler with 65 gallons of gasoline, at the cost of $4.52/gallon. That's the cheapest gas between Sacramento and Blain, Wa., where I'll join Bill and Mike and launch. I stopped by Walmart to pick up a few things, including some Baked Chicken, salad and cookies to share with Gary and Colleen. They were just coming back from the Delta Extravaganza Cruise as well, and only got home about half hour before I got here. So one less thing for Colleen to do. (Fix supper.) They have a very nice place here. I got to meet the two Black Labs, but didn't get a chance to meet the chickens and cows. After supper, Gary helped me do some battery work. I've learned that the larger posts on the boat batteries, are more efficient than the screw posts. So I bought some connectors to fit over those posts, and then moved the wires from the screw posts, to those connectors. I'm hoping that helps the batteries to provide more voltage and capacity to run the freezer all night without causing a voltage drop that keeps my Webasto heater from running! No pictures this evening, but if I remember, maybe I can get some tomorrow before leaving.Read more
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British Columbia Coast Traveler
Earlier preparation for this trip.
April 25 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 61 °F
At the beginning of my Delta Extravaganza (California Delta) blog, I shared what was involved in getting ready for these two trips. The one thing I didn't mention, was the amount of stress finding Medical and Medevac Insurance to cover me while outside of the USA. Regular Medicare does not cover one outside of the US. There are several companies that provide Medical Insurance, Blue Cross and Blue Shield Global Solutions (use to be GeoBlue) one of the best in my mind. However, I learned they did not do medivacs off boats. In fact I couldn't find any of the companies that would medevac off a boat. The British Columbia coast can be very remote in many places, and there are few ports to dock at. Long story short, I did learn that BCBS will medevac if you can get your boat to land and it is possible for land or air ambulance to access. If a medical emergency happens while at sea, I guess we will depend on the Coast Guard to do the rescue. I was even told by a Divers Area Network (DAN) salesman, that they don't cover medevac off boats either, and their advertisements make it sound as if they do. SO my word to the wise here (fellow long range boaters), is make sure you are getting what you think you are getting.Read more
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Trip start
April 26, 2026