Okay, I know that the economy is hurting and the state doesn’t have a lot of extra money lying around, but what’s up with letting our ferries look this shabby?  We snapped this picture of the Hyak yesterday at Friday Harbor. Just look at the rust covering the sides. It’s embarrassing.  Washington state ferries are one of the iconic [...]

Nanaimo is a good place to provision and get boat parts, with a large grocery store and chandleries conveniently located near marinas. But the city is worth a visit as a destination in its own right.

We were getting tired. The wind was blowing more than 20 knots out of the southeast, right in line with our intended destination. The white-capped seas were square and steep. We crashed into oncoming waves every few seconds. The boat was heeled over, and each carelessly stowed item seemed to make itself known with a [...]

Something that goes hand-in-hand with cruising is traveling to get back from where you are cruising at. Whether it’s half-way around the world or just a few hundred miles up the coast, if you have a slow boat and commitments back home, you’re going to be taking some third-party transportation at some point. Depending on [...]

Hot Springs Cove is a bit of a landmark on the West Coast. Natural hot springs, owned by the province, reached by hiking 2k on a wooden boardwalk through old growth rainforest. Better yet, they are only reached by personal pleasure craft, water taxi or…

By popular demand, here is the anchor chain marking system that we use on Bella Star.  If you ask 10 people what marking system they use, you’ll probably get 10 different answers.  We wanted something visual, simple and void of complicated …

Just caught this at the end of a Bellingham Herald story about a local boat building business: Nordic Tugs announced last week it will temporarily close its Burlington manufacturing plant on Tuesday, Aug. 31. While most employees will be furloughed, a skeleton staff will remain to field customer inquiries and maintain the plant in readiness [...]

Our anchor chain was just starting to show some light rust on a few links, so I decided to have it regalvanized.  With the boat on the hard, we backed the car up to the boat and transferred the chain to the trunk of our car.  250 feet of 3/8-…

I didn’t know exactly what to expect as we rounded the point and entered Snug Cove. But after two days in the bustle of Vancouver’s Coal Harbour, we were looking for someplace quiet and relaxing.   The cruising guides agreed that this was a must stop for us on our quick tour of Howe Sound. But [...]

Recreational crabbers have just over a week left to drop their pots before crab fishing closes in most areas of the region. Seven areas of Puget Sound will close to crab fishing at sunset on Labor Day, Sept. 6, including marine areas 6 (eastern Strait of Juan de Fuca), 8-1 (Deception Pass to East Point), [...]