After Vancouver we make a small trip in the Fraser river to see the yard were we will go for our winter works, and we start our rounding of Vancouver island. Discovery passage, Desolation Sound, Johnstone Strait, Squirrel Cove, Octopus Islands, Alert Bay, Columbia Cove, Nuchatlitz, Hot springs Cove, Ucluelet…all these places are full of history, a maze of islands, fjords, rapids where the currents can be violent, up to 15 knots, all these anchorages we discover, making slowly our way up to the North, with its rains and fogs. The fauna differ : the sea birds are different, loons, auklets, murres, tufted puffins, the sea otters savour their crab while crawling, the whales are here too. The black bears stay on the the beaches, turning the stones in search of food. We will meet some ashore also, a little too close…We will not see the wolfes, nor the grizzli of Port Harvey, but he will impeach us to hike too far.
Alert bay, in the North, cultural center of the First Nations. The museum is extraordinary, we really enter in the indian culture, and the totems in the village are not only for the show : when they are not the pride of the band they stand in the graveyards, ultimate tribute to the deads.
The west coast is more beautiful, more wild and our meetings more scarce, but more special : so with Bob, in Nuchatlitz, who established here more than 40 years ago, who made all by his own hands : his house, his work shops, the oyster farm, his boat and all this at hours by sea from the first village. He will offer us vegetables from his garden to welcome us, and in the evening the neighbours will invite us for a memorable dinner, with a salmon fished and barbecuded by Bob…At the Hot springs we will take the bath of the year, we could feel in a hammam !
Ucluelet, our last call before Victoria were we took shelter from the first big storm of the season and where we could admire the millenars red cedars on the “Wild Pacific Trail”. The canadian geese flights follow each other, filling our nights with their calls, they migrate southward. Autumn is here, it’s time to come back.

« ‹ 1 of 2 › »

Summer in Vancouver had been rich : rich in reunions, in joy and feelings. Manon and Enzo, the oldest of our grand childs, discover at their turn British Columbia, and meet us again, after 3 years of parting ! Despite of the time it was as if we had left them a few days ago. They have their marks on Skoiern, and in the evenings, when we come back from our walks we play relentness card games, it’s difficult to get old like this ! It’s the discovery of Vancouver, Stanley Park and his aquarium, his totems, Canada Place, the Gastown steam clock, Granville island, False Creek anchorage with his floating houses, just in the city center…It’s the discovery of Nanaimo and Newcastle island, the indian reserve, and the meeting of owls, Canada geese, racoons, deers, otters, eagles, herons, seals… A trip in waterplane, with the fly over our boat…Reunion also with our swedish friend Pele, here in Vancouver for a meeting ( the sailors always meet themselves, every where in the world ! ). The indian totems are now part of our world, an eagle watch over our lounge, joining our tiki from Fatu Hiva.
The kids have gone, they will come back in Brazil to see Rio de Janeiro, we made the promise, and we hope they will succeed in persuasing their brother and sister to come with them.

« ‹ 1 of 2 › »

Nuku Niva, our last call in the Marquesas. Here, despite the music and the dances, we prepare ourselves for the great crossing waiting for us : repair our computers who obviously don’t like the salty air, embark the last foodstuffs, here you can find nearly everything, we will keep the vegetables for 2 weeks, the lemons and grapefruit even more, the scurvy will not be for us!
A last wonderful anchorage in Hanakena, where the village is full of fruits and suckling pigs who eat only bananas and coconuts…The way to the waterfalls is an ancient royal road, the valley was much more populated before, as it’s common in the Marquesas, civilization has passed here also.
To be sure to come back one day we have thrown our flower collars and crowns in the bay, but the trade winds already catch us and we take our course true North.

Crossing the equator fishing comes again and this “tazar” 5 feet long, 30 pounds of weight will feed us for about one month ! Fresh, dried, in preserves, all is good ! Some stowaways : a falcon who couldn’t stay on bord, the brown bobies don’t agree, swarms of “St John boats”, as in the Med, and some folks of dolphins meet us. The trade wind follow us up to the latitud of Hawaï and then the high pressure start playing with us : calms, gales, but in fact we are not in a hurry to arrive, the days fly quietly, nearly no boats, only the polution, plastics, fishing gears, sadden us.
Some days before landing sharks will visit us and a whale make his show, jumping out of the water. The cold catch us, we enter the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and it’s Canada !
Nanaimo, Vancouver island : after 37 days at sea, 4292 nautical miles, we are back to civilisation, but here, at anchor in front of Newcastle island, indian reserve of the Snuneymuxw, we stay in nature, and what nature ! The Canada geese wander with their chicken while herons are served in the nest, deers come to graze at night, seals paddle, eagles lurk around in the air, and plovers, ducks, hu ming birds, squirels, racoons fill our walks. Wild life burst, in water as on land, and all this close to the town, that’s British Columbia !

We take some time to care of our Skøiern, 3 month of sailing since Panama have washed all the varnish !

« ‹ 1 of 2 › »

Tahuta and his church, the “Aranui 3” more a liner than a schooner, and then Atuona at Fatu Hiva, where we make a pilgrimage to the tombs and in the museums of Paul Gauguin and Jacques Brel.

Many things have changed since their “visit”,but the magic of the islands is still there.

We will soon leave them, these islands, on the way for Vancouver, some weeks at sea, some thousands of miles more, we will tell you.