Friday July 27th – Today we left Squirrel Cove and headed to a new to us destination just at the start of Toba Inlet called Toba Wilderness. They recently put in all new docks and a nice covered gathering place on land but that’s all there is. It’s a remote location, all their power is provided via a diesel generator and water comes from the falls just above the docks.

Skylar and Zack got in the dinghy we were pulling behind the boat and started fishing just off the docks. Before we even got tied up they had 2 nice Yellow Eye Rockfish.

Once tied up we shut the generator off and plugged in to shore power. The generator was running while we were underway because we had the washer and dryer going. Now on shore power, we didn’t need the generator to run the equipment, but I noticed that we were not getting full 240 or 220 volt power at the dock. It was only 188 volts.

We all hiked to the waterfall up a trail then took the dinghies out to go swimming. Lots of fun in the hot weather and we found a waterfall that shot out into the sea. I got the nose of the dinghy so close it doused Skylar and filled our boat with what felt like 10 gallons of water. A super fun day filled with incredible views.

(Sub story below. Related to the voltage at the dock. Well not actually related, but I thought it was)
Ok, I’m going to fast forward a couple days, so I can tell this whole stupid story in one post. The following all happened over the course of the next several days. After leaving the dock the next day our dryer would not turn on. Todd and I checked that we had power getting to the dryer, which we did, and I also noticed the dryer door would not shut. However, the dryer power light indicator would not turn on. I figured that because of the low voltage situation at the dock we had fried the main board and the latch that keeps the door locked when in use had locked in the closed position with the door open when the board fried.

After a lot of phone calls and help from Kurt at American Tugs we found a new board at a parts supplier in California. Skylar had a couple friends flying up in a few days, so I had the board shipped to his friend’s house, so he could bring it up with him when he came up on the floatplane. I was proud of my resourcefulness.

For the next week and a half, we hung our clothes out to dry on the boat, luckily it was hot.

When the parts arrived, I installed the new board. Much to my frustration after install it still didn’t work!! I must have done something wrong I thought, so I went back and checked my work. Still didn’t work. Super frustrated I asked for help. Todd’s dad had his brother Brian onboard and he owns an auto repair shop, so I asked him for help. He went through everything and all checked out ok.

Then Brian discovered something very disturbing. Turns out the dryer didn’t turn on because the door wasn’t shut, and the door wasn’t shut because the lint trap was in backwards!!!! There was never anything wrong with the dryer! All we had to do is turn the lit trap around, so the door would shut.

I’m not even sure why I am writing this in the blog. I consider myself to be fairly mechanically inclined, but this was not one of my better moments.

Wednesday July 25th – Its Skylar’s birthday! 17 today, hard to believe. We pulled our anchor in Pendrell sound and headed for Squirrel Cove just a few miles away.

We rafted to our friends then had to take a swim because the heat was turning us loco. After cooling off we all ran the dinghies to the Squirrel Cove store just outside the bay to get some groceries. Well, groceries may be the wrong word, this store is more like a limited stock convivence store with random items, you never know what you are going to get. However, when you are up here you take what you can get. More importantly we were able to get much needed fuel for the dinghies.

Squirrel Cove has a huge saltwater lagoon that sits behind the bay. There’s one narrow channel that fills the lagoon at high tide and empties it at low tide. During the fill and empty phase, the channel runs like a river in reversing directions. It’s fun to swim it, kayak it or in our case take the dinghies through during the fill phase.

With the motors up Todd and I floated our dinghies through in some skinny water. Once inside its pretty deep (40’ in some spots) and makes a perfect spot to go fast pulling the kids around on the tube. They had a blast all taking turns as they got flung around the lagoon at 25mph. Zach and Ava needed some weight, so they went together, their blond hair flowing in the wind they looked exactly like brother and sister.

Now getting out of the lagoon was not so easy. The tide had not filled enough to match the level of the sea outside, so it was a flowing uphill battle. First, we tried to motor out, but the water was flowing too fast and it was too shallow. With Julie in the dinghy I pulled the boat walking in the water up to my waist through the current. Not an easy task, and now that I think about it why was Julie just sitting in the boat getting pulled by my donkey like strength!! Anyway, it turned out good because when we got to deeper water, she lowered the motor and gave it some gas to help us out of the flowing water. I jumped on and we both plowed through to an eddy and picked up the kids on shore.

Todd’s boat being quite a bit heavier than ours took a little more muscle. With two lines coming off the bow one person pulled from shore while the other person pulled from the opposite shore. It worked, but got pretty “squirrely” at one point when Zach, who was in the boat tried to power out in the deeper spot and started heading straight for a rock. He saved it, but it was close!

Skylar had a great 17th birthday dinner of tacos (his choice) with all 3 boats rafted together, and everyone having a great time. Happy birthday Skylar!!

The next day was spent in Squirrel Cove again, swimming and relaxing. We made a 6-mile dinghy run to Teakerne Arm where there’s an amazing waterfall with Cassel lake right above. A short hike leads to the lake where we swam in the warm fresh water.

Monday July 23^rd– Time to stay put for a few days anchored in Pendrell Sound.  The weather is HOT!, and we are in the perfect place to enjoy the heat.  Water temperatures at 76 degrees makes it easy to jump off the boat and cool off.

Lots to do here and an absolutely beautiful place to do it in.  Swimming in the warm water it’s hard to believe as you look up a 5,000-foot mountain that has snow on it.

In Vancouver, an impulse purchase had us carrying home a wake surfboard.  We wanted to try and pull it behind the dinghy. We knew the dinghy wouldn’t be able to produce a wake to use it as a true wake surfer, but we were just looking for something fun to mess around on.  Skylar went first and got right up.  He got the feel of it then started carving back and forth.  Lots of fun but then it was my turn.  I jumped in the 1,000-foot-deep water and Skylar gunned it to pull me up. The first try was a no go! I thought I was going to drown as the little 30 horsepower dinghy tried to pull me out of the water.  On the 2^ndtry I found that if I hung on long enough, water trying to make its way in, in every way possible, I would eventually pop out of the water and surf on the top.  It was fun!, and exhausting!  On my last run I got a little too confident and caught an edge while carving.  This resulted in a huge faceplant that caused a major headache.  It was worth it, but there’s going to be some sore muscles.

Over the next couple days, we all had a blast.  One minute you are swimming and the next you are pulling up a shrimp pot with dinner. Fishing, shrimping, picking huckleberries, swimming, wakeboarding, rope swing into the water, hiking, kayaking, paddle boarding, all in one location makes for a really fun place to be!