Sailing Vessel Karma

“It isn’t too common you find people out at your age doing this….”, we’ve heard from pretty much everyone our senior as we have bounced from rock to rock up and down the West Coast of North America. It seems almost as if the more people tell us that the more we find ways to have that not be true!

While in Pruth Bay, Calvert Island, Central Coast, we met the current rotation of the, at that point, crew of 4 aboard the yacht, Ashram. Based out of the Lower Mainland, Captain Tobin had bought Ashram with no sailing knowledge to do a grand tour of his lovely country’s West Coast with an ever rotating group of crew from his friends back home who were hopping aboard for whatever length of time they had available during the summer. Currently aboard was Tobin, Mark, Sarah, and Zoe, the latter of which will be featured in a number of articles to come.

As we had overstayed what we were planning to in Pruth Bay by 600%, when the wind came and the other kids boat was thinking of leaving we decided to convoy to a waypoint given to us by SV Qualia and raft up once there. Picking up anchor at the same time we both motored out the channel we went fishing in the other day into the wind for an up wind battle in 25kts and open ocean swell. This was the first time we had sailed in a stiffer breeze with actual open ocean swell so it was an interesting experience and quite tiring. It was entertaining to watch as Ashram and Karma dashed back and forth trying to make headway between tacks and slowing, over the course of the day, coming to the realization that in the swell you don’t make much headway going directly into the wind.

The B.C. coast at this point turns into a complete maze of islands which are often times only a few boat widths wide and therefore present many many options for getting up to little nooks and crannies where safe anchoring can be found. We decided, as we weren’t making any headway, to duck into one of these such channels as it looked like we would be able to connect and wind our way through to make it to our predetermined spot. Ashram took the outside root as they were having engine fuel issues and beat upwind for a bit longer before they entered a different channel leading to the same spot a bit further north.

Of course, as always seems to happen to us, they beat us by a few minutes but we both had extremely scenic routes we found between the hundreds of islets. Arriving in the evening before the sun went down, the raft up procedure was straight forward and before long we were all lounging around planning to go ashore and make a beach fire at sunset.

It was fun hearing about the different walks of life and how everyone came to having part of a summer free to go sailing about on Ashram. Mark and Sarah are from Quebec where they are studying and Zoe does avalanche prediction in the snowier skiier parts of British Columbia. We also learned about the Canadian Ceaser drink and how to howl for wolves with the proper BC accent.

From there we parted ways for what we thought would be longer than it was. We set off through the mess of channels and waterways heading for Shearwater/Bella Bella to get groceries, fuel, and see what it was all about. North of here there are pretty much no services available until you get to Prince Rupert way at the top of the B.C. Coast so it is prudent to stock up when possible. We had a beautiful trip motoring in small windless channels winding our way up to the bay where the two towns oppose each other on opposite islands across a bay. Shearwater has the fuel and the groceries so we anchored just off the dock and were told by SV Astrolab that there was maybe some sort of a dock party going on. Tired and hot as we were, we first went off in search for poutine at the only restaurant in Shearwater, which delivered by the way, before walking down the single dock to see what all the fuss was about.

We find that every single boat on the dock is participating! It is a joint birthday party for two people but just all around a good time. Highlights were meeting Mark and Mary from MV Sinbad, who you will hear much of later, as well as Jan on the Nauticat 46 and Masha from SV Harmony, captained by Masha, both on their way down from Alaska. We ended up spending most of the night on the dock and then aboard Harmony getting to know more lovely water based souls and what to look forward to up north. Everyone was telling us north of Cape Caution would be desolate with no people around for months, so far it was not really living up to that, but we aren’t complaining.

The following day we thought we’d head over on the ferry to Bella Bella across the bay from Shearwater. It is a small Native First Nation Village, home of the Helitsuk tribe. Upon arriving we found Ashram had just pulled up to the one dock space in Bella Bella and so we thought we’d spend the day as one big tourist group with our combined crews. Jan, crew off of the Nauticat returning from a failed North West Passage attempt, was also sitting solo so we incorporated him and we set off to wander around the 4 or 5 streets Bella Bella has to offer. Sadly, the longhouse was closed but we were quickly approached by a stranger who was very excited we came to visit their village. They gave us the run down on what is going on in town and told us there is an issue with littering as it isn’t seen as too important by the town residents. We then proceeded to pick up litter as we wandered around for the rest of the day. We literally could not make it an entire block without a stranger coming up to us and starting a conversation. Everyone in the village was so welcoming and interested in our stories and wanted to share theirs with us along with helpful tips for dealing with the wildlife and such.

We decided, instead of taking the 15 minute ferry back to Shearwater, that we’d all just sail Ashram back for another raft up and dinner party aboard Karma, I mean, why not? Due to their engine issues, Ashram is a staunch sailboat, we only just reversed out of the dock before we had the sails up and were drifting at 2kts back towards Shearwater. It wasn’t long before we had the trolling lines out with a diver, flasher and hoochie in tow hoping to catch a salmon for our dinner party before we got back to Karma. Unfortunately the wind totally died so we motored the second half of the 3nms back without a fish. That doesn’t mean the dinner party wasn’t a success!

Of course, since we are in the small remote village portion of the Canadian Central coast, the social hour wasn’t over yet. We headed to shore with some Molsons to hang out aboard SV Astrolab, also out of the Lower Mainland, and exchange some sailing stories. They are long term friends of Tobins and have been sailing the inside passage up and back every summer for the last bunch of years aboard their Mapleleaf sloop named for the antique navigation instrument. No, sadly they did not have on onboard to show us how to use it.

From here it was northwards for us. Ashram was heading to Bela Coola, more inland up a fjord, to hit a hotsprings before heading to the West Coast of Vancouver Island to the south. Astrolab was staying in the Central Coast area before heading south on the inside route and Jan as crew was heading south back towards Vancouver where the boat would go up for sale. We also saw the last of Masha for a while as she heads back to Quadra for the winter, hoping to sail the Central Coast one more time aboard Harmony before heading south the following season. This is where we picked up our third crew member for the next leg of our journey. Zoe was hoping to get further north aboard Ashram but their engine plans dictated a change so she jumped ship for the ever reliable (cough cough) Karma as we headed up towards Prince Rupert over the next 3 to 4 weeks.

Where to next? Well we aren’t too sure. The next known stop is the west coast of Campania Island, some 100 or so miles north, where Linda and Murat from SV Qualia told us it was the most beautiful beach they’d ever seen. Sounds good to us, as the Hakai Institute’s beaches at Purth Bay were up there for us and that’s where we’d met them. So off for whatever is between us and that!