Debbie and I decided to slip away this Christmas for a quiet and romantic Christmas aboard Treylya.  We were really looking forward to our break away from the rat race and enjoying some alone time.

We left our itinerary open as it’s been a cold, wet couple of weeks and we weren’t sure how the weather was gonna be.  As luck would have it we were greeted to a beautiful sunny morning on Saturday and we headed out to the boat with our supplies.

We stopped for fuel at the marina and motored out of the harbour past the various boats at anchor.  Some of these boats look to be in pretty rough shape and I assume people just leave them anchored here for free.

We were going to make it a quick trip and head to Genoa Bay for a night but since the weather was so nice we decided to head toward Ganges.  The winds picked up when we were out in the main passage but it was a very cold north wind so we decided not to raise the sails…  Yes, I’m a bit of a coward when it comes to the cold.  Sailing is not much fun in sub freezing temperatures when the wind is biting into your bones.  We enjoyed a slow chug along Prevost Island and the wind subsided so we caught some rays on the deck.

It was such a beautiful day that we decided to continue north to Wallace Island.  I have a Phantom 4 Pro drone that I haven’t been able to fly when we’re out in harbours like Montague or Ganges because we are too close to areas where sea planes take off and land.  Due to the strict rules I haven’t had the chance to do much flying since I’ve come to BC so we planned to head to Wallace which is not in restricted airspace.  Wallace Island is the little island just at the top center on the following (way too red) map:

We pulled into Conover Cove and to our delight we had the whole place to ourselves.  What a perfect way to spend a few days during the holidays.

After getting Treylya tied up we went for a walk to stretch our legs and explore this little marine park.  Wallace Island Marine Park is a beautiful little marine park with a rich history.  There is quite a bit of information about it’s history on the web so I won’t go into it here.

http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/explore/parkpgs/wallace/

The trees were straight and tall and the little island had quite a bit of character.

We came back just as the sun was setting so we spent a few minutes marvelling at the beauty and peacefulness as the sun drifted below the horizon.

We retired back on board Treylya and spent the evening talking, cooking, drinking and laughing.  Ah, life’s good…

The next day we went for a little walk to explore the island.  There is a little collection of old houses and huts near the dock, one of them full of signs with names of boats that have stopped there.  It was fun reading the different signs and exploring around.

We hiked to Princess Cove, another little cove where we stayed back when we first got Treylya.  Deb packed a little lunch and we stopped to eat at a little lookout facing the water.  The silence was broken by a motor boat which slowly steamed past us and disappeared out of sight.

We finished our trail lunch and hiked back to Treylya, stopping at an old rusty truck which was sitting in a field.  Apparently this truck was own by David Conover who purchased the island after the Second World War.

We walked back to Treylya and found that we were not alone any longer.  That boat that steamed past us had stopped here for the night so we had company at the dock.

We relaxed, and ate and drank the night away.  I wasn’t completely happy with the way the stove was burning so before bed, and after a few too many whiskey’s I decided to give the stove a tap with a wrench to try to clear some crud in the lines and increase the oil flow.  This worked for me in the past so in my wisdom I figured it would work again…

We woke up around 4am in the pitch black with the stove gone out and it was freezing…  As long as we stayed snuggled under the sleeping bag it was tolerable but barely…  I couldn’t do anything about it in the dark so decided to roll over and fall back to sleep.  After a fitful few hours rest the sun came up so we scrambled out of bed, put our warm cloths on and I set out to see what the problem was.  Turns out either the wrench I used was a little too big, the force I used was a little too excessive, or a combination of both but I had broken a little screw that keeps the gas flowing.  Groan…  I straightened out things and fired her back up and she ran perfect.  Those Dickinson’s are great little stoves…

It was Christmas morning so we opened a few gifts and I spent the rest of the morning flying drone and relaxing.

We decided to head back to Ganges so that it would be a quick trip back to Sidney on the 26th as Deb had to work on the 27th so we needed to be back in Victoria.  Also we wanted to make sure we had shore power for the electric heaters in case the diesel heater crapped out again.

After a nice long warm night sleep we packed up and headed for home.  It was a pretty uneventful trip back until we got back to Sidney where we passed a sunken sailboat just outside the marina.  One of those older boats must have sprung a leak and all that was showing was the tip of the mast!  Someone has their work cut out for them in the coming weeks…