The Broughton Archipelago is located east of Vancouver Island and made up of hundreds of islets and a few big islands. It is the farthest north we are able to travel this summer as work is calling…
Thoughts on Cruising Guides
We have a collection of over ten cruising guides just for our area on board. Most of them haven’t been updated in years and contain a lot of outdated information. Some guides add a new date to the cover annually but don’t actually go out and confirm the information. In BC, we made a stop where we were expecting a small grocery store that was mentioned in a couple of our guides – it had been closed for several years. In Mexico, I was nearly arrested on a beach that was praised in our cruising guide.
Our favorite guides on this trip have been the Salish Sea Pilots. They have a chartlet for EVERY listed anchorage showing exactly where to anchor and attach to the shoreline – most guides simply write a short blurb about the destinations. The Salish Sea Pilots are only available electronically, which at first I thought was a drawback but it makes them easy to navigate, zoom, search, and switch back and forth between the overview chart and the chartlet.
Most of the coast line up here is made up of dense trees so we were excite to find a beach. These shell beaches are ancient middens and some are protected archeological sites.
I have a kayak and Mike has a SUP. Both are inflatable to minimize damage to the big boat and to be able to easily store them when they are not needed (when inflated we use this storage rack). They are also much easier to use to go to shore. The tides are quite large here so a dinghy can easily end up high and dry if a trip to shore isn’t timed well. It is much quicker to launch and beach a kayak or SUP than a heavy dinghy with a 15hp outboard. Mike likes to use the SUP to run our lines to shore, too. 
I always have a few sarongs on hand to make shade. 
Lion’s Mane Jellyfish – the largest known jellyfish.
Underway to the next destination.
We haven’t been doing too well with the shrimp pot but we have been eating a lot of fresh crab!
Witch’s Hair = clean air and old-growth trees
Happy hour aboard the Limerick.
Sometimes it rains and we have to stay inside or bundle up.
Watch standing, whale watching, and enjoying a freshly baked scone. All from the comfort of a dry, heated cabin. That’s why we chose trawler life. 
The vase is attached with museum putty which I re-use endlessly. 
We like to tie to shore, even in areas where it’s not needed, to keep the boat from sailing around at anchor. 
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