Squirrel Cove, Desolation Sound N50 04, W123 54

We stopped in Comox overnight, but didn't take any pictures. Other than a very friendly wharfinger (that's Canadian for harbormaster) there isn't much to say about Comox, except that it seems to be the jumping off point for people headed to Desolation Sound.

Taking advantage of the long tacks across the Strait of Georgia we installed the Navico autopilot. This turned out to be quite the task. We lost some parts and had to improvise and reverse engineer the pinouts. With a cockpit like this one, it was a good thing it was a calm day and there were no tankers to worry about! We turned the boat upside down looking for the autopilot manual.

I found out it was easier to turn me upside down rather than the boat. We finally got it running and found that it was installed "backwards" so that it's compass readings were 180 degrees from our course. Being engineers ( nerds ) we opened that gadget up, found the "compass" ( actually a fluxgate for those of you who care ), and flipped it around in it's holder. After futzing with the gasket on the gadget for about an hour we finally got it back together, and now it reads properly!

Almost done, though as Chris puts it there's always one more thing that needs to be "gooed and screwed".

So this vacation thing is turning out to be a lot of work. Tomorrow I think I'll observe the Sabbath and crawl out of the lazarette and take a full day off from the gadgets. Chris says there's some beautiful scenery out there...

Oh yeah, we pulled into Squirrel Cove, our first stop in Desolation Sound. Desolation Sound was named by Captain Vancouver (the original explorer, not the monkey) in 1792, who wrote: "Our residence here was truly forlorn; an awful silence pervaded the gloomy forests...". In 1997 Captain Vancouver (the original monkey, not the explorer) wrote: "Our residence here was truly forlorn: an awful generator noise pervaded the crowded anchorage...". We counted at least 60 boats in Squirrel Cove. Plus one behemoth, looking like a large floating motor home, which ran a generator and kept the other 59 of us annoyed.

Rumor has it that there's a place in Squirrel Cove where one can get hot fresh cinnamon rolls...

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