A night at Burgoyne Bay

On Sunday, we left the home dock and transited to Burgoyne Bay. On our way, we stopped by the fuel dock at Maple Bay Marina and filled Baywolf’s tanks. A quick $605 (more on this later) and we left for Burgoyne. After a short 40 minute transit, we anchored in 25’ of water.

Burgoyne is not the Burgoyne of yesterday. It has been cleaned up tremendously. Great for an overnight or a lunch hook.

We anchored close to the main dock as we had plans for hikes and wanted to have as short a dingy ride as possible. For those that don’t know, I do not like rowing! Going backward drives me nuts. I love canoeing but I do not enjoy rowing at all!!! Holly does a lot of the rowing and this weekend was no exception!!! We do have power for the dingy, both electric and gas but, simple is often easiest!

For Sunday afternoon, we did a short hike from the main dock to Daffodil Point (3.5km) and enjoyed a sunny view of the water and a very relaxing “sun-soak” at the actual point.

Sunday evening was our typical amazing dinner (Holly is a galley master) and a few games of crib. I fussed over the ship systems (I seemed to to be obsessed with our DC power equipment) and GPS monitoring of our anchor position. I was only up once during the night to check…. It was very calm and the tides were not extreme. We have a new 15kg Rocnar anchor and I feel it’s amazing. As well, we have a 200 foot , all chain rode anchor system which is probably overkill but gives me a lot of comfort.

Monday morning…. Ok, later morning! We rose and had a French toast and sausage feast (no fear of starvation on any of our trips!). Back to the dingy and the start of our hike to the top of Mt. Maxwell. The entire hike was only 7km but the climb up was pretty arduous. Perspiration happened! The views from the top were worth the effort and we enjoyed actual warmth against the rocks with the full sun beating down on us. It was incredible for January! The hike down was much quicker and we got back to the boat with plenty of time to get home by our target time of 4:30p

OK, about the fuel. Since we moved from our beloved sailboat (Catalina 30, Someday), we have stressed about the cost of the game. It really isn’t cheap. It costs $30 an hour to run this boat at 7 to 8 knots. Maybe $25 an hour if we slow down to 6 knots.

It has a massive engine (7.4 liter, 454ci) and it likes fuel (It also boosts my testosterone readings by 10 points at least!!!). To go to Chaterbox Falls and back is an $800 trip. To go to Desolation Sound and beyond is $1,500 and more. In comparison, the Sailboat was free. We cruised, under power, for 10 hours and burned 20 liters of diesel. That’s about $5 an hour compared to $30. We also liked the sailboat a lot for other reasons…. It’s comfort below decks for example. How do we justify this?

Baywolf is a 26’ Tolly. It is the perfect micro cruiser. It has everything…. A head, a galley, a dinette, a vee berth (that is actually better than the sailboat), a massive (for it’s size) open cockpit at the rear of the boat, a simple davit system for the dingy… and a fly bridge! I love the fly bridge and you will find me up there in weather fine or foul. But the real reason…

The boat lives on a dock at the end of the lawn…. Right here! I cannot express the joy of being able to go down to the dock and work on the boat, fuss over stuff and be at the water. My heart swells with the opportunity to be closer to water in this way. It may be a little unfortunate that the sailboat drew too much water to be suitable for this dock but, we are learning to love the power boat. And truth told, the sailboat was a 4.5 knot power boat 90% of the time anyway. The wind just does not blow here the way a sailor would wish.

So, we budget our trips and pay the fuel bill!!! We have all kinds of justifications…. “Well, it costs $120 to fill the truck up and we don’t fuss over that”, or “we don’t have to go far to enjoy the boat”, or “the cost of moorage at a marine would pay for 185 hours of cruising per year”, or “well, we don’t use coke”, or “we prefer to vacation here vrs travelling to distant locations”, or “well, you only live once”. You get the idea!!!

We would probably spend $2,000 a year to go everywhere we normally go and then some. For those exceptional years when we go further away, we would budget for it. Bottom line… there is no justification for “wasting” this much money on boating. But it sure is fun!!! And sometimes, we see whales!!!

So, we are back home, we have may projects and planned trips. We are glad you are along with us for the journey!!!