Fall Break in Korea

 We thought maybe it would be a good idea to leave the below freezing temps of Mongolia for the warmer climes of  Korea. We arrive at Incheon and took the super convenient subway to Seoul. We stayed in the Insadong District, where just walking the streets, day or night, is a treat...

 

We walked over to the sprawling Changdeok Palace, just the biggest palace in Korea.

Then we subwayed over to the Express Bus Terminal and, after an hour at the nearby TechnoMart, we boarded our luxury bus to Sokcho, on the coast, where Typhoon Chaba was stirring things up. This is the view down the pier at Sockcho, on Monday. The bronze sculpture is called the Love Tree. Believe it or not, the night before we were sitting quietly at the base of the Love Tree, but this morning things were a little different! There actually is a rather large island somewhere behind those waves smashing into the pier...

more to come...

Hiking above UB

We decided to go hiking up a valley that overlooks the city, Ulaanbaatar (UB).  This is where Kelly plans on taking one of her classes for an intergrated eco/science/nature/art session. But first, we have to get there. Climbing onto our bikes, we only have to ride a few miles up hill...

...until we get to the entrance to  Bogdkhan "Resort!"   Well, you can call it a resort, if you want, we call it a campground...

We lock up our bikes, walk around a couple of busy sports fields, and we are transported into a whole different Mongolia than the one we find in UB...

Wow, trees! Water, nature, fall colors, and a little snow (no sign of this in town). No sign of any of this in the tree-less, dirty, rubble-strewn streets of UB!

As we walked through wonderfully familiar fir, birch, and oak trees, we find that Mongolia suprises, yet again. Most of the fir trees...aren't!   They are larch. They are quite unique for conifers and another example of how you can expect the unexpected in Mongolia; your learning never stops. For example, last year we learned, first hand, that the Celsius and Fahrenheit temperature scales converge at -40 degrees. This week we learned that the larch is not only coniferous, but it is also deciduous... the needles change color in the fall and drop off for winter. Much of what looks to be fir in these pictures are actually larch...

Having escaped UB, we start our walk into an alternate Mongolia...

Soon, the trail begins to follow a lovely little creek...

The creek almost feels Zen-like in some places...

A glimpse, through the trees, of our objective...

This looks like a good place for a lunch...and it was!

Playing peek-a-boo with a couple of Birch trees...

 

Playing peek-a-boo with the city, over the tree tops...

We get to watch as a dark snow clouds descend the northern hills of UB, while ominous shadows also cover the south, leaving only the central ger district in sunlight.

Coming down the hill, a different peek-a-boo view of the far northeast side of the city...

Next, you can just see the blue, glass-walled Sail building downtown (click to enlarge the picture). It is the first architecturally interesting building that has been built since the Russians left. Completed last year, one corner is sinking due to shortcuts taken during construction of the foundation. It has been declared unsafe and now must be destroyed! We say, "TIM" - That is Mongolia

This is nature...

Still farther down the hill, the city comes more into view. In fact, in the foreground (in shadow), you can make out our school... a low, orange and blue building just in front of a large, cream-colored apartment complex. The apartment complex is where most of the teachers live, including us. Home sweet home...

Back on our bikes, we are nearly home before we stop to look back at the valley we have just been hiking in. At the valley entrance, Chinggis Khan watches over all...

His presence must be a powerful one. Since the death of Chinggis, Mongolia has been invaded by Chinese, Japanese, and Russians. But, since his return to this hillside, there have been absolutely no invasions! All is well!

Tears of Joy!

We are back in in God's Country, but after a year in Mongolia, we realize it is no joke to call the Pacific Northwest, God's Country... it really is! Between the natural beauty and the friendships we share, no one could ask for more. 

It took a few days, but we finally got Trust Me back in the water. Will, Cynthia, Robin, and Lainie, "forced" us out on a surprise shakedown cruise to Eagle Harbor, Cypress Island. Thanks guys, what a wonderful night!

After passing her shake down cruise, we pointed Trust Me north, but were intercepted by a speed boat! Colin and Stephanie heard us on the radio, and tracked us down on the west side of Lummi island, heading past Clarke Island. They used their cell phone to take the picture of Trust Me, above. We LOVE that picure! Matia Island was very nearby, so we anchored in her southeast bay and rafted up with Stephanie and Colin to catch up, after a year, over some beer and wine. 

After a reluctant goodbye and a night in a new anchorage all to ourselves, we head further north, with a few toys in tow...

 

We cross the the border into our favorite sailing waters in British Columbia and our stay at a brand new anchorage on Matia has reminded us to mix some new anchorages in with some old favorites. Straight away, we take our own advice as we are coasting up the west side of Pender Island and find tiny little Spinnaker Bay, as evening falls.


With just enough room to anchor amid a few local yachts, we head out in the kayaks to explore the sandstone rocks north of the entrance to this quaint little harbor.

The next morning finds us timing our arrival in Ganges, on Salt Spring Island, where we plan to meet Hannah and Trevor at noon. While we have been traveling for days in our sailboat, they make it from Bellinghan to Ganges in just a few hours in their powerboat. Togerther we explore the arts festival, the gelato shop, and art galleries. Dinner time finds us at our all-time favorite Ganges restaurant, The Treehouse. The dinner and live music was wonderful, as always.

The next morning, we meet again for coffee and then breakfast at Salt Spring Inn, across the street from the park. 

It is always fun to share Ganges with people who appreciate what it offers, like Hannah and Trevor, but, now it's Sunday and they have to head home. 

We motor against a south wind, out of Ganges and then the sails are up, Trust Me flies north and, in no time, we find ourselves at Wallace Island. We love this island... quiet anchorages, lots of hiking, all kinds of different ecosystems, all on one little island. We always check to see if our boat name (in beach glass) is still there at the little hut...

 

And it is still there! Although, a little worse for wear after more than ten years! One thing that never wears out at Wallace, though, is the sunset...

 After a couple of days at Wallace, we round the north tip of Salt Spring and then head south, down the island's west side, to our old stomping grounds at Maple Bay. It's always fun to see what's new there. Only this time, a visiting yacht club found out what was new when some of the members found us checking our navigation charts on the iPad. They really liked that and we thought Jim might have to hold a seminar. After escaping their questions, we dinghy back to Trust Me and head south through Sansun Narrows to Sydney, where we plan to meet our dear friends, Bob and Wendy, teachers extraordinaire.

Mother nature gives us another fabulous ride through the Narrows, Cowichan Bay, past the dangerous Schwartz Bay (really big ferries!) and into Tsehumn Harbor, a place where we often spend the night to avoid overnight fees at nearby Sydney Marina. Early morning finds us gliding out of the Harbor, hailing the marina, and getting into day slip before 9 am! 

It is well that we arrive early. We are meeting Bob and Wendy around noonish, but Kelly doesn't like the fact that our UV cover on the genoa is coming off. She insists that it be repaired. Doesn't she know that this is an invitation to highway robbery at the hands of some desperate sailmaker? But the contact we made the evening before at West Marine pays off. And before 10am, we have the sail off and it is whisked away to Sharon McBride, a local at UK/Halsey Sailmakers, who is going to fix it up for us, this morning!!! Wow! Go Sharon.

Meanwhile, Kelly and I scramble to wash the boat, clean below, and take on fresh water. By noon, Trust Me is ready, but no sail and no Bob and Wendy. Finally we get a call from Bob & Wendy and we go to meet them at the prominent city center...still no Bob or Wendy. Turns out that they are in a different town!  Not to worry, they are nearby and soon we are happily met, buying the last few refrigerated provisions (beer!) and stowing them away. The repaired sail arrives (it looks great), and we are off to Portland Island.

A freshening north wind makes for a fun ride as it shifts westnorthwest at just the right time allowing us to race northward to the island on a single port tack, and suddenly finding a quiet calm in beautiful and secluded Royal Cove. We are soon ashore for some hiking and exploring, circumnavigating half the island before dark.


The morning finds half the crew mutineed and the kayaks missing! Bob and Jim follow the smell of coffee, though, and soon discover Kelly and Wendy have beached the kayaks on some lovely warm sand just around the spit and are soaking up the sun while looking for beach glass. 

After a lazy morning of coffee, sun, and surf we reluctantly prepare to head back to Sydney. At least we have solved the mystery of the cormorant digital recording, hiding in the trees. A south wind is blowing, that shifts toward the east, once again allowing us an exciting beat back to Sydney on just one tack. We are there in no time, which is nice as it is dinner time and Bob and Wendy take us out for a great dinner in Sidney at Sabbai Thai.

How do we top this? Wonderful wind, wonderful people, wonderful places and and wonderful food. Maybe exploring some new places will add to our summer...so, we head off toward Canoe Cove. It is so close to Schwartz Bay, that we never stop there because we assume it is noisy and busy. We leave Sydney and go just a little north and discover quiet little Canoe Cove. Going ashore, we discover their little secret...the cutest pub ever, Stonehouse Pub.

And another surprise... the kayaking turned out to be great, too!

Wow, OK! How about another new place. We haven't heard from Greg and Kim, yet, so it should be OK to head north. We dodge the ferries, sail past lovely Portland Island and discover another new place on the west side of Pender Island, called Otter Bay.

We anchored near this beach and spent a lazy, sunny afternoon at anchor. Later, we visited the lovely marina. The showers were fantastic, as were both pools! Nice place. You can buy a lovely condo, here, too, if you want. Kelly was wanting to visit Winter Cove, again on Saturna Island, so we navigate around the north end of Pender and head south through Navy Channel toward the entrance of Winter Cove.

But wait. We're looking for new places on the way, just to the north of the entrance to Winter Cove, is a new place we haven't been, Horton Bay. And look, it is almost impossible to get into and out of. Perfect detour!  As Kelly groans, we sail all the way in, anchor and dinghy all over the bay. The public dock is nice and we even get to go ashore an explore a new island.

But, this is just a detour. So, we are off the next morning, wending our way through impossible currents, almost going aground (it turns we had kelp wrapped around our prop and no go power in the current), until at last, we arrive at...Winter Cove!  No wonder Kelly wanted to come back here.

Of course, the first thing we do is get the kayaks into the water and play in the tide rip at the narrow, far east entrance. Yahoo!

The park was nice and we walked/hitch-hiked to the island store for some fresh veggies and cell phone service to reach Greg and Kim. Found out that while the US housing market has tanked, the gentleman who picked us up can't find enough workers for his construction company, here, in BC!


Speaking of Greg and Kim, they are going to be in Garrison Bay, San Juan Island... tomorrow! Impossible, we thought. Darn. But, we check the charts, the tides and the weather and there is a favorable window in the morning, through the pass between Stuart Island and John's Island. So, we go for it!  We are up at 5:30, depart at 5:00, make the tides between Saturna and Pender heading south, cross Boundary Pass with a favorable current, through John's Pass at slack, and arrive at customs in Roche Harbor, San Juan Island at 9:00am! It is so slow at customs, that we chat with the inspector about buying a sailboat. Easy.

 With the docks as quiet as a mouse at Roche, we now had an easy morning buying groceries, taking showers, and cleaning up the boat... All at the wonderful facilities of Roche Harbor.  But, we could tell we were back in the US, because when we came back to the boat one time, we found that someone had crashed into it, scraped the hull, and then ran. This has never happened in BC.  Darn. After high noon, we headed south through Mosquito Pass, and then west into Garrison Bay to meet Greg and Kim. Plenty of time to kayak over to shore, though, and visit British Camp and hike up to the lookout above British Camp.

As we get into our kayaks to paddle back to Trust Me, we see a sailboat anchor in the bay, it is Greg and Kim... perfect timing. Drinks aboard their boat, meeting their fellow shipmates/sailing students and captain/instructor and then dinner aboard Trust Me. A lovely time of dinner and story telling!



The class heads for Bellingham the next day while we stay in Garrison Bay, trying to fix the usually reliable dinghy engine. Greg and Kim get this shot as we say goodbye...

Finally, the dinghy engine is repaired working and the wind is really up from the south. We head north back through Mosquito Pass, Roche Harbor, and east through Speiden Channel

(morefrom BC)

Our time in BC must come to an end, however with guests arriving at home, soon. So, we look for Mt Baker on the horizon and head straight to her on a southeast course. Arriving in our home waters of Belligham Bay, what do we find? Our bay is infested with pirates!

Oh, no! They have spotted us and turn to pursue...

We sheet in for maximum speed, and second ship bears down upon us...

Fortunately, we are faster than them and we are soon out of range of their guns... 

Gee, I hope we're faster.  Our sailing technology is just a few hundred years newer than theirs! Actually, those "tall ships" are visiting Bellingham as part of an annual living history program for the Puget Sound area. Aren't we lucky to live here? And speaking of visiting, we are back home just in time to meet Aja, Caleb, and Isaiah, visiting from eastern Washington.