Venice captures the heart in one day The wonderful, strange light that greets us in Venice, like that in Northern Europe, must be why Venetian glass is incomparable. Maybe its the time of year, October 31, Halloween in the U.S., or maybe it's our tired eyes but it seems that everyday street lights glowing from ancient lamps create a stage set of paths along canals and over bridges into the heart of Venice. We pass small storefronts with soft twinkly lights that showcase eye-catching wares a raven could not pass up but we do on our way to our hotel. Everyone we ask (only 2) agrees that it is very easy to get lost in Venice but we actually take no wrong turns and find the small, not dark, street and dead ends on a canal ... read more

FROM AMA LOG: Saturday, 9/02/17 DEPART: Heriot Bay @ 0630 ARRIVE: False Bay, Lasquiti Is. @ 1640 WEATHER: Calm, overcast, no wind, temp about 80˚ PILOTAGE: Catching an early tide boost, we depart Heriot Bay Docks at 0630 with hangovers raging. Temperatures get warmer and warmer as we enter the Georgia Strait. It’s not long before we run into a large pod of Orcas heading north as we go south to Lasquiti Island. We haven’t stopped into False Bay since we visited there in Raven, a 25’ sharpie yawl. It was early in the day and for some reason, we needed to kill time so we decided to put up the top sail and practice sailing with all four sails, something or a challenge on any day but the winds were not too strong, just right ... read more

FROM AMA LOG: Monday, 8/28/17 DEPART: Lagoon Cove @ 0830 ARRIVE: Blind Channel @ 1800 www.DecarbthePassage.net WEATHER: Calm, lite winds, hazey, temp 72-75˚ PILOTAGE: We have been watching the tiny river-like passage behind us that is a super shortcut to Port Harvey, on the edge of the Johnstone Strait. Sure enough, a brave aluminum fishing boat sneaks by us just before we leave, heading the other way. They crawl, zigzagging across the narrow channel, picking their way, obviously following a known path. We wish them well while enjoying sunrise on glassy water, picking our own way through The Blow Hole and spot dolphins just after entering Chatham Channel. Almost circumnavigating Cracroft Island, we duck into Port Harvey only to find out that they are closed for the season. Still, their beach just south of the ha ... read more

FROM AMA LOG: Thursday, 8/23 & 24/17 Port Hardy WEATHER: Clear & sunny, temp about 72˚ www.DecarbthePassage.net It’s two mornings with no floorboards (again), Peter in the engine room, me handing parts or tools and generally getting in the way. After talking all night to random visitors who stopped by to admire and ask questions about Ama, I draft an information sheet about Ama and the Inside Passage Decarbonization Project (IPDP) to put in the window. We are practiced at playing tourist while waiting on repairs and this time, with bikes, we can really check out all of Port Hardy. Though it seems smaller, it turns out that this place is more interesting than Port McNeil. For one thing, there are more international visitors and the town residents genuinely are interested in getting to know us ... read more

FROM AMA LOG: Monday, 8/21/17 DEPART: Murray Labyrinth @ 0600/1100/1430 ARRIVE: Port Hardy @ 1930 WEATHER: Wet and foggy, calm seas, no wind. All I could think of was the “Perfect Storm” balancing the desire to keep our fish fresh against that monstrous wave. We are up early but the whole area is fogged in. We tinker, we check, we stall but finally we have to simply test our repairs. Peter takes us on a small tour of the harbor and into the next cove, Alison Harbor. Before we even make it past the entry, the now-familiar alarm buzzing doesn't have to inform us of an over-heated engine stoping us dead in our tracks. It looks like our welded repair didn’t hold. We’re not sure but can make an educated guess that it we are not ... read more