09 Jul - On waking this morning we realised it was time to head back to civilization when we spotted we were down to our last clean underwear!  Leaving the Pinkertons we had a steady motor against building winds into Uculet (the wind being right on the nose the whole way building from 10 - 20 knots before we turned into the channel.  For some wierd reason we both felt on edge today but neither of us could put a finger on why - was it the continually leaking prop seal?  Were we frustrated by not being able to get the boat to perfectly sail how we wanted?  were we just in need of being on land?  No matter, we got into Uke and anchored up just past the marina's for the night.  We took the Dinghy in to sus the place out and make sure there would be room for us in the morning and then had a quiet evening trying to work out what was bothering us

10 Jul - Lots of Admin - After a quiet night on the hook we phoned Kevin, the harbour manager at the small boat harbour and confirmed he had room for us to drop in on the dock and so were there by 10.  We jumped into admin mode and had quickly got some washing on and then heaaded up to restock our food supplies at the Co-op.  Once these jobs were done we had the afternoon to explore the town.  We dropped into Pioneer Boatworks and chatted with Brent (are all boat repair people called Brent?) about our Prop seal problem.  He confirmed that we didn't have something that is catastrophic but that he couldn't haul us out to fix it so we discussed options.  We decided to source a new  seal to have with us for when we could get it replaced (probably in Mexico) as well. Once back at the boat we hung around and pottered a bit and it was then that we noticed that one of the engine mounting bolts had actually worked loose.  We retightened that and hopefully that will fix our problem! We also changed the last of the fuel filters and so now have replaced all the oils, oil and fuel filters for the engine so she should be feeling well looked after

11 Jul - Back on the hook It felt weird waking up for once on the dock this morning.  Once up we went for a walk down to Spring cove at the end of the island and confirmed that there is no public landing spot if  were to anchor there (all private land).  Having to be out by lunchtime we then headed back to the boat and took her out to anchor just round the corner from the small boat harbour. Having had the advantage of internet we had looked in detail at the weather and determined that there was no way we were going to be heading south for probably at least a week.  This was confirmed when we spoke to a couple of fishermen while on the dock who had come in for the week because they too had seen the bad weather coming.  It was also reassuring to hear from them that this was not unusual and that these strong winds do break down - apparently if we had been here this time last year it would have been lovely sailing weather!

12 July - A walk on the wild (East) side of Uclulet.   The morning was calm and so we both did some housework.  Heidi gets to do the inside whlist my job is to keep the outside looking clean so included removing the seaweed fringe we had been developing around the waterline.

Clean and sparkling boat

We stopped around 11 and then, seeing as it was a lovely day we decided to do the tourist thing around Uclulet and set off to walk along the coastal path on the east side of the peninsula.  The day was glorious and we had amazing views over the dramatic coastline to savour all day. 

On getting back into town we picked up a couple of things in the supermarket and then headed back to the boat.

13 July - Uclulet Sunday MArket

Today we were expecting the wind to pick up and it didn't disappoint!.  In the morning, when things were not quite as windy we went through our (significant) stash of rope trying to pair down our spares.  Much against my will we ended up putting about 400ft of (fairly) decent rope on the second hand table.  It went in minutes!  This does still leave us with another  400ft of varying widths of rope though so we aren’t exactly going short.  It was good to clear out the rear lockers as well and get them properly sorted.   WE also fixed the running back stays in place for good measure. Later on, we went into Uke to see their Sunday arts and craft market which was most pleasant, even though nothing caught our eye. After this we headed back to the boat and the wind steadily built until it stabilised around 16 knots with occasional gusts up to 25.  We also worked out a plan for the next week.  Looking at the weather, and knowing we weren't planning on heading off until at least the following week, we are aiming to head to Tofino to do touristy things tomorrow, then heading back out to Berkely sound for the rest of the week.  The wind is due to pickup again next weekend so we intend to head back into Uke on the 18th.  We should then be in good shape to look out for the next weather window to head south.