The Adventures of SV Lil’ Ollie and Her Crew

📊 Day 45: Cracking the Code and Rocky Shore Scrambles The weather was less than stellar today, which turned out to be the perfect excuse to stay inside and tackle the spreadsheet beast. I dove headfirst into the numbers, and let me tell you... OMG. I had absolutely no idea it would take that long! I kept getting completely sucked in, constantly thinking to myself, “Oh, I’ll have this sorted out in just a couple of minutes.” Famous last words. I was wrestling with a tricky formatting problem and went back and forth with an AI assistant to try and crack it. For a while, it felt like the two of us were just spinning our wheels and getting nowhere. But persistence paid off! I finally got the entire Revenue table completely finished and automated before bedtime. The Expense table can officially wait until Sunday—I earned a break. Aside from a few necessary head (bathroom) breaks, eating, stretching, and squeezing in an episode of The Resident, my entire Saturday was consumed by cells and f...

🌫️ Morning Fog, Lady Hawk, and the Lonely Bleat I arose around 7:20 this morning, stepped out into the cockpit, and what do I see? Morning fog and a wet cockpit—it rained off and on all night. The forecast claimed the rain was supposed to stop at 9:00 AM, but it hasn't yet and it is already 11:00 AM! Fog in the distance. Glad we're staying put today in this rain! As I was standing there taking in the misty view, I noticed our neighbors on the Beneteau pulling up their anchor. Because they were moving, I finally got a clear look at the rear side of their stern and caught the actual name of their boat: Lady Hawk ! Honestly, I think I liked Lady Gaga better. It had such a funny catch to it, especially after their almost-incident yesterday afternoon! While I was sitting out in the quiet cockpit, I suddenly heard a distinct bleat through the fog. The lonely sheep was back on the hillside, practically beckoning me to take her picture! I’m going to say it’s a "she"—it'...

⚓ Shifting Winds, Shoreline Sheep, and Upcoming Storms? Early this morning around 3:30 AM, the anchor shifted, which woke Greg right up. The only thing that woke me up was a single mosquito buzzing around my head, but luckily that wasn't until closer to 5:30 AM! There was a bit of a breeze this morning that had shifted the boat sideways. Everything was perfectly fine, but we decided it would be best to re-set the anchor a bit further out and at more of an angle across from where we are stern-tied. That seems to have done the trick. While Greg was bringing up the anchor from the seabed, I kept the boat pointed in the direction we’d planned. Just as Greg was dropping the hook back down, I spotted a sheep walking along the bank just up from where Lil' Ollie was pointed! I would have taken a photo of it, but I couldn't leave my post at the helm and my phone was down in the cabin charging. (That's my story and I'm sticking to it!) The lonely sheep was there - a strange p...

🗺️ A Short Leap to Jedidiah Island We had a relaxing morning, drinking our coffee and having a small breakfast while looking over the Salish Sea Pilot to see which anchorage we might want to head to. Just on the other side of Lasqueti Island lies Jedidiah Island—a gorgeous Marine Provincial Park—which has a small spot called Deep Bay. We decided to go check it out. It would only take a couple of hours to get there, depending on whether we actually sail or not. We started getting ready to go around 10:30 AM but didn't actually lift the anchor until about 11:30 AM (my tracker keeps an honest record!). It was a beautiful passage winding through various little islands. From the anchorage at False Bay just before leaving The photos never do the actual being there justice A couple of the islands on the way Once we rounded the other side, the wind was only blowing about 6.5 knots. I've been thinking lately that we really need to put up our mainsail and see how it behaves with the ree...

 🥖 Sourdough, Scales, and Shared Burgees I wasn't sure what I was going to post today until we headed over to Lasqueti Island again. This turned out to be a totally unexpected day! We started our morning with coffee and toast made from the French sourdough we bought at the Provisions store. What exactly is a French sourdough, you ask? This one has organic spelt, wheat, Red Fife, and rye flours in it. It’s a wonderfully heavy, hearty bread that makes you feel like you've had a really high-quality meal. After breakfast, I practiced some of the pieces from my Scott Joplin The Entertainer book, and then, of course, Passacaglia, just to make sure I don't forget how to play it. Eventually, we had some lunch—sardines for me, and Greg made a canned ham sandwich. Artemus got to share some of my sardines, so he was one happy cat! Yesterday, we had watched another sailboat come into the bay. While they were anchoring, we noticed they were flying both Bluewater Cruising Association (B...

Navionics map showing where we are on Lasqueti Island. 🗺️ Coffee, Granola, and Getting Organized We arose late this morning (8:45ish, which is definitely sleeping in for us!). Last night, I was up a bit later than usual trying to figure out how to add the stops we’ve made on our trip to the noforeignland app on my computer. By the time we first found out about this app, we were already well on our way, so now I’d like to add each of our stops along the way to properly document the journey. After watching an episode of The Resident, of course, I finally figured out how to add an anchorage and then headed to bed. We started our morning with our usual coffees and some granola—me with my Siggi's strawberry yogurt. After breakfast, we decided to head ashore and check out this off-grid island. I was so excited to go explore. Greg captured some photos while we were there, which was a good thing because I completely forgot my phone! In fact, I accidentally left my computer wide open on th...