Review: Arkham Knight

It's no secret that I'm a fan of the Arkham Batman games. They're fun, and do a great job of simulating Batman. I was put off from buying Arkham Knight early, however, because the reviews indicated that the game included too much time with the Batmobile. But a price glitch at Bestbuy got me Arkham Knight at $16, so I grabbed it and started playing.

The game is beautiful. When I first booted up Arkham Asylum a few years ago, it looked so good that I was shocked. (That's what happens when you don't play video games for a while) Strangely enough, Arkham City didn't impress me as much: my expectations had already been reset, and I sit way too close to the monitor for the graphics on my relatively weak GPU to impress me.

Arkham Knight, however, was written for the latest generation of consoles (so much so that the PC version had major launch issues and had been pulled from the shelves until the end of October), and it looks gorgeous. The first fight I had as Batman felt fast, fluid, and responsive. In fact, the game didn't even so much as hiccup until near the end, where driving the Batmobile would cause framerate slow downs. I didn't know how much of this was due to the game having been running continuously for days (using suspend and resume) while I finished it. The sound design isn't just beautiful, it's fully integrated into the game. For instance, one of the markers for a side quest is guided by Opera music. With 5.1 surround sound, where the music comes from tells you where the side quest can be found. The game makes full use of surround sound and benefits greatly from it.

With 3 previous Arkham console games before it, Arkham Knight does away with lengthy tutorials and dumps you right into the action. I won't say much about the plot, except to mention that I'm enough of a rube that the identity of the Arkham Knight did surprise me despite the heavy hinting and foreshadowing of his identity. The story itself is well-written: we explore Batman's psyche, history, and his relationships with the Gordons, the previous Robins (Nightwing makes an appearance and the banter between Wayne and Grayson is great to listen to), and of course, the villains of the piece. What's impressive about this game is that not only does it use all the background the comics (and previous games) provide, it's also not afraid to make massive changes to the milieu, creating its own story and give you surprises before tying it off with its own stamp on how the Batman story ends. If you played this game (like I did) with the expectation that they'll stick to canon and not make any changes, you'll be surprised on many occasions, and they'll be pleasant surprises. You find yourself thinking: "Of course! Those two characters were always going to hookup." But of course, that never happened in other versions of the Batman story!

The game play itself is excellent. One of my complaints about Batman cartoons and comics is that the villains always get to ramble on and on while Batman seems to do nothing. Well, in one of the first scenes of the game, a villain rambles while you remote control the Batmobile to come and blast the bejesus out of the villain in the middle of his speech. The game doesn't even prompt you to execute this piece fun and expects you to figure out that you can do this.

The detective mode brings back the best feature of Arkham Origins: the crime scene reconstruction and evidence scanner. Not only does it really make you feel like the Dark Knight Detective, the game's smart enough to use it sparingly: only one side quest really makes use of it, and the main storyline only does it once.

The Batmobile, while fun at first, does grate a bit. There's something wrong with a Batman game in which you have to race the Batmobile. The Batmobile also turns into a tank for battles, which would itself be a fun game, but after 10 hours or so you do get pretty tired of yet another tank fight, though there are variations that make it interesting. You end up spending most of your upgrade points on the Batmobile not because you like it, but because you'd like to finish the tank fights faster so you can spend more time being Batman. If not for the excessive use of the Batmobile, this game would be highly recommended. Of the new Batman features, the one I like the most is when you get to fight with a sidekick, and get to execute team take downs. Great fun, and I wish there were more of those!

Overall, the worst aspect of the game is the amount of padding stuck into it. While Arkham Asylum had no padding, and Arkham City felt long but didn't have required side quests, Arkham Knight has side quests galore (I finished 5 of them and still weren't close to done when I arrived at the main storyline ending), and many of them are just tedious repetition. Your primary motivation for going through these side quests is that they provide additional upgrade points for Batman. Once you've upgraded Batman sufficiently to clear the game, the content itself isn't sufficiently attractive to clean up, especially in the case of the Riddler. Clearly a case where AAA game makers feel like they have to "provide more content" at the cost of story coherency or variety.

Nevertheless, Arkham Knight is as well designed as games go. The puzzles aren't unfair, and the graphics and sound are gorgeous. Well worth the time. Recommended.

Review: The Martian

The Martian, as everybody knows, is the science fiction novel about an astronaut who gets stranded on Mars, and what he does to survive. It's been made into a movie (by Ridley Scott), but if you have 2 kids, you don't really have time to run out and watch a movie, but books can be read in drips and spots where you have time, so I checked it out (digitally) on the Kindle from the library.

The first part of the book read like Robinson Crusoe in space. Out of all the pieces of equipment left to him from his expedition, Mark Watney has to learn to grow food, and create enough rations to survive. Things, however, get a heck of a lot more fun (and exciting) once he scavenges one of the pathfinder probes and resumes contact with NASA. The project to rescue Watney and the coordination between Earth, Watney, and the ship in interplanetary space portrays a heroic effort with many people pitching in. Unlike many depictions of government agencies, NASA here is competent, filled with intelligent people, and makes effective, meaningful decisions.

The Martian's also a great illustration of how important story is. Weir does not write in fancy language, there are no multiple threads of narrative weaving together, and the entire story is written in linear fashion almost completely from the beginning to end. Yes, there are obvious places where he switches from first to third person, but those were essential. There are a few places where the accidents and setbacks that face Watney feel almost contrived, but I can forgive that: the book is interesting, provides lots of science, and is in the best tradition of science fiction. It's the story of an engineer who solves problems as they come up, and despite bad luck, survives via ingenuity.

The technical details are great. I'm normally a nit-picker, but I can't pick any technical holes in the plot or story.

An excellent read, and I doubt that the movie will be anywhere as good or detailed. Highly recommended.

British Columbia by boat: Tips, Conclusions, and Brief Equipment Reviews

It is indicative of how superlative my experiences are in the Alps and Caribbean that whenever I do comparable trips, the inevitable question I ask myself is: "Why am I not cycling in the Alps instead?" or "Why am I not sailing in the British Virgin Islands/Caribbean instead?" In most cases, the answer comes up short: I'd never chose most locations over corresponding trips in those places instead.

Unfortunately, British Columbia's coast (including Desolation Sound) falls into this category. First of all, the reports of warm water is overblown: 74F water might feel like 80F if you've grown up in the Pacific Northwest or live in the area, but compared to the Carribbean's crystal clear waters and temperature, it's not even close. What's not overblown is the stunning natural beauty of the area: snowy peaks that come all the way down to the sea, Fjords that are the rival of any place in the world.

Set against that are the physical properties of the area: distances are long point to point, and tidal currents and heights make it challenging sailing. Worse, from a sailor's point of view: in summer when weather is finest, the winds are light and there's not much sailing to be had. In poor weather when you have wind, you're in a hurry to get from one sheltered area to another, so motoring is preferred over sailing, unless the wind's blowing exactly where you want to go. To wit: British Columbia is a motor-boating destination, not really a sailing destination. The other problem is that there's limited things to do on land in the area: there's limited hiking trails and the terrain is too rugged for bush-whacking to be appealing. On the other hand, if you're a peak bagger, that means that there's plenty of first-ascents ready for you: the combination of boating skills and climbing skills seem to be rare enough that many of the peaks in the area have never been climbed!

Having said that, the area's pretty enough that like Yosemite, is probably worth a visit. Here are my best tips for exploring the area:

• Charter a motorboat, not a sailboat. If you get a sailboat, be warned that you'll spend most of your time motoring. It'll be unsatisfying, and to top it off the sailboat's much harder to anchor and stern tie than a motorboat with twin engines.
• Charter out of Powell River or Comox. Both places have motorboat charters that are ideal for exploring Desolation Sound.
• The ideal time should be a week. In peak season, the anchorages are very very crowded. Be prepared to stern tie with an anchor most of the time. Be prepared to find favorite spots captured by folks who have the time to spend multiple days in one location.

For exploring the sunshine coast, a combination of car and boat is best:

• Rent a car for about 4 days from Vancouver, and drive North using the Ferry system to get to Egmont or other places with charter motorboats
• Rent a high power motorboat (top speed of at least 25 knots) and use that to explore Jervis Inlet and Princess Louisa Inlet. Use the boat to camp out at nice places. Return the boat and get back to the car for more exploration or return to Vancouver.

Would I do the trip again? I wouldn't say never, but my guess is you'd have to flatter me or bribe me by into organizing another trip in the Pacific Northwest again. The sailing isn't really good enough, and the swimming/diving in cold water isn't really appealing enough. Given free boat and lodging I might do it, but I'd rather be in the Caribbean.

The following equipment gave excellent performance during the trip:

• Microsoft Surface Pro. An excellent laptop replacement/tablet.
• Garmin Vivoactive.
• RAVPower 3200mAh external battery
• Battery Geek 222 Battery
• Retrevis Walkie-Talkie

Not so performant:

• Sony Xperia Z1 (US Edition) When I got a replacement phone after the original one died, they gave me a US phone which doesn't pick up all the signals in Canada. This left me without data most of the time.

British Columbia by boat Day 14: Seattle

The bus ride back to Seattle was uneventful. Being a veteran of the area, I showed my family the Pike Place Market, then signed up for Beneath The Ground, the Underground Tour competitor that's sprung up since I did the tour last. I sent Xiaoqin's aunt and uncle up the Space Needle, while Xiaoqin had dinner with her classmates.

The flight the next day was also uneventful: we took the bus to the train connection, and used the train to access the SeaTac Airport.

An hour after we'd arrived at San Jose Airport, I was hauling suitcases from the bus towards my house in the afternoon sun. I normally dislike afternoon heat in Sunnyvale, but after a week of freezing rain and wind, it felt good.

British Columbia by boat Day 13: Vancouver

We took our time getting going today. Along the way back to Earl's Cove, we stopped at several harbors that we might have wanted to visit on the trip. In the dismal weather, none of them looked appealing. Just drab and down-trodden. The day before, the tour pilot had said that at the height of the storm in Egmont, even the harbor was seeing 3-foot waves, and there were water-spouts going up the inlet. This made us feel quite a lot better at having abandoned the Stray Cat to do a luxury tour by powerboat instead.

On the ferry, we said goodbye to Bowen Island, and then made our way to Grouse Mountain to see if there was good weather to be had. But one look at the weather cam convinced us to keep our money firmly in our pockets, and we made it over to the Vancouver Maritime museum instead, which had beautiful historic boats parked outside, as well as the St. Roch inside.

After that, it was time for the breaking of the fellowship, as we all went our separate ways (Arturo had another trip to embark on, while Larry was planning to fly back after another day or so in Vancouver). We had time to visit the Vancouver Outlook to watch the sunset, and then had to settle in for an early morning bus back to Seattle the next day.

British Columbia by boat Day 12: Egmont

Everything went well as planned for a change, and we all piled into Arturo's van for a drive to Horseshoe Bay. The traffic was pretty bad, but it wasn't so horrendous that it derailed our ferry crossing. We grabbed lunch at Earl's Cove at a generic Korean/Japanese place that provided generous portions at a fair price, and then drove relentlessly towards Egmont, where we arrived at the marina just minutes before the boat arrived from the previous excursion up to the Princess Louisa Inlet.

If any excursion was custom-designed to provide evidence of my contention that the Sunshine Coast and Desolation Sound was motor-boat country, the Sunshine Coast Tours of the Princess Louisa Inlet is it. When Arturo and I planned our assault on the Inlet, we carefully read tide-tables (yes, multiple of them, as you had to consult multiple sources in order to derive proper timing) and painstakingly measured and re-measured distances so as to plan to arrive at the Malibu Rapids in time for slack-tide so our 7-knot maximum engine power would be able to traverse the rapids. With a motor-boat, not only was the all-day journey condensed into an hour, there was absolutely no consideration needed whatsoever given to the tides for Malibu Rapids: with a top speed of 30 knots, the excursion's powerboat could easily overpower any tide and make the traverse not only safely, but also without the need to coordinate with other traffic that may also have needed to use the slack-tide period in order to enter or exit the Princess Louisa Inlet.

The excursion was exceedingly well-designed, with stops to admire the pictographs on cliff-sides, some seals/sea lions, and the pilot was exceedingly well-versed in the history of the area. This was a nice and relaxed way to see the Inlet, with the disadvantage that we couldn't camp out at the Inlet. But given the cold weather and wind, we were happy not to have to camp out at all.

The Princess Louisa Inlet was written up in the books to be "The Most Beautiful Fjord In The World". By now we were very skeptical of the marketing literature written about the area. For instance, "The Sunshine Coast" has proven to have anything but Sunshine, and of course, the water temperatures might have only ever reached 80F for 1cm of the surface of any of the lakes or inlets of Desolation Sound. However, Arturo, who'd been to many Fjords in Norway and Chile, confirmed that it was indeed one of the top 5 Fjords in the world, and better than any Fjord he'd seen in Finland. The park was small, and the hike short, but it was definitely jaw-droppingly pretty. I wouldn't make any visit out to see it again, but there's a lot to be said for seeing it at least once, while you're in the area.

By the time we made it back to the car it was nearly dark, and we had to roust the inn-keeper out from behind the "store closed" sign at the inn in order to get our keys, but at least we had a full-on kitchen and unlimited hot water to shower in.

British Columbia by boat Day 11: Vancouver

I woke up late around 8:00am, and as was my wont after long boat journeys, still feeling as though I was swaying and shaking in bed. A cup of coffee and breakfast soon woke me up, however, and by 10:00am, we were out on the city's buses, ready to explore Stanley Park and the Vancouver Aquarium.

The highlight of the Vancouver Aquarium was the Beluga show, but I also thoroughly enjoyed the 4D show depicting life in the age of dinosaurs. The rest of the exhibits were also very well done. I was impressed and happy to be indoors while it was raining outside.

We then made our way over to Queen Anne park, where the conservatory and the gardens were impressive. The day ended with all of us at the Shanghai River restaurant in Richmond, where the Peking Duck and other dishes were all well-priced and delicious. We made plans to check out of the hotel the next day, and Arturo managed to get a great deal on a huge car that would take us over the ferry to Egmont.

British Columbia by boat Day 10: Vancouver

I woke up multiple times in the night, because the wind was blowing so hard that the Stray Cat, though tied to a marina, was listing and yawing as though it wanted to blow away. I wasn't alone, it turned out: I found out later that Arturo had to get up in the middle of the night to pull the flag pole out of the stern of the boat because it was making a noise like a wind turbine and was about to fly off.

With the lack of sleep and the on-going howling wind, I checked the forecast at 4:45am, and sure enough it had changed: gone was the window for moving the boat. The forecast indicated that the wind might die down in the afternoon and become manageable some time late the next day. Our plans for Princess Louisa Inlet was shredded by the wind. Furthermore, the adventure had turned from fun to annoying: I couldn't ask my wife, 3 year old, and her relatives to put up with 6 hours of moving the boat into the Jervis Inlet, and even once there, one look at the position of Saltery Bay on the map indicated that it would provide no protection from this wind. I didn't know the area well, and a call to Cooper Boating indicated that nobody knew what the conditions were like in Egmont.

I called Cooper Boating and asked them if I could return the boat right then, or if they could provide a delivery skipper who would help us move the boat while I flew the rest of my family to Vancouver so they could wait out the storm. At this point I had no confidence in the Canadian forecasting service that fine weather would even return by Thursday. I'd shaken enough trees by the time I was done that Danielle called back and said she'd arrange for a delivery captain to pick up the boat where we were, and we could all fly to Vancouver (on our dime, of course). I checked with both Arturo and Larry, and they were also in concurrence with this plan, as opposed to trying to stick out the rest of the charter.

I was pretty sure I could still deliver the boat safely to Vancouver (having delivered in much worse conditions in Greece), but it wouldn't be fun, and we would be basically spending 3 days motoring against the wind, beating ourselves up for no reason whatsoever. We hurriedly made flight and hotel arrangements in Vancouver, and then packed up and said goodbye to Stray Cat. I was very depressed, feeling as though I'd abandoned a trip (the last time I did so was during the 2005 Tour of the Alps). But it would have been unconscionable to subject the rest of the non-sailors to this.

Arturo found a way to do the Princess Louisa Inlet, but in my sleep-deprived befuddled state I gave him wrong dates. Fortunately, a hurried phone call in Vancouver indicated that the company was willing to accommodate us on  a different day, so we would still manage to see Chatterbox falls after all.

It took all of 35 minutes to fly to Vancouver's South Terminal, and another 40 minutes to make it to L'Hermitage in Vancouver, a thoroughly well-appointed hotel. That night, I slept for 11 hours, which indicated that the decision to abandon the trip was the right one: while I had believed at that time that I could deliver the boat, in sleep-deprived states you frequently think you can do things that you actually cannot, and my repeated mistakes that day could easily have been a harbinger of a much bigger disaster if I'd insisted on driving the boat further.

British Columbia by boat Day 9: Beach Garden Marina

The predicted calm window showed up and we promptly left, alongside several other motor-boats. We got out of the harbor and deployed the main sail, only to promptly find it flapping in the wind! The main needed to be threaded through a jig in order to retain its tension and be self-furling. After 15 minutes, Arturo and Larry figured out whats what, and began the heroic job of threading the mainsail through the jig and then raising the main. Unfurling the jib then gave us sail power.

It was great to be sailing, but there was one ominous sign that I should have paid far more attention to than I did. Nobody else was sailing. Everyone was heading south at speed, and everyone had their engines on. At the time, I had every reason to believe that the next day would grant us another similar window. But nevertheless, I should probably have abandoned sailing and motor'd south at maximum speed.

As it was, it was thrilling to sail at full power in a 20 knot wind, despite not making much headway since we had to keep tacking. After a couple of hours, we were back near Savary island, but the wind had picked up, forcing us to put in a reef. Xiaoqin's aunt started looking green as the water got choppy. We had expected the tide to work with us, pushing us south at a good speed, but what had happened instead was that the south wind was fighting the receding tide, creating choppy water which didn't help us make any kind of progress.

Recognizing defeat, we furled the sails, started up the engines, and after a half hour of motoring into the wind made our way to Beach Garden marina, lured by the guidebook's promise of a swimming pool, untimed showers that didn't require coins, and safe harbor. We refueled at the marina before putting in on a slip, and then checked in.

The hotel looked pretty run-down and ramshackle, and there weren't very many people about. We made it just before brunch buffett was shut down at the restaurant, and had a filling breakfast. Then we talked to the hotel manager who said that the hotel was $3 for unlimited swimming and showers, but we had to be escorted by an employee who would unlock the pool/shower building for us. To minimize hassle, we went for a walk first, which yielded wild blackberries that were delicious. The walk took us to the local supermarket where we stocked up a bit on supplies before making our way back to the boat and hotel for the swimming pool.

The swimming pool was a tiny 14 foot affair, but was still big enough to do laps on. I did so, and then with Arturo's help, moved Bowen back into the boat as he was quite unhappy about everyone else being able to swim but him.

Arturo and I planned the rest of the trip: we'd use the window to move us into Egmont, which looked reasonably sheltered, spend a day moving up the inlet to Princess Louisa Inlet, and then the next day back. It looked like it would then be a long tough day returning the boat via motor, but the weather was forecasted to be calm by then, so we anticipated no problems. We looked into a day tour that would eliminate all that motoring, but they were all booked up for the days when we would be there, and we had the time, so why not.

We went to bed with full stomachs and strong confidence that we could do this, fully supported by the forecast from the Canadian weather service.

British Columbia by Boat Trip Index

Desolation Sound

We recently toured British Columbia by boat, but a storm came in the middle of the trip and aborted the sailboat part of the trip. This is the collected trip index for the entire trip.

I have abandoned Google Photos for OneDrive photos for public photos. Not only doees OneDrive provide more free storage (200GB+ for me), it's storage management capabilities aren't opaque, and there's no chance of my using up so much quota that I end up being unable to receive mission-critical e-mails.

• August 22nd: Victoria
• August 23rd: Victoria
• August 24th: Vancouver
• August 25th: Bowen Island
• August 26th: Westview
• August 27th: Tenedos Bay
• August 28th: Lund
• August 29th: Lund
• August 30th: Beach Garden Marina
• August 31st: Vancouver
• September 1st: Vancouver
• September 2nd: Egmont
• September 3rd: Vancouver
• September 4th: Seattle
• Tips, Conclusions, and Equipment Reviews

British Columbia by boat Day 8: Lund

We woke up to howling wind and impending rain, as judged by the clouds on the horizon. I looked at the weather and then told everyone else to go back to sleep: I had no intention of moving the boat in weather like this. I was further vindicated as I amusedly observed a monohull leave the port, and then 10 minutes later immediately limp back to its space in the slip: while being tied to the breakwater must have been very uncomfortable, it was probably even worse out in the channel.

We observed kayakers coming into the harbor. Our first impression was: "Wow, those Canadians are tough." When we went down to the dock to see them, however, it was very clear: these were folks on a multi-day kayak tour escaping from a storm, not people who had voluntarily gone out in this weather that very morning. "We were going to be out for another day, but took a look at the weather forecast and paddled the heck out of the islands to get back a day early," said one very cold and soggy kayaker to me.

Thus it was that I declared the day laundry day. We hiked near the area, helped Bowen buy art supplies, did laundry, bought supplies from the delightful bakery in town, and had a very boring day. That night (Saturday night) was to be the worst of it, and in my experience there's usually a window the next day which might let us move the boat and do some sailing.

We decided to abandon going North back to desolation sound and head south towards the Louisa Inlet instead, if the opportunity arose. We plotted out several possible stops the next day, but I said I'd be OK if all we did was to make it South to Westview.

British Columbia by boat Day 7: Lund

We had a debate in the morning about whether to move the boat. While the night had been windy, it wasn't rough, indicating that Tenedos Bay was an excellent location. On the other hand, if we wanted to move the boat, all indications was that tomorrow would be a horrible day to do it, while the morning looked like it was going to clear. The problem with Tenedos bay was that we'd exhausted everything you could do there, while at Laura Cove or Melanie Cove, it looked like we could hike and swim.

After breakfast, however, the blue skies came and we decided to move the boat so that we'd be in Laura Cove at low tide. Piloting the boat out into Desolation sound, we congratulated ourselves on making the right call as it looked gorgeous! The scenery was moving, but as we moved into Prideux harbor, our optimism about spots opening up diminished. Piloting into Laura Cove, I was dismayed to find that despite all assurances that the place had quieted down, there was not a single place where I'd be satisfied to anchor at, given the big blow that I knew was coming: I did not want to settle for anything less than a secure anchorage.

We settled for Prideux harbor, right inside the entrance. There was little wind protection, but enough swinging room that I could drop anchor with 200' of rode! When it comes to anchoring, more rode is better, especially in tidal waters, and I felt good about this decision.

After lunch, we took the dinghy out and used it to explore Melanie Cove (also very crowded), and planned to swim in the lagoon between the coves. At low tide, we could see all the Oysters bedded along the tidal flow, and tried to think of ways of plucking the oysters. I got into my swimming trunks and waded in the water, which was cooler than the Unwin lake. After it got deep enough, I plunged in and swam onto the opposite shore, where the water was warmer (maybe 76F) but no less shallow. It wasn't a very pleasing swim. I had just started swimming back when I heard Bowen crying.

"We're going to have to drive into the harbor and get a doctor," said Arturo. "What? How about calling on the VHF to see if there's already a doctor within the area?" I said. "Great idea!"

We went back to the Stray Cat, and after I looked at the wound it was obvious that it needed stitches. I got onto the VHF and radio'd my question, and immediately the Canadian Coast Guard responded! After some discussion, they called me on my cell phone, and we had a conference call with the emergency services, where they ascertained our location, and got a team out to the Westview harbor where the Coast Guard would ferry the paramedics out to us. The plan was to get Bowen and Xiaoqin out to the Powell River hospital while we would then follow in the Stray Cat.

It was a tense hour waiting for the coast guard boat, but they arrived in good time, identified us, and tied up along us with professionalism and speed born of practice. They didn't even examine Bowen's wound, and just shuffled him and Xiaoqin aboard the high speed rescue vessel. We asked their advice on how to follow and they suggested Lund. While Bliss Landing might have slip space for us, they emphasized that it was a dirt road connection to Powell River, which would not be comfortable or cheap from Powell River.

With tension and impatience, we weighed anchor and drove out of our precious parking space. Arturo noted that the anchor came up with pounds of mud, indicating that we had dug in well and good and would have been very secure. For the first time but not the last, I kicked myself for not getting a fast motorboat instead of a sailing catamaran, which was turning out to be a ridiculously unsuitable charter for the area.

The trip to Lund was easy, and the water was surprisingly flat given the weather. Upon arrival at Lund, we discovered the public dock was full, leaving only the breakwater floating slips available to us late arrivals. Not only would it be uncomfortable, it would require ferrying Xiaoqin and Bowen in the dinghy. We opted for the hotel dock, and it turned out they had room for us. It was a tight docking maneuver, but the couple in the home-made boat a couple of spaces ahead of us moved a dinghy to fit us in better. They even turned out to be from Bowen Island!

By the time we were docked and paid up, Xiaoqin had called and said that Bowen's stitches were all done! She had to buy some medical supplies but would soon be on a taxi over to Lund. That was a relief, and gave us permission to take pictures at the "End of Highway 101" marker, and have a scrumptious dinner over looking the beautiful sunset at Lund. We even sprang for the fried snickers bar dessert, which was every bit as decadent as you might imagine.

After dinner, Xiaoqin showed up with Bowen and a bunch of bandages and medical supplies, and the crew of the Stray Cat was united once more, if a little bit exhausted and tense by the emergency. We had started the morning making decisions based on the possibility of being bored while at Tenedos Bay, but at that moment we all wished we'd had a bit more boredom and a little less excitement!

British Columbia by boat Day 6: Tenedos Bay

We got up at 6:00am and drove away from West View, projecting an arrival at Prideux Haven at 11:00am. The drive out was pretty, but knowing what I knew now, I'd drive through Thulin passage instead of bothering to go out beyond Savory island. Not only is the return between Hernando and Savary gave us some shallow areas with tricky navigation that added unwelcome tension to the vacation.

It turned out that the guidebooks on the boat which had mentioned the mandatory speed limits in the Thulin passage neglected to mention that the speed limit was all of 8 knots, which was what the Stray Cat could do at maximum speed. In other words, as far as we were concerned, there werre no speed limits anywhere in the area.

Turning Sarah Point into Desolation Sound, however, all was forgotten as the natural beauty of the area just stunned us. Tall mountains that come all the way down to the sea greeted us, as did a bevy of sailboats, kayakers, and motor cruisers. We originally thought about going to Prideux Haven, but a quick look at Tenedos Bay indicated that not only was it closer, it was also very sheltered and had access to a warm fresh water lake for swimming.

Arriving at low tide, we looked at anchoring, but quickly decided that the harbor was too crowded for just one anchor, and so did what everyone else did by dropping anchor at around 25m and then backing the boat towards shore for a stern line. Larry unfortunately injured his leg climbing onto the rocks to tie the stern line, but he said it was OK. We backed with the boat 10' from the shore. Unadvisable with ground tackle that I didn't know well, but on the other hand, I hauled hard on the stern line without being able to shift the anchor. I'd had plenty of experience anchoring just off a shore, and felt confident that it would hold.

The reason you need to stern tie in these deep harbors is that the ground under the water is curved steeply away from the shore. If the wind were to shift the boat around while you were anchor'd thus, the anchor would simply hold no traction and lift off the ground, dragging or coming loose in deep water. In strong tidal waters, you had to have enough rode for high tide while not having so much rode on low tide that you'd swing onto shore, but on a high tide you'd actually get more space from shore, so it's OK to have what looks like a dangerously long rode when anchoring.

After lunch (which doubled as a way to observe the boat's behavior over a period of rising tide), I satisfied myself that the Stray Cat was in no danger, and we dingy'd over to the trailhead to Unwin lake. We discovered once again that our boat briefing was inadequate when we couldn't figure out how to raise the motor, but fortunately a group of people were leaving as we were arriving and showed Arturo how to push that button. We tied the boat down firmly as we were in tidal waters and I fully expected to come back to find that the rock we'd tied the dinghy to would be under water.

We hiked to Unwin lake, with everyone except Xiaoqin, Bowen, and I spotting a bear while we were there, indicating that we were in bear country.

Unwin lake turned out to have 72F water: warm enough to swim in, but not so warm that I could last for more than about 15-20 minutes in the water. Bowen, however, complained that it was too cold despite the wet suit, but everyone else got a chance in the water. We returned to the dinghy to find that indeed, we had tied it to a stone that was underwater, but since our tie-down had held, we were in good shape for going back to the Stray Cat, where we had dinner and settled in for what would be a windy night.

We'd checked the hand compass to ensure that we were going to be aligned with the prevailing wind that night, so I slept well, but at 1:00am was awoken by lights pointing into my eyes from other boats in the area. I wondered if things were going wrong, and so got up with the flash light to check the boat, but didn't find anything disturbing. I went back to sleep, and only discovered in the morning that one of the other skippers had panicked, dropped his stern lined, and moved out into the middle of the harbor to re-anchor. One benefit of being so close to shore was that the land really did act as a wind break for the Stray Cat, so we might have had a much easier night than those who had a longer anchor line.

British Columbia by Boat Day 5: Westview

True to our word, we got up at 6:00am, had a quick breakfast and coffee, and then left the dock, leaving Bowen island. It took us the better part of 60 minutes to actually leave the tip of Bowen island, illustrating again to us how giant Bowen island was.

The morning was beautiful, but there was next to no wind. Whenever we saw a boat with sails up, it would inevitably turn out that they would be motoring with the sails up for show. We passed several candidates for stopping for the night as we got to them too early: Smugglers Cove, Pender Harbor, We discovered that the starboard head wasn't working. The same owner who thought eliminating a V-berth was a good idea no doubt thought that an electric head would be just the thing to impress the folks. Unfortunately, those things are much less reliable than manual heads, and us charter people are the people to find out about that.

A call back to Aubrey gave us a bunch of trouble-shooting tips that weren't actually helpful, but since we were near the Powell River base, I thought we'd find out if their local mechanic could help us. The prospect of a working head therefore, drew us into Westview harbor under the direction of the harbormaster for both fuel and a slip for the night.

As we pulled into the harbor, we were told to back off and wait a bit while a giant motorboat "The Majestik" was leaving the fuel dock and making her way to her slip. I held off and saw this huge boat coming off the dock, with the skipper chattering with the harbor master asking questions. The harbor master seemed a little flustered but he managed to maneuver around the large piling in the middle of the harbor despite her misdirections.

We soon pulled into the fuel dock and filled up with both water and fuel. We then hosed down the head so it wouldn't stink from all our attempts to fix the head, and then headed over to the slip. I parked the boat gingerly while an audience of fellow yachtsmen watched to see if I was an incompetent who would destroy both my boat and theirs. The skipper of the Majestik impressed me by coming over and saying, "Want some help?" I said I'd never turn it down, and he quickly said, "Well, sometimes the help makes things worse."

After parking the boat to my satisfaction, everyone got off the boat while I waited for Larry, Cooper's Powell River manager to come by and see if he could fix our problem. My heart sank when I saw that the only tool he carried was a plunger! No amount of plunging helped, and I soon realized I was going to be stuck with one head for the rest of the trip. I did discover another idiotic thing the electric head did, however, which was to flush the toilet with fresh water, rather than salt water. Whatever it was that went on in the head of the owner of the Stray Cat, it wasn't one that concerned itself with long term cruising.

Since we didn't have an oven, we decided to figure out if the BBQ could bake frozen pizza. It turned out that it did, and did a fairly good (if slow) job at it. We made more friends with the owner of the Majestik, and he showed us aboard his luxury motor-yacht. With twin engines producing horsepower into the 4 figures, he could cruise at 20 knots and had a maximum speed of 30 knots. Throughout the rest of the trip, I would kick myself for not realizing that the Pacific Northwest wasn't a sailing destination, but was really a motorboat destination: one best served by motor-yachts such as Michael's.

British Columbia by boat Day 4: Bowen Island

We woke up and finished provisioning the boat, and by 9:00am, Aubrey, one of Cooper's mechanics, showed up to really show us the boat around. We found several more issues, including the main saloon's bed, which would not move up and down to double as a dining table. This was finally fixed, but it took her an hour or so. All this time, she was the most relaxed check-out person we'd encountered, and we still didn't get a chart briefing, as no one had actually been to desolation sound.

We then departed the slip, only to discover that we had left Xiaoqin's aunt behind --- she was using a land toilet and hadn't told anyone! We turned the boat around and motor'd back, and then Aubrey told us she'd left her cell phone aboard the Stray Cat anyway. As I backed the boat into the slip, I heard Aubrey say, "Oh wow, you can actually do this?!" I thought to myself, "Wait, if you're so surprised, why did you lend me the boat?" Xiaoqin's aunt came aboard and we drove away, leaving Vancouver behind.

When we first looked over the maps for the trip, we noticed that there was an island near Vancouver called Bowen Island. With Bowen aboard, we had no choice but to visit it for the trip. I originally thought it'd be a lunch stop, but given the state of the boat and how late we left the slip, we decided to stay the night at Bowen Island instead, and spend the day sailing to Bowen Island. It would turn out to be the only comfortable sailing we'd do the entire trip, so it was very much worth while.

Bowen Island turned out to be quite pretty, and we arrived in time to enjoy the sunset, a hike, a visit to the library, and of course, the gift shop to get Bowen Island T-shirts for Bowen. Our son's head was temporarily (I hope) inflated by everyone saying to him, "Welcome to your island!" That night, he asked me if there was a Piaw island, a mommy island, or an Arturo island. I had to explain that Bowen island was named after Captain James Bowen, not after him, but he was still pretty happy there was a Bowen island. I would later discover that there was second Bowen Island in Australia, named after James' brother Richard Bowen.

When Bowen first heard that there was a Bowen island, he would make statements like, "Bowen island is a giant island!" We would laugh, because that seemed to be a statement of conjecture from a 3-year old who didn't really know how to read maps. Now that we were on Bowen island, it was very clear that Bowen was right all along: Bowen Island was huge, with 3,000 permanent residents and plenty of room for visitors without feeling crowded.

We examined the tide tables and decided on a 6:00am start the next day.

British Columbia by Boat: Day 3 Vancouver

We got up early and headed over to the bus depot. I'd never seen a bus driver do so much paper work for what should be a common trip (the company ran multiple trips per day, in each direction), but the net result was that he ended up running late, and kept apologizing to every ferry worker as he bulldozed his way onto the ferry.

Once in Vancouver, the bus took a long time to deliver us to the bus depot, from whence we took a short walk over to the false creek ferry terminal and were served almost immediately by an aquabus taking us to Granville island.

The aquabus was fun, and a great way to view Vancouver's false creek. When we arrived at Granville Island, Larry Hosken met us at the dock and escorted us over to Cooper Boating. I will now confess that I'd left the paper copy of my sailing license at home, but it turned out not to be an issue: Cooper Boating is the most relaxed charter outfit I'd ever sailed with. Their idea of a warning briefing was a short 20 minute video reminding you that GPS is not reliable compared to using your brains and eyes. Arturo had arrived and joined us just in time for that video.

There was no chart briefing, and there couldn't be, since every person on staff I talked to about sailing up to Desolation Sound responded: "I've never been there!" Arturo, Larry, and I shrugged and then proceeded with moving into the boat and settling in.

The Stray Cat was a 38' Lagoon Catamaran, but it was the strangest layout I'd ever seen. It had a master-suite on the starboard pontoon, but it didn't take up the entire hull, leaving an empty V-berth shaped "cabin" that could only be accessed from a hatch. The saloon had next to no storage, and neither did the cabins, leaving us to dump most provisions on the shelves. On top of that, there was only a single 80 gallon water tank, but it was opaque so you couldn't tell how much water was in it! It was bizarre and strange. To top it off, they had a TV system with a high end sound system. If I had to construct an image of the sailor who owned this boat, I'd say that he was someone who'd run parties on this boat but had never done any extended cruising on it. At least the diesel engines were brand new.

We provisioned the boat and then had dinner. We were promised a full boat briefing the next morning, and hoped that we'd be able to ask some questions about the boat then.

British Columbia by Boat: Day 2 Victoria

I'd originally planned to visit the Butchart gardens this day, but changed the plans because of the fireworks the night before, which was worth it. So this morning, we set out to explore the city and see Beacon Hill Park. The park itself was pretty, but after the Butchart gardens felt a bit of a let down. Beacon view, however, offered gorgeous views of the coast towards Washington, so after that we kept walking along the coast, where some sort of century was going on.

The coast walk took a while, and around lunch time we stopped at the farmer's market for lunch. Bowen decided he wanted to go back to the B&B to sleep (which caused us to become skeptical, but he did seem genuinely tired). On my way back to the B&B we stopped to pick up some fruit, chocolate, and Chocolate Ensure for Bowen. At the B&B, Bowen drank an entire bottle of Ensure, laid down to bed, and then after 20 minutes decided he wasn't tired enough to sleep after all.

Well, I had to buy bus tickets to Vancouver anyway, so we walked over to find the bus depot and buy tickets. After that, we went to a Victoria institution: high tea at the Empress hotel. When I tried to book this via Opentable the day before, I couldn't get a single table for 4 adults, but I could get 2 tables for 2 adults. Well, my jig was up as soon as my wife and I both presented our reservations (they were completely full: I saw the hostess turn away folks at the door), but they nicely put us into a 4 person table (plus an extra chair for Bowen). Looking at the setup, I concluded that they weren't hard up for space, but only had a certain number of dishes prepared for any given day, and once they ran out they were done.

I'd always avoided the high tea since it was relatively expensive and required reservations. It was quite excellently presented and the food was excellent, if diabetes inducing. The tea was good too, though we ended up with 4 boxes of Empress Hotel tea that I'm not sure we'd ever get around to finishing.

After dark, we got in a nice (if windy) walk around the inner harbor area, and hoped for good weather for a few days of sailing.

British Columbia by Boat: Day 1 Victoria

My wife, her aunt and uncle, and Bowen and I planned for a sailing trip to desolation sound. For various reasons, we had the trip cut short, but the original pitch for desolation sound sold the water temperatures hard (e.g., 80F water in Pendrell Sound). We were very skeptical (for reference, water temperatures in San Francisco Bay are around 60F, and we're much further south than British Columbia is. Despite that skepticism, the area is said to be beautiful, so we booked a Catamaran. The only Catamaran available in the area was down in Vancouver, but with 10 days we expected to be able to explore and still do the commute.

We started the trip with a flight from San Jose to Seattle, and then a transfer to a seaplane (by Kenmore Air) to Victoria. It was my first time on that sea plane, but it dropped us in the inner harbor, with the second easiest customs process I'd ever encountered on a transit into Canada.

From there, it was a short walk to our AirBnB stay, where hostess Naoko when she heard that we were headed over to the Butchart Gardens offered to call a taxi for us. When that didn't work out (British Columbia is an Uber-free zone), she ran back inside, grabbed exact change for our bus fare, and told us where to jump onto the bus.

The bus was crowded, as everyone was headed over to the gardens for the Friday night fireworks show.

The fireworks was impressive: the last time I was in the area, it had been a fountain and laser show. The bus, however, took a long time to show up for a pickup after the show, however, and despite the driver's attempt to catch up by not stopping at every stop, it took us a long time to get back to our B&B and catch some sleep.

Long Term Review: Garmin Vivoactive

It's been about 5 months since my original Vivoactive review. Since then, the watch has barely left my wrist! I don't even usually take it off to charge it, because I just plug the charger onto my wrist using a portable battery. I wanted to put the watch through extreme conditions before writing a long term review, so since my original review, I've:

• Taken the watch on hiking, camping, sailing and RV trips
• Swam in hot springs, cold water, sea water (both pool and open water)
• Taken the watch cycling, sailing, tubing, and everything short of a scuba dive

The device has been outstanding in all ways, with reliable performance and of course, remained ticking despite everything I do (it's much more reliable than either my smartphone or my cell service!). The watch has enabled me to keep track of nightly wakings while being the skipper of a sailboat during a major storm in the Pacific Northwest, and it has allowed me to track hikes, bike rides, and swims almost on a daily basis.

By the way, here's why battery life is important: not only does the battery life needs to be long enough to be worn 24-hours/day in order to get sleep tracking data, it's also important as a measure of longevity. Modern lithium batteries are normally rated for 300 charge cycles before the charge capacity drops by 20%. If your battery's going to barely last the day, then within a year, the charge capacity is going to be degraded to the point where it won't last the day. A battery that goes a week between charges, by contrast, can easily go 5 years before the charge capacity is degraded, and even then it's a degradation from 7 days to 5 days or so. In other words, a battery that barely lasts a day is a built-in obsolescence machine, while the battery that lasts a week is designed to actually be useful for a significant lifespan.

There are a few bugs:

• While driving, the device continues to tracks steps. There needs to be a "driving mode" that ignores steps, but then I'd forget to turn it off.
• While on a sailboat, my walking patterns change and the device doesn't always register steps. (No big deal, though the "move!" alarm does get annoying)
• The calories reading is laughably low. This is not a problem for me since I mostly ignore it and go with "how I feel" as far as eating is concerned. But if you're a pro Athlete weighing your food before you eat it, you probably want more accuracy.

As far as calorie-measurement is concerned, this is a general problem with Garmin's new "sensor pool" model of bike sensor pairing. In the old days (Edge 800/500), a sensor was associated with a bike. What this meant was that whenever you picked up a sensor by switching bikes, the device also knew how heavy your bike was, and could compute calorie output accordingly. In the new "sensor pool" model, you no longer have to tell your unit which bike you're currently riding, since it would pick up the sensor automatically. The flip side of it is that the device no longer knows how heavy your bike is! This is a serious problem, and would cause me to not consider the Edge 810/510/1000 series an upgrade for my use. For instance, when riding my triplet, I'd get 250 calories on the Edge 800 while my Vivoactive would read a less than 100 calories. That's because the triplet is north of 50 pounds and my son doesn't pedal that hard when going to school, so for the same effort I can only go so fast. If Garmin doesn't fix this, in the long term I could see myself going to great lengths to keep the 800 working rather than upgrade.

From my perspective, I could use a few more features:

• Barometric pressure/air temperature sensor (I'd be OK with an external sensor like the Tempe)
• A tide-table/app would be really useful for when I'm sailing in tidal regions.

But seriously? I highly recommend this watch despite its minor flaws, and on those long trips that I take, I don't see any other smart-watch coming even close to being rugged enough or having sufficient battery life to keep up with my lifestyle (I certainly didn't see anyone else with a smart watch on my last two adventure travel trips). This one nearly does it all, and that which it doesn't do, few other devices do as well, and none in its price range.

Review: French Kids Eat Everything

I checked French Kids Eat Everything out of the library because it seemed entertaining in the way Bring Up Bebe seemed to be, rather than because I thought I might learn something from it. After, as a Chinese person who eats nearly everything, I never thought my heritage would allow my children to not eat everything. An observation of my wife's Chinese relatives indicated that my assumption is absolutely untrue: mainland Chinese are just as bad as Americans in being averse to trying new foods, and I predict that in the coming decades the obnoxious Chinese tourist will replace the obnoxious American tourist in reputation for being loud, mono-lingual --- especially in the assumption that every Asian-looking person speaks Chinese --- and unable to tolerate different cuisines.

French Kids Eat Everything's written by a Canadian from Vancouver. Also a non-engineer/non-scientist, the book's full of generalizations unpacked by studies, and an over-emphasis in comparing her/her family's bad American poor eating habits. Given the huge diversity in cultures in American backgrounds, it's poor practice to generalize. In particular, I've encountered a French person in Japan who was having a miserable time because she refused to learn to eat with chopsticks, and couldn't stand rice every day. Clearly, the culinary culture and education of the French does not extend to learning to eat Asian foods, and the French can be just as obnoxious about being unable to adapt as anyone else can be.

Nevertheless, the book has a few tips (she calls them "rules") for parents with kids who will only eat a few foods:

1. Parents: You are in charge of your children's food education
2. Avoid emotional eating: food is not a pacifier, a distraction, a toy, a bribe, a reward, or a substitute for discipline.
3. Parents schedule meals and menus. Kids eat what adults eat: no substitutes and no short-order cooking.
4. Food is social. Eat family meals together at the table, with no distractions.
5. Eat vegetables of all colors of the rainbow. Don't eat the same main dish more than once per week.
6. For picky eaters: You don't have to like it, but you do have to taste it. For fussy eaters: You don't have to like it, but you do have to eat it.
7. Limit snacks, ideally one per day (two maximum), and not within one hour of meals. In between meals, it's ok to feel hungry. At meals eat until you're satisfied rather than full.
8. Take your time, for both cooking and eating. Slow food is happy food.
9. Eat mostly real, home made food, and save treats for special occasions.
10. Eating is joyful, not stressful. Treat the food rules as habits or routines rather than strict regulations; it's fine to relax them once in a while.

If you've read up on recent nutritional literature, such as In Defense of Food, none of this should be a surprise.  In particular, #5 and #9 are very common advise. What's controversial is #3 and #7. As a Dad, I'm very OK with letting my son get hungry and denying him food. I definitely don't view hunger as a bad thing at all. But for most American and Asian mothers, this is a no-no. I suspect this comes from food being scarce during the Great Depression, and of course, Asian famines were part of the history. In any case, good luck convincing your significant other to go with #3 and #7. In particular, American schools with their snack times that seem to go on through all parts of the day probably make it impossible to stick to rule #7.

In any case, the book does do a good job explaining how the French social system supports a fairly healthy eating culture. On the other hand, it's clear to me that it's not perfect: having had French meals that took over 2+ hours to serve and that still leave me fairly hungry at the end of a long day of cycling, I think that there's a lot to be said for American-style flexibility and portioning if you're involved in a lot of heavy physical activity and would just like to go to bed after a long hard day. And I'm not sure the author herself has had enough experience with a wide variety of food cultures to understand that the Asian cultures themselves have reasonable food cultures without having insanely long meal-times and school-enforced rules about eating. In particular, I've seen enough French people balk at what they consider "foreign Asian food" to find it hard to believe that the French have a complete (or even adequate) answer to modern society's dining crisis.

Despite all this, I'd recommend this book to the typical parent. In particular, if it helps convince you that it's OK for your child to be hungry because he refused lunch, and that in the long run that'll make him healthier, I think it's well worth your time to read it.