Waiting it out in Gorge Harbour

We left Desolation Sound yesterday and arrived in Gorge Harbour on Cortes Island. After two nights at anchor (the second a little windy, with more wind in the forecast), we decided a night at a dock would be nice. Well, the forecast for a little wind changed into a whole lot of wind, and then into a gale warning (which is way more than a whole lot of wind). Most of the boats up here right now are holed up until things moderate a little, where we were planning to go next we could still probably make it to, but the direction and strength of the wind makes it nearly impossible to get out of the dock we are at without a very exciting game of bumper-boats, and since we're comfy and protected here, we're staying put.

We've taken the opportunity to explore the island some. We hiked over to "Whale Town" today, which consisted of a general store which is closed while its being remodeled, a cafe which was closed with no posted hours, a library open Fridays 1:30 to 3:30, a post office open only Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoons, and the tiny church pictured above. So much for town. There's a very nice restaurant up the way which we've had lunch at, but dinner at $35+ Canadian comes out to, eh... $35+ American. Maybe next time.

We're doing a lot of reading, watched some movies on the laptop (thanks Dave), and fortunately can hop onto the marina's wireless internet connection to keep ourselves occupied. If we are still here tomorrow we're going to try to hitchhike (Nancy for some reason is really excited about this - the harbour master says thats how a lot of people get around here) to the other side of the island where they are having a music festival this weekend.

Desolation Sound

After leaving Lund, we were off to Prideaux Bay in Desolation Sound. The first thing we noticed as we turned the corner and passed Sara Point was the large steep mountains going down to the edge of the water. Absolutely beautiful! The Gulf Islands are pretty, but the scenery isn't majestic as it is in Desolation Sound. Also, few houses, with none in Prideaux Bay.

Prideaux Bay was packed with boats, but not nearly as many as in the Gulf Islands. In between rain showers, we spent the next several days kayaking and exploring the wonderful bays, nooks and crannies, and nearby islands. Once we spent time exploring the area, we were amazed at how many boats were there. The motor boats were especially creative in finding nooks to tie up in as their draft (depth) is usually only a few feet (ours is about 6 1/2 feet). We envied them their ability to find private corners, especially when the 80 foot motor boat near us left their generator on for the whole day, spoiling the peacefulness of the anchorage.

Prideaux Bay was remarkably protected. During our explorations, we noticed that Melanie Cove, which looked more protected than Prideaux Bay, had gusts of wind rushing down the mountains and spinning in circles around the bay. However, we did get some wind the second day, and a boat that had anchored too closely to us were force to move when our boat danced too closely to it--the last boat to anchor is generally the first to move.

Anchoring for us and for many people is both an act of planning and an act of chance. You look around the crowded anchorage for the best place to set your anchor. In between going to where you want to anchor and actually setting the anchor, you usually drift several boat lengths. In Prideaux Bay, we were anchoring in 50 feet of water. This meant that, according to the books, we should have been letting out about 200 to 250 feet of anchor rode. However, given the crowded nature of the anchorages, we were lucky to let out 3:1, or 150 feet. The combination of 150 feet of anchor rode and drifting several boat lengths while anchoring meant that you never quite end up where you planned to be. Because of this, we tried to be tolerant of people who we felt anchored too closely to us, as well as hoping that others were tolerant of us. Fortunately, we were well protected from the wind the first night, so we got a good sleep. The second day was less rainy, but had wind coming down from the mountains that tested our trust in our anchoring with limited scope out.


It's been cooler up here than earlier in our trip, and has rained for a good portion of the time. We're pretty sure that it rained about five inches the first night. We heard that this has been an unusually rainy and windy summer. The wind is great when we want to sail, but not so great when we are trying to sleep.

Beautiful Pender Harbour to the Lund Zoo

Across the Georgia Straits to Pender Harbour
Our trip across the Georgia Straits to Pender Harbour was calm and uneventful. We were only able to sail for a short while before motoring again. Pender Harbour, which bills itself as the "Venice of the West" was lovely. We tied up at an old-style resort, complete with ping-pong tables, a swimming pool, a small store, and kayaks for rent. We took our kayaks and paddled several miles around the harbor to the "town" (it had a grocery store, cafe, liquor store, and a few other businesses), and hiked up the hill to the Grasshopper Pub, which had a wonderful view of a portion of the harbor. We then kayaked over to an Ericson 38 anchored nearby, and spent some time talking to the owner, exchanging notes about Ericsons and traveling north. Owning a boat from the same manufacturer is always a great way to make a new friend. We haven't yet found anyone who knows as much about Ericsons as Cory, and I don't think we will! Then back to our peaceful and beautiful marina, which was tucked inside a nook in the harbor. Our arms sure got a workout!


Lund Marina (aka "the zoo")
Our next stop, Lund, was only a few hours away. Lund is a jumping off point into Desolation Sound and was an absolute zoo. The marina had two long docks and a separate floating breakwater. The boats were tied lengthwise to the dock, and up to two additional boats were rafted (tied) to the boat attached to the dock. The harbormaster's assistant was going to have us raft up to another boat. In front of that boat, there were three boats rafted together, and behind it, there were two boats. We were going to have to line up and move directly sideways into our spot. Needless to say, sailboats don't move sideways, and we were not excited about attempting this maneuver. I spotted an empty spot on the floating breakwater. This is a secondary dock because you have to use a dinghy to get to shore. We decided that we'd rather row to shore than try to make our boat do impossible maneuvers. After an easy docking, we spent the rest of the afternoon watching boats move in and out of the marina, with the one marina staff member assisting every boat to dock. In the early evening, we ended up with two boats rafted up to us. While the people were reasonably friendly, its not our favorite way to spend an evening, and we'll probably avoid Lund in the future.

Nanaimo and Newcastle Island

We got up at 5 am on Friday to make the Dodd Narrows passage at slack tide. This was the first real "gateway" that we had to pass through. These are extremely narrow passages that have a lot of water going through. For Dodd Narrows, up to 9 knots of current could occur at maximum flood or ebb tides. We hit it a bit early, so we had a few knots of current against us, but had no problems going through. I was a bit nervous after reading all of the guide books, which really try to scare you. However, Dodd Narrows is very short, with no obstructions, and we planned ahead. After the Columbia Bar, it was a cakewalk!

We decided to spend the first night on Newcastle Island, which is across the bay from Nanaimo. The boats were so tightly anchored that we tied up at the docks. After breakfast, we took a ferry to Nanaimo to shop and explore the town a bit. Then it was back to the boat, where we inflated our kayaks and enjoyed a paddle to a neighboring island, where the Dinghy Dock Pub is located.

On Saturday morning at 6:45 am, we woke up to someone yelling, "hey, that's not your boat!" Several intoxicated guys had boarded someone's boat and tried to take their dinghy. As it was firmly attached to the side of the boat, they didn't succeed. Instead, the owner woke up and chased them off the boat. They next tried to steal a dinghy from a neighboring boat. All of the people on the neighboring boats were roused with the yelling, and the thieves were pushed into the water. Strong words were spoken, and it looked like a fight was about the break out. The thieves finally decided to swim for the next island as they were vastly outnumbered. There they stole a boat and headed for Nanaimo. The last we heard, the police had picked them up and had them in custody. Needless to say, there was much excitement and adrenalin at the docks, and nobody got any more sleep. Fortunately, no one was hurt, and no one lost their dinghy. We were glad that our "dinghy" is our kayaks, and our "engine" is our paddles. That is much less tempting for anyone to steal.

We've now spent a few days in Nanaimo, regrouping, organizing the boat, and provisioning for the trip to Desolation Sound. We'll leave tomorrow for that portion of our trip.

Galiano Island and the Hummingbird Pub Bus

This past week has been a blur. We left Victoria on Wednesday morning and headed for Galiano Island, which is one of the Gulf Islands. We actually were able to sail a good portion of the way, as the wind was fantastic. It was good to spend time re-learning how to sail. Montague Harbor, a bay at Galiano, was packed with over 100 boats. We anchored much closer to other boats than we preferred. Fortunately, there was very little wind all night, so we were able to sleep well.

The next day, we kayaked to shore and explored the Island. It has a beautiful park, with trails, a campground, and beaches where many children were playing. Cory's highlight of the day was taking the Hummingbird Pub Bus. The bus was very old, with a driver that was quick-witted and had everyone in fits of laughter. He changed hats at least three times during the drive and had all of the passengers singing "Blueberry Hill". As he said, he has been driving the bus for 16 years, but has only driven well for three weeks!

Oh Canada!

We are on vacation at last! On Monday, we left Port Angeles and headed for Victoria. It was a nice short trip...only four hours. We tried to remember how to sail at first, but were forced to motor for most of the trip once the wind died. We are moored in front of the Empress hotel, which is very entertaining. Right now I am listening to a street entertainer captivate a crowd. He seems to draw crowds all day long! The entertainment, with music, acrobatics, street vendors, etc, goes from about nine or ten in the morning until eleven at night. It has been a welcome treat, but we are thinking that we'll head to the Gulf Islands next and anchor in a quiet bay. :)

We made it at last!

Written July 3, 10:30 am

We finally reached Neah Bay yesterday, after a 21 hour rattleless and crabpot free journey. Neah Bay has never looked so beautiful! Now, I'm sitting in the cockpit as I write this and Cory is enjoying relaxing on the bow as we head towards Port Angeles.

The ocean journey was mild and uneventful. However, we agree that night journeys on the ocean are not our favorite part of boating, and should be avoided whenever possible. During the night, when you are convinced that fifteen minutes have passed, you can be relatively confident that at least five minutes have gone by. And those flashing lights out there. Are they marking a fishing net? Or are they crabpots? We just stayed miles away.

The good news is that we were crab pot free all night. The only "crab pots" we saw flew away before we had too many heart attacks.

Today, the Straits of Juan de Fuca are unusually calm. The sunshine is peeking through the clouds and the Olympic mountains look spectacular. We'll cover close to 60 miles today in about 10-12 hours. In the meantime, we're letting the autopilot steer, while we read, relax, and check around us every few minutes. We're heading back to Portland tomorrow for a few days. Then, it's back to the boat, and time to head for Canada.