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.