We departed Pruth Bay early to press north to Shearwater. Conditions looked good for a smooth transit. (No sun, but we can’t be too picky.) Coming out of Pruth Bay, Dog Star got some favorable sailing conditions and took advantage of them. Shearwater/Bella Bella is really the only good provisioning stop along the middle of the north coast. Things like produce are often scarce there, so it’s a bit of … Read more
We opted to leave a little later than our usual zero-dark-thirty to round Cape Caution today. Normally, the driving factor is winds, which tend to build over the course of a day. In that case, leaving early lets you get the more favorable winds (as well as the worm, of course), and gets you around Cape Caution and to your destination before any afternoon blows settle in. In this case, … Read more
This morning we cruised across Queen Charlotte to Blunden Harbour, one of our favorite staging points for rounding Cape Caution. The weather looked decent, but winds were forecast to build as the day progressed, so we got an early start. Overnighting in Boughey Bay had given us a nice route out to Queen Charlotte without having to revisit the peril of Johnstone Strait again. We were about half an hour … Read more
Today was the day to make miles down Johnstone Strait while things were good. Johnstone can be a serious menace, and we had favorable current from 6AM until noon. We figured if we popped out right at 6, we could ride the current all the way down to our turnoff from Johnstone. As a bonus, winds were predicted to be mellow (unusual for this stretch). It all turned out to … Read more
Early (5am!!) departure today, and a long day to boot! We cruised just over 60nm from our anchorage at Tribune Bay up past Campbell River, through Seymour Narrows (timed perfectly, of course), and onto Kanish Bay. It was a bit lumpy out, with some current against us as we headed north in the Strait of Georgia. We had three-foot wind waves on the bow for four hours or so. Not … Read more
The Environment Canada forecast didn’t look all that great for the Strait of Georgia this morning, but after discussing the hourly reported condition (Windy.com, buoy reports, looking at the hourly trend, etc.) with Laura via the group chat, it looked like a little chop was likely the worst we’d get, so the group pulled anchor and left Clam Bay around 8am this morning, headed for Dodd Narrows. The plan was … Read more
This morning we left Ganges a little before the 11am checkout time (after wandering up the hill to a nice bakery). We’re of course watching the weather forecasts for the Strait of Georgia, and we were greeted this morning with this, for both south and north of Nanaimo. Waterspouts?? Waterspouts are not on our Flotilla Bingo cards. At all. Next year maybe we should make a limited edition “Catastrophe” version … Read more
Day 1 is always a very busy day. Clearing Canadian Customs, arriving into Ganges, provisioning for a week without groceries, and then meeting for our first group dinner out…it’s a lot. Which means photos from Day 1 are often a little scarce. Airship at Bedwell Harbour for clearing Canadian Customs: Instead of clearing by phone with Nexus as usual, Airship stopped at the dock at Bedwell Harbour (with a non-Nexus … Read more