the Slowboat Team 
After a few 5:00 a.m. departures, today’s “about 7:00 a.m.” departure felt luxurious. So luxurious that most of us, apparently now adjusted to early mornings, were underway well before 7. Today is as close to a lay day as we hope to have in Canada, with fewer than 60 nautical miles to travel in mostly calm water without super strong currents. We still had to pay attention, though. Logs were everywhere. … Read more
This morning feels a bit like deja vu. Didn’t we wake up before the sun yesterday to cruise 80-odd miles? Such is life when transiting BC during COVID. If the weather is safe, we go. The trip around Cape Caution is all about the weather. It’s one of only two places we’re exposed to the full effects of the Pacific Ocean, so even on a calm day we feel some … Read more
With Seymour Narrows behind us, the timing of our trip up Johnstone Strait was primarily about maximizing favorable current and miles covered. Thankfully the beginning of the ebb—which runs northwest in Johnstone Strait—was about 5:00 a.m., about the same time it’s light enough to spot logs in the water. Complicating matters was the forecast, which called for winds building to 25-35 knots in the afternoon. Both Environment Canada and the … Read more
Today was all about timing our arrival at Seymour Narrows. Seymour Narrows is one of the fastest flowing tidal rapids in the world, with current that can exceed 16 knots, so we definitely don’t want to cruise through at the wrong time. We got to sleep in this morning, and didn’t leave False Bay until just after 9:00 a.m. The sun was out and the sky was blue and it … Read more
We’ve been unusually quiet for the last year. Cancelling trips, refunding money, doing circles around the San Juan Islands while waiting for the COVID crisis to blow over had us a bit down. But we’re finally underway again, and it feels great! A few months ago, several things became clear: any American who wanted to be vaccinated could be fully vaccinated by the end of May, travel and socializing is … Read more
We didn’t care much about timing Whirlpool Rapids and Greene Point Rapids yesterday, but we do care about the timing at Dent Rapids, Gillard Pass, and Yuculta Rapids. Thankfully, getting to the rapids at slack isn’t that hard. Frederick Arm to Dent Rapids is about 6.5nm (we’ll call it an hour) and Dent was predicted to be slack at at 7:01 a.m. So we left at 6:00 a.m., and as … Read more
Goodbye Alaska! We’ve had a great couple months wandering around Southeast—the best weather we can remember (except for that one week of smoke), excellent bear and whale watching, and just a few boat gremlins—but in order to have a leisurely trip down the outside of Vancouver Island with decent weather, it’s time to head south. NOAA predicted 10 knot winds and Environment Canada said wind light. Windy showed single digit … Read more
Around Cape Caution! When we fell asleep last night, Environment Canada (Central Coast zone) was calling for “wind light” and seas one meter all day. Windy (ECMWF model) was showing this: Forecasts don’t get much better than that, but forecasts aren’t always right. So when we woke up at 4:30 a.m. we checked West Sea Otter buoy, where the wind was gusting to 4 knots and the seas were a … Read more