Rounding Cape Caution is often the least comfortable section of the trip between Washington and Southeast Alaska. It’s one of just two places where we must leave the protection of the Inside Passage and venture into the open ocean. At first glance, the weather forecast was ideal: wind light, building to northwesterly 10-15 knots in the afternoon. Windy and Windfinder both showed winds in the 0-10 knot range through the … Read more
Today we left the Broughtons. We’re constantly amazed at how quickly the miles tick by. A week after leaving the San Juans, we’re further north than many cruisers make it in a lifetime. Granted, our cruise thus far has skipped plenty of outstanding destinations, but that’s only because there are so many to see further up the coast. A week out, we’ve covered about a quarter of the distance to … Read more
Our cruise from Port Harvey to Pierre’s Echo Bay (33nm) was easy and calm. We planned to head west in Knight Inlet and then around the west side of Gilford Island, but the morning weather reports gave us some pause. The northwesterly hadn’t died down in Johnstone Strait during the night. With a 20 knot northwesterly, we worried Knight Inlet might be uncomfortable. The alternative route, through Tribune Channel, is … Read more
As we mentioned in our “Rapids!!” post yesterday, our cruise to Forward Harbour was a bit on the gray and rainy side. Once anchored in Forward Harbour, the three of us dinghied around to each flotilla boat to discuss the next day’s plan. By the time we finished up at around 7:00 p.m. it had stopped raining, so Kevin and Sam took the drones up for some evening aerial photos … Read more
This is what the Cruising World has been waiting for! FIVE Boats. FIVE Rapids, One Day… and only ONE shot at slack…. Well, not really. But we did have a unique transit! Traveling north of Desolation Sound requires transiting rapids. Slow boats don’t do well in white water, so timing is critical. The most direct route is through Seymour Narrows and then Johnstone Strait, but it’s not well protected and … Read more
Today’s cruise from Pender Harbour to Squirrel Cove was about 48nm. A longish cruise, but the conditions were perfect — calm water and just the slightest breeze. A long but uneventful cruise is nice sometimes, especially when we have internet! We took advantage of the calm cruise to catch up on blog posts and some other flotilla business. (New flotilla t-shirts for 2018!) Cassidy (Nordhavn 40) and Rhapsody (Ranger Tug … Read more
The Strait of Georgia is the first “gate” on our way to Alaska. It’s only a few hours across, but if it’s windy it can be a miserable few hours. We look at a bunch of different forecasts before crossing any of the gates. Most of the time, the forecasts are pretty much in agreement. The trends are the same and predicted wind velocities are similar. For the Strait of … Read more
Few Pacific Northwest boating trips capture the imagination of cruisers like circumnavigating Vancouver Island. It’s ambitious. It’s technical. Cruisers must deal with all the gates of the inside route—the Strait of Georgia, the rapids north of Desolation Sound, and Johnstone Strait—in addition to the more challenging spots on the outside of the island: Cape Scott, Brooks Peninsula, Estevan Point, as well as the Strait of Juan de Fuca. This is … Read more