We exited Walters Cove around 9:00 a.m. and headed through some fog toward Rugged Point. Our plan was to temporarily anchor in the small bay at Rugged Point and dinghy to shore for a hike across to the beach on the other side. We had about 10 knots of wind in the bay and the fog looked like it was starting to burn off. Rugged Point is appropriately named. Gnarled … Read more
The narrow entrance to Walters Cove is a fun navigational challenge. The channel is well-charted and well-marked, but it’s narrow and winding. Looking in from the outside, the buoys look more like a random sprinkling of green and red than a defined channel. The chart clarifies the path, but it can still be intimidating. Inside Walters Cove, we found the public dock almost empty, with ample room for the whole … Read more
Today’s cruise was a short one — only 8nm or so from Columbia Cove to the Bunsby Islands. We anchored in the northernmost (slightly larger) anchorage, then took the drone up for some quick aerials before going exploring. By dinghy, we found a small island with a nice landing beach so we went ashore and found some great tide pools! We saw quite a few of these in the intertidal. … Read more
Brooks Peninsula is one of the most challenging sections of a trip around Vancouver Island. Actually, it may be the single most challenging spot on the whole west coast, from Olympia to Skagway. The problem is that it juts a dozen miles seaward from the Vancouver Island shore. Wind funnels around Cape Cook and Solander Island. When the rest of the coast is reporting light winds, it’s not uncommon to … Read more
We left North Harbour about 8:00 a.m. for the relatively short run to Klaskish Basin. A couple of black/white fog and tree photos on our way out of North Harbour: This route crosses the mouth of Quatsino Sound, and we’d hoped for calm morning conditions. Instead, we found 15-knot outflow winds meeting a low westerly swell. The seas didn’t look that bad, but they were confused and resulted in a … Read more
Bull Harbour to North Harbour (in Quatsino Sound) is one of the more challenging runs on a trip around Vancouver Island. Just outside of Bull Harbour is Nahwitti Bar, a shallow spot with swift moving current and ocean swells. At slack, it’s not a big deal, but with an ebb, it can be awful. The problem is it’s also good to be at Cape Scott at slack, and unless you … Read more
We’re off on our first Vancouver Island flotilla! We all met at North Island Marina in Port McNeill prior to departing for the west coast of Vancouver Island. This is an outstanding spot, with mechanics on call (who show up promptly), divers (they cleaned our hulls and running gear), fuel right at your slip, a good grocery store a short walk away, laundry, and a chandlery nearby. Best of all, … Read more
Skull Cove was foggy and gray as we left and headed into Queen Charlotte Strait toward Malcolm Island. We made plans to meet up with friends Carol and Park in Sointula this afternoon. (You might remember them from last year’s Alaska flotilla, on the Nordhavn 50 Akeeva.) Sointula is on Malcolm Island, just four miles or so from Port McNeill. A group of Finnish settlers came to Malcolm Island from the Nanaimo coal … Read more