Photo: Tour boats on the dock at Hot Springs Cove.

Our West Wind charm failed us again. As we headed out towards Estevan Point and the Hesquiat Peninsula, we went right into 10-20 knots of southeasters -- not the 10-20 knots west as promised by the weather radio.

We tacked south towards Juan Perez Rocks as huge swells rolled in from the northwest, right on Osprey's beam. A swell coming in would first roll us to port, knocking the winds out of our sails, then pick us up and take us to the top to give us a view of the next swell before dipping down to the trough as the swell rolled us to starboard, heeling us over as if in a gust.

In addition to the swells a strong northbound current set us back, taking almost a knot from our speed and making horrible tacking angles. We finally gave up and motored, not raising sail again until a few miles off Hot Springs Cove.

Estevan Point is one of this coast's most challenging crossings. It also has a fascinating history as the place of first contact between European explorers and the Nuu-chah-nulth people and as the only place in Canada attacked by Japanese in WWII. Read more about it in my book, Voyages to Windward: Sailing Adventures on Vancouver Island's West Coast (Harbour Publishing, 2005).

We sailed into the cove, dropping sails just beyond the floating B&B, Innchanter. As we were putting away our sails, two seaplanes came roaring in, nearing clipping their wings on Osprey's mast. Then Shaun, the Innchanter's owner came by in his dinghy. "Welcome back to Hot Springs Cove," he said.

When we first started coming to Hot Springs, it was used mainly by other cruising boaters and fishermen. Now the cove is popular with day trippers who come by seaplane or high speed tour boats from Tofino and crowd the springs until it's hard to find room in the pools. Cruising boaters are always trying to figure out the best time to walk to the springs to avoid the crowds. In previous years we'd found morning to be the best time, but Steve wanted a bath that day. Shaun had told us the last tour boat left at 6:30 so at 6 p.m. we climbed in our dinghy and headed ashore. There we paid our $3 per head fee and walked on a well-maintained boardwalk to the springs, passing a string of tourists heading back. At the springs we found only three other people.

On the way back we passed 18 people heading out to the springs for late night soaks. We'd hit it just right.