Photo: Cape Scott as seen from the west.

I had been worrying about the trip around Cape Scott for weeks. Eighty-nine miles, all in open seas and a rounding of one of the northwest’s most notorious capes sounded scary. I imagined strong winds against us on the trip up the north west coast of Vancouver Island, wind against current in Scott Channel and sailing in heavy seas across Queen Charlotte Sound. Everyone else rounded Cape Scott from east to west and we would be going west to east. Was that a mistake? But when we finally did it, the passage was an anticlimax.

After a week of gales, the winds were coming down. On Tuesday the forecast was NW 30-40 knots, Wednesday NW 20-30 knots, Thursday NW winds 10-15 turning to south. At last we had a good forecast for heading around Cape Scott! The seas were down from 4 meters to 1-2 meters.

We left Winter Harbour in Quatsino Sound at 7 am, motoring in calm seas against a very light northwesterly. At 12:17 we passed Cape Scott on a glassy but bumpy sea and headed northeast across Queen Charlotte Sound. As the wind came up we rolled out the jib but it wasn’t enough to sail and we motor sailed most of the way. The predicted south winds never did materialize. What winds we did have were from the northwest. We had rounded Cape Scott in a direction few sailors go and crossed Queen Charlotte Sound. By waiting out the weather we had an easy passage.

We motored into Fury Cove in Fitz Hugh Sound at sunset. Nine other boats were already anchored there. We’re back in popular cruising territory.