Around Vancouver Island 2013

Day 6 – July 10, 2013 Wednesday

Seymour Narrows has been conquered and it was quite easy! All my concerns and worry about getting through it have been eliminated. Yay!

Our day started out before the birds were awake. The alarm went off at 4:00 a.m. Moe was already up when it went off and after about 5 minutes of self-encouragement I managed to haul myself out of bed. I had prepared the coffee the night before so Moe just had to get the kettle boiling and make coffee. No breakfast this morning! Between the two of us, we had spent a few hours going over our plans for today so we were both pretty confident that Seymour Narrows wouldn’t present too much trouble.

At 4:30 a.m. we were off the dock and making our way up Discovery Passage. Our only company was a tug bringing a load of logs down the passage. Just as well, I thought. Fewer boats in my way suits me. We motored over to the Quadra Island side and before long we saw other boats making their way up the passage as well, including a big Coast Guard boat. We led the flotilla for some time but eventually the Coast Guard boat overtook us and then another sailboat and finally, just before we entered the narrows, a power boat. Our timing was impeccable as we went through the narrows proper right at the beginning of slack! The only event during our transit through the narrows was the loss of one of our GPS units, in particular the one that runs the navigation software on the computer. Fortunately, we do have another one so were able to see where we were going and the rest of the transit was quite pleasant! I prepared us some breakfast which we ate as we motored along.

Yesterday we met a couple, Ann and Barry on Abacus, who were also transiting the narrows today and we had planned to meet up later in the day in an anchorage called Billygoat Bay on Helmcken Island in Johnstone Strait. They hailed us while the first mate was napping and we confirmed our plans. They have a big power boat and before long had passed us. A short time later Barry hailed us again. He was at the junction between Discovery Passage and Johnstone Strait. He said the waves were pretty big and they decided that it would be prudent to turn right into Mayne Passage between East and West Thurlow rather than try to slog through Johnstone Strait. We agreed that we would do the same.

Of course, plans can change and when we got up to the junction we decided that it didn’t look too bad and thought we would go up Johnstone Strait instead of following our new friends. We crossed Johnstone Strait through some rough water and started motoring up the Thurlow Island side. Boy was it rough! I had my head buried in reference books trying to figure out the tides and currents while Moe valiantly steered us. At one point I was reading about a particular point called Needham Point. The Sailing Directions told us that the tide rips there could be pretty strong and care should be taken to go no closer than 0.02 miles. I read that to Moe and he said, ‘Well, that’s just where we are!’. The current was powerful all right and he struggled but got us away from them. We carried on through the bumpy water, up, down, up, down, up, down. As I read I determined that we would be proceeding against a flood tide into a very strong current if we were to continue. After a brief moment of discussion, Moe turned us around and we finally took Barry’s advice. We had managed 8.5 nm up Johnstone Strait but enough was enough!

As we slid through the ebb tide waves we knew we had made the right decision. My bottled up anxiety was let loose and I found it leaking out of my eyes. As we passed the entrance into Mayne Passage the turbulent water calmed down and eventually so did I. We hailed the Blind Channel Marina and secured a spot for the night.

The marina here is very nice with good docks, fuel, supplies and, so I’ve heard, Wi-Fi. That means I may get to post this today!

Happily tied up at the dock, Moe checked the engine room and found that we had burned about 10 L of oil. Yikes! That is not acceptable. He tracked down the leak and repaired it. Meanwhile, we met up with Barry again and introduced ourselves to our dock neighbors.

As any boater with a toilet knows, things can go wrong. Knowing that the pump out for the holding tank was plugged Moe set about to fix it. Just over an hour later he had accomplished the task. Sheesh, there is no rest for this man! Thank goodness he’s as capable as he is. I’m very thankful for him!

Evening plans include plans for tackling Johnstone Strait again and having drink with the Abacus crew.