We got up early this morning in order to cross the Nahwitti Bar at high water slack. Nahwitti Bar is a shallow area between Hope Island and Vancouver Island. Ocean swells tend to bunch up on the bar when there is current from a moving tide. This makes it dangerous and very uncomfortable to cross at anything but slack water when the current isn't moving. We got to the bar 15 minutes early but crossed it anyway. it wasn't a big deal except that we still had about a 1 knot current against us which slowed us down.

After crossing the bar the swell got a bit lighter. I'd guess about a 4' swell maybe 8 seconds apart. As we approached Cape Scott we noticed a Canadian Coast Guard ship following us. I'm not sure if I was glad to see them or if I saw it as a bad omen. He got between us and another sailboat that was rounding the cape and just kind of sat there until we both went by. I can see why they hang out there, though. The swell mounted, it got foggy and boy was it uncomfortable. We estimate that we had swells up to 11' high every 10 seconds or so. The big swells didn't bother us, it was the little choppy stuff in between the swells that got us rocking and rolling. We've been at anchor now for an hour and my head is still swimming.

We saw a shark today. It was swimming at the surface, shark style, with it's dorsal fin out of the water. It was small. Just a few feet long.

We are currently anchored in Browning Cover hear Winter Harbour. We haven't decided whether we'll head out again tomorrow or stay for a couple of days. 10 hours of roller coaster style boating may be enough for me for a couple of days.

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