We left Refuge Cove in Desolation Sound at 5 am on Saturday morning, July 16th, and planned to keep moving south as long as the weather would let us. The goal was Pender Harbour on the Sunshine Coast, a place we enjoy very much. As luck would have it, our SYC friends Jack and Cassandra Bazhaw on Sandpiper were at the dock at Powell River/Westview, and as we passed the dock, they were just exiting the jetty and heading up to Desolation Sound! It would have been so fun to cruise with them for a few days, but we are at the point that we have to move every day in order to keep powered up, so we continued South and visited for a bit on the radio.

We arrived in Garden Bay in Pender Harbor and had the hook down by 12, so we took the time to go to our favorite grocery store on the Sunshine Coast – the Oak Tree Market. It is essentially an old time butcher shop with groceries, and they make all of their own sausages and smoke their own meat. Then a stop at the Thrift Shop which supports the community and I find something each time I go. This time, a pair of shorts – 3 bucks, and nearly new. Last time, a great seersucker overblouse and an electric citrus juicer – total 7 dollars. As we returned to our anchored boat, we find a 150 foot boat trying to turn and back into the marina behind our anchored Salish Mist – too close for comfort! When all was done, it was the After Eight, built right in Anacortes, and one of the largest motoryachts in the NW. The owners are the Wheaton family, who have the largest auto dealership chain in Canada, and are from Alberta. The owner was definitely on board as we dined next to them that night at the Garden Bay Pub. As we returned to our boat from dinner, the crew had unloaded 8 bicycles and 4 double kayaks for the owners choice and pleasure I guess. There is definitely another world out there, and it is not for us. The damned boat was at least 40 feet wide – maybe more, and 5 levels of stairs; the thought of meeting that in Dent Rapids or Dodd Narrows gave me bad dreams that night.

It’s starting to feel like a marathon, as we wake the next morning at 4:30 and are on our way at 5 again. This time it’s out Welcome Pass and setting a course for Nanaimo. For those who have not ventured this far, there is an interesting military area called Whiskey Gulf that is located on a direct route from the Sunshine Coast to Nanaimo. When it is active, the US and Canada are engaged in firing live torpedoes through the water defined by those area lines. It is nearly never active on weekends, and not usually on weekdays of high holiday useage. Imagine our delight (NOT) as we hear that Whiskey Golf is active, and we have to jink around the lines, when there is so much morning haze that we are cruising without a line of sight to the western shore. We set our course at a diagonal for the Halibut Bank marker, and then reset again for an angle that will put us in front of Entrance Island, off the Northumberland Channel between Gabriola Island and Nanaimo. The radio is active this morning with traffic from Winchelsea Control, the monitor of the military exercises, which is Channel 10, not 16. Boats are getting their hands spanked right and left for getting too close to the line, which makes us happy that we have chosen to stay off the line a bit more than the bare minimum. The Strait stinks up in the middle and though it is not our worst crossing by far, the swell is a bit upsetting to the stomach.

We take a mooring buoy in Mark Bay (first buoy this trip), on Newcastle Island, at about 11:30, just across from the Nanaimo Port docks. Not too bad. We averaged about 6.4 knots and since our cruising speed is normally 5.5- 5.8, we got about a ½ knot benefit from the ebbing tide coming across. After a little nap (and, frankly, a medicinal snort), we put the dingy together and go over to Newcastle Island for the first time ever. What a lovely park we have missed all these years. Between anchoring (free), docking ($2 per metre), or a $14 buoy, and with showers at 4 minutes a looney (Canadian dollar), if you don’t need water or power, this is the place to be. There are trails, interpretive markers and exhibits, and a Pavillion building that used to house balls and events and I’m sure is still used for weddings and such – built in the ‘20’s I think. It has burgers and wraps and ice cream now. With a dingy ride to the shopping Center across the bay in Nanaimo, and a dingy ride to the Dingy Dock Pub, which advertises as one of the longest continuous licensed premises in BC, you could spend a week easily here. Our club also has reciprocal priveledges at the Nanaimo Yacht Club, which has great water, laundry and showers and water and power on the docks.

We actually love Nanaimo, even though I reported on some negative changes to the economy of the old downtown. On Monday and Tuesday, we took moorage at the Port of Nanaimo docks. We found a very authentic Mexican restaurant about 6 blocks from the marina, and if you like fresh seafood, or mole, or tomatillo salsa, this is pretty durned good! Gina’s is the name, located in a converted old house, painted pink. Combination platters amounted to about 11.99 US, and Ral couldn’t clean his plate.

Wednesday the 20th, we are off the dock at 9:30 to make Dodd Narrows slack at 11:02. This is a big current change from over 8 kts to 7.5 kts. When the change is 2 or 3, or even 4 knots, we don’t worry much about being precise, but this is a large change and we don’t want to make the entrance more than 30 minutes early. WOW. We were about 35 minutes early and going with the last of the ebb, and the Narrows was still moving at about 3.5 knots – we posted 8.7 knots over the ground at one point. When we exited, northbound boats had already been inside with us, and there were at least 20 more boats lined up to go through. That is more boats than we saw in some anchorages in Desolation Sound – it must finally be summer!

Our original intention was to turn in to Ladysmith and anchor for one night, then move along. The weather was fine so we kept on going: destination Genoa Bay, which would put us within a couple of hours of Sydney, and then US waters. Genoa Bay, like many in BC, has rocks obstructing the entrance, a lovely marina inside, attached to ROADS since it is on Vancouver Island, and is across the bay from Cowichan Bay. The anchorage is great, good mud bottom, and about 25-30 feet all around. It still feels like being in the country, if not the wilderness. The Genoa Bay Café, which we have been patronizing since 2006, is still a fixture of gourmet meals in an out of the way location. We treat ourselves to lunch Thursday. The weather is expected to stink up Friday as a low comes in from offshore. Haro Strait and Juan de Fuca are more important over here than Strait of Georgia, so when the reports compete, we give Haro Strait the priority. When we can get off the dock here, hopefully tomorrow, we will skip Sydney this trip and head straight for Roche Harbor and home.

Thank you for sticking with us during our decisions and to-ing and fro-ing. We will keep traveling, and probably keep blogging.