S/V Ragtime

Vessel Name: Ragtime
Vessel Make/Model: Pacific Seacraft Dana 24
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23 June 2018

Gulf Island Cruise 2018 #11

We were up early in order to make Gabriola Pass at slack water (0755 hours). All went smoothly, but out in Georgia Strait we found 1 foot waves rolling down the strait very close together, and some were bigger. This made for a bouncy ride and made eating breakfast difficult. One big wave threw Don across the cabin. He crashed into the chart table breaking one of the supports, but happily he was not injured. We got the sails up and had a fast sail in 10 – 15 knots of NW wind almost all the way home. Got the boat cleaned up, dinner at White Spot, long hot showers at home without having to put money in the meter and a big, comfy bed that doesn’t move. Aaaaaah, bliss!

22 June 2018

Gulf Island Cruise 2018 #10

Time to start heading for home, so we motored north picking up some wind as we passed Porlier Pass, and had a nice downwind sail to Pirates Cove Marine Park.

21 June 2018

Gulf Island Cruise 2018 #9

We were surprised to get a cell phone call from Jay confirming the morning arrangements. In the middle of nowhere, when my cell phone won't pick up a signal at home! The hike to Princess Cove was further and hillier than we expected, especially as Don was carrying his accordion, but we made it to the [...]

20 June 2018

Gulf Island Cruise 2018 #8

We left mid-morning to motor to Wallace Island, yet another marine park with an interesting history that we had not visited before.

19 June 2018

Gulf Island Cruise 2018 #7

Up early to catch the 0924 slack water at Dodd Narrows. Went through with the knot-meter reading 5 kts, but the GPS said we were doing 6.3kts over the bottom with the current! A SE breeze came up so we had a nice sail until it died. Tied up at what used to be one of our favourite marinas, Thetis Island. Looks like the new owners are doing some work – replacing or upgrading the docks and building a new deck off the pub. But we found that the laundry and washrooms were not very clean, and moorage was a bit pricy. However, we needed to buy a few groceries and fill up the water tank, and it was nice to be able to plug into shore power, run the refrigeration and use the WiFi. We had dinner at the pub, but the food wasn’t great and they were short-staffed so the service was incredibly slow. Maybe we’ll try the other marina at the head of the bay next time.

18 June 2018

Gulf Island Cruise 2018 #6

Newcastle Island has an interesting history:

Escape from Campbell River

16 June 2017
We woke this morning to no wind, calm seas, and a scrap or two of blue sky overhead. Currents in Discovery Passage can be surprisingly strong, so we planned to leave around 11 o'clock, which was slack tide in Seymour Narrows. The morning was spent enjoying free hot showers, doing last minute shopping, and filling the water and diesel tanks. We left pretty much on time, but even so the ebb current against us was surprisingly strong as we motored south and our speed was down to 2.5 knots over the ground (compared to 5 knots through the water) so it took a while to get past Cape Mudge. But conditions were very benign, no turbulence, and once we were out of the current we headed back to Gorge Harbour. As we were approaching Uganda Passage (a narrow but well-marked channel around the end of a sandy spit that sticks out a remarkably long way from one of the islands) I noticed a small log nearby that just seemed to be rising and falling in the swell. Funny, we hadn't seen any this far up, although we saw plenty farther south, some were whole trees with their roots sticking up. There was something odd about this one. Don figured it out first. "It's a sleeping whale!", and just then the whale blew. In fact, there were two humpback whales, one quite small, so probably a mother and calf. We watched them for quite a while. They would bob around and blow a bit, then slowly and elegantly dive below the water, showing their characteristic tail flukes. After a few minutes they would come back up again. As we motored into Gorge Harbour a whale-watching boat from Campbell River was leaving. We heard them talking to another boat on the radio, and they said there were four humpbacks in that area, so perhaps we weren't watching the same ones all the time.
We had dinner on board and an early night as we have to leave early tomorrow morning to transit the rapids at slack tide.

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Ragtime's Photos - Main
A gentle Gulf Islands cruise
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Created 30 June 2018
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Created 14 June 2017

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30 June 2018
44 Photos
14 June 2017
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