Montana to Malaspina Strait (with a few stops in between!)

We had quite the adventure going home. The water taxi took us to Friday Harbor. After we cleared customs, we took the ferry to Anacortes. We were happy to discover that if you are a walk-on passenger heading eastbound, you don’t even need a ticket! We called Mert’s taxi to take us from the Anacortes Ferry Terminal to the marina. He was waiting for us and whisked us to our truck. We decided to get a ferry back to Sidney. Try explaining that to the customs agent. Wait what? You just left your boat a week ago in Sidney but now you are driving back? You have some ‘splaining to do Lucy.

We provisioned, filled our propane (which is a story in itself), parked our car at our friends’ house and left the marina on Tuesday morning. We took the “back way” from Sidney up to Thetis. Which involved going through Sansum Narrows which were a little squirrely. Burgoyne Bay is as gorgeous as advertised. We planned on anchoring in North Cove on Thetis. When we got there the wind was not favorable so we headed back over to Clam Bay. Which is becoming one of our favorites. We were the only ones there, and protected from the wind. We had a wonderful evening on the flybridge playing games.

We decided that Wednesday looks like the best day to head across the Strait of Georgia. This involves going through a rapid which needs to be timed to go through at slack water. We weighed anchor and made it EXACTLY on time, and as promised the rapids were a non-event at slack. We had our choice of three: Porlier Pass, Gabriola Passage and Dodds Narrows. We chose Gabriola Passage because we could tell on the AIS that boats were stacked up like cordwood to go through Dodds Narrows and no one was going through Gabriola. Sweet. (pronounced Gay-briola)

The forecast called for light winds that would pick up at 2pm. We went faster than usual and burned 4 gallons per hour so we could make it across before that happened. We usually burn 1.5 gallons per hour.

The crossing was rolly but not uncomfortable. We had about 20 minutes left in the strait when the winds picked up as promised but we were heading in a favorable direction so it wasn’t that bad. (Don’t get me wrong, we were very happy to be back in protected waters it was only 20 minutes!) We entered through Welcome Pass. The guidebook said the currents can be strong there but it was not an issue. On the charts the symbol for strong currents resembles a shark fin. The first time we ran across that, we thought, what in the world does that symbol mean, so we always joke that there are sharks ahead.

We were heading to Buccaneer Bay but once there we were not too happy with the swinging room, so we headed over to Smuggler’s Cove. It is a tiny little cove with chains attached to rocks that you can stern tie your boat to, (to alleviate the swinging and thus allow more boats in the anchorage). This was our first time stern tieing. This is standard in Canada. I’m not sure Americans have ever heard of the practice! We knew that it was a complex process and really set ourselves up for the Sh!t Show that ensured. Divorce papers were drawn up but later withdrawn. That was SO stressful! I wanted to put some vodka in my NA beer, but we didn’t have any.

Our neighbor is a Ranger Tug 29 “Salty Growler”. Doug and Shari enjoyed the show (some of the enjoyment was marred by how close we came to their boat). Doug came and chatted Jim up after the event. Really nice guy. They are headed up to Princess Louisa today.

We discovered from Doug that we really do not want to go through Malibu rapids into Princess Louise Inlet in anything other than a flood tide. You can do it, but not preferable, so looking at the Tide Tables that means we have six days to putz around this area. Oh darn. 😛

This is the goal:

We don’t have any other goals except to be back to Van Isle June 4th. So we will have a fun time exploring this area.

Well, I think your eyes are glazing over.

Talk Soon.