Here’s a brief summary of our first 4 days:
Day 1 – left our anchor at Mark Bay (Newcastle Island at Nanaimo) early – 6 am. We were happy with our luck of the draw at the Hunter Rendezvous – we won a submersible hand-held VHF receiver – good for high seas in the dinghy, etc. Hope we don’t ever have to hold it submersed! Nice flat motoring in the Georgia Strait to Comox Harbour. The dock comes out to a lovely part of town – cobbled streets and even a thrift store. Dave had a shower at the harbour office and next morning realized his (Albert’s) watch must still be in the shower room – he was happy to find it where he had left it!.
Day 2 - we decided to leave about noon to catch favourable currents up to Discovery Passage (past Campbell River) so had time to shop in the thrift store – got a nice new pair of navy blue slippers for the boat (with rubber soles). Well, we timed something wrong,
( We had timed it right, but we doing up to 9 knots with just the jib, so we arrived 2 hrs early ) with a full moon (spring tides) and fairly strong SE winds we hit miserable rough waves for a couple of hours – don’t think the ocean can be any worse – as we crossed laboriously in front of Cape Mudge. Soooo glad Annie wasn’t with us. It took all of Dave’s concentration to keep us moving along however slowly as we bucked up and down over and over again.
Moral of the story – cross in an ebb flow and before the seas build up. Norm and MaryLou are perfect crew – in the worst part, MaryLou has her camera and trying hard to get a picture of the worst waves. Norm’s tummy is a bit queasy but no complaining! We didn’t have lunch that day but we make up for it, believe me!
Anchored in Otter Cove about 8 pm – (at the end of Discovery Passage) after going thro Seymour Narrows (at slack or thereabouts) uneventfully.
Day 3 – Left early to ride with the ebb current and hit Current Passage near slack. Holed up in Forward Bay for a couple of hours then a quiet passage through Current Passage (where Agi ran aground – could see the missing rocks as we were at low tide.)
Anchored in Growler Cove with 3 other sailboats – peaceful and some sun. Still haven’t put the dinghy down as it’s full of fishing gear and no Annie to take us to shore.
Day 4 – Jun 19 - Having a lazy start to the day when the wind blew our bailing/fish bucket off the boat deck – so we quickly started up the engine, pulled anchor and Dave hooked it. So that got us northward bound up Johnstone Strait again. Didn’t go too far as it’s going to be cloudy, rainy, etc for a few days. Pulled into Alert Bay about noon. Norm and MaryLou are hoping to find a few folks here from their Mission boat days – decided to stay overnight at the Govt. docks - only $19/night for our boat. Still rainy but enjoyed a couple of walks through the town. We plan to watch the movie “Bucket List” tonight when N&M get back.
