Follow The Horizon

We left Sidney on the 21st, after finally replacing the genoa turning blocks. Off and on sailing to Nanaimo with a stop over for two nights… so far uneventful.

Our next stop was Tribune Bay where we thought we’d spend the night. Not so. We dropped the hook, had a beer, and I jumped in for a swim in beautiful 20 degree water. A south east breeze had picked up, and by the time I finished wiping down the water line, the waves were breaking over my head. The wind steadily increased to an un-forcast solid 25 knots, with 1 meter seas in the anchorage. Not in any immediate danger, we decided to wait untill 5:00 pm to see if it would calm down. We decided to up anchor, and move to the other end of Denman Island to Henry Bay. This was only the second time we’ve buried the bow since we bought the boat, it was a short but intense motor sail.

Friday we mostly motored, with a bit of nice sailing mixed in to Gowlland Harbour on Quadra Island. We played around too much, and miss timed the trip up Discovery Passage, at times only doing one knot. Fortunately we had a guide book that recommended staying close to the Quadra Island shore, so we able to spend a lot of time in back eddies. After we dropped the hook, the family that had followed us up Discovery Passage came over with a fresh caught salmon fillet. Dinner plans changed.

This morning while we sat in the cockpit eating our breakfast surrounded by glass calm water we heard breathing coming closer. A porpoise glided past the stern of our boat, surfacing every few seconds while barely disturbing the surface. It was amazing! This lifestyle really grows on you.

The trip through Seymour Narrows was perfectly timed, and almost serene for a stretch of water with such an ominous reputation. 25 knot winds were forcast for the late afternoon, and not wanting to waste the ebb flow and good weather, we dicided to see how far we could get before the wind kicked in. A half hour before Port Neville thinks changed abruptly. We need to rinse the boat.

This is a beautiful and protected anchorage, so we should make up for the sleep we lost fretting about the Seymour Narrows transit. 5:00 am was way too early to wake up.