After a run to the grocery store and laundromat, we filled up with water and made the relatively short journey to Growler Cove. This cove has fond memories for us. We stayed here on Hobbit’s first journey north in 1995. I can still visualize Melinda dancing to songs of Three Dog Night while about 20 commercial fishing boats (trawlers) came into the small cove after dark to anchor. I still don’t see how that many boats got in. Tonight there were three boats and the cove seemed close to full.
August 11, 2011, Thursday
Between the Queen Charlotte Strait and the Strait of Georgia it is necessary to negotiate a series of salt water rapids. There are many options as to which rapids one can go through, but a minimum of two is required. You only need to go through two rapids if you travel on the Johnstone Strait which is big water that is prone to high winds and really monstrous currents for long distances at periods other than slack tide. If you take the more protected route, you will have to negotiate at least four of the rapids. These rapids may be as fast or even faster than those in Johnstone Strait, but they are present for relatively short distances.
All rapids need to be timed. That is, you travel through them when the current is slack between a change of tides or at least when the current is low enough for your boat to safely transit. These rapids flow one direction on a rising tide and the other direction when the tide is going down.
Normally we choose to take the protected route and pass through four rapids: the Yuculta, Dent, Green Point, and Whirlpool. That is the route we took heading north. For a 7 ½ knot boat, that route normally takes two days because we can’t transit all four of them on one tide cycle. Today we made the decision to do a combination of Johnstone Strait’s Race Passage followed by the Dent and Yuculta Rapids. Taking this route saves us a day since our timing was totally off for the Whirlpool and Green Point Rapids which we would have liked to transit today.
Murphy screwed up! We left Growler Cove at 8:30 this morning and averaged 8 kts on our 57 mile trip to our stop for the night at Shoal Bay. Going through Race Passage Hobbit hit a top speed of 12 kts and was over 11 kts for quite a while!
It is interesting how the gyres in this massive body of water (more than a mile wide and hundreds feet deep) can cause water to flow strongly in both directions at the same time. At one point in our transit we were doing 10 – 11 kts and noticed a sailboat a few hundred yards from us going in the opposite direction at what was obviously a high rate of speed. At another time we were doing 12 kts which meant we had 4 ½ kts of current pushing us; we went around one gyre into calmer water and were promptly doing 6 kts – 1 ½ kts against us.
After transiting Race Passage we entered the sheltered waters of Cordero Channel and anchored for the night in Shoal Bay. We first came to Shoal Bay in 1995 with Melinda. At that time we were the only boat in the bay. How times change as more and more boats cruise north. Today there is a public dock and about 20 boats were in the bay of which 6 were anchored.
View from Johnstone Strait
August 12, 2011, Friday
At 8:00 we joined a parade of boats exiting Shoal Bay on their way to the Dent and Yuculta Rapids which have slack water at 10:00. Unfortunately Murphy made up for yesterday’s screw up by providing a 1 – 2 kt current against us.
Along the way a movement on the shoreline of an island near the Dent Rapids caught my attention. Viewing with the binoculars I spotted a bald eagle in the water flapping its wings. As I watched, it climbed out of the water onto a rock with a fairly large salmon in its talons. When they grab a fish, their talons lock; if the fish is too big to lift, the eagle ends up in the water and can’t fly out. Occasionally eagles die when they grab a fish that’s too large.
Drenched Eagle with Flopping Salmon
Negotiating the Dent and Yuculta Rapids was a no-never-mind as we went through just before slack.
Continuing our journey south we decided to swing into Refuge Cove in Desolation Sound to see if they had WiFi available. Entering the marina we spotted the boat of a Navy Yacht Club Everett member, Dale and Susie Moses, Moseying Around tied up at one of the docks. We tied up for socializing and ice cream and had a nice afternoon chatting with them as well as Glenn and Becky Latimer, two other NYCE members who were cruising on their boat, Wavelet.
After leaving Refuge Cove we dropped our shrimp traps off Otter Island then stern tied in Tenedos Bay for the evening. So many boats were there that it looked like there was an assigned spot every 120 feet or so along the bank. Desolation Sound is the land of 1,000 stern-tied boats, or so it seems.
August 13, 2011, Saturday
After covering about 125 miles in the last two days, today was a day of relaxation. We stayed at anchor in Tenedos Bay. I did check the shrimp pots and got nearly 5 gallons of prawns.
Prawns in a Five Gallon Bucket
August 14, 2011, Sunday
It started raining as we departed Tenedos Bay which made picking up the shrimp traps more of a pain. We did manage to get about 3 more gallons without using cat food for bait. Salted herring is clearly a good option for shrimp bait.
Goodbye Desolation Sound
Starting down the Strait of Georgia the wind was calm and the water flat. As the day progressed, however, the wind picked up and 1 – 2 foot swells built up on our bow. This made Hobbit bounce up and down in a fore and aft direction; not too pleasant, but not that bad. When we were at Cape Lazo which is just outside Comox, we listened to the weather reports. The lighthouse at Cape Lazo was reporting “sea rippled” and 10 kts of wind while we were experiencing 1 – 2 foot wind waves and abundant white caps which indicate at least 15 kts of wind. Once again it seems that Environment Canada needs to do a better job of training their observers.
August 15, 2011, Monday
Today was absolutely gorgeous – warm sunshine was with us as we left Comox. A gentle breeze caused reflections from the ripples that Jimmy Buffet dubbed “stars on the water.”
Stars on the Water in the Strait of Georgia
The trip from Comox to Nanaimo was much like yesterday except that today the wind developed on our stern as the day progressed. The wind and waves were about the same as yesterday, but, because they were on our stern, the ride was smooth. These two days drive home the meaning of the adage “fair winds and following seas” when you want to wish someone well.
Out of the blue I decided to call Deo Volente on the radio and was surprised when they answered and were also on their way into Nanaimo. Deo Volente is the boat of Ralph and Ruth Hollenberg who we met in Port McNeill and discussed in the first two episodes of this journal. Anyway, we made arrangements to meet in Nanaimo.
August 16, 2011, Tuesday
We spent a wonderful morning with the Hollenbergs on Deo Volente then departed Nanaimo in time to go through the Dodd Narrows when the current was relatively low. After an uneventful day we dropped the anchor in Ganges, one of our favorite stops, and went ashore for ice cream.
August 17, 2011, Wednesday
A beautiful albeit breezy day for our trip from Ganges to Friday Harbor, WA. There to greet us as we arrived was the largest pod of orcas we have seen in all our years of boating. There was one main group of a dozen or more and probably another dozen scattered across most of San Juan Channel about 2 miles from Friday Harbor. As we were drifting 3 - 400 yards from and watching the main pod we were surprised several times to have a single orca come up from behind and surface quite close to us.
Pod of Orcas near Friday Harbor
Male Orca in San Juan Channel
After clearing customs in Friday Harbor we once again headed straight for the ice cream shop then to King’s Market for some hamburger and other ingredients for a Mexican chef salad. Seafood is great, but sometimes having meat is a welcome change.
August 18, 2011, Thursday
Over the years we have made the trip between the San Juan Islands through Deception Pass to Puget Sound at least 60 times. It used to be an exciting trip. Now it’s an 8 – 10 hour trip that we just wish Scotty could beam us from one point to the next. They say that going to Alaska changes your view about what is good boating; now we can really see why.
At Oak Harbor we filled up with fuel, anchored outside the marina, and settled down for our last night of this cruise.
August 19, 2011, Friday
We departed Oak Harbor in fairly heavy fog and reached Naval Station Everett 4 hours later in bright sunlight on a warm day. After starting the job of unpacking, we picked up a monstrous pile of mail, got a few staples at the grocery store then went home where Melinda, Cash, and Catie joined us.
A bittersweet day. On the one hand we are happy to be getting home to see Melinda, Cash, and Catie; on the other hand, it has been a wonderful 3 ½ months and we really don’t want to go back to living on land. We certainly plan on cruising to northern BC and Alaska in the future.
Once again Hobbit has taken us There and Back Again.
Epilogue
Statistics for the trip include:
Miles traveled: 2754
Engine hours: 507
Generator hours: 193
Gallons of fuel: 868
Gallons per hour: 1.7
Miles per gallon: 3.2
Two freezers totally full with 4 halibut, 25 salmon, rockfish, cod, crabs, and shrimp.
A hair cut and beard removal are in store for this coming week. In the meantime Catie decided to make order of the mass of hair that has developed on my head.
Catie Fixing Papa’s Hair
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