Our departure date of August 1 was right in the middle of a heat wave in Vancouver and the forecast indicated nothing but sunshine and warm/hot weather for the duration of our trip. Outstanding. We knew that the Strait of Juan de Fuca is known for fog patches this time of year and naively I thought that the odd fog patch might be a welcome reprieve from the relentless sun. Little did we know just how big that patch would be.
I arrived at the boat a tad late due to a chance late-night encounter with a drunk man, his 120ft yacht and a cigar. But that's another story.
We slipped our moorings at 8:30 and motored out against a mild flood tide. Once under the bridge we chose to forgo the normal tacking back and forth out of English Bay because we were on a mission to get across the strait to Porlier Pass by just after lunch. We motored directly to the Point Grey bell buoy and raised the sails. There was a brisk breeze that morning and soon we were heeled over and making 6 - 7 knots across the strait. David was feeling a little wobbly on the boat after spending a month stuck ashore paying attention to fiscal year-end business, so I had the sailing duties which suited me just fine. It was a fine crossing and we reached Porlier ahead of schedule.
One of our abiding concerns for this trip was the timeline. I had flights booked to go fishing on August 14th and I would need some time in between trips. We knew that the weather might be unpredictable on the far side of Vancouver Island so we wanted to get there as soon as possible in order to buy some wiggle room if we needed it. As a result, we had planned long travel legs for the trip up, all between 40 and 50 nautical miles. (We average about 5kts and occasionally less - you can do the math...) So today we didn't stop in Clam Bay but proceeded south after transiting Porlier Pass towards our destination of Ganges Harbour on Saltspring Island. We expected the northwest wind to continue and push us south toward Ganges but naturally it switched to blow out of the south and we had to motor against if for hours.
Ganges Harbour was a convenient stop for us but I had another motive for going there. I had recently discovered that the author of one of my favourite books lived there. On a whim I reached out to him and asked if I could buy him a beer and ask him some questions. He graciously agreed and we were to meet that night. I don't generally get worked up about meeting celebrities but I was really looking forward to meeting him. Something about his book "The Water in Between" had touched a chord with me and I actually surprised myself at how eager I was to meet him. As it happened, we couldn't connect. Owing to a dinner party he had to attend, no e-mail or phone connectivity and an early night to bed on my part, it didn't happen. I was disappointed but we agreed by e-mail later in the trip to try again at some point.
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| Sunset at Ganges |
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| Dawn in a crowded Ganges anchorage |
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| Ge'Mara tied up in Ganges (on the left) |
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| Leaving Ganges Harbour in Early morning |
There is nothing much to report about our run down to Victoria other than it was a long day of motoring against wind and tide. The boredom was relieved somewhat by the fact that we had never been this far south with Ge'Mara before so the sights were all new. We motored past Sydney and entered the San Juan Islands, noting the interesting differences in geology between these and the Gulf Islands we are used to. We fell into our usual routine of spelling each other off, one man taking watch while the other attending to something else. For these long days of motoring, the autopilot was indispensable.
One of David's favourite pastimes was to go below and meticulously record our progress on the large charts he had insisted we purchase. I have the entire collection of official charts for the BC coast on my computer and my I-Phone and I questioned the wisdom of spending a ton of money on huge paper charts as well. He pointed out that electronic charts are subject to failure and I couldn't argue that point so now we have the paper ones too. He couldn't have been happier sitting there pouring over the charts, his recently purchased navigational instruments arrayed before him. Only once or twice did I point out that he was simply checking the GPS on his i-Phone to find our position and then marking it on the chart rather than taking a fix with a hand bearing compass as the traditional mariner is meant to do. The contraction didn't seem to trouble him.
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| David's charts |
Eventually we passed Trial Island and approached Victoria Harbour. We motored in and easily spotted the Coast Hotel next to one of my old favourite spots, the Laurel Point Inn. The Marina at the Coast Hotel is not effectively managed like a marina. Rather they seem to treat it like just another collection of hotel rooms. There was no attendant to speak with, nobody monitoring the VHF radio. We eventually had to call the front desk and "check in" the old fashioned way. There was some confusion as to the location of our slip, due to a really stupid numbering system and David and I disputed this issue for a few moments. In my certainty of being correct I offered David a sizeable wager on the matter. He gave me a blank stare and then made a dismissive gesture and walked away to show me where our slip actually was. Given he was still paying off a bet that he had lost earlier I thought later that was pretty big of him.
Once settled in our slip we indulged in our happy hour routine and relaxed. This was to be one of the best moments of each day. Happy hour consisted of a strong German beer for David and a Dark and Stormy for me, along with some Hawkins cheesies, which just seem to go perfectly with the drink. Presently a pretty young lady walked by on the dock and said hello over her shoulder. Only spilling our drinks a little bit we sat up and engaged her in conversation. This took very little encouragement as she was very sociable. She explained that she worked for the whale watching outfit that was based out of the marina and she and her boyfriend lived on the houseboat just up the dock. She pointed it out and it was a fine looking houseboat. The roof was a patio of sorts, complete with comfortable deck chairs and a portable gas fireplace. We ended up joining them a while later on the houseboat along with her boyfriends' brother and his wife, who also lived in the marina. We had a very good time but it had the potential to be too good, so during a lull in conversation we excused ourselves and returned to Ge'Mara. We were asleep before dark.
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| Two of our new friends at the dock |
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| Ge'Mara tied up in Victoria |
Before leaving Victoria the next morning I couldn't help doing a quick lap in the inner harbour. The marina I had chosen was just around the corner so David and I had yet to experience the million dollar view of the Empress Hotel and the parliament buildings from the water. We made a slow circle, took some pictures and then motored out, stopping briefly at Victoria Marine Fuels to top up on our diesel. We were eager to head out now into the Juan de Fuca Strait. In our minds, this would be the end of the leisurely part of our trip and the start of the challenging and exciting part. We were both right and wrong in that assumption.
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