Review my Charter Plans?

[BDofMSP]

If I wanted to boat in Desolation or to Princess Louisa, I would charter in BC. There is a Californian 39 for charter at Desolation Sound Yacht Charters for a considerable lower cost and 20% off once you figure in exchange. Cooper has boats in Powell River for charter that would be a few hours to Desolation and a with a faster boat, a day trip to Princess Louisa.

Maybe next time.

OKAY! Now I have to come back. I'm losing money by not doing it!!

 

[Northern Spy]

Oh, and get familiar with the Environment Canada Marine site for the Georgia Basin.

It is the same report you will hear on the VHF weather channel.

 

[FlyWright]

BD-
We understand the desire to get the most out of your "Training Passage". Just remember that being on the go all the time can induce a lot of stress on everyone. There's a lot more to boating than being underway all day to get to that next spot. The crew has to work with the Captain, but the Captain also has to work with the crew.
When the crew (and the Captain) has to learn as much as possible in a short time, such as how to set anchor, dock, use the Davit, engine checks, power consumption and so on, it will take its toll on everyone. You need time to relax occasionally and debrief. As well as try and enjoy the surroundings, make a few nice meals or enjoy an adult beverage at Sunset.
Just my 2 cents worth mostly from past experience.
Best of luck, John

Great advice!! Sometimes you've just got to stop and smell the roses.

 

[Marin]

I think my fixation on it is driven by the fact that it's an experience that i'm not going to encounter here in fresh water. While I wouldn't dream of doing it in bad weather, there is definitely something intriguing about the idea of engaging swells, currents, ferries, logs, whales, etc. Perhaps it's just a romantic dream and the reality is quite less engaging.

Some of the Great Lakes are pretty darn big. I've crossed from Copper Harbor to Isle Royale and that was a haul and a half.

Not really any swells on Georgia Strait, at least not in the ocean sense. It's all just wind waves, although these can get very big very fast when the wind kicks up. In this respect it's like a big lake. Flat one minute and rolling the crap out of you the next.

I think Spy's post is well worth thinking about. He lives in Powell River and so is probably more intimately knowledgeable about the whole Georgia Strait basin than most of the rest of us on this forum.

 

[Nsail]

Would we hit that coming out of Friday Harbor too? I was thinking that if we came behind Speiden and Stuart it wouldn't be as bad.

We intend to clear customs at Bedwell Harbor just to make sure that we can make landfall anywhere along the route to Nanaimo.

No, you will not hit that. You will need to cross Boundry Pass though, but I see more whales than swells there.

For future reference - from Pender Harbour to Malibu Rapids is almost exactly the same distance as it is from Pender Harbour to Sarah Point (the entrance to Desolation Sound). When people think that Desolation Sound is farther than PLI, they probably just looked at a map and never bothered to actually plot it.

 

[Nsail]

Actually, now that I think about it, I'm glad they think it's farther!

 

[bayview]

The eternal question of new cruisers. Do I go everywhere and see nothing but water or stop and explore. In my experience time spent exploring new places is what cruising is all about. The ladies especially will enjoy exploring and if the ladies are happy everyone is happy.
The stories that will be remembered wont be the long passage but the neat little bits of local life found by just wandering around.

 

[Marin]

We intend to clear customs at Bedwell Harbor just to make sure that we can make landfall anywhere along the route to Nanaimo.

Bedwell is a convenient place to clear. Be aware that it can be very windy in there and getting onto or off of the customs dock can be a challenge. The last four or five times we've cleared there the wind was just howling down that bay and it took a bit of planning to figure out how to get on the dock in such a way that we could off of it easily, too.

Like Georgia Strait, if you can get into Bedwell early in the day the chances of encountering strong winds is reduced. Mind you, it's not always like that in there, but from our experience it seems a more common situation than we would have thought. In wind, we tend to give more thought to how we're going to get off than how we're going to get on.

One can also clear in the harbor at Sidney if one is going over in that direction.

 

[Marin]

The eternal question of new cruisers. Do I go everywhere and see nothing but water or stop and explore. In my experience time spent exploring new places is what cruising is all about..

Really, really excellent point.

A few years ago we took some friends we boat with here on a narrowboat cruise in the UK. Two weeks on the boat. Now my wife and I are very experienced narrowboaters and we've been on most of the canals in the northern half of the system. So it's sort of a second boating "home" to us.

We decided on a very ambitious route that included five different canals and some 200 locks. Our goal was to give our friends as broad a view of canalling as we could. In order to complete the circuit we needed to run almost every day for a good five to eight hours. (Keep in mind that boat speed is max 3 mph by law.)

Now this was great for me, because for the most part I was driving the boat which I love to do. But it was not quite as great for our friends. They loved the trip, but we realized later that they would have enjoyed shorter runs each day and had more time to explore the villages and whatnot that we passed through, relax in a canalside pub for a long lunch, and so on.

We are in the planning stages for our next narrowboat cruise which we will take in the company of our director of videography and his wife. Like our boating friends, they have never been canalboating at all although my co-worker has been to canals with me when we've shot in the UK and seen how the locks work and so forth.

This time, we will plan an interesting but not nearly so ambitious of a route as we did last time, and we will allow for spending days in the more interesting places we pass through as well as more "chill out" time.

I suspect the experience will be a lot more enjoyable overall, particularly for our guests.

 

[Johnny]

Sounds like a great and ambitious trip and at that speed you will burn tons of fuel!

In about three weeks we are chartering out of Bellingham for eight days in the Gulf Islands. This will be our third charter in the PNW. First trip we stayed in the San Juan's and last trip in the Gulf Islands. Here is where we have been and plan to revisit:
- Ganges with a stop in Bedwell to clear customs
- Sidney and visit Sidney Spit
- Anchor in Genoa Bay and dinghy to Cowichan Bay
- Montague Harbour - Moor in the harbor, at the Humingbird!
- Return via Roche or Friday, haven't decided yet

New places we are contemplating for this trip, (comments/suggestions welcome):
- Ladysmith - looks interesting in the guidebooks. Want to see a log barge dump its load!
- Naniamo - It has been suggested to moor across in Mark Bay and dinghy across?
- Chemainus - Option to Ladysmith

Hope you enjoy!

 

[kolive]

We enjoy Telegraph Harbor on Thetis Island. Nice walks, a super honor system grocery, a ferry to Chemainus and peaceful. Two marinas to choose from, one with a pub and good food and one with more family facilities and Great ice cream. A dinghy ride between them in a protected harbor too. We also like Silva Bay and seeing the petroglyphs on Gabriola Island. There is bus service around the island and we also hitch hike and feel safe. Lots of places to anchor out it the Gulf Islands as well.

 

[Gbonas]

Last year we had just bought our boat and kept it in Bellingham. Because we live in so cal, we were only able to do 3 4 day weekends and one 8 day trip. We finished up leaving the boat in Sydney. Over those trips, we learned the boat by cruising through the san Juan's and southern Gulf Islands. I would recommend staying in those two areas and save going north for at least a two week trip. You can experience anchoring, mooring, or docks. You can experience some quiet areas or towns. A great way to learn along the way. Just go do it! Leaving the dock is the hardest part. We found many helpful people along the way when we needed advise. Good luck....we'll be on the water next August /sept.

 

[BDofMSP]

Members,

Thanks to the thoughtful input of many contributors here, we are ready to depart for this exciting adventure. We have hired a captain to provide us with some twin engine training tomorrow, and we'll head to the Gulf Islands on Saturday. Several things have changed, including the boat. The 39' Californian has mechanical problems, so Anacortes Yacht Charters has replaced her with Destiny - a 42' Navigator. Destiny has the advantage of bow and stern thrusters (plus many other upgrades) so we're quite satisfied with the substitution.

We have scaled back our plans considerably based on the feedback here, and we're already glad we did. Researching the new itinerary has shown us how many wonderful spots we would be passing by! We do not have a fixed schedule, but have general intentions to at least visit Ganges, Princess Cove, Nanaimo, Butchart Gardens, Victoria, Sidney Spit, Maple Bay, Ladysmith, Telegraph Harbor, and Annette Inlet. We have plenty of other great options on the list if any or all of these don't work out.

If any of you are out on the water, please keep an eye out for Destiny. I'll be the guy with the big smile wearing the Trawler Forum t-shirt!

Thanks so much for all of your help,
BD

 

[Hawgwash]

Hmmmmm...

You still out there somewhere?

 

[Xsbank]

Ganges is a zoo. Also, Silva Bay has been ruined by mooring buoys. Otherwise the rest should be excellent.

 

[Marin]

Ganges is a zoo. Also, Silva Bay has been ruined by mooring buoys. Otherwise the rest should be excellent.

Perceptions vary. True, Ganges is something of a zoo but we find it an interesting and fun sort of zoo. Granted, we have never been there during the summer as we won't cruise during that time (other than to our property in the San Juans) because the whole region is a zoo with way too many boaters out there for our liking. So our visits to Ganges have allwys been in September/October.

Silva Bay is another one of our favorites. We find the vessesls on the buoys to be pretty interesting and unique sometimes. We always stay at the marina because we like supporting the local businesses in the islands. So we eat at their very good restaurant and walk the docks looking at the local boats. I suppose if we were trying to anchor in the bay it could be frustrating, however.

 

[BDofMSP]

Hmmmmm...

You still out there somewhere?

If you're referring to me (the OP), sadly no. We had one small incident during our training. The port transmission shift cable broke while trying to shift into reverse on our VERY LAST docking exercise of the training. We hit the dock but fortunately nobody was injured. Other than that, the trip was truly exceptional. I was amazed by the amount of control that we had with twin engines, although I did use the thrusters if I felt it was prudent. All four of us got experience at the helm, chart plotting, navigating, docking, anchoring, dingy launching, the whole nine yards. We also had a great variety of moorings, anchorages, and marinas, and we got to see lots of nature and some great cities too. The only thing we didn't get was whales

Unfortunately my photos are not on my computer here at work, but I do have one sunset photo that I took from Princess Cove.

Thanks for helping me recall the trip!
BD

 

[Hawgwash]

If you're referring to me (the OP), sadly no. We had one small incident during our training. The port transmission shift cable broke while trying to shift into reverse on our VERY LAST docking exercise of the training. We hit the dock but fortunately nobody was injured. Other than that, the trip was truly exceptional. I was amazed by the amount of control that we had with twin engines, although I did use the thrusters if I felt it was prudent. All four of us got experience at the helm, chart plotting, navigating, docking, anchoring, dingy launching, the whole nine yards. We also had a great variety of moorings, anchorages, and marinas, and we got to see lots of nature and some great cities too. The only thing we didn't get was whales

Unfortunately my photos are not on my computer here at work, but I do have one sunset photo that I took from Princess Cove.

Thanks for helping me recall the trip!
BD

That’s it?

Part of becoming a seasoned sailor is sharing knowledge and experiences which was done for you here. I would even go so far as to suggest some of the comments prevented you from being the next season of Survivor.

“Hit the dock…trip was exceptional…no whales.”

A good time to add some seasoning perhaps?

 

[BDofMSP]

Fair enough - there are plenty of experiences to share. I'll post a couple when I'm not on my employers dime.

Thanks.

 

[Hawgwash]

Fair enough - there are plenty of experiences to share. I'll post a couple when I'm not on my employers dime.

Thanks.

It will be fun to see how it went and just how far you actually got in 8 days. And of course what happened before-during-after the Harvey Wharf Banger episode and the multitude of lessons learned in that 15 minutes.

 

[BDofMSP]

It will be fun to see how it went and just how far you actually got in 8 days. And of course what happened before-during-after the Harvey Wharf Banger episode and the multitude of lessons learned in that 15 minutes.

To start I feel like I should add a little color to the docking experience. My wife has a very real and rationed anxiety about driving (actually about crashing) big expensive boats. However, she has always insisted that she learn and participate fully, and she has done admirably. In fact, that afternoon our skipper had given us all kudos for our performance with twin engines, but specifically mentioned that she was doing the best.

The whole day long the shifting on the portside had gotten stickier and harder, and I had already told the skipper that we wouldn’t be taking the boat until they did something about that. As I previously mentioned, we had all made it through the full day of docking and maneuvering training, and (of course) my wife was the last one. It was a tough one, with a tight slip and wind blowing you onto the dock but she had it nailed. All she needed to do was reverse to stop the boat and I was ready to step off and cleat it. But instead one engine remained in gear as the cable broke , and we drove straight into the dock. There was definitely some damage to the dock but the boat was okay, and thankfully nobody was injured. She was horribly shaken though and honestly I thought it might be the end of the trip as her very worst fears had just been realized.

We had plenty of time to process the incident as we waited for repairs to come. After a couple hours she acknowledged that it could have been any of us at the helm, and that she had done nothing other than follow the instructions of the skipper. To her credit she backed the boat out after it was repaired and took us back to the charter base.

One good thing that came of this event was that we had time at Cap Sante while we waited for repairs, and there was a Nordic Tug rendezvous that weekend. While walking around admiring the boats, my strategically purchased Trawler Forum t-shirt worked its magic! A nice young man noticed and asked me what my Forum ID was. I was lucky enough to make introduction with forum member Retriever, who is a Waggoner Guide editor! He was at the dock preparing for leading a flotilla up to Alaska, and he was busy making preparations. It was a very nice meeting, and he was a very impressive fellow – I was pleased to have met him.

We had favorable conditions and made Friday Harbor about an hour before sunset. We made fast in our slip without consequence, and celebrated the beginning of what we hoped to be a wonderful adventure . If we only had known how wonderful it would be! I’ll share more details about the other days but I promise to not blather on so long anymore.

 

[Hawgwash]

I’ll share more details about the other days but I promise to not blather on so long anymore.

Nice start, thanks and don't worry about blather.
You write and we can decide to read...or not.