ASD and the Inside Passage

Thanks all. nice pic Mark

I hope you guys bought that crab from some store because crab season is not open in the islands right now. ( It also looks like it might be a female, that's a no- no too!)

Alaskan Sea-Duction said:

Thanks all. nice pic Mark

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Thank you for the vicarious ride a long

Very nice trip! Keep the pics coming!

I'm new here but I've been following your thread and so enjoying all of your pictures. What a fun trip!
Making wonderful memories!

Well we are at Reid Harbor on Steward Island. Hiked to Turn Point Light. Made reservations with Sidney for Saturday. Will post more later as there is no signal here.

Chapter 8 Stuart Island to Sidney BC

Well TF, we made it to Canada!!! I want to send a special "Thank You" to Tom and Jan of Sunchaser V! They came over to Port of Sidney Marine and gave us a ride to the local marine store. Thanks for all your help.

I have made 5 blog updates. To much to post here, so you will have to go to the blog. May want to read about my stupidity on dock electrical posts. See below for link.

We will be heading to Nanaimo tomorrow at noon to hit Dodd Narrows at slack.

Hi Tom,
We moved over to Campbell River, needed bait and a couple new Hoochies. Plus the Admiral wanted to do the Maritime museum. Thank god there's not a winery close by, she would want to stay another day.
We plan to pull out on Wednesday am before low tide. Not sure if I'll get to drag a herring around but if you are up this way, I'll have the AIS on so you can see me.
Have fun and enjoy.

Tom, just a quick question for you after reading (again!) through your blog. Those side tie setups with the two parallel lines (I forget what they're called)--do they have a maximum boat length?


The mooring buoys have a max of 40' or 45' so we can't use them. I was wondering about those long lines you secured to.


Also, did you set out fenders between you and the lines or just rely on what looks like white plastic fenders?


Enjoying your blog a LOT but I'm jealous as all get out!
Smooth seas,
Calm winds,
Lots of Klondike Bars.

You say you saw lots of pilot whales. Sure they weren't Pacific porpoise? Pilot whales not too common around here I don't think, but porpoise are very common.

Crusty Chief said:

Hi Tom,
We moved over to Campbell River, needed bait and a couple new Hoochies. Plus the Admiral wanted to do the Maritime museum. Thank god there's not a winery close by, she would want to stay another day.
We plan to pull out on Wednesday am before low tide. Not sure if I'll get to drag a herring around but if you are up this way, I'll have the AIS on so you can see me.
Have fun and enjoy.

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Dittos on the winery. She started jumping up and down when she saw local wineries around the Victoria area.......Made a deal with the gardens. We will be in Nanaimo today and spend a few days there then make the crossing and head to Princess Louisa.

GFC said:

Tom, just a quick question for you after reading (again!) through your blog. Those side tie setups with the two parallel lines (I forget what they're called)--do they have a maximum boat length?


The mooring buoys have a max of 40' or 45' so we can't use them. I was wondering about those long lines you secured to.


Also, did you set out fenders between you and the lines or just rely on what looks like white plastic fenders?


Enjoying your blog a LOT but I'm jealous as all get out!
Smooth seas,
Calm winds,
Lots of Klondike Bars.

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Linier Lines and I am not aware of a max boat length on those. Yes I put fenders out of habit, but I don't think the white balls would mare your boat. The max for mooring buoys is 45 ft. I saw 50' boats tied up to them. Later in the year when the anchorage is jammed, they may ask how long you are. My boat shrinks when we enter one of these anchorages.

Interesting though we are heading to Nanaimo today and was planning to tie up to a mooring buoys. They are only good for 30'a and 40', so we want to spend some time in town, then dinghy over to the dinghy pub...

78puget-trawler said:

You say you saw lots of pilot whales. Sure they weren't Pacific porpoise? Pilot whales not too common around here I don't think, but porpoise are very common.

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The Admiral's designation. They were all black. You could be right......

Thanks Tom, that's good info to know.

"The Admiral's designation. They were all black. You could be right"

If all black, with a stubby dorsal fin, likely "Dall's Porpoise". If some white and a larger,more Shark-fin like Dorsal, likely "Pacific White-sided Dolphins". We haven't seen Pilot Whales here.

ASD;

i just read your blog about the power adaper you picked up in Friday harbour. I am very surprised you got it to work on the Sidney dock, 250v outlet, as I always believed you couldn't connect a 250v outlet to any 120v equipment, as the plug styles are not compatible. Check your new adapter to see what it is set up for. If 50 amps to a pair of 30s, (common) it won't let you put 250v into your boat, as it only sees one side (125v) of the 250v on each 30 amp leg. If it is throughputting 250v on one leg, it isn't doing its job correctly. I wouldn't use it again until it is checked out.

Pilot whales have a big domed shaped head as well. I don't think I have ever seen them in the PNW, though I gather they exist here. Most common are Pacific porpoise and orca.

On our way to Nenaimo and Dodds Narrows

My dad used to tow log rafts thru Dodd Narrows years ago. Its all about the tides.

koliver said:

"The Admiral's designation. They were all black. You could be right"

If all black, with a stubby dorsal fin, likely "Dall's Porpoise". If some white and a larger,more Shark-fin like Dorsal, likely "Pacific White-sided Dolphins". We haven't seen Pilot Whales here.

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Almost assuredly a harbor porpoise. They appear black as they normally only show their backs. Small dorsal fin and total length about 6' max. Dahl's porpoise you can usually spot the whit on the dorsal fin or sides.

When I was a kid I never would see porpoise around. Now they are all over and rarely a day goes by when we don't spot them even here in the South Sound.

Alaskan Sea-Duction said:

On our way to Nanaimo and Dodds Narrows

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Caught you leaving Sidney at 1225. Safe passages, kids.

We waved at them as we passed in the entrance, do we get anything for that?

Safe voyage and have fun!

Alaskan Sea-Duction said:

Dittos on the winery. She started jumping up and down when she saw local wineries around the Victoria area.......Made a deal with the gardens. We will be in Nanaimo today and spend a few days there then make the crossing and head to Princess Louisa.

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Great! We will hang around this part for a few more days then over to Desolation Sound for a week or two. Hope the falls are still running at Chatterbox, we left there on the 16th and it was fantastic. The early heat caused the snow melt early and I suspect the majority of the falls will dry up middle to end of June.

Enjoy your trip up the Princess Louise straight, and time your entrance passage.
We went through at slack in and low out. Be sure to announce Security on VHF 16 before you enter as it's pretty tight. The dock is way back and if your lucky won't be crowded. We got a spot fairly easy, but next day they were rafting up.

When we pulled out four powerboats in the 30+ range were rafted in front of us and two 40+ ft sailboats were rated behind us. Not much room but with bow and stern thrusters, we looked like pros getting out.

The area is all deep water except McDonald Island, it has some good anchor areas if need be.

The Malibu camp is run by Young Life and we got the VIP tour one day while cruising in the dingy. Pretty unique facility if you have the time for an hour or so.

Good luck on the crossing of Georgia Straight, hope your passage is better than ours.

We will keep an Eye for ya in a week or so if you make it to desolation sound, we hope to be out of there by mid June before the rush hits.

Cheers!

Right now, 1735 they are about 20 minutes out of Dodd. I know what they're thinking and how tight his cheeks are.

Push those red knobs to the wall Tom...

HW, can you see all traffic that goes in and out of Sidney?

dhays said:

Almost assuredly a harbor porpoise. They appear black as they normally only show their backs. Small dorsal fin and total length about 6' max. Dahl's porpoise you can usually spot the whit on the dorsal fin or sides.

When I was a kid I never would see porpoise around. Now they are all over and rarely a day goes by when we don't spot them even here in the South Sound.

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That's what they were! Thanks

Hawgwash said:

Caught you leaving Sidney at 1225. Safe passages, kids.

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Wow. Wish you would have come down..........Thanks

Chapter 8 Sidney to Nanaimo

The distance was 55 miles. This is significant as you have to arrive at this little split in a hill called Dodds Narrows. You need to cross this as close to slack tide as possible. We left Sidney at 12:30. We were suppose to leave at noon, but the nav computer decided to do a windows update.

Once we started to pick our way through a bunch of small islands such as Portland, Coal Islands and its associated reefs to get to Swanson and Trincomali Channels. We were about an hour into it and according to the nav computer, this speed would put us at Dodds Narrows at 4:30! We slowed way down to about 7kts.


Lots of boat traffic in these channels. BC ferries, whale watchers coming and going. But then my radar lit up and the AIS showed a ship moving very fast! I looked behind me and here is the HMCS Winnipeg and she was not slowing down! I immediately went hard starboard to get out of her way. Her wake rearranged my liquor cabinet. Looked at the computer arriving at 5:30. Still too early. slowed to 5 knots, almost idle. We were following a sail boat and he was going faster than me, but he was making his way to the narrows. Heck if he could do I could do it. It was embarrassing enough that a sail boat was running faster than me.


He approached the narrows went through then got swept to the right around the corner and disappeared. Oh oh. After a few minutes he reappeared. Wellllllll! I started toward the narrows and announced my intentions on VHF 16. A voice came back "U.S. boat there is a sail boat that is entering from the north." I responded that I would back down. Then I realized that we were going WITH the current, not against it. Mmmm lesson learned here. Going to low tide the current flow north. The sail boat announced he would wait, so I poured on the kitty cats (Caterpillar Engines) and killed every mosquitos in the area with the smoke that poured out of exhaust pipes. Went through the very narrow gap and there you go. That wasn't too bad. In fact Cattle Pass on San Juan Island was harder and worse. Cool. Welcome to Nanaimo.


It is amazing that once you go through the narrows, the scenery completely changes. It is all industrial and city. I am told that Nanaimo is the second largest city on Vancouver Island. We decided to anchor in Mark Bay if there was room.


Anchoring....We have not done this yet on this trip. Our experience with this boat is only in the Columbia River where the current basically set the anchor for you, so we were a little nervous. As we entered the bay, there was still plenty of room. We picked a wide spot between two sail boats in about 30 feet of water, so at 5:1, I would have to use about 150 feet of anchor chain. No worries as I have 550 feet on board. We lowered our anchor and once it hit the bottom, I stared to back up slowly while Kay was keeping track how much chain was out. Once we hit 60 feet, I put the boat in full reverse and set the anchor. Once set I continued to back up until we had 140 feet of chain out, the set it again. I installed the chain reliever on the chain, which takes the pressure off the windlass.


Every hour I would check the anchor. Hard set! Still nervous. I went to the bow at about 10:30 last night when I heard what I thought was a couple arguing very loudly. Then I heard :HELP!!!" Help me! What the crap? I asked Kay to listen. She said that was a cry for help. My dinghy wasn't even in the water. I grabbed my PFD and flash light, then got the dinghy in the water. I headed toward the call for help. I traveled about 3/4 of a mile to Mud Bay. As I approached an old nasty dock, there was a lady screaming for "Rose!" About that time some folks arrived on the dock and helped the lady on the dock as I searched the dock. I saw a head barley above the water, holding on to a small rope attached to a junk dock. I yelled and got on the dock to help this person up to the dock. I thought it was a small girl. But when I pulled onto the dock, it was a lady around 34 and once I got her to the dock it was VERY clear she was smashed and very drunk. Oh and she was half naked with no pants. Her pants, shoes and backpack were on the dock. I found a blanket in a boat and covered her up while I called out to the group of folks that had arrived at the docks. Soon the RCMP and Coast Guard should up as well as EMTs. Both ladies were drunk and have no idea if she decided to take a swim or fell in. RMCP took my statement and I went back to my boat. Well not straight back as I couldn't figure out which boat was mine. Took me a bit, but Ms. Kay was waiting on me and I told her we need to go to this Dinghy Pub! It would appear drinking there makes your cloths fall off!


Now what was I doing? Oh checking the anchor. We made it through the night, shifted with the tide and we were set good. I still got up every few hours to check. What a day!

ASD
Enjoyed your post, read it to my wife (between laughter).
Used to live in Crofton and Cowichan Bay.
Been through Dodd Narrows many times; thought I should
tell you how I handled them.
Brain kicked in to action, finally.
You have different boat. I have only done it with 27 to 38 foot
displacement boats.

Ted

Half nekked ladies swimmin' in the moonlight.
Like you said, welcome to Nanaimo and good for you; Tom to the rescue.

Now, you might want to take another look at your chart for Dodd Narrows. You were travelling with the flood. Albeit the tail end.

Also, not to encourage you but, with your power, you could have pretty much gone through there any time. Good you felt your way the first time though.

I was not around much on the weekend or maybe would have wandered by. Never quite know what to do with strangers though. Intrusions and all.

At one point I did see you two lollygagging along outside the wine store. I had a notion to call out to Kay and leave you wondering what guy in a strange town knew her...and why.

I took 5 pics of you leaving and can send them to you, if you like, just say how.

If you do go up to Louisa, do yourselves a favour and stop in at Egmont, if there is room. The 2 mile walk from there to Skookumchuck Narrows is well worth it. Especially if you can see the ebb. It's like a giant water slide. Impressive.

Also a preview of what lies ahead, north of Desolation sound.