Thread: Boat Trip North
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Old 04-24-2019, 08:39 PM   #13
Nomad Willy
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City: Concrete Washington State
Vessel Name: Willy
Vessel Model: Willard Nomad 30'
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 18,743
Chapter Three

Out into Johnstone Strait, trading off the helm, sitting on the aft deck, reading novel ect. A lazy day on the water. Passing Port Neville and on to Alert Bay. I like to cross Johnstone Strait diagonally, south to north and west to east. Spend the night in Miles Inlet or in the vicinity. We liked Port McNiel a lot. Small and not very classy but very friendly. Ment numerous entertaining, unusual and endearing people. Stores, resturants, laundry and even made slight use of the hospital/ health clinic. Filled water tanks in the pm and left fuel for the am. We left in the morning under a " high wind warning " report. Figured we'd probably get slamed a bit in the afternoon with 25 knot winds but was quite a nice crossing. Got a bit lumpy as we aproached the entrance to Allison Hbr with considerable ocean swell. Picked our way through the rocks and occaisional boomer with GPS, sounder and binoculars into Allison Hbr. Not much of a sight seeing place but a good anchorage. We knew the Gale would keep us anchor bound all the next day so we set the new high performance anchor backing down hard on a 7 to 8-1 rode .. shortened way up and settled in for the blow. We were yawing back and forth on the anchor with the wind whistling around the cabin. The next day ( mon July 28 ) we watched the wind, rain, fog and fast moving clouds all day. Read books and drank tea. The next day ate breakfast, decided weather still too foggy and nasty .. went back to bed. Station report reported 28 knots at Egg Is. At 0945 we went out to see what it looked like. Looked better than a 30 knot sea to me. Decided we could take 3 or 4 hrs of it so off we went at rough water throttle ( 2000 rpm ). Several big squalls here and there and dark clouds with dark seas under. The ocean swells were large now showing the horizon about 30 to 35 % of the time. Just north of Slingsby Channel the wind switched and the seas got worse fast. I suddenly wanted no part of it and turned around. I didn't want to go back to Allison Hbr so we went up Slingsby Channel on the flood tide at about 9 knots. I had just told Chris what a bad reputation Slingsby Channel had so she wasn't too pleased about going up there but she got over it when we anchored in lovely Treadwell Bay near the entrance to Nakwackto Rapids. We enjoyed the beauty of this place with two large yachts. The am forecast was not good but we wanted to look so up went the anchor and out the Bay only to hear the warning buzzer sound off. Went back in the Bay waching the insturments and droped the hook. The Murphy Switch saved us from God knows what when the engine surely would have overheated near Cape Caution in moderately heavy seas with onshore winds. I thought we were going to have to radio for help but we found the parts, finally, to fix the plumbing and make the engine 100%. We lost the hot water heater and Red Dot type heater but didn't really need that. With all ready we slid down Slingsby Channel on the ebb out into the dancing square waves at the entrance. Was a bit of a wild ride for a few minutes but out on the dying seas of the passing storm it wasn't so bad. Was'nt so good either. Soon a squall in front of us promised wind and bad visibility. Wer'e at Cape Caution. Saw tugs, barges and several grey whales. Egg Is. Dark clouds and seas but little wind and no rain .. squall fissiled. Conditions moderated as we approached Millbrook Cove .. our anchorage for the night. Fairly small anchorage and a tight and confusing entrance. One other boat that had an amazing anchor rode bridle that kept them quite motionless .. no swinging at all.
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Eric

North Western Washington State USA
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