PNW Vacation Cruise

Greetings TF,

Several of you have shared your trips and I have enjoyed them immensely. Thank you. Now it is my turn to share.

We are headed to the Broughtons, followed by Desolation Sound, then returning to the Olympic Peninsula. Please join us, I will post as we have connectivity.

This evening we departed Sequim Bay, and we are headed for Parks Bay, Shaw Island, where we will drop the hook shortly after dark.

We are currently approaching Cattle Pass. We have a light chop, mild sunny weather, and The Bridge playing in the pilothouse.

Happy Independence Day

Sounds like a good time on the water. I hope you post lots of pics and tell us lots about your journey.

Have a great trip, I’ll be watching your posts as well.
I’ll be looking for you as we may cross paths tomorrow as we head South out of Blaine for Victoria (though it is more likely we will stick around for Blaine’s great fireworks tomorrow night and push off early Friday AM on the ebb.)

Oh Boy, another cruiser using the boat! We hope to leave ourselves on Friday, guess I better start a thread soon.
Cheers you guys, please enjoy your trip!

Klee Wyck, if you are going to Victoria you'll be happy to know lots of room at the marina at the Empress Hotel. Just walked down by it tonight looking at all the great boats, probably be there tomorrow night, looking at all the great boats.

Good Morning for Parks Bay

Arrived shortly after dark. About 10 other boats here, but no other people seen yet. We ran the Webasto this morning to take the chill off. It never fails that we use the heat in July in the PNW! Will be underway shortly to clear into Canada and run Active Pass at slack, mid-day.

Eagerly following.

IRENE said:

Arrived shortly after dark. About 10 other boats here, but no other people seen yet. We ran the Webasto this morning to take the chill off. It never fails that we use the heat in July in the PNW! Will be underway shortly to clear into Canada and run Active Pass at slack, mid-day.

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Weird! It has been in the 70's and 80's are forecast up here from Sitka to Haines, where we are today.

Spieden Island looking NW. 10 knots of wind on the stern. Light traffic.

The Strait of Georgia looks favourable (Canadian spelling) today. We may anchor at Hornby Island this evening.

Passing Ballenas Islands

High overcast, winds 17 knots from the stern, building 1-3. The wind is supposed to lay down, and we plan to run overnight to reach Campbell River during the AM slack. If not, we will “ride the tide” to False Bay, Lasqueti Island, and drop the hook. The strait will be a mess when the flow ebbs.

Your last report is a little troubling. Windy has the Strait right now at 7-9 knots.
I would like to think they are usually closer than that.

Concur WRT your observations about Windy.

Departed False Bay anchorage and headed towards Campbell River. Winds 5 knots on the stern and waves less than 1 ft. Nice morning. Overcast with very flat lighting conditions. No other vessels detected yet.

We plan to ride the last of the ebb past Cape Mudge around 1330-1400 today. Will moor at Discovery Harbor. Need to get some fruit and vegetables aboard.

We plan to depart Campbell River in the morning to hit Seymour Narrows at slack.

RCook said:

Weird! It has been in the 70's and 80's are forecast up here from Sitka to Haines, where we are today.

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Same weather in Wrangell. A truly unusual and fascinating 4th experience. Any trouble finding moorage in Haines?

IRENE said:

Concur WRT your observations about Windy.

Departed False Bay anchorage and headed towards Campbell River. Winds 5 knots on the stern and waves less than 1 ft. Nice morning. Overcast with very flat lighting conditions. No other vessels detected yet.

We plan to ride the last of the ebb past Cape Mudge around 1330-1400 today. Will moor at Discovery Harbor. Need to get some fruit and vegetables aboard.

We plan to depart Campbell River in the morning to hit Seymour Narrows at slack.

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We are opposite end of the Strait, opposite heading, same conditions.

We have been in the Broughtons for two weeks now and will be here until the end of August. Currently in Port McNeill. The weather has been mostly nice, although a couple days of rain and overcast. We will keep an eye out for you, Irene.

porman said:

We have been in the Broughtons for two weeks now and will be here until the end of August. Currently in Port McNeill. The weather has been mostly nice, although a couple days of rain and overcast. We will keep an eye out for you, Irene.

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Saw Libra today in Victoria. When I first glanced at it, I thought it was a Nordhaven. I was there when the very large sailboat moored right beside the Sea Shepherd boat - the Martin Sheen. Safe travels.

Hello Porman - will watch for you too. We moored in Campbell River and there is another Mainship 43 here!

Today we saw some very large whales from a couple of miles away. At first we thought it was Orca, as they were very active on the surface. Viewing through the binoculars it became obvious that this was one or more BIG whales. We saw flippers extended UPWARD from the water at least 10 feet. This was north of Comox. Incredible.

Once alongside, we filled the refrigerator, washed the boat, emptied the dog, operated the Splendide. Marina is busy and a TF member came to say hello .

Had a nice dinner at Beach Fire Brewing and Nosh House. Fantastic.

We have been tasked with a priority resupply mission. Our dear friends on the mighty Tartan KISMET are low on water and Chardonnay. We intend to rendezvous in the Broughtons on Sunday to plus them up.

Raining now. Lines come in at 0730.

Standing by for any questions.

Good Evening

Seymour Narrows

Rain and fog near Seymour Narrows.

Clearing up near Granite Point now.

Wind is 1 knot. Smooth.

Johnstone Strait is flat. 9 knots of air.

Nice. How far are you going? We have found that if you can follow the ebb from Seymour in the early AM, you can make it to Port McNeill without too much trouble, and before the flood starts working against you too much.

twistedtree said:

Nice. How far are you going? We have found that if you can follow the ebb from Seymour in the early AM, you can make it to Port McNeill without too much trouble, and before the flood starts working against you too much.

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Yes. With a 8-9 knot boat, the Ebb can sweep you right down from Seymour Narrows to Port McNeill - the whole of Johnstone Strait.

Heading the other way, the flood is a lot slower to set up and is generally weaker and won't get you the whole way.

Enjoy!

We just got back from the mid-coast and wish we were still there.

-evan

One year we did Campbell River to Blunden Harbor in one day. We ran out of ebb just before Weynton Passage. Last month we did Blind Channel to Blunden carrying the ebb through Weynton.

Anchored in Port Neville. Four brown bear are doing whatever they do on the beach near the boat. Appears to be mama and three cubs. We won’t be going ashore to share happy hour.

Our anchorage is mud, about 25’ deep. We have had gusts to 20 since dropping the hook. We have lots of chain out, the big snubber rigged, and no other boats are in sight. Sleep will come easily.

During today’s run we had rain, fog, wind, sun, calm, and chop. Several recreational vessels headed north, along with a few sailboats and commercial fish boats. Top speed was about 12 knots.

The brown dots in the center of the first photo are bear. The second photo is looking NE up the port.

We had 10-15 knots of wind all night. About a half-dozen cruisers joined us in the general area. This morning, I folded up the bimini top and deployed the paravanes poles to keep the winds down today .

Leaving Port Neville winds were 15-20, much more than forecast. Things quickly settled down and we are now passing Port Harvey. Winds 9 knots and a calm strait.

We just had breakfast and are finishing coffee with music in the pilothouse.

Hey Jeff,

Great trip so far, any issues pop up on the boat yet? This is like your longest run yet.

Hi John!

No issues so far! Our national ensign is nearly at the end of its service life, but I am hopeful we can complete this trip before we retire it. We are knocking wood.

I changed the generator impeller in Campbell River because of time, not engine hours or symptoms. The one I removed looked great - which better than “fishing” for pieces.

We were up the outside of Vancouver Island last summer. Adding the weekends got us up to about 300 engine hours for the year, so hopefully we have any bugs worked out.

Thanks for the note and you two have a great trip!

Passing West Cracroft Island...

Jeff,
Were sorta stuck at Tom & Kays dock. And might have missed a weather window to cross the bar. Good thing we can stop at a couple other places down river and play like tourist’s, LOL.

Been off the grid...

We met our friends at Waddington Bay and executed the critical resupply. The place was nice, so we stayed until this morning.

Today we went to Blackfish Sound to see wildlife. Once again, we were not disappointed. We saw a pod of 4-5 Orca; several humpback whales, and tons of birds.

Our friends need a resupply stop and it is going to rain and blow tomorrow, so we are moored at Port McNeill. We are at North Island Marina and they seem fairly full.

Wildlife

We are looking and listening for wildlife in Blackfish Sound this afternoon. Will be anchored in Double Bay tonight.

Crusty Chief said:

Oh Boy, another cruiser using the boat! We hope to leave ourselves on Friday, guess I better start a thread soon.
Cheers you guys, please enjoy your trip!

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About time!!!