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May 11…

We woke up on board the Rainbow Hunter. We’d driven up from Edmonton and stopped in to see the boat and spend the night before catching the morning ferry to Nanaimo.

The boat creaked and smelled faintly of diesel and sleep was sporadic, but it was a successful first night. A quick shower, some tea and it was time to hit the road.

Last night we had picked up a lovely BC Riesling and had a first glass or three on board then followed up with a lovely dinner at the Sandman: wokked squid, some oysters and a bit of sushi. Nice place but I think the waiter thought we cheaped out 🙂

Downtown Vancouver traffic to Horseshoe and then we wait for the ferry. I like Vancouver, but I could never live here if I had to drive these roads everyday. At least heading north we were going against traffic. The ferry was $80. I’m starting to think flying would be cheaper.

We are having lunch with L’s parents at the White Spot then need to grab some booze and a towel for Leslie. One more ferry will take us to Gabriola and then it’s a 20 minute drive or so to Degnen Bay.

Of course we miss the 3:45 ferry by 5 minutes so we have to wait until 5 to get across to Gabriola. Right about now the lack of sleep last night has caught up to me and I am a bit punchy. So maybe I can zone out in the truck and recuperate. I took the opportunity to ditch my jeans. I definitely think I overpacked. And under-boozed. We went with a 6-pack and three bottles of red. There will be a chance to restock in Port McNeil but that will be it.

We arrived at Tim and Donna’s place and unloaded the truck. Eventually everything was hauled down to the boat and we were oriented to the boat.

Afterwards we had burgers and wine on their deck and watched the sun go down. Soon we retired to the boat to catch some sleep.

More tomorrow.

You may recall that L and I are off to circumnavigate Vancouver Island a Tim Melville’s Baltic 42. It will be around a two week trip and the itinerary for the first 6-8 days has been tentatively laid out. Here is Tim’s schedule:

On Monday we meet everyone on Gabriola Island. The plan is to have everyone connect at Tim and Donna’s house for dinner on Monday. We’ll do a BBQ on the deck overlooking the marina at around 6:00pm.

Day 1:

We will try to get away from the dock Tuesday before the high slack at Gabriola Passage at 11:30 at which time the current unfortunately turns against us through the Pass and for the rest of the afternoon out in Georgia Strait.  We’ll head across the Strait and up to the Sunshine Coast for an overnight around Pender Harbour…..if we are making good time and are feeling ambitious we could try to make Hardy Island or even Westview (Powell River).

Day 2:

As I look at the currents at Seymour Narrows or all the other narrows we will need to transit…(Yuculta/ Dent/Greene Pt) it looks like the high slack at these narrows occurs mid-afternoons and we will more likely be looking at a transit on May 14^th in which case we could overnight at Campbell River or if we stay inside we could look at Cortes/ Redonda/ Stuart Islands.

Day 3:

Pick a narrow pass or three to get us into Johnstone Strait for some exciting sailing…

Day 4:

More Johnstone Strait and a night at dock at Port McNeill or Alert Bay or even Port Hardy…showers/ shopping/water/fuel…dining out/ice cream…

Day 5:

Hope Island…Bull Harbour. The last good anchorage before the Nahwitti Bar crossing and Cape Scott and big ocean.

This is as far as I want to predict….we may need 6 days to get to Bull Harbour and after that I envision a night passage ‘offshore’ to get us to Winter Harbour and following that we will consider the conditions for rounding  Brooks Peninsula….

My wish is for us to try to make good time to reach the top of Vancouver Island quickly….this way we will allow more time on the West Coast and have some leeway if we have to wait for any bad weather.

Exciting stuff. I don’t anticipate being able to post much past Port McNeill so all y’all will have to be patient and I will post it all after we reach civilization again.