Gulf Islands and Sunshine Coast

Our trip to British Columbia has commenced and we are having a great time. We began our journey with a stop at Garrison Bay in the US San Juan Islands. Shirley’s boat, S/V Morada had pulled into the anchorage when she discovered diesel fuel in the bilge. Dread! Shirley does her own engine maintenance, but decided to hire a mechanic to check over the engine before the trip. Unfortunately, the mechanic did not get the fuel filter screwed on tight, resulting in 8 gallons of fuel ending up in the bilge. So much for hiring the professionals! We all stepped into action, pumped the fuel into spare containers and celebrated with a wonderful dinner of local oysters from the Westcott Bay Oyster Company. They were yummy and huge!

We headed over the Canadian border and checked in to Customs at Bedwell Harbor without issue. We met up with friends Phil and Nita at Bedwell which was a nice surprise. Then, on to Montigue Harbour. This was a nice anchorage and Erik and I enjoyed hiking on shore. There were starfish everywhere which was cool.

After Montigue, we sailed to Ganges which is on Salt Spring Island to provision. It was nice to get some sailing in with good weather. While in Ganges, we checked out the local pub and ran into some friends of Shirley, Phil and Nita’s which was fun.

We left Ganges in the rain and went to find a hidey hole to weather an upcoming front. The anchorage we had selected in Clam Bay was clogged with logs and debris, so we diverted to telegraph harbor to wait out the wind for a few nights. It was fun hanging out on the dock and exploring the island. Float planes are abundant here and it is always interesting watching them dodge around boats and docking in the wind.

Time to keep heading north! The next destination, Nanaimo, which is on Vancouver Island, took us through Dodd Narrows. The weather was a bit rainy in the morning but we made good time to the narrows. You have to wait for slack tide to go through the narrows, so we killed time by sailing around the area as we were early. At slack tide, boats pile up on either side of the narrows to get through. It was interesting watching a tug pull a log boom through the narrows. We weren’t sure they were going to be able to squeeze all the logs through!

We took a mooring ball that night at Newport Castle Island Park which is at Nanaimo. Of course, a trip to the dinghy dock pub for dinner was in order. Erik rowed us over in the dinghy. It was fun seeing the Anacortes Yacht Club burgee hanging on the ceiling. After dinner, Erik and I went over to the island to go on a walk. It was so beautiful, we ended up going on the entire 7 km hike around the island. Thankfully, it does not get dark here until close to 11 pm, so we were able to get this long hike in before dark.

After careful planning and consulting the cruising guides and charts, we headed out the next day and crossed the Strait of Georgia. We got some sailing in which was nice. We anchored in Smugglers Cove for a few nights which is a really cool, small anchorage. Because the anchorages are small, often a stern tie is required in addition to an anchor to keep the boat from swinging around. After anchoring, Erik took the stern tie line via dinghy to shore and tied us up. This anchorage had more nice hiking and some boggy areas that made for nice bird watching.

Next up was a short trip to Pender Harbour where we settled for a few nights to wait out more weather. It was nice relaxing with a beer at the end of the day. Once the wind settles a bit, we will be heading north for the Desolation Sound area.