Saturday, May 3rd, 2023
It was a long day, nine hours to be exact. We left Sidney Marina at 5:30 a.m, soon after day break. We traveled north along the Gulf Islands transiting through Gabriola Passage at slack tide. It was a calm five hour plus cruise. Before we entered the Straight of Georgia through Tugboat passage we double checked the wind report at Entrance island and Merry Island. Both reported 3 to 5 knots throughout the day. Unfortunately we were not able to get a weather report from Halibut Bank Weather Buoy because it is STILL out of service.
The first hour of the journey through the straight of Georgia past the lighthouse at Entrance Island was
“glumpy”, but not bad. To be more descriptive Marlene has a 10 number scale for large body of water crossings like the Straight of Georgia. It goes like this:1-3 is EASY, water is like glass and lunch is served on the top deck; TOLERABLE is 4-7 describing a bouncy boat where you need to stay close to boat handles but can still move around the boat and serve a simple lunch in the wheel house. UNCOMFORTABLE is 7-8, described as standing in the wheel house and holding on to something to maintain your balance. No food or water is served! Finally, DANGEROUS is 9-10 described as “find a place to tuck in ASAP, if you can, say your prayers, and curse the wind app that you relied on. Our crossing started out as a 5, and halfway across it went receded to a 3. We were happy with the crossing.
We came into Garden Bay to drop an anchor expecting it to be quiet. It was anything but. The place was swamped with boats. We believe this is due to the nice weather, the weekend, and the fact that John Henry Marina is not available for Moorage at this time. It took us two rounds of circling the larger harbor, competing with other boats for an anchor spot. The anchor went down smoothly and hooked right away. We were in about 45 feet of water so began to peel out the chain when suddenly it stopped coming out of the chain locker. Marlene went down to the chain locker to find out what was wrong. She discovered the chain somehow piled up on itself in such a manner that it was not coming out of the locker. (Oh, joy, just want we wanted after a nine hour cruise). Marlene found several towels and proceeded to take the remaining 300 feet of chain and put it on the bed. Then put it all carefully back in, making sure it landed in nice, unbound coils. This is a first for us, but as the saying goes, S*** happens. On the positive side we confirmed we have 300 feet of chain and clearly marked the “bitter end” at 280. (The bitter end is where the chain is connected to the boat).
We looked at the weather forecast for tonight and tomorrow in the Malspina Straights. We are expecting some wind (8 to 10 knots), but no huge blow overnight that would prevent us from proceeding with our 6.5 hour cruise to Squirrel Cove tomorrow. We will check everything again in the morning to confirm that we are good to go.
Next up: cocktail hour.