Homeward Bound

The journey home

Jeff at the helm

Ian with a treat

Nanaimo Harbor

Look what we found on our anchor (a hound of hell?)

Passage out of Gorge Harbor

Another Moon Snail find

Sunset at Gorge Harbor

A view of Gorge Harbor from Government Dock

Ian cruising around in the tender

We decided that it was time to head southward and home. There was not enough time left to head into the Broughton’s. We got up at 5:00 am checked the weather forecast and decided things looks good to head towards Nanaimo. We pulled anchor at 6:00 am and slide out the narrow passage at the head of the harbor and headed south into the Strait of Georgia. The weather was good (sunny and winds of 5 to 15 knots with the current moving with us). We made excellent time and were in Nanaimo Harbor by 3:00 pm. We were a bit nervous about them having room for us. We called the harbor right after we left Gorge Harbor, but were told we needed to reserve a space 24hrs ahead (but we had no cell phone coverage at that point). They said it was first come first serve and to call when we got there. Once we arrive we made the call at the outside of the harbor. They said they did not have room at that time, but they would call us when they did (but not to hold our breaths). Within 5 minutes they called and had a slip, but we were going to have to negotiate the inner harbor to get to it. That made us a bit uncomfortable since we remembered the inner harbor as a labyrinth of narrow causeways and slips and boats tucked into every available space. We decided to go for it. The slip was located at the end of a dock, but still took some careful docking skills.  On a side note, many of the harbors have staff that will take your lines as you come in. We have noticed that these young kids (teenagers and 20 something’s) have not been trained to handle very heavy wooden boats such as ours. They take the line and think they can just pull it towards the dock as you can with a fiberglass boat, but our boat weighs 55 tons and that is not an option. We always mention they want to get the line secure quickly so the cleat can take the weight of the boat, but they usually just try to pull it in and we worry we will be pulling some unsuspecting soul into the drink? (anyone know how to handle this issue without undue yelling?)

We had a very nice evening relaxing in Nanaimo (no taxi rides to the vets this time). We got take out from a fish and chip joint just down the dock from us and had a very nice dinner on the boat enjoying the cityscape.

At 5:00 am the next morning we disturbed the peace and quiet of the harbor and fired up the engines and got ready to head home. The first item of business was getting the boat out of the very tight slip in the inner Harbor at Nanaimo. We had a sea wall behind us and boats on all sides. Jeff did a good job of backing the boat out of the slip, around the sea wall corner and out into the clear. After that we were headed right out the Strait of Georgia. The forcast was for mild wind in the morning, but it was supposed to pick up later in the day. That was fine, but the wind direction was going to be opposite the currents later in the day and remembering our past experience out of Blaine Harbor with similar conditions we decided we better get moving. The going was good most of the day, but once we reached Tsawwassen/Pt. Roberts the water was getting very lumpy and Vikki was getting less comfortable. The waves were getting bigger as we moved south and all Vikki could think about was how close to home we were. That was all fine, but as we turned towards Blaine on our final approach we noticed a float for a crab pot near us. We swung wide, but not wide enough. The pot had floating line (you are supposed to have sinking line on crab pots so you do not catch boats instead of crabs) and it caught us. Jeff saw the line at the last minute and made an incredible lunge for the helm controls and threw the boat into neutral (stopping the rotating of the propellers). The line still got us, but we kept from fouling our props and being dead in the water. The line caught on our rudder. We were stuck in rolling seas and no way to control the boat. Ian held the helm while Vikki and Jeff worked at the back of the boat. Jeff used Ian’s prize grabbling hook to catch the line to the crab pot bring it to the surface and then cut the line. The whole time the boat is being thrown about in the waves and things are crashing around inside the boat. As soon as the line was cut we were free. Jeff tested out the props and all was well. Relieved we headed into Blaine harbor and made our careful way between all the other crab pots. Just a bit out of the harbor entrance we were moving along the right side of the channel as we should and we noticed a sailboat (under power, not sail) headed our way. We figured they would correct their course and move to out left and pass port to port, but they kept coming and at a coarse that crossed ours (and we were as far to the side of the channel as we dared to go). Just before they would have intersected us Jeff stopped our boat and they crossed right in front of us. Jeff yelled out to them to see what they were thinking, but they said we should just hold our coarse. We really don’t know what they were up to, but if we had not stopped our boat I am sure there would have been a mess. That shook us up a bit. We finally headed into the harbor and found it was a really low tide. Given we were rattled we decided to slide into the visitor docks until high tide and we could get into our slip. We docked and breathed a sigh of relief. After the tide went back in the evening we moved back over to our slip and were greeted by all our wonderful neighbors to take our lines and greet us home. It is nice to be home.

It was a great trip. We learned an incredible amount about our boat, piloting, anchoring, docking and crab pots (we learned that one once before). Desolation Sound is a wonderful destination, but lacking in wildlife (at least this time of year) and fairly crowded. We look forward to next boating season to head north again and investigate more places.