Prince Rupert to Anacortes 

July 8

We had arrived in Prince Rupert the night before just ahead of a gale.  In the morning, the dock master told us to leave - they had no space available.  Halcyon and Rana Verde pulled their boats and left by land.  After failing to find a slip, we tied up to a fishing boat and waited for the gale to blow out.

July 9

Not until 05:10 was there enough light to see debris in the water.  The wind was light in the marina.  We started south.  With a stop in Hartley Bay for fuel at 09:50, we continued to Shearwater-arriving at 16:30.  A beautiful run of 181 nm.

July 10

A day to remember.  Wanderer ran down Fitz Hugh Sound and put into Fury Cove.  We wanted flat water to pour fuel from jugs into the tanks and to pause and consider rounding Cape Caution.  The weather report from Egg Island was 14 knots from the NW with a 1.6 meter swell from the SE.  The forecast was for NW 5 – 15 in the afternoon.  Wanderer departs Fury Cove at 08:45 to round Cape Caution and to cross Charlotte Sound

Life aboard soon got interesting.  My undivided attention is given to keeping the boat on course as we work south –one hand on the wheel to maintain course and one on the throttle to adjust speed for up wave and down wave.  As is our practice when conditions warrant it, Penny continually looks for harbors of refuge, reports her findings and I inspect the chart for a vector to that destination.  There is a stretch of about 20 miles as you pass Egg Island and Cape Caution where there are no harbors to seek refuge.   To the west lies the Pacific Ocean, an unforgiving shore lies to the east.  You either continue or turn back.  We continued.  We passed inside of Egg Island and gave Cape Caution a wide berth.  Along this stretch, we saw one large fishing boat.  When both of us were in a trough, at the same time, I could see only the top of her masts.  Fortunately, there was only about a foot of white water on top of the swells.

We put into Miles Inlet for lunch and waited for the wind to do some of its 5 knot duty.  It didn’t.  We left.  Our goal was to be in the Broughtons when the SE gale forecast for the next day arrived.  We saw one ship and a 72 ft sailboat. No other pleasure craft or fishing boats were out.  We continued to Wells Passage with the wind aft at about 12-15 knots.  It heaped up in the entrance for about ¼ mile; then, the water flattened out as we got inside.  In bright sunshine, we enjoyed the spectacular scenery.  We took on gas at Sullivan Bay and motored in calm water to Echo Bay arriving at 18:00 – 139nm.

From the log for July 11

“Echo Bay.  We are tied to the small public dock, where a sign reads no boats larger than 23 feet.  Small is sometimes good!  There is free Wifi, it is raining and we are enjoying our lay-day.  Here it is calm.  I wonder if that predicted gale is over Charlotte Sound.  We expect to stop traveling and begin cruising again.  Some of our favorite stops lay between here and the next open water - Johnstone Straits.  We’re so relaxed I may not even listen to a weather report.”

It was still raining the morning of July 12^th.  Visibility was poor, very poor.  We had planned to visit Pierre’s and Kwatsi; but, decided that dock activity would not be enjoyable in the rain.  Wanderer moved on and two hours later we topped up the tanks in Lagoon Cove and headed out into Johnstone Strait.  We passed about 10 Grand Banks trawlers, also headed south, as we rounded the Broken Islands into the strait.  The rain had eased and visibility had improved as we thumped our way south in moderate chop.  At Sunderland Channel, we turned to port, hit Green Point Rapids at high slack water and went into Blind Channel Resort for lunch.  After lunch, we stopped in Shoal Bay to await slack water at Dent and Yuculta Rapids.  Our timing was good and the transit smooth.  We motored on into a beautiful evening in protected waters.  The final stretch was not so peaceful.  Once through Whale Passage into Sutil Channel the full force of the wind blowing SE in the Strait of Georgia made for a lumpy ride into Gorge Harbor.  We tied up at the marina at 20:15 – completing 116 nm.

July 13 and 14

Except for a narrow entrance, Gorge Harbor is a small landlocked body of water.  With whitecaps in the harbor, from wind blowing against our course toward the other side of the Strait of Georgia, we waited in pleasant surroundings and sampled lunch and dinner at the restaurant.

July 15

The wind had gone north and was down to about 13 knots as we emerged into Sutil Channel for our transit of the Strait of Georgia.  We laid a course to pass through Malaspina Strait leaving Texada Island close to starboard.  From the tip of Texada we made for Gabriola Passage by passing Nanaimo and Dodd Passage.  Gabriola presented no problem with a favorable maximum current of 7 knots.  In smooth water and greatly increased boat traffic we motored on toward Anacortes stopping along the way to pour the last 15 gallons of fuel from jugs into our tanks.

We tied up in Anacortes at 15:45 completing 147 nm for the day and 2904 for the Inside Passage.

El called and alerted us to a gathering near Seattle.  Sorry to say, we didn’t have the energy to make the gathering.

Sandy and Casey the crew of Naknek met us at the dock.  Casey went with me to get our trailer.  We pulled the boat the next morning, rigged for towing and readied for the 3000 mile tow home.  We had lunch with Sandy and Casey before we headed south.